OPEN OFFICE INSTALLATION ON RM CONNECT notes updated 30.06.03
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Provided by Phillip Deackes
Gartree High School, Oadby
Leicester

ict@madgestevens.net

Open Office is the 'free' version of Star Office. OpenOffice and StarOffice are identical apart from extra clipart in the StarOffice variant and one or two other minor details. You can download either version for free and a school does not need to buy a licence. Our pupils really like the StarOffice clipart, so this is the version we use.

The suite contains a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation and a drawing package. 

It is fully MSOffice 95/97/2000/XP compatible and can load, create and save in these formats as well as its own.

It *can* be installed on a network drive, but this will mean each user will need around 1.4MB of files in their n:/mywork/appdata folder. We recently tried doing a local install to the c: drive and this is working well and is our recommended method of installation. It means that the install is equivalent to an MS Office 97 install where minimal use is made of the user area.

Here are the instructions:

1. Run Application Wizard on a clean station.

2. Install OpenOffice/StarOffice to the default location on C: drive
 
3. Run OpenOffice/StarOffice and go through the settings to setup desired user config paths to point to n:\mywork\OpenOffice\user or n:\mywork\StarOffice\user instead of the default on the c: drive. Make sure these dirs have previously been created. You might also want to change the default font. Go through everything to verify it is set up to suit your school.

3. Run the Application Wizard second scan to build package.

4. Copy the n:\mywork\appdata\OpenOffice or n:\mywork\StarOffice\ folder to P:\Apps\32BitWin\AppData

Also copy over the file 'sversion.ini' (if it is created) from n:\mywork\appdata to 
P:\Apps\32BitWin\AppData (don't put this file into the OpenOffice/StarOffice folder).

Increment the version number in apps.ini found in P:\Apps\32BitWin\AppData

5. If you use File Protector you will need to exclude the OpenOffice/StarOffice directory in c:/Program Files because this method of installation means that Open Office writes certain configuration info to the c: drive - thus it might not suit all schools.





 Ian Lee
 ICT Systems Manager
 Didcot Girls' School
 Oxfordshire
 Web site:  http://www.didcotgirls.oxon.sch.uk

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DISCLAIMER: These notes and any associated software are published 
in good faith. They have not been sanctioned by RM and neither RM, 
Didcot Girls' School or myself will accept responsibility for any 
problems that may arise either directly or indirectly through their 
use.
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