Colm Smyth's Weblog

StarOffice (or OpenOffice.org) as a Blog-editor?

I'd like to ask your opinions on a matter close to all our hearts ;)

There are some who think that StarOffice or OpenOffice.org should be a Blog-editor (it could also be a Wiki-editor, or a better HTML editor, e.g. with better support for css styles).

What do folks think about making StarOffice a Blog-editor? Is this

a) a core feature of StarOffice, OR
b) should a separate Blog-editor application be able to use StarOffice as a rich-text editing component, OR
c) a combination of both, where a document may be either edited in a separate app or posted to a blog using a menu nearby File/Save or Export?

I lean towards b) (for example, 2 years ago we did a prototype of StarOffice used as an editor in the Java IceMail mail client), but I would welcome your comments!

(2004-10-12 12:40:32.0) Permalink Comments [6]

Comments:

My blog is fully written in SO and everything is OK. Enjoy! Eric

Posted by Eric Mahe on October 12, 2004 at 01:52 PM PDT #

Hi Eric, I also use StarOffice (and sometimes Mozilla Composer) to create HTML for blog entries; however I would distinguish a *Blog-editor* from a HTML-editor by giving it the capability to directly post an entry or an update to a blog.

Posted by Colm Smyth on October 13, 2004 at 01:47 AM PDT #

I would say (c), but I don't know diddly about word processors. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Posted by Robert Sayre on October 13, 2004 at 09:12 AM PDT #

I think b). I would like OpenOffice to do one thing and do it well, but if some blogging program used OpenOffice api I would give it a try. Actually I think that the OpenOffice component model should be collapsed with Mozilla's just to have one good api and several applications that use it :)

Posted by Davide Inglima - limaCAT on October 13, 2004 at 02:21 PM PDT #

I would have said (c) to start with. Her's the reasoning. Few people are going to want to load the whole of SO/OOo just to scribble a blog post. If you want to write in OOo, it will already be open. In that case, what you want is a quick and easy way to save a document as a blog posting instead or as well as a file. Version 2 can be scripted in Python. there are several Python interfaces to the Blogger API, and presumably to other things. There must be Java interfaces to roller, too. there certainly are to Blogger/MT. So if someone wrote a package which grabbed the text on screen and posted it to a previously chosen blog, optionally asking for extra information, that would be really useful, and could be integrated without too much trouble.

Posted by Andrew Brown on October 14, 2004 at 09:19 AM PDT #

Check my OpenOffice.org collaboration teaser. I would love OpenOffice.org to be it all, to be a blog editor or a collaboration suite. Even integrate some IM features (not fully as we know it) but nice enough to be productive about it. Check the screenshots here: http://www.alexandrocolorado.com/pages/opencollab.php

Posted by Alexandro Colorado on October 14, 2004 at 12:44 PM PDT #