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name: open-office-skills description: Process Open Office files including Writer (.odt), Calc (.ods), Impress (.odp), and Draw (.odg) documents. Use when working with LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice files, creating, editing, converting, or analyzing Open Office documents. Supports cross-platform operations with Python and LibreOffice.

Open Office Skills

This skill enables processing of Open Office suite files (LibreOffice/Apache OpenOffice) including text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings. It uses Python with the LibreOffice UNO API for cross-platform compatibility.

Quick start

To edit a Writer document:

Copypython scripts/edit_writer.py input.odt --output output.odt --text "Add this text"

Instructions

1. Identify file type: Check the file extension (.odt for Writer, .ods for Calc, .odp for Impress, .odg for Draw)

2. Use appropriate script:

   • For text documents: edit_writer.py
   • For spreadsheets: process_calc.py
   • For presentations: modify_impress.py
   • For drawings: handle_draw.py

3. Handle conversion: Use convert.py to convert between formats or to PDF

4. Validate output: Always verify the generated files open correctly in LibreOffice

Examples

Edit a Writer document

Copypython scripts/edit_writer.py document.odt --replace "old text:new text"

Process a Calc spreadsheet

Copypython scripts/process_calc.py spreadsheet.ods --sum-column A --output results.json

Convert to PDF

Copypython scripts/convert.py presentation.odp --format pdf --output presentation.pdf

Best practices

• Always backup original files before processing
• Test conversions on small files first
• Use absolute paths for file operations
• Handle encoding properly for international text
• Close LibreOffice processes after operations

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• LibreOffice installed (cross-platform)
• Required packages: pip install uno (if using UNO bindings)
• Alternative: Use pyoo or comtypes for Windows, but prioritize UNO for portability

Advanced usage

For complex operations, see reference.md.

Implementation notes

This skill prioritizes portability by using the LibreOffice UNO API, which works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. For Windows-specific operations, it falls back to COM interfaces if needed, but the primary implementation is cross-platform.