CHAPTER 11 UBUNTU (X web hosting) REPLACEMENTS FOR WINDOWS PROGRAMS
CHAPTER 11 UBUNTU REPLACEMENTS FOR WINDOWS PROGRAMS 165 Spreadsheet: OpenOffice.org Calc As with most of the packages that form the OpenOffice.org suite, Calc (Applications . Office . OpenOffice.org2 Calc) does a good impersonation of its Windows counterpart, Microsoft Excel, both in terms of powerful features and also the look and feel, as you can see in Figure 11-2. However, it doesn t run Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros. Instead, Calc (and all OpenOffice.org programs) uses its own macro language called OpenOffice.org Basic (for more information, see http://development.openoffice.org). Figure 11-2. OpenOffice.org Calc Calc has a vast number of mathematical functions. To see a list, choose Insert . Function. The list includes a brief explanation of each function to help you get started. Just as with Excel, you can access the functions via the toolbar (by clicking the Function Wizard button), or you can enter them directly into cells by typing an equal sign and then the formula code. Calc is intelligent enough to realize when formula cells have been moved and to recalculate accordingly. It will even attempt to calculate formulas automatically and can work out what you mean if you type something like sales + expenses as a formula. As you would expect, Calc also provides automated charting and graphing tools (under Insert . Chart). In Figure 11-2, you can see an example of a simple chart created automatically by the charting tool. You can format cells using the main toolbar buttons, or automatically apply user-defined styles (choose Format . Styles and Formatting).