[Solved] Download dbase instead of the entire suite?

[americanpasofino]

Is it possible to only download dbase instead of the entire suite?

[MrProgrammer]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Is it possible to only download dbase instead of the entire suite?

First, there is no "dbase". I will guess that you are asking about Base.

Next, let me clarify that Base is not a database. It is a database interface. It's purpose is to connect a database, or something which resembles a database, with the other components in OpenOffice. For example, Base can extract records from a database (or a CSV file) and put them in the fields of a Writer document or a Calc spreadsheet. Therefore it makes little sense to install only Base since there would be nothing for it to interface with.

I do know the installation program for Windows allows one to exclude some components during installation. I use Mac OS X and don't know if only Base can be installed when using Windows; it can't on Mac. But even if it can, there is probably little point to doing so. OpenOffice is an integrated system and many of the features are used in several components. These common features are packaged together and comprise the majority of the code. The components that you see, Writer, Calc, Base, etc. are additional function on top of the common package. Excluding one of them doesn't save you much because the additional pieces are small compared to the common features. The Base component itself is tiny.

Finally, even if you can install only Base, you would lose significant function. For example Base reports are Writer documents. If you didn't have Writer, you couldn't create any reports. I strongly recommend that you install everything, even if you currently don't see a need for it. Otherwise, there may be hidden dependencies which will prevent features from working, and you'll have to redo the installation later. We get questions from people who've installed Writer but not Base, then try to create labels. This fails because label creation requires Base, even though this is not at first obvious, especially to people familiar with the Microsnot products.

Summary: Don't do that. The question suggests that we could help further if we knew what your real goal was.

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