Contact
OpenOffice.org
– all grown up and only three years old
August
15, 2005
Michael
Allen
Its been a little over
three years since OpenOffice.org went to market as an open source
distribution of Star Office 5. There were plenty of reviews of this
new office package in 2002, many favorable, but most quick to point
out what was considered by some as short comings. Complaints about
the lack of a Pivot Table equivalent in Calc and a macro recorder. I
am currently using version 1.1 so my comments will reflect my own
experiences with OpenOffice.org 1.1 unless stated otherwise, even
though there are probably newer versions available for download.
OpenOffice.orgs OOoBasic –
Powerful stuff
As a consultant, I get to do a little
work automating spreadsheets for report generation and other such
things from time to time. Some of these are pretty good size
projects but many are small. Some customers require that this work
be done in Excel® so writing VBA® applications for Excel is
also required on occasion. In fact, if you’re
not yet writing VBA applications in Excel, and I think it is safe to
say that the vast majority of Excel users are not, you are most
likely tapping into only a small fraction of Excels capabilities. In
the early days of spreadsheets, Lotus 123® for example, writing
macros to perform repetitive tasks or carry out multi-sheet
calculations or perform a workbook or print job formatting operation,
were written in a macro script. By associating a certain keystroke
combination with the script, all of the commands in the macro were
carried out at once.
Todays office software packages are
huge and have far more capabilities built into them than most users
ever learn how to take advantage of or even need. Microsoft®
includes VBA in all of its Office® applications including Word®,
Excel, and Power Point®. OpenOffice.org
includes a powerful tool for use by each of its own office
applications as well, known as OOoBasic. One important thing to note
about both of these are that they are not macro languages.
They are complete computer programming languages, and the programs
you can write with them can turn your text document, spreadsheet, or
presentation into a quite powerful computer program, and, you can
also write macros with them as well.
While VBA and OOoBasic, or StarBasic as
it is sometimes called, are both derivatives
of the Basic programming language, they are very different animals.
VBA is a COM based language while OOoBasic uses its own object
management system, Universal Network Objects, or UNO, and has
"bridges" built in for each programming language for
invoking UNO objects from other systems including C++, Java and COM
based languages like VB or VBA. The OpenOffice.org
development team was interested from the very beginning in
creating a cross-platform office application and development tool.
Available industry standards including COM, RMI, and COBRA were all
lacking in one way or another so they created their own superset of
all available formats and it is one powerful package. Thanks to
their efforts in developing UNO, users are able to write macros and
applications for their document in Java, C++ and Python as well as
OOoBasic.
Some basic (no pun) code
comparisons
To hide the selected column in the active sheet using VBA is a simple
task:
Sub hideSelectedCol()
Selection.EntireColumn.Hidden = True
End Sub
To do the same thing in OOoBasic takes
a few more keystrokes:
sub
hideSelectedCol
createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper"). ExecuteDispatch_
(ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame,".uno:HideColumn",
_ "", 0, Array()
end sub
VBA,
with all its built in property and value selections right up front
make it the quicker method simply because there is less typing, but
not the better method. While OOoBasic requires creating a
UnoService, this quickly becomes second nature to anyone with even a
little programming experience. The more intricate control over the
task you are writing the code to perform is clear in the way the
service is created and executed as compared to merely changing the
value of a member components property. OOoBasic is the better
method.
A crude comparison, but valid none the less: You have a two-hundred
pound boulder that needs to be moved six-inches to the left. The VBA
method (imho) is the equivalent of physically lifting the entire
weight of the boulder, stepping left six-inches, then dropping the
boulder into place. Boom, one fell sweep and you’re done in an
instant. The OooBasic method (imho) is the equivalent of estimating
the weight of the boulder, measuring the distance to be moved,
creating a fulcrum and lever, just the right length and height for
the job, then gently nudging the boulder into perfect position with
almost no effort. Coming up with the right fulcrum and lever is a
few more steps, but that’s the way most of us are going to move the
boulder. Easier on the back and shows some creativity and finesse at
the same time, and the fulcrum and lever can be re-used for similar
tasks again and again.
Addressing some past complaints
The OOoBasic IDE stinks
This complaint stems from a couple of
different sources. First, the original IDE in OpenOffice.org
1.0 for writing Basic applications, or macros, was lacking good debugging tools. Most of that has already been
addressed in version 1.1 with more robust debugging features
including watch and call windows, stops, breakpoints and procedure
steps. Syntax highlighting would be a nice addition. I
would look for even more improvements and features for the IDE in
future versions. Second, OOoBasic doesnt have method and property
options pop up after you type a member component name seperator.
This is still not in the IDE but it may be added in a
future version. OOoBasic is not VBA so it may be reasonable to expect that features like this are different. In the mean time, by having to become intimate with
objects and procedures, youll garner better programming skills.
There is
no macro recorder
This actually seemed to be the number 1
complaint in the original version. Version 1.1 has an excellent
macro recorder. Macro recorders don’t generally generate very
efficient code (imho), but it can sure come in handy if youre wanting
to see how a Calc or Writer procedure looks in code. Talking about
inefficient code, remember our little example earlier where we were
hiding the selected column of the active sheet ? Well, I did the
exact same thing from the Calc desktop while recording it as a macro.
Heres what it looks like:
sub
hideSelectedCol
rem
———————————————————————————————————
rem define
variables
dim document as
object
dim dispatcher as
object
rem
———————————————————————————————————
rem get access to
the document
document =
ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
dispatcher =
createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
rem
———————————————————————————————————
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document,
".uno:HideColumn", "", 0, Array())
end sub
I have to admit,
this is a more structured way of doing it, putting all the parts into
variables to be used in a less complex statement is the preferred way
of programming. The automatically generated comments are pretty good
too. It is a bit long though, especially just to hide a column…..
Theres
no Pivot Table Equivalent
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There has been a Pivot Table equivalent in OpenOffice.org for a long time, before 1.1. Its called Data Pilot and it does an excellent job of what it was intended for. The menus in Calc are not the same as the menus in Excel and a lot of folks in transition to OOo overlooked it.
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Summary
While the bulk of my experience with
OpenOffice.org has been
using Calc, I also use Writer frequently as well as Draw. I have
little experience with Impress yet but I plan to become an expert at
it before too long and will share my experience with it here.
Calc and Writer are full featured powerhouse
office applications with sophisticated programming features built in.
The menus and customizable tool bars are easy to use and make
program navigation a breeze.
With OpenOffice.org,
you get a truly great set of office tools at the best price in the
world. Yes, it really is free, and one thing you will NEVER
hear from an OpenOffice.org user is that they got hit with a
macro-virus.
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