Portable OpenOffice.org Launcher 1.1.1
======================================
Written by John T. Haller

Website: http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_openoffice/


ABOUT PORTABLE OPENOFFICE.ORG
=============================
The Portable OpenOffice Launcher allows you to run OpenOffice from a removable drive whose letter changes as you move it to another computer.  The program can be entirely self-contained on the drive and then used on any Windows computer.


LICENSE
=======
This code is released under the GPL.  The full code is included with this package as PortableOpenOffice.nsi.


INSTALLATION / DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
==================================
By default, the program expects one of 4 directory structures:

-\ <--- Directory with PortableOpenOffice.exe
  +\openoffice\

OR

-\ <--- Directory with PortableOpenOffice.exe
  +\PortableOpenOffice\
    +\openoffice\

OR

-\ <--- Directory with PortableOpenOffice.exe
  +\PortableApps\
    +\PortableOpenOffice\
      +\openoffice\

OR

-\ <--- Directory with PortableOpenOffice.exe (PortableApps, for instance)
  +\Apps\
    +\PortableOpenOffice\
      +\openoffice\

It can be used in other directory configurations by including the PortableOpenOffice.ini file in the same directory as PortableOpenOffice.exe and configuring it as details in the INI file section below.  The INI file may also be placed in a subdirectory of the directory containing PortableOpenOffice.exe called PortableOpenOffice or 2 directories deep in PortableApps\PortableOpenOffice or Data\PortableOpenOffice.  All paths in the INI should remain relative to the EXE and not the INI.


PORTABLEOPENOFFICE.INI CONFIGURATION
====================================
The Portable OpenOffice Launcher will look for an ini file called PortableOpenOffice.ini within its directory.  If you are happy with the default options, it is not necessary, though.  The INI file is formatted as follows:

[PortableOpenOffice]
OpenOfficeDirectory=openoffice/program
AdditionalParameters=-commandline -parameters
WaitForOpenOffice=false
OpenOfficeExecutable=soffice.exe

The OpenOfficeDirectory entry should be set to the *relative* path to the directory containing the openoffice EXE/DLLs, etc. from the current directory.  It  must be a subdirectory (or multiple subdirectories) of the directory containing PortableOpenOffice.exe.  The default entry is described in the installation section above.

The AdditionalParameters entry allows you to pass additional commandline parameter entries to soffice.exe.  Whatever you enter here will be appended to the call to soffce.exe.

The WaitForOpenOffice entry allows you to set the Portable OpenOffice Launcher to wait for OpenOffice to close before it closes.  This option is mainly of use when PortableOpenOffice.exe is called by another program that awaits it's conclusion to perform a task.

The OpenOfficeExecutable entry allows you to set the Portable OpenOffice Launcher to use an alternate EXE call to launch OpenOffice.  This is helpful if you are using a machine that is set to deny soffice.exe from running.  You'll need to rename the soffice.exe file and then enter the name you gave it on the OpenOfficeExecutable= line of the INI.


PROGRAM HISTORY / ABOUT THE AUTHORS
===================================
This launcher contains elements from multiple sources.  It began as a batch file launcher written by myself (John T. Haller) and posted to the mozillaZine.org thread about running Firefox from a USB key.  tracon later released a launcher called fflaunch which I enhanced and re-released as Portable Firefox.  mai9 later improved on fflaunch's techniques and released it as Free The Fox.  Multiple suggestions back and forth as well as improvements from mai9, myself and others lead to the launcher we have today.  This most recent version adds some of my methods for allowing the code to be run from anywhere on first launch (as opposed to a specific directory), pass in commandline options, run without an ini file.


KNOWN ISSUES
============
On some computers, apparently running Windows XP Home Edition, multiple directories may be created within the userprofile directory on the portable drive in some instances.