Using the K Office Suite 

KOffice, a part of KDE, includes a word processor (KWord), spreadsheet (KSpread), presentation software (KPresenter), drawing tool (KIllustrator) and an application to draw charts/diagrams

(KChart).

To start using KOffice, select Office>KOffice Workspace from the K button. You’ll get the main interface, from where you select the application you wish to use. 

KWord



The look-n-feel of KWord is more or less like MS Word. Apart from the standard menu and toolbars, KWord has an additional Panel on the left that contains two tabs: Parts and Documents. Under Parts are all applications that come with KOffice and Documents has all open documents, making it easy to switch between documents or applications. 

KWord supports most of the commonly used features supported by Word. You can cut-copy-paste text, find and replace words, change font styles, sizes, colors, justify and align text, add bold, italics, underline, subscript and superscript effects. You can add headers/footers in your documents, auto-correct text to sentence case, add variables, such as date, time page numbers and spell check your documents. In spell check, however, incorrectly spelt words are not underlines as they are in Word. 

KSpread



This spreadsheet supports most of the commonly used features in Excel: auto sum, formulae, sorting in ascending-descending order, adjusting the row and column height and width and inserting-deleting rows and columns. You can also insert comments, merge cells, format cells, insert charts and open the calculator. The way to enter formulae in KSpread is the same as in Excel. 

KPresenter



You use KPresenter to create presentations in in KOffice. However, unlike PowerPoint you may take some time getting used to KPresenter. It does not have as many features as PowerPoint. You can add background colors to your slides globally, insert pictures, adjust the speed during a slide show and add effects between two slides. You can also embed objects and add headers, footers and page numbers. 

KIllustrator



KIlustrator is a drawing tool in KOffice, something like Paint in Windows. 

KChart



This is used to create various charts. There are 18 chart types to choose from, which include lines, area, bar, 3Dbar, 3D area, 3Dline and pie. 

Neelima Vaid