Writer's Tools

(14 votes)
writertools.png

Writer's Tools is a set of utilities designed to help OpenOffice.org users perform a wide range of tasks. Using Writer's Tools, you can back up documents, look up and translate words and phrases, manage text snippets, and keep tabs on document statistics. Writer's Tools includes the following utilities:

  • Lookup Tool allows you to look up the currently selected word in several online references, including Cambridge Dictionaries, WordNet, and Google Define.
  • Google Translate allows users to quickly translate selected text fragments between different languages using the Google Translate service.
  • Show on the Map allows you to select a city, a street name, or a post code and map it using Google Maps.
  • Email Backup can be used to quickly send a backup copy of the currently opened document to a specified email address.
  • Multi-format Backup macro saves the currently opened Writer document in the Word, RTF, and TXT formats. The backup files are stored in a separate folder with a date stamp. On Linux, the macro also archives the resulting folder using the tar utility. On Windows, there is an option to use the 7-zip compression tool.
  • Remote Backup allows you to quickly save a backup copy of the current document on an FTP server.
  • Wikify Word tool links a selected word or text fragment in the current document to a Writer document, which is created on the fly. For example, if the word “Monkey” is selected, the macro automatically links it to the created on the fly Monkey.odt document.
  • Start/Stop Timer tool can be used to keep tabs on the time spent on the currently opened document and save the time data (the document name, used time, and date) in the accompanying WriterDB database.
  • Word Hunt Game is a simple game, where you have to guess the word randomly picked by Writer.
  • Q and A Game is a no-frills quiz game, which can help you to test you knowledge and memorize stuff.
  • Letter Hunt Game is a game, where you have to guess a randomly picked word letter-by-letter.
  • Word of the Day tool picks and displays a random word and its definition from the accompanying WriterDB database. As a writer, you may often come across a new word or an interesting expression. The WriterDB database allows you to store your language findings in one place, while the Word of the Day tool helps you to keep them active in your memory.
  • Add to Basket tool is designed to quickly add text snippets, links, and notes to the supplied database.
  • Database tool opens the WriterDB database, where you can use the available forms to manage notes and tasks.
  • Convert To tool can convert Writer documents in a selected folder into a specified format. These tools can come in handy when you need to convert multiple Writer documents in one go.
  • App Launcher is a customizable application launcher, which you can use to add and launch often-used applications directly from withing OpenOffice.org.
  • Tasks tool is a no-frills to-do manager that allows you to quickly add, view, and purge tasks.
  • Writer Templates is a separate extension that contains an article and a book template.
  • miniInvoices is a customizable invoicing solution for writers. miniInvoices is built with OpenOffice.org Base and relies on the Sun Report Builder extension. The solution features support for multiple currencies and basic reporting capabilities. The latter allows the user to generate print-ready invoices and earning reports. miniInvoices is available as a separate download.

Comments

A must have!

As a professional writer i am really thankful for this great tool. Among lots of other features I like the easy email-backup feature very much. Thanks for this extremely usefull addon!

Request

Do you think you could add an option, similar to the 'Email Backup' feature, but uploading to google docs, like http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/ooo2gd ?

Request

There is a separate extension for that. Why reinvent the wheel?

Tricky setup

Hi,
hardwiring the path to Firefox is not such a good idea. Especially since not on every Windows version the program files are actually under C:\Program Files . Can't you pull the path to the default browser from the registry instead?

On my system (German) it's C:\Programme, so after installation, many of the writer's tools don't work, and it takes quite a while to find out how to fix it. Why not include a link to the solution in the error message??

All the best,

Stephan

Tricky setup

This problem has been fixed in Writer's Tools version 0.9.31.

Kind regards,
Dmitri

miniInvoices

I have a doubt with minInvoices. It doesn't install normaly so it must be either have a different installer procedure which I ignore or must be placed into some folder inside openoffice.org
Can somebody please help me with this issue?

Thank You!

miniInvoices

miniInvoices is just a plain OpenOffice.org Base file, so you don't have to install it. Just double-click on it to open the database, and that's it.

Thanks for this wonderful

Thanks for this wonderful extension Dimitri!

I needed three attempts before I got it running (winXP) Thanks to your excellent manual, I found the problem:
The macro assumes the HD where OOo is installed is "C", while in my case it is "H". Changing this one letter in the macro solved it all! Maybe this can be helpful to others.

Thanks again,
best regards,

verbertus

getting it to work

I've tried this extension two or three times. I'd really like to use it but have not been able to make it work. I'm running it on two computers, WinXP and Kubuntu. Both are using the latest version of Openoffice.org.

How about a Writer's Tools for Dummies manual?

NTP

There is a manual

First, there is a manual: unzip the downloaded archive and look for the WriterToolsUserGuide.html document. alternatively, you might want to read the Writer's Tools Manual. Second, if you have problems, questions, and comments, the right place to post them would be the Writer's Tools website (the Issues section).

Default browser and localization

Hi,
I am trying this great extension in a Windows 2000 installation where the applications aren't installed in the "Program Files" folder, but in a custom folder. When I try to use the lookup (or translate, or map) tool, I get a "file not found" error from the Macro management utility of OpenOffice.org.

Searching the source code, I see that the extension considers Firefox as the default browser, and searches for it inside "Program Files":
Global Const DefaultWindowsBrowser="C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

I see several problems with this line: localized operating systems, custom installation of firefox, and use of other browsers will lead to errors.
I changed the line into this:

Global Const DefaultWindowsBrowser="cmd.exe /c start "

This line works for any Windows installation, any language, any browser. The windows shell, given the URL, will open the default sysem browser.

Probably, the same issues can be considered valid for Linux, because firefox is not always the default browser. I haven't tried it, but a fix that considers /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser might be a viable solution.

Finally, I would like to translate this extension in Italian.
Let me know if you are interested, I will send you the translated version to be uploaded here.

Bye

Global Const

Global Const DefaultWindowsBrowser="cmd.exe /c start " doesn't work with some of Writer's Tools commands: for example, Show on the Map. Also, the manual clearly explains how to change the default browser on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

good tools..

Thanks for making this--here's some ideas that I wish someone would do:
--bibiliography tools (For me that would be APA style, but MLA is very popular I understand)
--comment tools. I dont think the comment toosl built into OO.org are as good as the ones for Microsoft and that pains me.
----the compatability between the comment tools in OO.org Writer and MS Word just doesnt work. If I make a comment then a co-author opens that document, they can only see a little highlighted area, not the comment.
*If these were fixed, I could confidently promote OO.org to everyone I know in academia as being far superior to MS Word.

mmiesner

Bibliography tool and Notes

For a really excellent bibliography tool that supports OOo, try Zotero:
http://www.zotero.org/
Check out this screencast to get an overview of how Zotero works:
http://www.zotero.org/videos/tour/zotero_tour.htm
Zotero is free, open source software.

The notes (comments) feature is being improved right now and a first release of the new version, Notes2, should be included with OOo 3.0, expected in a Beta release sometime around April 2008. More information here:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Notes2
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Ubuntu Linux (7.10)