New Product -- Windows Group Policy for OpenOffice

Open Office Tech

Hello OOoForum,

Our company, Open Office Technology, has developed an enterprise management product for the OpenOffice.org office suite. We are calling the product "OpenOffice-Enterprise".

OpenOffice-Enterprise manages OpenOffice using standard Windows management tools such as Active Directory and Group Policy. It gives a system administrator access to all of OpenOffice's settings from the Windows Group Policy Management console. The system administrator can set mandatory values that cannot be changed by users, as well as default values that a user can override. Different settings can be applied to different groups of users and computers.

We are currently in the process of finishing the documentation and releasing the product. If anyone is interested, you can learn more and download our beta at http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com

We also have instructions to remotely install OpenOffice on multiple client computers using Group Policy. The instructions are geared toward a beginning Windows System Administrator, and include all of the steps required for a network installation. Anyone is welcome to link to these instructions at http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com/OpenOffice-Enterprise/Desktop_Installation

If anyone has any questions or would like more information, we would be happy to answer your questions here, or you can contact us through our website.

Thank you,

Allen Pulsifer
Open Office Technology
http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com

MerlinT · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:07 am Post subject:

Hi Allen,

Thanks for this info - looks like just what I've been looking for - will keep you posted.
We're doing a feasibility on migrating to Linux from our Win2K3 Terminal Server, 50 users, and are making steady progress. Have just installed OOo on Win server to gradually get users used to the idea. This is my first correspondence on this Forum - and presently i'm looking for a solution to standardising user startup settings such as spell check, disctionary and so on. Will try your beta shortly.
If you can recommend other ways to fix such setting I's appreciate your input.

Regards,
John Thomé
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Many thanks,
John (merlin) (newbie)

Open Office Tech · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:40 am Post subject:

Hello John,

We are currently working on adding a section to our web site that describes how to set various parameters in OpenOffice, such as locale, spell check dictionary, default file formats, default document paths, etc. We hope to have that up by Wednesday (if not earlier), at http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com/documentation.

If there are any other settings in OpenOffice that you would like to be able to change, please let us know and we'll add them to our list. Feel free to post them here, or you can contact us directly at http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com/contact.

Best Regards,

Allen Pulsifer
Open Office Technology, Inc.
http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com

9point9 · Moderator Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 3875 Location: UK

From 2.0.1 onwards it is possible to limit the options available to users by manually editing XML files. This is clearly targetted at admins and needs to be discussed in some depth. I would use it to prevent users from modifying such things as default format (locking it to OpenDocument), preventing changes to Java settings, etc.
_________________
Arch Linux
OOo 3.2.0

OOoSVN, change control for OOo documents:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooosvn/

brownl · General User Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Posts: 26

Hi there,
We have already modified the default file type settings and removed the registration for all users by editing setup.xcu.
We are also interested in making some settings default for all users such as creating backup files, auto-recovery save intervals, and the supress printing blank pages in calc. So you know which files we would modify for these settings?

MerlinT · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:45 am Post subject:

Hi All,
Thanks for your prompt assistance. Much appreciated. Will check it out.
Regards,
John
_________________
Many thanks,
John (merlin) (newbie)

captainupgrade · General User Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 8

Hi,
Your product is interesting.
Have you been able to create a template that lets you change the Memory/Graphics Cache settings? I have looked at your website but not found a reference to this setting.

Open Office Tech

zero0w · Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:14 am Post subject:

Hey, Allen,

I think you should try to get an interview from the press on your interesting product. It surely will be interesting to the open source support groups and tech writer like sjvn.

http://www.eweek.com/author_bio/0,1908,a=2521,00.asp

He writes a lot on Linux and OpenOffice.org at eWeek's open source column.
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Official OpenOffice.org User resources Wiki page
Press Coverage on OpenOffice.org

Open Office Tech · Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:03 am Post subject:

Hello Zero0w,

Thank you for the tip. We will definitely try to get in touch with Steven at eWeek.

There are several more advantages to our product that I haven't specifically mentioned:

With the management console, its easy to make changes to your configuration. If you set all desktops to use 64 MB of cache memory, and later find that's not quite enough, it just takes a few mouse clicks to raise the number to 96 MB on all desktops.

In addition, if you use our product to configure OpenOffice v2.0.2, when v2.0.3+ comes along, all you will have to do is install the new version. Any settings you create now will continue to be enforced after an upgrade, with no extra work on your part.

As far as I know, our product is unique in making it easier to deploy and manage OpenOffice on Windows desktops.

If anyone has any questions about the product or how it might fit in a particular deployment, we would be happy to answer them.

Thank you,

Allen Pulsifer
Open Office Technology, Inc.
http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com

Open Office Tech · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject: Second beta release

Hello OOoForum,

Open Office Technology is pleased to announce the second beta release of its enterprise management solution for the OpenOffice.org office suite.

This release adds the ability to manage additional settings, including OpenOffice's default file formats. For more information about the release, please visit http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com/project/issues.

We also have an OpenOffice Configuration Knowledgebase on our website at http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com/documentation/OpenOffice-Configuration.

If anyone would like more information about deploying and managing OpenOffice in an enterprise environment, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

Allen Pulsifer
Open Office Technology, Inc.
http://OpenOfficeTechnology.com

9point9 · Moderator Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 3875 Location: UK

Open Office Tech · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: Re: Second beta release

bobharvey · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:17 am Post subject:

I would just like to say that, having managed several OOo users on a heterogenous linux/solaris/windows network I would have really welcomed something like your product.

I realise that my experience was unusual, but I'd have loved a way for people to keep the same settings/templates regardless of which OS they were using. I'm sure it would have been possible if I'd only had time to think about it in depth. I did manage to have a documents directory that could be mounted (like "My documents") in all 3 environments, but never managed to do the same with the OOo (or firefox etc.) user profiles.

I don't have that sort of job any more, but would like to wish you well with the product.

9point9 · Moderator Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 3875 Location: UK

I was not questioning locking it down to OpenDocument, what I was questioning is the ability to lock down to a propreitary format without warning of the potential problem of saving in a format that OOo itself does not entirely understand. When you save in a foreign format, a warning appears telling you of the potential for data loss, such a warning should be given when configuring any setting that does this also. Otherwise many well-meaning but misinformed people will go and set it to MS formats and then wonder why the files don't look the same in another piece of software.
_________________
Arch Linux
OOo 3.2.0

OOoSVN, change control for OOo documents:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooosvn/