Having already tapped into Easter eggs inside Microsoft’s Word and Works, I’d thought I’d pay homage to the fine work independent developers have done towards spreading Easter cheer. Open Office is one of the most popular open source apps around and makes for a viable free alternative to Microsoft Office. What’s more, I reckon the hidden goodies are better too.
There are two great hidden games inside Open Office 2.0. The first is a classic Space Invaders shooter, which can be accessed by entering “=GAME(“StarWars”) in any cell. You’ll also find a Tic Tac Toe game by typing “=Game(A1:C3;”TicTacToe”)” into cell A4. The game will then be launched in cells A1 to C3.
Another interesting Easter egg in this version of the suite is one that prints the minor build information and credits list in the ‘About OpenOffice.org’ window. To access this you need to select ‘Help, ‘About OpenOffice.org’ then hold down Ctrl+S+D+T. Another inclusion by the application’s sycophantic programmers is a hidden picture of the development team which you’ll find in OpenOffice.Org Writer. Enter “StarWriterTeam” into a Writer document and a picture of the crew will appear.
