NeoOffice Support

From NeoWiki

A “Support FAQ” for NeoOffice

Contents 1 English Support 2 Installing NeoOffice 3 Patching 4 First Launch 5 General Troubleshooting 6 How Do I...? 6.1 How Do I Find Information on Other Usage Questions? 7 Other Useful Information

English Support

Because NeoOffice is a port of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X, the majority of questions concerning the use of NeoOffice 1.2.x may be resolved by consulting English support sites for OpenOffice.org (see the list in the How Do I Find Information on Other Usage Questions? section below). Please note that NeoOffice 1.2.x is based on the OpenOffice 1.1.5 code; therefore, any tips and hints that are provided in those fora with regard to OpenOffice 2.x may not necessarily be applicable to NeoOffice 1.2.x; those tips will, however, be relevant for NeoOffice 2.0, which is based off of the OpenOffice.org 2.0.x codebase.

For any queries specifically relating to NeoOffice rather than to OpenOffice.org (generally areas where NeoOffice interacts with Mac OS X, e.g. printing), please refer first to the NeoWiki before posting a question in the trinity fora; your question may already have been answered. The forum language is English, but there are on a regular basis French- and German-speaking users who may help with problems of translation.

Installing NeoOffice

• When running the NeoOffice installer, the "test" returns with "NeoOffice can not be installed on this computer."
• Installation fails with a "generic" error message
• Why does the NeoOffice installer request my administrator password?

Patching

• The patch installation fails with a "generic" error message
• The patch installer refuses to start the installation
• How do I know when a new patch is available?

First Launch

• Check your language settings before launching NeoOffice

• Why does NeoOffice 1.2.x “hang” part-way through startup?

• Why doesn't NeoOffice let me run it as “root”?

• Why does NeoOffice access the Internet after the first launch?

• NeoOffice performance is rather lackluster and I see redrawing. Can I speed this up?

• NeoOffice fails to start, or crashes during startup or right after starting

• Why does NeoOffice ask me to register when I first run it?

• Do I have to make a donation?

General Troubleshooting

• NeoOffice crashes randomly
• Problems with the menus or menu bar
• Crashing in the font dropdown
• Common causes of slow or lackluster performance
• A patch does not appear to fix a bug it claims to fix
• Preferences don't seem to stick
• Certain keyboard shortcuts do not work
• Other Known Issues with NeoOffice

How Do I...?

Note that most questions about usage of NeoOffice are best directed toward general OpenOffice.org support resources, where there is a greater chance of a recieving a quick and correct answer. The NeoWiki and trinity fora are focused on NeoOffice- and Mac-specific tips and issues (i.e., where things interact with Mac OS X).

• How do I determine what language is used for the user interface?
• How do I enable dictionaries for additional languages?
• How do I customize keyboard shortcuts to be more Mac-like?
• How do I set NeoOffice to be the default application to open certain file types?
• Can NeoOffice open AppleWorks documents?

How Do I Find Information on Other Usage Questions?

• Answers to many common questions, as well as additional tips on using NeoOffice more effectively, can be found on the NeoOffice Tips and Hints page in this wiki
  • You can also Search the entire NeoWiki from the box in the lefthand sidebar
• The NeoOffice Help (select Contents from the Help menu) is quite extensive and can answer most questions about how to perform common—and sometimes not-so-common—tasks
• OpenOffice.org support sites have large numbers of users who are very familiar with how to use OpenOffice.org, and most of the time any tips or help from these users will be completely applicable to NeoOffice (remembering that NeoOffice 1.2.x is based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.5).
  • oooforum.org

    This is a great "how-to" forum for general purpose types of questions like "how do I do multiple column text in Writer" or "how do I do linear regressions in Calc". It's one of the oldest OpenOffice.org forums and has a lot of tips that have been accumulating over the years.

  • OOoAuthors.org

    OOoAuthors has a guide to using OpenOffice.org 1.1.x, explaining many of the features and common tasks; this should also apply to NeoOffice, with the standard caveats about cmd-vs-ctrl keys.

  • StarOffice 7 User Manuals

    StarOffice is the commercial version of OpenOffice.org that is sold by Sun Microsystems for Linux, Solaris, and Windows. While there are differences between the two, about 90% of the documentation is directly relevant for NeoOffice. It's the closest thing to a "User's Guide" you'll be able to find.

  • OpenOffice.org Support portal

    Links to numerous other OpenOffice.org and StarOffice support resources; again, much of the information is directly relevant to NeoOffice (remembering that NeoOffice 1.2.x is based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.5). There are also several commercial books on using StarOffice and OpenOffice.org that you can find through Amazon or at your local bookstore, and these may also be good reference materials for you.

• Search the trinity fora for key words or phrases in your question; many questions have already been answered, sometimes several times over, and can be found with a quick search of the "NeoOffice Support" forum.
• If you still can't find the answer to your question after exhausting all other resource, by all means ask your question in the NeoOffice Support forum on trinity.

  This forum is great for finding answers to Mac-specific questions (such as installation, printing, etc.).

Other Useful Information

• Reporting Problems with NeoOffice
• Questions and answers about Aquafication or the technical side of NeoOffice
• How do I get rid of NeoOffice?

If you've found these support resources helpful, please consider making a donation to support the continued developement of NeoOffice.