Notes re Open office & Linux/Win data

[Mark Jarvis]

1) I switch between Linux and Windows (XP).

2) I use Open Office in both.

3) I need my data available to both.

4) I use flash drives extensively.

I've found out (the hard way) that while OO-Win has access to any and 
all fonts installed in Windows, OO-Linux has its own set of fonts with 
many of the common and popular fonts simply not available. The default 
substitutions for common Windows mono-spaced (Courier New) and serif 
(Times New Roman) fonts aren't too bad. The default substitution for the 
sans serif font I used to use heavily (Arial), however, stunk. It really 
messed up page and slide layout when I created something in OO-Win, then 
brought it up in OO-Linux. Two other fonts, Bitstream Vera Sans and 
Tahoma, however, are available in both and work quite nicely.

I keep my data in a fat32/vfat partition that is accessible to all OS 
installations. I've found that adding ",umask=0,users" to the options in 
the applicable line in /etc/fstab makes it writable by any user (not 
just root) and any user can mount or unmount it. This also works for the 
flash drives, since they also are formatted fat32/vfat. I don't know why 
the "umask=0" option isn't default. BTW, some distros insist on 
re-writing /etc/fstab on boot, dumping any special fixes you--the 
owner--may have added. Usually giving it "400" permissions stops that, 
but not always.

Just a couple of tips that might help someone.

-mj-