Office productivity suites and ODF for OpenSuSE

From openSUSE

ODF compliant Office Productivity Suites for OpenSuSE 11.0

Many of us desktop users relying on free and open source applications could never have it so good. Why?

First, there's OpenOffice, which by now doesn't need an introduction and another is ..... (drum roll[typmani])..... IBM's Lotus Symphony!

Many would surely rave about this killer app. However, folks in existence for more than three decades will no longer consider "Lotus" a hot news item. For those who forgot (in denial), still young, or weren't born then, Lotus 1-2-3 was the killer application before MS Excel dominated the scene.

Enough of nostalgia. Under the hood, Lotus Symphony is based on OpenOffice 1.1.4 with major rework and additions. With three applications namely:

• Lotus Symphony Documents
• Lotus Symphony Presentations
• Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets

Like most symphonies, this document will have several movements under our baton:

First Movement: Pre-requisites, Background and Objectives

• Successfully installed, configured, updated base installation of OpenSuSe 11.0 Using K Desktop Environment (KDE)
• Has OpenOffice 2.4.0 installed
• Has root privileges
• Will install binaries from downloaded from IBM's site
• Document will not explain presence of "s" at the end of each Lotus Symphony component
• This document does not intend to start a rubber match between OO.org camp and Lotus Symphony
• This document does not intend to compare office productivity applications and crown a champion
• This document does not intend to critique the licensing scheme, design and implementation of office productivity applications
• Aims to demonstrate at the most basic level, the benefits of ODF to normal users
• Will not attempt to exceed nor trump Sibelius and Mahler's works
• This document does not endorse/recommend any office application
• Has 750MB of free disk space and at least 512MB RAM
• System information of the machine used for this document:

Linux 2.6.25.18-0.2-pae #1 SMP 2008-10-21 16:30:26 +0200 i686 athlon i386

Linux version 2.6.25.18-0.2-pae (geeko@buildhost) 
(gcc version 4.3.1 20080507  (prerelease) [gcc-4_3-branch revision 135036] 
(SUSE Linux) ) #1 SMP 2008-10-21 16:30:26 +0200

X.Org X Server 1.4.0.90
Release Date: 5 September 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: openSUSE SUSE LINUX
Current Operating System: Linux linux-iifk 2.6.25.18-0.2-pae #1 SMP 2008-10-21 16:30:26 +0200 i686
Build Date: 28 July 2008  10:14:56PM

4.0.4 (KDE 4.0.4 >= 20080505) "release 15.2"

Second Movement: Download and installation of IBM Lotus Symphony

At the time of writing, there is no official rpm for OpenSuSE 11.0. For this document, we will use the rpm installer for Red Hat/SuSE Linux packaged by IBM.

The said package can be obtained from Lotus Symphony's home page:

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home

Just click "Download" button on the upper right portion of the page and choose:

1.2 	Released product 	03 Nov 2008 	175,017,363 	Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux

This will download symphony-1.2.i586.rpm file. The location may vary depending on which browser you use . In this example, Mozilla Firefox was used with default settings where downloaded files lands on the desktop.

Note:

rpm package: symphony-1.2.i586.rpm
Actual filesize on disk: 167 Megabytes 
Md5 checksum: 4b4dbe5a4a22eac9f03e4629dde536e0

Firefox download preferences can be be modified/checked by clicking:
  --> Edit --> Preferences --> Main --> Downloads

Double click the symphony-1.2.i586.rpm file to initialize the installation. Wait for a few seconds until the entire progress window disappears.

The step above was done using a root login. One may also do the same using an ordinary user account by supplying root's password when prompted. It is best practice to use root account only for set-up, maintenance and troubleshooting purposes. The ensuing steps will be done using an ordinary user account (bentongjr).

To open Lotus Symphony, on your KDE start button click:

Applications ---> Office ---> More Programs ---> IBM Lotus Symphony

A terminal window will appear pertaining to its License Agreement. After reading the terms (did you?) type "1" and hit the enter button to use the program.

Note: The procedure above will be done only once per user.

Splashscreen of symphony appears similar to your OpenOffice application:

The main interface is very much similar on how you use GUI browsers nowadays:

1) You simply click any of the three (3) icons to create documents.

2) Operates on a tabbed interface. Just like how Firefox and/or Opera is used.

3) Context sensitive menus. The main menu adapts with the active tab or clicked component without changing the application's look and feel.

Documents

The Document is Lotus' conterpart for Microsoft's MS Word or OpenOffice.org's Writer:

It also has the same similar features of todays word processors including spell checkers and thesaurus:

Like OpenOffice, users have options which file format they will use to save newly created documents:

Presentations

The presentations is Lotus' counterpart for Microsoft's Powerpoint or OpenOffice.org's Impress:

Spreadsheets

The presentation is Lotus' counterpart for Microsoft's Excel or OpenOffice.org's calc.

Browser(s)

You read it right the first time. This release includes a browser. Click "New" icon under the file menu (upper left of the Symphony main window). At the bottom of the pull-down menu, click "Web Browser".

For this installation, Lotus Symphony was able to integrate with Flash and Java plugins of OpenSuSE:

Note: This site had all the animated content rendered complete with sound. Its like watching TV while working with several documents!

...Java enabled browser anyone?

Third Movement: Open Document Format (ODF) in action

Most computer users experience troubles with varying magnitudes when they exchange files. OpenOffice users need not to be alarmed when exchanging data with Lotus Symphony users. Lotus Symphony supports the Open Document Format standard, ISO/IEC 26300. This ensures that all documents made using ODF compliant software are royalty free and universally accessible.

To illustrate this, all files shown earlier using Lotus Symphony were saved with their respective data formats:

• .odt for Lotus Symphony Documents
• .odp for Lotus Symphony Presentation
• .ods for Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets

The ensuing screen shots demonstrate ODF in action by opening the three files above using OpenOffice 2.4.0.

Lotus Symphony Documents opened using OpenOffice Writer:

Lotus Symphony Presentation opened using OpenOffice Impress:

Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets opened using OpenOffice Calc:

Note: The documents made were very simplistic and no fancy formatting was made. Your mileage may vary.

In a system with two office productivity suites installed, the file associations stuck with the original office application suite when accessed via GUI file manager. (What?!) .....Using Dolphin, all three documents made with Lotus Symphony opened with corresponding equivalents of OpenOffice.

Fourth Movement: Conclusion

On OpenSuSE 11.0, IBM's Lotus Symphony was not difficult to install and use (Kudos to OpenSuSE developers). OpenOffice on the other hand, was a gimme. System performance using the Lotus Symphony was never sluggish. Not a single system nor application crash was experienced while writing this document.

As observed, Lotus Symphony is like a modern day browser that has office productivity tools with a unified look and feel. Anyone who is familiar with OpenOffice and browsers that support tabs like Mozilla and Opera will be productive in no time.

Open standards like the ODF makes file exchange for normal users seemingly pain-free. This ensures that all information made using OpenOffice and Lotus Symphony is accessible across platforms and applications, even as technologies change. Life is good! ...as one popular commercial would put it.

Fifth Movement: Further Reading, Notes and Thanks

For more information on ODF: http://opendocumentfellowship.com http://www.odfalliance.org http://opendocument.xml.org http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php http://documentfreedom.org/

For more information about KDE: http://www.kde.org

For more info on OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org

For more info about Lotus Symphony: http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/help.nsf/home

Many, many thanks to people involved in the following projects: OpenSuSE, KDE, Sun Microsystems, OpenOffice, IBM Lotus Symphony, GIMP, Mozilla, Vi, javatester.org (Mr. Michael Horowitz) and various ODF groups. ||  :-)

Encore: For terminal junkies and Non-KDE users

Installing Lotus Symphony via command line:

    linux-iifk:~/Desktop # rpm -ivh symphony-1.2.i586.rpm

Note: This created a directory on /opt with a log file named symphony_install.log on ibm/lotus/Symphony

Verify our install/query our package:

    bentongjr@linux-iifk:~> rpm -qi symphony

Name        : symphony                     Relocations: /opt/ibm/lotus/Symphony
Version     : 1.2                               Vendor: IBM
Release     : 20081031.1700                 Build Date: Sat 01 Nov 2008 02:00:00 AM PHT
Install Date: Thu 13 Nov 2008 04:41:26 PM PHT      Build Host: ubuildpc-9
Group       : Applications/Office           Source RPM: symphony-1.2-20081031.1700.src.rpm
Size        : 442653386                        License: Commercial
Signature   : (none)
Packager    : IBM Lotus Symphony technical support <iptcs@cn.ibm.com>
URL         : http://symphony.lotus.com
Summary     : IBM Lotus Symphony
Description :
IBM Lotus Symphony provides three powerful editors by which you can
create, manage, and edit documents in Open Document Format(ODF):
Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Presentation, Lotus Symphony
Spreadsheets. With Lotus Symphony Documents, you can create and edit
simple or highly structured documents, graphics, tables, and charts.
With Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, you can perform standard and advanced
spreadsheet functions to calculate, analyze, and manage your data.
With Lotus Symphony Presentations, you can create and edit professional
screen shows that include charts, drawing objects, and text.
You can also import, edit, and export Oo 1.1 files and
Microsoft(R) Office files in Lotus Symphony.
Distribution: (none)

Invoking symphony via command line:

    bentongjr@linux-iifk:~> symphony