Since I installed Windows 7 I’ve been loading in a bunch of apps. Some run the same as they did in XP with no noticeable improvement in speed or stability, while others appear to run much better. Here’s a few:

Mozilla Firefox

Since the introduction of version 3, the best way I can describe FF is that it "bottoms out" on XP too often.

Even with something as simple as launching the browser "cold" after system startup, it would pause for seemingly no reason. And bear in mind I use only use three add-ons that don’t tax the browser whatsoever.

And then there’s the FF’s memory-munching tendencies. On XP, the longer the browser is open, the more you see this.

On Windows 7, these issues are gone. It starts fast with the same add-ons and I can keep it open as long as I want.

OpenOffice Writer

This is a a beast-sized app and takes a while to get going on XP. And once running I would periodically see screen drawing issues where things would not land in proper places, forcing me to maximize/restore to reset it.

OO Writer still takes a bit to launch on 7 but is notably faster. And I don’t encounter any of those wonky screen draw issues either.

QuickTime

If you said, "I hate QuickTime", I can totally understand why. On XP this app has never run right. The only time people run and install QuickTime is so they can play MOV files.

Windows Media Player does have native support to play MOV files in 7, so you don’t have to install it now. But I need it because I have a Pro license for additional export abilities to other formats.

QuickTime in Windows 7 runs a whole lot better in every way. It launches better, the menus look more proper and is more stable all around.

Skype

Whenever I used Skype in XP it was a crapshoot as to whether it would work correctly or not. Most of the time it would work without complaint, but other times certain features just wouldn’t work whereas you had to restart the app over and over again.

To note, with this particular app there are only two types of experiences concerning running it on XP. It will either run fine without complaint or it will be problematic routinely. I was of the latter.

Skype in 7 breathed in a whole new life to this app. Now I can say it runs fine without complaint.

Other apps?

Out of the apps I’ve installed so far, there hasn’t been any instance where it ran worse than I did on XP. If there were, I definitely would have mentioned it, no question.

Lastly, I want to note two things:

Windows 7 will not make a bad program suddenly wonderful. If an app was written with haphazardly written code, has memory leaks and so on, 7 obviously won’t magically fix that.

Windows is well known for having strong legacy support. But if your app is ancient and didn’t work on XP, it won’t work in Windows 7 either.

If you have your own web site you most likely transfer files via FTP every so often. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could store your documents, spreadsheets or anything else OpenOffice can make there?

You can.

Note before continuing: I have only tried this with the Windows version of OpenOffice, but it’s assumed this will work on the Linux or Mac OS X version in exactly the same way.

Step 1.

Launch OpenOffice Writer and go to the Options panel. In Windows this is done by clicking Tools then Options.

Once there, expand OpenOffice and click General. Next to Open/Save Dialogs, check the option for Use OpenOffice.org dialogs.

Looks like this:

Click OK when finished.

Step 2.

Before using FTP it’s suggested you login via the FTP client of your choice and create a non-public directory. For simplicity’s sake I named mine docs. You can name yours that or any other name you wish. Create this folder at the FTP root (not to be confused with server root).

In plain English: If you login to your FTP server via a client, you’ll see a list of directories. Your docs directory should be at "first level" so you don’t have to type in a bunch of stuff just to get to where you need to go.

Step 3.

Type up a test document in Writer, then click File then Save As…

When the save window appears, you have to open up the FTP server first before saving. In the File Name field, you would type:

ftp://YOUR-FTP-USER-NAME@ftp.YOUR-WEB-SITE.com

If you created the folder docs, it would be:

ftp://YOUR-FTP-USER-NAME@ftp.YOUR-WEB-SITE.com/docs

After clicking Open you will be prompted for your FTP password. Enter it in and you’re good to go.

Additional notes

Is this secure?

No. This is plain text FTP authentication. But for most people this shouldn’t be a problem.

Are the transfers fast?

Yes. OpenOffice transfers files via FTP just like a normal client would.

Do I have to keep typing in my username/password over and over and/or switching directories to load/save?

No. OpenOffice will remember the last known directory you were in.

Can I make OpenOffice "forget" the FTP password?

Yes. Simply close all OpenOffice apps and the FTP password will be "forgotten". Bear in mind this includes the QuickStarter resident app as well (in Windows: Right-click the OpenOffice QuickStarter next to the clock, choose to exit).

Will this work for any OpenOffice application?

Yes. Whether your composing a document, spreadsheet, presentation or database, as long as the "Use OpenOffice.org dialogs" is checked in the General section of Options, all have ability to save and load via FTP.

Is there any drawback to saving via FTP?

Other than the plain text authentication stuff, there isn’t any file transfer progress meter like there is in an FTP client. For large files this may be a bit annoying not knowing when transfers will complete. My suggestion is to stay under the 1MB mark so loads and saves go thru quickly.

Can you have more than one user accessing a file at once via FTP?

Yes but the sessions will be separate. This is not like loading a file over a LAN. I strongly recommend against having multiple users accessing the same files over FTP. Do-able? Yes. Recommended? No.

I don’t have an FTP server but like the idea of saving my stuff to a remote server. Is there any other option?

Google Docs using the OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs extension. That extension not only does Google Docs but also Zoho and WebDAV connectivity as well. This extension was last updated April 8 2009, so it’s very recent and actively developed.

I have been a long-time OpenOffice user strictly for the fact I think it’s a complete waste of cash to spend almost 380 bucks just to type up documents and create spreadsheets.

Some notes before continuing:

If you’re the type who says "My life is inside Outlook", I’ll say up front that OpenOffice will not work for you because it doesn’t have any collaborative software bundled with it. To those who say "Use Evolution!", don’t even go there because that’s not even in the same universe as Outlook. The only thing you can cross your fingers for is Lotus Notes – but that’s a whole other discussion.

For the rest of us that don’t use Outlook (including yours truly) and don’t need collaborative software perks, unless you want over-the-phone support you literally have no reason to use MS Office whatsoever.

Cheers and Jeers of OpenOffice 3

Cheer: Friendlier

(click above for full size)

It’s hard to believe the above screen shot is from my Windows XP box because it looks futuristic.

For every release of OpenOffice it’s looking more and more like a suite of office apps you should be paying for – but they’re free.

With boring ol’ office-style stuff, the apps should be as friendly as possible because let’s face it – this is not exciting software. Whenever you head into apps like these it should feel friendly and easy. You definitely get that with OO 3.0.

Cheer: Faster launch times across the board

A big complaint I had about OO 2 is how long it took just to start any app in the suite – even with that launcher-app thing in the taskbar (that never seemed to speed up anything).

I can’t complain anymore because all the apps in OO 3 launch much quicker. You will notice this immediately if you’re currently an OO 2 user.

Jeer: Grammar check still not there

(click above image for full size – note lack of grammar check in OO 3)

I was hoping.. heck, I was praying that OO 3 would have a bundled grammar checker built in – but it doesn’t.

What’s even worse is that the software "teases" you into thinking it is there.

Check this out:

It SAYS "Spelling and Grammar…" but Grammar check isn’t there. Why is it even listed?

Cheer: No more X11 b.s. in Mac OS X

If you use a Mac you probably hated OpenOffice and used NeoOffice instead. Well, you can uninstall that because the X11 crapola is gone with OO 3 – and that’s just plain awesome.

For those totally confused by the above, in plain English this means OO 3 will act just like any other Aqua application whereas previously it didn’t.

Cheer: MS Office 2007 filters

OO 2 couldn’t read/write MS Office 2007 files, but OO 3 can. ‘Nuff said.

Jeer: Still behind in the design department

While it’s true OO 3 has newer/better icons, some shading here and there and so on, the suite is still behind design-wise compared to Microsoft Office. Yes, it is more difficult to get around compared to Microsoft’s "ribbon" way. Granted, both suites do the same job, but the MS way is still faster and more streamlined.

However being that OO is free – I don’t believe too many will complain about that.

Should you get OpenOffice 3?

Yes. If you’re using OO 2, get 3. If you haven’t used OO before, download it and try it out.

For our OS-hoppers in the audience, you especially should get this if you hop between Windows, OS X and Linux or vice versa because OO looks and runs the same on all three.

A feature of the OpenOffice Writer word processing application is the ability to easily export a document as a PDF. This is built-in to the software.

There may be times you will want to set security permission on the exported PDF to prevent printing or modification of the document itself (such as when sending contract agreements to clients where the document absolutely must not be modified in any way).

OpenOffice makes this easy to do by performing the following steps:

Click File then Export as PDF.

NOTE: Clicking the PDF button in the top button bar will only export "simple" PDF documents with no options. You must click File then Export as PDF to get the options you want.

In the PDF Options dialog box, click the Security tab.

Looks like this:

From here you can set all the options you require. More often than not the only ones you will be interested in are Not Permitted either under "Printing" or "Changes".

Once these options are set, click the Export button at the bottom. You will be prompted to save the PDF file. Save it, and you’re done.

I don’t like Google Docs. I don’t like Microsoft Office Live either. But I do like OpenOffice. A lot. Wondering if there was any means of using the OO suite online, I did some searching and found that yes, there is a way. It’s done thru Ulteo’s web site.

After signing up for a free account with Ulteo you’re greeted with this:

Ulteo is actually a lot more than just OpenOffice, but being that’s what I was interested in I clicked the Start now! button for OO.

On the next screen you get this:

You choose the app in the OO suite you’d like to launch. I wanted Writer (the OO word processing app), so I waited a few seconds for the Java load to complete and clicked the green Launch OpenOffice.org NOW! button.

Once inside, yes this is a real true-blue OO Writer app – 100% Java loaded. This is not a web page thing pretending to be an online document editor.

Said honestly this is cool. My only complaint is that the Java is a bit wonky at times, however this is a true Writer app. Considering how large it is it loads up quick.

For those wondering, yes you can store stuff online via this site. They offer a free 1GB of space to anyone who has an account. For docs and so on that’s not bad.

You might want to try this for yourself – especially if you wanted to see OpenOffice in action without actually installing it.

By default when you use the OpenOffice Writer application it does not have page numbering enabled (much like all other word processor applications). To enable it only takes a few clicks for some footer configuration and inserting the appropriate field. It sounds confusing but it’s actually very simple to do.

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It has been a long time coming, but OpenOffice version 3 has officially been released to public beta. The current stable version of OpenOffice is pretty good, but as a Mac user, I have been waiting for a native Mac version of OpenOffice. I am currently running NeoOffice for the Mac, which is good but it is a bit of a tangent.

Aside from the native Mac support (no more running X11), OO3 is going to support the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard as well as be able to open Office 2007 documents (however, InfoWorld is reporting problems with opening Office 2007 docs). Also, according to the OpenOffice site:

The most immediately visible change to OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the new “Start Centre”, new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. A closer look shows that 3.0 has a myriad of new features. Notable Calc improvements include a new solver component; support for spreadsheet collaboration through workbook sharing; and an increase to 1024 columns per sheet. Writer has an improved notes feature and displays of multiple pages while editing. There are numerous Chart enhancements, and an improved crop feature in Draw and Impress.

I downloaded the version for Mac OS X (a 168 MB download) and installed it. I got a nice little start screen (as they said I would). The interface also looks more professional than does NeoOffice at this time. The app does seem a bit heavy at times, however.

I will, of course, be exploring it further.

This video I made for those who are (or thinking about) writing a book in OpenOffice Writer. It’s also for those who have done the same thing in Microsoft Word but don’t exactly know how to perform the same function in OO. With this video, now you know.