Installation of OOoLatex...
To use the module Equation, a regular LaTeX and Ghostscript distribution should be installed on your system as well as some mathematical truetype fonts if used with the emf format. When used on a Window machine, the minimal Posix system MSys must be install as well.
On the other hand, the module Expand, has no other dependency than mathematical fonts use to expand the mathematical expressions.
The fonts needed by the modules are available from the sourceforge download section, or directly here
To install the extension, you have to choice between user or admin installation. The admin installation has the advantage that only one installation have to be performed for all the users but OpenOffice must be launched with the admin right each time the configuration has to be modified.
Individual users will probably prefer to make a user installation. For the admin install, see bellow.
The extension manager (menu Tools) is the simplest way to install the extension.
Otherwise, it is possible to use the command line program unopkg.
The last way can be useful for a network installation.
Once the extension is installed and a new document open, the OOoLatex Toolbar is available
from the menu View.
The configuration window (toolbar, button Config) has two purposes,
first it can be used to set specific shortcuts to call the module Equation and Expand from
Writer and Impress.
When the shortcut is already used by OpenOffice, the macro indicates if the assignation must be done and saves the old command when the assignation is forced. This means that if you modify the shortcuts assignation, the old OpenOffice assignation will be restored.
The other purpose of the configuration window is to generate the script OOoLatex.sh which is used by the module Equation to generate the images.
To do so, the location of the LaTex and Ghostscript binaries has to be specified in the appropriate fields of the configuration window. The Windows user must also specify the location of the MSys system. Notice that the script is saved at the root of the extension directory in the OpenOffice configuration tree.
At the first run of the script OOoLatex.sh, ie when an equation is generated by the
module Equation, the script generates a system report and save it at the root directory
of the extension.
This report is available in the OOoLatex About window, accessible from the menu Help.
It could be useful for debugging.
During this first run, the script set the execution right to the binary latex2emf.
(If you know how to force the execution of a post install script during the installation of the
extension, you can contact me).
Pressing the button Reset will delete the script OOoLatex.sh and the system report allowing to regenerate the script if for example the location of the external programs changes.
The update of the extension can be done manually after the download of a new release by the extension manager, button Add. On the other hand, the button Updates will check on the web if a new release is available and can download and install it automatically.
The update will replace completely the extension, this means that the script OOoLatex.sh need be regenerated...
For the admin installation, the procedure is the same then for the user installation but the different steps must be done with the admin right. This is true for the installation and the configuration including the generation of the script and the first script run to complete the configuration (chmod on latex2emf).
In case of admin installation, regular users will not be allowed to modify shortcuts nor the external programs location path.
Note that it is possible to predefine the location of the external programs as well as the shortcuts in the file AddonRegistry.xcu located in the extension archive.
Last update : 15/04/2007 [gpiroux]