Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop

Chapter 8. Spreadsheets and Presentations Using StarOffice

We cover the StarCalc and StarImpress modules of StarOffice together in this chapter because they are, on aggregate, less frequently used than the word processor. For economy’s sake, we offer no “Power Tips” section here as we did in Chapter 7 for StarWriter. Nevertheless, our coverage of basic spreadsheet and presentation methods is designed to stimulate you to further independent exploration of the menus and features that should advance your desktop skills to the next level.

In particular, StarCalc offers advanced users powerful macro-programming and management facilities (via OpenBasic) and powerful database interactivity through the Data Sources features. While these tools are beyond the scope of this work, we encourage users to seek further documentation.

StarCalc

StarOffice Calc (also known as “StarCalc”) is the spreadsheet program included in the StarOffice office suite. Users familiar with recent versions of Microsoft Excel will feel at home in StarCalc. In basic features and functions, StarCalc is comparable to Excel.

In this section, StarCalc Basics, we cover basic functionality with an added focus on some unique features presented by StarCalc. We also point out a few of the spreadsheet module’s shortcomings.