OOo Off the Wall: Macros and Add-ons

Editors' Note: This article has been revised since its
original posting.

One of the features that makes the Open Source community so stimulating
is its members are not passive consumers of software, but active
participants in its direction. OpenOffice.org is no exception. Although
slow to develop this attitude--possibly because of the sheer size of
the project--in the last year, the OpenOffice.org community has started
having an effect on the development of the office suite.

True, basic development still is dependent heavily on employees of Sun
Microsystems--too dependent, some might say. However, volunteers are
coming into their own now with both macros and add-ons. Macros are scripts written in OOoBasic that
run from documents, while add-ons are functions integrated directly
into an OpenOffice.org installation, often using another programming
language, such as Python. Probably the best examples of
this change are Laurence Godard's DicOOo macro, which installs spellchecking,
hyphenation and thesaurus dictionaries, and FontOOo macro, which installs
free fonts available on the Internet. Both macros have been added as autopilots
and were major features of the releases in which they first appeared.

Currently, perhaps two dozen people actively are publishing
macros and add-ons. Others are active on the
API
list, but have yet to make their efforts generally available.

What follow is a small sampling of some publicly available macros
and add-ons for OOo. Most are released under the GNU GPL or LGPL, but a few of
those available on the Internet use other licenses that you might want
to read before downloading, to make sure that they are compatible with
your beliefs. After the samples is a brief set of instructions for using
and installing them.

Unlike Godard's macro collections, none of these have become an
official part of OpenOffice.org, although one or two may achieve that sign
of acceptance. However, even if official acceptance doesn't happen, you
easily can add their functionality to your copy of OpenOffice.org.
WriterPerfect
When StarOffice was open sourced, the proprietary elements stripped
out included the import and export filters for WordPerfect. WordPerfect
hasn't been the dominant office format for almost a decade, but its brief
support for Linux several years ago has left a loyal group of users for
whom the ability to read the format is important. The WriterPerfect
Project, built by William Lachance, Marc Maurer and other contributors,
exists to provide that ability for OpenOffice.org, AbiWord and, in the
future, KWord, through various uses of its libwpd library.

WriterPerfect itself is an import filter. It compares favorably with
the StarOffice WordPerfect filter and, in my experience, seems to do
a better job than OOo's MS Word filters. Still, like most filters, its
results need tweaking, especially when used on complex documents. My only complaint
is neither a static tarball nor a Debian package is available on the
site. However, both can be built from source, and wpd2sxw, a standalone
program from the project, is now a part of Debian unstable.
Andrew Brown's Macros
This set of macros was one of the first to be made available and
continues to be updated. It includes a grab-bag of functions, most of
which are well commented and useful (if unspectacular) if you
are interested in learning how to write your own macro. For example,
two are for converting Writer text to plain text e-mail; one adds two
carriage returns to mark the start of paragraphs and another strips
out smart quotes and en-dashes so that only the basic ASCII set is used.
Others apply heading styles, insert a special character and change the
case of selected letters.

The standout in this collection is a selected word count. Although the
document containing the macros notes that form items and fields can
throw out the count, this macro adds a functionality that is missing
from Writer but often requested.
History Manager

Alexej Kryukov's History Manager is an add-on for adjusting the number of recently used
files at the bottom of the File menu. By default, OpenOffice.org shows
only four, but most people prefer a longer list. The number of files
displayed can be hacked, but History Manager provides a clean interface
for editing the list instead.

Danny Brewer's
Recent File List Changer
provides the same capacity through macros.
ReferenceManager
ReferenceManager, built by Ian Laurenson, is designed for working with collections of
cross-references, set references and bookmarks. The collection of macros
allows references and bookmarks to be reassigned and found. It also can
delete references without deleting text and find orphaned references.
The interface is confusing at first, until you realize the radio buttons
above the two panes identify the contents. Otherwise, the macro collection is ideal
for academic work. A particularly useful feature is the Demo button,
which Laurenson seems to add to most of his macros.
OutlineCross-Referencer
One of the weaknesses of Writer's cross-reference system is the
text before and between the cross-references must be added manually. The
process can be automated by creating user-defined fields containing the
text, but even that requires flipping back and forth between tabs in
the field windows and too many mouse-clicks. Ian Laurenson's Outline Cross-Referencer
remedies that by providing a GUI in which the entire reference can
be composed. Despite a rather cramped GUI and the long lapse between
clicking the Insert button and seeing the reference entered in the text,
this macro is a must-have if you use cross-references regularly.
ExtendedPDF
In the current version, OpenOffice.org's Export to PDF tool is
disappointing. Although it usually produces an acceptable PDF under
Linux--it is more problematic under Windows--it sometimes chokes on documents
with elaborately formated tables or spontaneously changes fonts. Moreover,
even when it works, it cannot generate bookmarks or live links. These
features are said to be coming in version 2.0. Meanwhile, Martin Brown's ExtendedPDF not
only provides the missing functionality, but handles files that defeat
the Export to PDF tool. The interface does warn that paragraph spacing
and table spacing at the top of pages can cause hyperlink misalignments,
but in a dozen PDFs, most of them lengthy, I never saw any problems.

ExtendedPDF requires Ghostscript, which most desktop Linux installations
include by default. It also requires the setting up of a postscript
printer driver using OpenOffice.org's spadmin tool. These requirements
are explained thoroughly in the Writer document in which ExtendedPDF is
distributed. The document even includes a standard explanation of how
to add the macro to a toolbar.

The macro itself opens in a clean interface. Five levels of quality are
available to Export as compared with PDF's three levels, as well as three different versions
of PDF. Other choices include the view in which the PDF opens, the output
folders and the styles from which to generate bookmarks. A tab for PDF
Security is grayed out, but considering the low-grade of copy protection
available in PDFs, this lack hardly matters. The settings also include an
option to open a PDF after it is created in the viewer of your choice--a
small touch, but one that automates a step most people would do anyway.

By providing a GUI for detailed PDF generation, ExtendedPDF fills a gap
not only in OpenOffice.org but in Linux desktop productivity. In my
book, that makes it the one absolutely essential pick in this collection
of macros.
Making Macros Accessible
All macros from open documents are listed in the Macro from field when you
select Tools > Macros > Macro. If you have chosen to allow macros to run
when you open a document, other documents can use its macros. Otherwise,
the macros run only in the document to which they are attached.

Instead of opening a document each time you want its macros, you can
make its macros accessible from any OpenOffice.org document by following
these steps:

1. Select Tools > Macros > Macro >
   Organizer > Libraries.
2. On the Libraries tab, select soffice in the Application/Document
   drop-down list.
3. Select the Append button. A file browser
   opens.
4. Select the file that contains the macros you wan
   to add, and then select the OK button. The Append Libraries window opens.
5. Select the macro libraries that you want to add.
   Then, click the OK button and close the rest of the dialogues.

To make a macro even more accessible, you can:

• Add it to a toolbar by selecting Customize from the toolbar's
  right-click menu. In the Customize Toolbar window, macros are listed in
  the Available buttons pane. Use the Add arrow to place a button for the
  macro in the Buttons in use pane, and the Move Up and Move Down buttons
  to position the new button where you want it. Use the Icon button to
  assign an icon or keep the button as text.
• Add it to a menu by selecting Tools >
  Configure > Menu > . Select the
  macro from the Function section of the window, using the Category pane
  to navigate through modules and libraries. With the the macro highlighted,
  either select the macro position in the Menu entries pane and select New
  > OK. Use the arrow buttons to reposition the macro or the New Menu to
  create a new top-level menu before adding the macro.
• Assign it to a keystroke combination by
  selecting Tools > Configure > Keyboard. Select the macro from the Function section of the window, using
  the Category pane to navigate through modules and libraries. Highlight
  the macro, then choose the Shortcut keys and select Assign > OK.

Some macros, especially ones written in a language other than OOoBasic,
are packaged as add-ons. These macros are available as zipped files. They
are placed in the /user/uno_packages folder of your OpenOffice.org
installation directory and are installed by running
pkgchk from the /program
folder. When installed, add-ons may add an icon, menu or menu item,
depending on how they are packaged. Usually, an add-ons item is added
to the Tools menu that lists all installed add-ons on a sub-menu.
Conclusion
These are only a selection of the macros and add-ons available
for OpenOffice.org. I have picked ones that are tools for Writer,
because that is the most heavily used application in the OOo suite. The
OOo Macros Page
lists a number of tools for other OOo applications. In particular, Calc
users might be interested in downloading David Hitchcock's
OOo
Statistics, which resembles MS Excel's Analysis ToolPak,
while Draw users might find some inspiration for further
macros at Danny Brewer's
Danny's
Draw Power Tools site.

Developers interested in writing their own macros might want to look
at the developer's page,
OOoMacros or at
Andrew Pitonyak's home page. Pitonyak is
the author of the recently released
OpenOffice.org
Macro's Explained. Although largely an
unstructured brain dump, Pitonyak's book still is a valuable collection of tips from an
acknowledged expert on OOoBasic.

The possibilities of macros and add-ons for OpenOffice.org still are being
realized by the Open Source community. Although OpenOffice.org recently
completed its fourth year as a project, few of the tools available are
more than a year old and many are less than half that. As an outsider
observing this sub-community, my impression is the community is only starting
to come into its own. Resources finally are starting to become available,
and the first results of collaborations are starting to be seen. If
this community's potential is realized, the next year should see a thriving
community and an endless set of new resources for end users.

Bruce Byfield was product manager at Stormix Technologies and
marketing and communications director at Progeny Linux System. He also
was a contributing editor at Maximum Linux and the original writer of
the Desktop Debian manual. Away from his computer, he listens to
punk-folk music, raises parrots and runs long, painful distances of his
own free will.