Welcome

OpenOffice.org 3.0 ReadMe

For latest updates to this readme file, see
http://www.openoffice.org/welcome/readme.html

Dear User

This file contains important information about this program. Please read this information
very carefully before starting work.

The OpenOffice.org Community, responsible for the development of this product, would
like to invite you to participate as a community member. As a new user, you can check
out the OpenOffice.org site with helpful user information at

http://www.openoffice.org/about_us/introduction.html

Also read the sections below about getting involved in the OpenOffice.org project.

Is OpenOffice.org really free for any user?

OpenOffice.org is free for use by everybody. You may take this copy of OpenOffice.org
and install it on as many computers as you like, and use it for any purpose you like
(including commercial, government, public administration and educational use). For
further details see the license text delivered together with OpenOffice.org or
http://www.openoffice.org/license.html

Why is OpenOffice.org free for any user?

You can use this copy of OpenOffice.org today free of charge because individual
contributors and corporate sponsors have designed, developed, tested, translated,
documented, supported, marketed, and helped in many other ways to make
OpenOffice.org what it is today - the world's leading open-source office software.If you
appreciate their efforts, and would like to ensure OpenOffice.org continues into the
future, please consider contributing to the project - see http://contributing.openoffice.org
for details. Everyone has a contribution to make.

Notes on Installation
System Requirements:

o Microsoft Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2 or higher), XP, or Vista

 o Pentium compatible PC (Pentium III or Athlon recommended)
o 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM recommended)
o 370 MB available hard disk space
o Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions: 650 MB available hard disk space
o 1024x768 resolution (higher resolution recommended), at least 256 colors

Registration of OpenOffice.org as default application for Microsoft Office formats can be

forced or suppressed by using the following command line switches with the installer:

o /msoreg=1 will force registration of OpenOffice.org as default application for

Microsoft Office formats.
o /msoreg=0 will suppress registration of OpenOffice.org as default application for
Microsoft Office formats.

If you perform an administrative installation using setup /a, you need to make sure that
the file msvc90.dll is installed on the system. This file is required for OpenOffice.org to
start after an administrative installation. You can get the file from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9B2DA534-3E03-4391-
8A4D-074B9F2BC1BF

Problems During Program Startup

Difficulties starting OpenOffice.org (e.g. applications hang) as well as problems with the
screen display are often caused by the graphics card driver. If these problems occur,
please update your graphics card driver or try using the graphics driver delivered with
your operating system. Difficulties displaying 3D objects can often be solved by
deactivating the option "Use OpenGL" under 'Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - View -
3D view'.

Please note that copy and paste via clipboard between OpenOffice.org 1.x and
OpenOffice.org 3.0 might not work in OpenOffice.org format. If that happens, choose
'Edit - Paste Special' and choose a format other than OpenOffice.org, or open the
document in OpenOffice.org 3.0 directly.

Please make sure you have enough free memory in the temporary directory on your
system and that read, write and run access rights have been granted. Close all other
programs before starting the installation.

Note: Please be aware that administrator rights are needed for the installation process.

ALPS/Synaptics notebook touchpads in Windows

Due to a Windows driver issue, you cannot scroll through OpenOffice.org documents
when you slide your finger across an ALPS/Synaptics touchpad.
To enable touchpad scrolling, add the following lines to the "C:\Program
Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.ini" configuration file, and restart your computer:

[OpenOffice.org]FC = "SALFRAME"SF = 0x10000000SF |= 0x00004000

Note: The location of the configuration file might vary on different versions of Windows.

Shortcut Keys

Only shortcut keys (key combinations) not used by the operating system can be used in
OpenOffice.org. If a key combination in OpenOffice.org does not work as described in
the OpenOffice.org Help, check if that shortcut is already used by the operating system.
To rectify such conflicts, you can change the keys assigned by your operating system.
Alternatively, you can change almost any key assignment in OpenOffice.org. For more
information on this topic, refer to the OpenOffice.org Help or the Help documentation of
your operating system.

Due to a conflict with input method switching on multiple platforms, the following
shortcut keys required to be changed at last minute:

o Ctrl-Space is now Ctrl-Shift-Space

o Ctrl-Shift-Space is now Ctrl-M

Problems When Sending Documents as E-mails From OpenOffice.org

When sending a document via 'File - Send - Document as E-mail' or 'Document as PDF
Attachment' problems might occur (program crashes or hangs). This is due to the
Windows system file "Mapi" (Messaging Application Programming Interface) which
causes problems in some file versions. Unfortunately, the problem cannot be narrowed
down to a certain version number. For more information visit http://www.microsoft.com
to search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for "mapi dll".

Important Accessibility Notes

For information on the accessibility features in OpenOffice.org, see
http://www.openoffice.org/access/.

Registration
Please take a little time to complete the minimal Product Registration process when you
install the software. While registration is optional, we encourage you to register, since the
information enables the community to make an even better software suite and address
user needs directly. Through its Privacy Policy, the OpenOffice.org Community takes
every precaution to safeguard your personal data. If you missed the registration at
installation, you can return and register at any time at by choosing "Help > Registration"
from the main menu.

User Survey
There is also a User Survey located online which we encourage you to fill out. The User
Survey results will help OpenOffice.org move more rapidly in setting new standards for
the creation of the next-generation office suite. Through its Privacy Policy, the
OpenOffice.org Community takes every precaution to safeguard your personal data.

User Support
The main support page http://support.openoffice.org/offers various possibilities for help
with OpenOffice.org. Your question may have already been answered - check the
Community Forum.http://user.services.openoffice.org or search the archives of the
'users@openoffice.org' mailing list at http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html.
Alternatively, you can send in your questions to users@openoffice.org. How to subscribe
to the list (to get an email response) is explained on this page:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Website/Content/help/mailinglists.

Also check the FAQ section at

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ.

Report Bugs & Issues

The OpenOffice.org Web site hosts IssueZilla, our mechanism for reporting, tracking and
solving bugs and issues. We encourage all users to feel entitled and welcome to report
issues that may arise on your particular platform. Energetic reporting of issues is one of
the most important contributions that the user community can make to the ongoing
development and improvement of the suite.

Getting Involved
The OpenOffice.org Community would very much benefit from your active participation
in the development of this important open source project.

As a user, you are already a valuable part of the suite's development process and we
would like to encourage you to take an even more active role with a view to being a long-
term contributor to the community. Please join and check out the user page at:
http://www.openoffice.org

Way to Start
The best way to start contributing is to subscribe to one or more of the mailing lists, lurk
for a while, and gradually use the mail archives to familiarize yourself with many of the
topics covered since the OpenOffice.org source code was released back in October 2000.
When you're comfortable, all you need to do is send an email self-introduction and jump
right in. If you are familiar with Open Source Projects, check out our To-Dos list and see
if there is anything you would like to help with at
http://development.openoffice.org/todo.html.

Subscribe

Here are a few of the Project mailing lists to which you can subscribe at
http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html

o News: announce@openoffice.org *recommended to all users* (light traffic)

o Main user forum: user@openoffice.org *easy way to lurk on discussions* (heavy
traffic)
o Marketing project: dev@marketing.openoffice.org *beyond development*
(getting heavy)
o General code contributor list: dev@openoffice.org (moderate/heavy)

Join one or more Projects

You can make major contributions to this important open source project even if you have
limited software design or coding experience. Yes, you!

At http://projects.openoffice.org/index.html you will find projects ranging from

Localization, Porting and Groupware to some real core coding projects. If you are not a
developer, try the Documentation or the Marketing Project. The OpenOffice.org
Marketing Project is applying both guerrilla and traditional commercial techniques to
marketing open source software, and we are doing it across language and cultural
barriers, so you can help just by spreading the word and telling a friend about this office
suite.

You can help by joining the Marketing Communications & Information Network here:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html where you can provide point
communication contact with press, media, government agencies, consultants, schools,
Linux Users Groups and developers in your country and local community.

We hope you enjoy working with the new OpenOffice.org 3.0 and will join us online.

The OpenOffice.org Community

Used / Modified Source Code

Portions Copyright 1998, 1999 James Clark. Portions Copyright 1996, 1998 Netscape
Communications Corporation.