OpenOffice Impress

Apache OpenOffice includes everything you need in an office suite, including a word processor, database software, spreadsheet program, and presentation software, all for free. OpenOffice is an open-source software, and with that comes the powerful and creative open-source community. Let’s take a look at OpenOffice Impress, OpenOffice’s presentation creation software.

Impress, which supports all the common presentation file formats, is packed with great features to make your presentations stand out. Impress, like the rest of the OpenOffice suite, is available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Before getting into any specifics, here are some pros and cons of OpenOffice Impress:

Pros

  • It automatically checks your spelling whilst you type.
  • It has an intuitive user interface.
  • It includes a plethora of basic and advanced features.
  • There is a portable version available; therefore, it doesn’t require you to install it on your device.

Cons

  • Even if you only want Impress, you have to download the entire OpenOffice suite.
  • The interface is a little boring, and the program isn’t always the most user-friendly.
  • Its setup file is large, which can mean that it’s slow to download.
  • When installing Impress, other office tools also try to install on your device.
  • You can’t save projects to the PPTX or POTX file formats.

Supported File Formats

OpenOffice supports a variety of file formats. Let’s look at the ones that specifically work with Impress. Impress can open PPTX files, so if OpenOffice has replaced Microsoft Office for you, you’re safe.

Open Formats

For opening files, Impress supports the following formats: PPTM, PPTX, PPT, PPS, POTM, POTX, POT, OTP, ODP, STI, SXI, SXD, UOF, UOP, CGM and ODG.

Save Formats

For saving files, Impress supports the following formats: PPT, POT, OTP, ODP, STI, SXI, SXD, ODG, and UOP; image formats including JPG, SVG, GIF, TIF, RAS, PNG, and BMP; as well as, PDF, HTML and SWF.

You’ll notice that although Impress can open PPTX files, it can’t save projects back to the PPTX format. However, if you need the file to be in PPTX format, you can find a free document converter online to help you.

OpenOffice Impress Description

OpenOffice Impress includes many features to help you create great presentations. Here are some of the included features:

  • When installing Impress, you can choose to install OpenOffice’s other free office programs, including Writer, Base, Calc, Math and Draw.
  • If you want to add functionality to Impress, there are free extensions that you can install. You can also install free templates for slideshows.
  • Impress includes a handy setup wizard to easily guide you through creating a new presentation.
  • You can easily hide slides if you want to keep a slide without displaying it during your presentation.
  • It allows you to modify keyboard shortcuts for different commands.
  • Impress includes a handy menu at the bottom of the interface so you can easily access shapes or other import options.
  • You can change the case of words in batches. For example, you can capitalise the first letter of every word or change all the letters to uppercase or lowercase.
  • It allows you to undo steps up to 100 times.
  • Impress includes Slide Sorter, a feature that makes rearranging slides a breeze.
  • You can easily apply a number of great slide transitions like Wipe Down, Shape Plus and Uncover Left. These can be triggered with a mouse click or after a set amount of time.
  • The interface is easily modified and customised. You can detach, show, or hide toolbars in order to get the best interface for you.
  • Impress includes commonly used formatting options like changing the type, colour, size, and alignment of a font.
  • You can use charts and tables in presentations.
  • With the Rehearse Timings feature, you can work through a slideshow to practice timing and get an idea of how long it will take to go through the slides. The timing will now be as it was recorded for the next time you present the slides with automatic slide changes.
  • Impress allows you to import sound and video files straight onto a slide.
  • You can add notes to slides to read during your presentations.
  • Impress includes a wide variety of animations to make your presentations pop, including animations for emphasis, motion path, entrance, exit, and more.
  • It includes advanced tools like XML Filter Settings and Colour Replacer, which lets you replace up to four colours at a time with a custom tolerance level.
  • Headers and footers showing the date and time, slide number, or custom text can be applied to slides, handouts, and notes.
  • You can use macros.
  • Users can choose from over ten premade layouts to organise their content on slides.
  • You can change the transparency, font, graphics, bullets, font effects, tabs and numbering type, as well as titles, subtitles and background objects with advanced style formatting options.
  • Impress features a huge image gallery that includes many types of easily importable graphics, including bullets, arrows, computer images, rulers, finance pictures and more.
  • You can easily access text properties, styles, animations and the gallery in a handy side menu.
  • It allows users to modify advanced options such as whether the program should use hardware acceleration, the amount of memory that is used for graphics, security settings for macros, custom websites for searches and how often AutoRecovery information is saved.
  • You can create custom slideshows that hide certain slides.
  • A built-in media player supporting video and audio files is also included.

Thoughts on OpenOffice Impress

Impress is a great program for creating presentations, thanks to its robust selection of features. It goes beyond just creating or editing slideshows, as it includes plenty of bells and whistles to aid you in presenting your files.

A great feature is Impress’ portability: if you don’t want to install it on your device, you can keep it in a flash drive. However, it’s a bit annoying that you have to download the entire OpenOffice suite just to get impressed. Even if you only want to use Impress, several hundred megabytes worth of storage will be taken up by the rest of the suite.

If you have a slow connection, downloading the whole suite may take some time. Once you start the installation process, however, you can pick and choose which office tools you like, giving you the option to only add Impress to your device.

Another point in Impress’ favour is its ability to open so many different file types, including the popular POTX, POTM and PPTM file types found in Microsoft PowerPoint.

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