Working with Documents Cont..

8.1.4. OpenOffice.org Impress

Visual aids can give your presentations an added impact that catches your audience's attention and keeps them interested. OpenOffice.org Impress is a graphical tool that can help you make a more convincing presentation.

 

To start OpenOffice.org Impress from the desktop panel, select Main Menu => Office => OpenOffice.org Impress. To start OpenOffice.org Impress from a shell prompt, type ooimpress.

 

OpenOffice.org Impress features several AutoPilot features that allow you to create presentations from a collection of style templates. You can make slides with itemized lists, outlines, or images. You can even import charts and graphs from OpenOffice.org Calc into a slide.

Figure 8-5 shows OpenOffice.org Impress in action.

 

Figure 8-5. OpenOffice.org Impress

 

When you first start OpenOffice.org Impress, you will be presented with a presentation setup screen, which will prompt you for basic information about what type of presentation you want to make. You can choose the style of your slides, the medium with which you will present your slides (plain paper, transparent paper for overhead projectors, slides, or a display monitor), and any visual effects you want to apply to the slides during presentations from your computer.

 

Figure 8-6. OpenOffice.org Impress AutoPilot Wizard

 

Once you have chosen your preferences with AutoPilot tool, you can choose the type of slide you want to create. You can select a pre-formatted slide from the list or start with a blank slide and customize the layout yourself. To create new slides for your presentation, click Insert Slide... in the floating toolbar, and a pop-up window will appear allowing you to choose the layout of the new slide. You can have as many slides in your presentation as you need.

 

You can also preview your presentation at any point by selecting Slide Show => Slide Show from the pull-down menu. The presentation will be in full screen, which you can exit by cycling through every slide until you reach the end or by pressing the [Esc] key at any point in the slide show.

 

Your presentation can be saved in several file formats. You can save in the native OpenOffice.org Impress format (for example, mypresentation.sxi), the Microsoft PowerPoint format (mypresentation.ppt), or StarImpress format (mypresentation.sdd). You can also print your presentation to plain or transparent paper formats by clicking File => Print from the file menu.

 

To learn more about OpenOffice.org Impress, click Help => Contents form the file menu for the help browser.

 

8.1.5. OpenOffice.org Draw

If you would like to create graphics to include in your documents and presentations, you can use OpenOffice.org Draw. Using your mouse as a you would a pen or a paintbrush, OpenOffice.org Draw allows you to make illustrations and save them in several formats that you can add to printed documents, place on websites, or attach to an email.

 

To start OpenOffice.org Draw from the desktop panel, click Main Menu => Office => OpenOffice.org Draw. To start OpenOffice.org Draw from a shell

prompt, type oodraw.

Figure 8-7 Shows OpenOffice.org Draw in action.

 

Figure 8-7. OpenOffice.org Draw

 

If you are familiar with illustration and graphics applications such as The GIMP (refer to Chapter 10 for more information), you will find that OpenOffice.org Draw has some of the same basic functions. There are toolbars for creating straight and curved lines, basic shapes such as squares and circles, 3D-objects such as cones and cubes, and more. You can create images and fill them with the color of your choice using the Area Style/Filling drop-down menu on the main toolbar. You can additionally insert text into your illustrations.

 

OpenOffice.org Draw also allows you to open and import images and modify them with the tools provided. When you complete your illustration or image modifications, you can save the file in one of several native file formats or export your work to a universal format such as .jpg or .png. Refer to Table 8-1 for the complete list of compatible image file formats.

 

8.2. Viewing PDFs

A PDF (Portable Document Format) file is an electronic image of a document. PDF captures formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor or printer as they were intended. To view a PDF you must have a PDF reader. An open source application called xpdf is included with Red Hat Linux. To see a list of menu options, right-click inside the screen. The toolbar at the bottom has navigational tools that let you move backward and forward through the document, as well as standard zoom, print, and find tools. The xpdf man page provides useful information on the xpdf options.

 

To view the xpdf man page, at a shell prompt type  man xpdf.

 

To view a PDF with xpdf:

1. In your desktop environment, go to Main Menu => Graphics => xpdf. You can also launch xpdf by typing xpdf at

    a shell prompt.

2. Right-click in the xpdf screen to display a list of options.

3. Select Open to display a list of files.

4. Select the PDF file you want to view and click on Open.

 

Another popular PDF viewer is Adobe Acrobat Reader. While it is not included with Red Hat Linux, you can download it free of charge at http://www.adobe.com/