StarOffice 8 & Sun Weblog Publisher
Way back in January, the 20 th of 2007 to be exact, I published “ The Biggest Kid in School aka Big Companies on my blog. http://shawnwheeler.blogspot.com This past May, I received an email from Danny Begonia from LPP.com asking if I would be interested in trying StarOffice 8.0 and the new Sun Weblog Publisher. After I recovered from the initial shock of learning someone actually reads my blog, I said sure.
Today is Saturday, August 11, 2007. School starts Monday and I am hiding out in my air conditioned home office. A must have (air conditioning that is) when you live in Phoenix. Today is the day I test StarOffice 8.0 with the Weblog Publisher add on.
Conditions: I am working on a Virtual PC running Windows XP with 350 megabytes of RAM allocated to the virtual machine.
Software: Windows XP, Sun StarOffice 8.0 with the Weblog Publisher Plugin.
As much as I would love to give you a full evaluation of StarOffice 8.0 today, time just doesn't permit that. Therefore, I am going to concentrate on what I was asked, evaluate blog Publishing with Sun Weblog Publisher.
Starting at the beginning I installed StarOffice 8.0 from the CD supplied by Danny. Next I downloaded the Sun Weblog Publisher from my e-mail. (This too was supplied by Danny.) This is where I hit my first challenge as there was a slight difference between the supplied installation instructions and how it really works. Have no fear, I will share with you what I have learned.
To install Sun Weblog Publisher for StarOffice 8.0 follow these steps:
Install StarOffice
Launch StarOffice Writer
Click the Tools Menu
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihtVj1oYuV_U8ThUezC9f26M46gUPlJVqYoxZu4BohnFRSHmuANZNolzUA3541uuBjgQ58aIvzDKmlPLxnSGa0IG3muw256j1hy86rMsTqqqO5n4tyYQVdlomxyPAUuuWhG1Px/s320/htmlexport_htm_mdadf11c.jpg",<br /> "mainSrc": "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihtVj1oYuV_U8ThUezC9f26M46gUPlJVqYoxZu4BohnFRSHmuANZNolzUA3541uuBjgQ58aIvzDKmlPLxnSGa0IG3muw256j1hy86rMsTqqqO5n4tyYQVdlomxyPAUuuWhG1Px/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_mdadf11c.jpg"<br /> <br /> , "photoId": '5097574020970069570'<br /> <br /> }<br /> <br /> setHiddenImageIDField('5097574020970069570');<br /> <br /> i++;<br /> <br /><br /> //--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif)
Select Package Manager (Note: This deviates from the instructions.)
Click the Add button.
Locate and select Sun Weblog Publisher package file.
Click the Open button.
The package will install.
Close the package manager window.
Close StarOffice 8.0.
Re-launch StarOffice 8.0, notice the Weblog tool bar on the screen and in the menu bar.
Your are done. Almost.
Before you can publish your blog post, you must setup StarOffice 8.0 with your Blog software. To do this...
Click the Weblog menu and select Settings.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo6W9PTzNMdGGP8MrauriLSu5Y7DhHekaJpj9KgKdt94uZOo0fJehViugyDrrQe9xS2uFgpxn4umZK-FLjZ_JI_QGPoAdhyphenhyphenN9StdtSAwmhnDqTI_1D_RIRmfNA6SiOTurkVDmC/s320/htmlexport_htm_6eab562f.jpg",<br /> "mainSrc": "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo6W9PTzNMdGGP8MrauriLSu5Y7DhHekaJpj9KgKdt94uZOo0fJehViugyDrrQe9xS2uFgpxn4umZK-FLjZ_JI_QGPoAdhyphenhyphenN9StdtSAwmhnDqTI_1D_RIRmfNA6SiOTurkVDmC/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_6eab562f.jpg"<br /> <br /> , "photoId": '5097574029560004178'<br /> <br /> }<br /> <br /> setHiddenImageIDField('5097574029560004178');<br /> <br /> i++;<br /> <br /><br /> //--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif)
In the Weblog Setting dialog box, click the Add... button.
Choose the type of blogging software you use in the Type drop box
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhts_T_d4dOtNbCQm4NZnhMA3RiYEP6z0PCeJ7Jf6VZQ5hc1yLgWmAj7HhrfRE5tAdCPWYlwgtd-18oQxqHJFXQdw9swHTQGecJ8MCCLTx3zlvoKiUUpPfAK2ISySGjY1hVaM4w/s320/htmlexport_htm_m46b70b9c.jpg",<br /> "mainSrc": "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhts_T_d4dOtNbCQm4NZnhMA3RiYEP6z0PCeJ7Jf6VZQ5hc1yLgWmAj7HhrfRE5tAdCPWYlwgtd-18oQxqHJFXQdw9swHTQGecJ8MCCLTx3zlvoKiUUpPfAK2ISySGjY1hVaM4w/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_m46b70b9c.jpg"<br /> <br /> , "photoId": '5097574051034840674'<br /> <br /> }<br /> <br /> setHiddenImageIDField('5097574051034840674');<br /> <br /> i++;<br /> <br /><br /> //--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif)
Type your user name and password in the appropriate fields and click Ok.
You will soon see your weblog(s) available to you.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0hTzOKJwZJdrXV_rOKxdDd7U7CS9zZoffzllTmvhijdyH3Ms1ft_9pmTJcD6NOkMK1x-4QhEUt4Qy2eYnkMaY8efYRjWbyqq5ibRc_W8U_D25pA4SnSbfxgNB3eWTBdoIwKW-/s320/htmlexport_htm_5ed0ab0b.jpg",<br /> "mainSrc": "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0hTzOKJwZJdrXV_rOKxdDd7U7CS9zZoffzllTmvhijdyH3Ms1ft_9pmTJcD6NOkMK1x-4QhEUt4Qy2eYnkMaY8efYRjWbyqq5ibRc_W8U_D25pA4SnSbfxgNB3eWTBdoIwKW-/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_5ed0ab0b.jpg"<br /> <br /> , "photoId": '5097574059624775282'<br /> <br /> }<br /> <br /> setHiddenImageIDField('5097574059624775282');<br /> <br /> i++;<br /> <br /><br /> //--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif)
Click the Ok button.You are set.
At this point, you are ready to create your blog post and publish. In a nutshell, all you need to do is click Send to Weblog under the Weblog menu and wait.
What did I like about the Sun Weblog Publisher?
It is just easy to use. I set my formatting the way I wanted in StarOffice Writer 8.0 and published. The formatting came across in the blog along with my hyperlinks. That doesn't always happen when I paste my entries in using the blogger.com interface.
What didn't I like about the Sun Weblog Publisher?
Really I have only two complaints about this product and the first is so minor it is not hardly worth mentioning. However, I did say I would evaluate this product.
The directions for installation were not clear. They were close enough that I was successful with a bit of hunting but that could be a frustration for some. The second thing that bothered me is the fact my images didn't publish. In reality, I published this post twice. The first time to see the process so I could write about it. The second time was the finished product. What I discovered is my images, which were screen captures, didn't upload. That is some what frustrating considering the image on the Sun Web site shows a person publishing a picture to their blog. (See image below. :) )
If my opinion mattered... I would like to see this product give the option of adding Technorati tags to the post as part of the publishing process.
Overall rating, you can spend $10.00 in far worse ways. If you are a blogger and you are using Staroffice 8.0 you will find Sun Weblog Publisher worth the investment.
Digg/shawnwheeler
Flickr/shawnwheeler
Linkedin/shawnwheeler
YouTube/ShawnErikWheeler
Del.icio.us/shawnwheeler
Wikipedia/shawn_erik_wheeler
GMail/Shawn Wheeler
Technorati/shawnwheeler
Blog/Shawn Wheeler
My Website/Shawn Wheeler