   How To: Multi User Star Office

   This is much easier than fiddling around with the Pre and Post Login Rexx
   scripts.

   The following is a simple batch file called SOff52N.exe.cmd that starts
   Star Office 5.2 (Win32 version) for User nicki

   chcp 850
   copy K:\users\nicki\soffice.ini E:\Office52\user\soffice.ini
   set PATH=k:\odin\system32;k:\odin\system;E:\Office52\program;%path%
   set BEGINLIBPATH=k:\odin\system32;
   pe E:\Office52\program\SOFFICE.exe
   copy E:\Office52\user\soffice.ini K:\users\nicki\soffice.ini

   Here is the version for another User. This is called SOff52P.exe.cmd and
   as you can see is not very different from the User nicki version above.

   chcp 850
   copy K:\users\losepete\soffice.ini E:\Office52\user\soffice.ini
   set PATH=k:\odin\system32;k:\odin\system;E:\Office52\program;%path%
   set BEGINLIBPATH=k:\odin\system32;
   pe E:\Office52\program\SOFFICE.exe
   copy E:\Office52\user\soffice.ini K:\users\losepete\soffice.ini

   The object of the exercise in the above files is to copy the current User
   soffice.ini file from the current Users' Home Directory to the Directory
   that Star Office expects to find it's INI file in, overwriting any
   existing soffice.ini file. Star Office then starts with the correct
   settings for the User and when closed writes the Users' soffice.ini file
   to the Users' Home Directory thus saving any changes that the User may
   have made to their settings.

   If I was using the OS/2 version of Star Office 5.1 the batch file would
   not need the Odin related statements and presuming that Star Office has
   entries in Path and LibPath in the config.sys file I would expect the
   batch file to look like this:-

   copy K:\users\losepete\soffice.ini E:\Office51\user\soffice.ini
   SOFFICE.exe
   copy E:\Office51\user\soffice.ini K:\users\losepete\soffice.ini
   Well that has simplified things a little.
   Now it becomes very clear that the first line is used to copy the User
   soffice.ini file and overwrite any existing soffice.ini file in the
   destination directory  E:\Office51\user\.
   The next line starts Star Office - with the Users' own soffice.ini file.
   The last line is used to copy the soffice.ini file to the Users' Home
   Directory - this happens after Star Office has closed so any changes made
   are saved.

   The only bits that need changing are the Drive:\Directories involved and
   the User name. I'm fairly sure that most people will see and understand
   how to implement this on their own system if they wish.

   There are probably a few applications that can be made "Multi User" using
   this technique.
   Please feel free to use, adapt, modify these batch files to your own
   needs.
   Please post results, especially successful ones, of trying to make other
   applications "Multi User" using these, or similar, batch files.

   I do not know how Sun would react to this I must admit. Sun supplies Star
   Office as a "Single User" application for Windows and OS/2 but "Multi
   User" for Linux so I don't think they would get uptight about anyone
   converting the "Single User" versions into "Multi User". Lets face it, No
   matter how many Users you have only ONE gets to play at a time!

   Happy Individual Visual Desktops :-)

   Pete        email: losepete@cwcom.net
