John Haller has just released an awesome version of OpenOffice that can run on any portable device like a USB thumbdrive. Aptly named Portable OpenOffice (a geeks nugget of joy), it's a fuly functional OpenOffice version for a USB keydrive. Portable OpenOffice has been optimized to perform faster and also extend the life of the USB key. It also has a specialized launcher that allows you to execute OpenOffice from a directory of your choice. The other devices Portable OpenOffice is compatible with are: CDRW (in packet mode), ZIP drives, External Hard Drives, MP3 Players, Flash RAM Cards and many many more..
The current Portable OpenOffice is for the windows platform ONLY. The only issue with it as of now, is that It does not have support for Java as Java is NOT portable. Therefore this version of OpenOffice does not include a JVM and some functions of XHTML will not function.
You can Download Portable OpenOffice from sourceforge.net this download also has the Portable OpenOffice Launcher. The Launcher can be downloaded from John Halers Website.
Portable OpenOffice can also be launched using a simple .BAT file. In order to use a .BAT file for launching Portable OpenOffice. Simple save the following batch file in your program directory root. Please remember to alter the batch file IF you have renamed the PortableOpenOffice directory
@echo off
echo Starting OpenOffice...
cd\
start PortableOpenOffice/program/soffice.exe
NOW life is a lot more simpler for me, as whenever I encounter a customer who does not have OpenOffice or StarOffice installed (or cannot install it for some political reason) on their desktops; I just run Portable OpenOffice from my USB Drive and launch launch my sweet little OpenOffice. and HEY !!! we now we are inter-operable !!!
The SourceForge project page for Portable OpenOffice is located at portableOO
Can life get any sweeter than this