Well if you are like most of us you want the newest of the newest stable apps so here is a little tutorial getting ooo 2.3.1 installed and working nicely in easy mode.

Get rid of the unionfs per http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:removeunionfs

This will allow removal of the standard openoffice install (saves around 400mb).

If you don't do this the 2.3.1 will take up additional space

First we want to backup the simpleui.rc, the commands are all done in the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t). (To ease typing, you can simply copy the code for each line using Ctrl+Insert from the Wiki here and paste it into the terminal using Shift+Insert and then just press Return to execute each command.)

sudo cp /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc.bak

To get the newest ooo we will need to remove the existing version of ooo by doing

sudo apt-get remove openoffice*

This will remove all openoffice programs

Now obtain the newest version of ooo here

http://openoffice.bouncer.osuosl.org/?product=OpenOffice.org&os=linuxinteldeb&lang=en-US&version=2.3.1

If using default Firefox browser then it will default to saving the file into My Documents - if so just issue

cd 'My Documents'

we want to unpack it by doing

tar -xvf OOo_2.3.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz

This will create a folder called OOG680_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9238 so cd into that

cd OOG680_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9238

and now we want to cd into the DEBS folder

cd DEBS

From here we want to install all the packages by issuing the command

sudo dpkg -i openoffice.org*

This will install the newest version of ooo

Now there is a problem with the standard install that it doesn't create symlinks to /usr/bin/ so we want to do that by issuing the following commands

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/swriter /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/scalc /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/simpress /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/sbase /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/soffice /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/smath /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/sdraw /usr/bin/

in this way we can run any openoffice program from console just by issuing either of the s* commands (eg. swrite for the ooo writer)

Now we want to make the easymode icons work again so we will use our backup version of the simpleui.rc file

sudo cp /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc.bak /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc

this will get all the icons back when we restart but wont actually launch the programs to do so we need to edit the file

sudo kwrite /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc  

press Ctrl + f (find) and search for writer

and you will get the line

<parcel simplecat=“Work” shortcut=“ooo-writer.desktop”

here we need to replace that line with the following

<parcel simplecat="Work" extraargs="/usr/bin/swriter"

The same goes for Calc and Impress

<parcel simplecat=“Work” shortcut=“ooo-calc.desktop”

here we need to replace that line with the following

<parcel simplecat="Work" extraargs="/usr/bin/scalc"

<parcel simplecat=“Work” shortcut=“ooo-impress.desktop”

here we need to replace that line with the following

<parcel simplecat="Work" extraargs="/usr/bin/simpress"

If you want to you can make shortcuts to both sdraw and smath To get the icons working you may need to restart the computer.

If done correctly you should now have a working version of ooo 2.3.1 which actually have smaller icons = more workspace

To get icons in the startmenu in advanced mode, and to make the system remember the file type association in easy mode, we need to install another package located in the DEBS folder mentioned earlier

When in the DEBS folder cd into the folder desktop-integration

cd desktop-integration

and do

sudo dpkg -i openoffice*

Now all the menu entries under advanced mode is located under the office entry and the file types when double clicked in the file manager will open with the correct app.

(You may have to run this command with the ”–force-overwrite” option, i.e.

sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i openoffice*

when it complains about “trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package staroffice-desktop-integration”, lest it doesn't create the shortcuts in the “Office” menu.)