[openoffice - 3] Deploy with Custom Settings

[Zoom7000]

I'm trying to deploy OpenOffice.org 3.0 to the curriculum network. However, I don't think the students and staff are ready for the major change. So, I'd like to keep it as a secondary alternative to Microsoft Office. Can anyone tell me how I can deploy OOo 3 with the following conditions:

 

DO NOT make it the default handler for Microsoft Office documents.

Change the default save format from Open Document format to Microsoft Office document format. (I.e. .doc .xls .ppt etc)

Cancel the registration wizard on first start and/or deploy my own registration settings.

[CyberNerd]

We send out openoffice3.0 by msi, it doesn't change the default application for .doc if MSoffice is already installed.

This disables the first run wizard:

Deactivating the OpenOffice.org Registration Wizard - OpenOffice.org Wiki you'll probably need a script to install it.

 

I think it's a bad idea to try and set OOO3 to save .doc as default. .doc is now a legacy format, soon MSoffice2007sp2 will support .odt and .odt is the format of choice for governments including becta. Instead, install the .odt plugin for MSoffice

Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office

There is a reg key to make MSoffice default save as odt.

 

Also consider this speedup, we do by mandatory profiles in application data.

Zolved - How to make OpenOffice run faster in Ubuntu

[Michael]

So, I'd like to keep it as a secondary alternative to Microsoft Office

 

If you already have MS Office installed, why do you wish to introduce an alternative? I agree with CyberNerd's comments that installing the ODF Plugin would be a better move.

 

You can specify the default Word save format using the Office Resource Kit. This provides ADM files which you can import into Active Directory, then start tweaking policies as you would with Windows.

[CyberNerd]

If you already have MS Office installed, why do you wish to introduce an alternative? .

 

Our reasons were Choice, diversity, because students already use it at home, because OpenOffice has more features that were relevant to teaching and learning and because we get free OpenOffice upgrades every six months (compare our unnecessary £5k p/a MSoffice bill).

[AngryTechnician]

I would be cautious about deploying the Sun ODF plugin for Office. When I deployed it, it worked fine on our test workstations, but when we expanded it to the whole site around 15% of the installs didn't work properly and resulted in error messages about missing plugins every time users launched Excel and Word. Removing the deployment did not banish error messages, and I never worked out how to script a fix; each workstation had to be corrected manually.

 

Needless to say, I was not amused.