OpenOffice.org 3 - Applying Digital Signatures

PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟OpenOffice.org 3 - Applying Digital Signatures

This section describes how to apply digital signature on documents created with OpenOffice.org 3. On Windows system, OpenOffice 3 uses keys and certificates from Internet Options.

In the previous chapter, we learned what is a PKI digital signature, and how to apply digital signatures in Microsoft Office 2007 tools: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In this chapter, let's look at another popular document authoring tool OpenOffice.org 3.

Here is the help text of OpenOffice.org 3 on Applying Digital Signatures:

1. Getting a Certificate - You can get a certificate from a certification authority, which may be a private company or a governmental institution. Some certification authorities want money for their service, for example when they certify your identity. Other certificates are free of costs, for example those offered by some e-mail providers, which certify your e-mail address. A few of the companies that offer certificates to private persons are listed in the following, in alphabetical order: GlobalSign , Thawte, Verisign.

2. Managing your Certificates - If you are using Microsoft Windows, you can manage your certificates from the Control Panel applet "Internet Options" on the "Contents" tab page. Import your new root certificate into the Trusted Root Certification Authorities list.

3. Signing a document -

Click "File > Digital Signatures" menu.
A message box advises you to save the document. Click Yes to save the file.
After saving, you see the Digital Signatures dialog. Click Add to add a public key to the document.
In the Select Certificate dialog, select your certificate and click OK.
You see again the Digital Signatures dialog, where you can add more certificates if you want. Click OK to add the public key to the saved file.