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OpenOffice.org Team Releases Version 1.0

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hey-641-still-works-great dept.

DenialS writes: "Congratulations to the OpenOffice.org team! Version 1.0 of the open office suite has been released. I'm downloading it now; I've had good luck with the previous stable builds. Release notes haven't been posted yet, so I can't say what the major differences are between 1.0 and the previous stable build, 641d, but I'm looking forware to finding out!"

147 of 427 comments (clear)

  1. I showed my windozw friends... by PhilJackson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I showed my windozw friends open office (they all use MS office) and they where well impressed, so much so that one of them is using it on doze now. Congrats to the OpenOffice team!

    1. Re:I showed my windozw friends... by Chemicalscum · · Score: 5, Informative
      Many of the hackers that developed this program were paid. First in its proprietary phase as StarOffice originally developed by Star AG. Sun Microsystems took over the company - they gave the office suite away free (as in beer not as in freedom) to bug M$ while still using only their paid programmers to develop it. Sun took the decision to release it as a free (free as in freedom) open source project a year or two ago.

      There are I believe paid Sun hackers still working as the core team of the project and there are also Boeing (as in big things with wings) hackers whose programming time for the project has been donated by the company. There are I believe a large number of volunteer hackers working on the project but they are all gaining marketable skills, CV entries and maybe just having fun. Everyone gains (including Sun in its object of reducing M$ control on the desktop). As an oo user I would like to thank all who contributed to its development.

    2. Re:I showed my windozw friends... by Peyna · · Score: 2

      Doctors provide free services here in the US at a number of free clinics all over the place. I'm not sure what the prereqs are to visit one, but it's worth noting.

      Industry benefits a lot more from research than researchers, I'll give you that. I wonder if the post you replied to would be all for patenting an aids vaccine or something and making a crapload of money off of it rather than giving away 'the source' for free? After all, if you give it away for free, some big drug companies will pick it up and market it and make craploads of money off of it. A whole lot more than you ever will.

      --
      What?
    3. Re:I showed my windozw friends... by spitzak · · Score: 2

      Open source software is vital for my job and I am fighting for it's success for very selfish reasons.

    4. Re:I showed my windozw friends... by EvilAlien · · Score: 2

      Connector doesn't work with Exchange 5.5... yet =) I'm familiar with the product, and have affored to help the IT monkeys test it, but they are still on 5.5.

      --
      perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  2. Great news by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I have a lot of Excel spreadsheets[1] but upgrading the format every time M$ decides to release a new version is the pits. Every one of our users needs to spend about a week every 18 months tweaking spreadsheets. The existence of a standard, open format for this kind of data/calculation is a godsend.

    [1]For high-accuracy nuclear bomb simulations, particle interactions, that sort of thing.

    1. Re:Great news by moonbender · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was just about to make fun of you for taking 18 months tweaking spreadsheets when there's a new Office around, when I read your [1]. *gulp* You use MS Office for "high-accuracy nuclear bomb simulations"? Take your time!

      --
      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    2. Re:Great news by mcwop · · Score: 2

      I agree and wish this were a part of a Microsoft settlement (open file standards for spreadsheets etc...MSFT can make em put they have to be open and usable by other productivity suites).

      --

      "I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX

    3. Re:Great news by delta407 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The existence of a standard, open format for this kind of data/calculation is a godsend.

      Yes, something that is easily accessible from virtually any programming language on any platform. Something that can be easily implemented, assuming no pre-existing implementation exists. Such a standard would be great for shuffling data between disparate and otherwise incompatible programs.

      Wait a minute... it's called CSV :-)

    4. Re:Great news by Buck2 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Isn't it cool how well Excel parallelizes to take advantage of supercomputer type architectures? I find it amazingly easy to do all of my simulations, from whole-cell modelling to nuclear explosions on foreign planets, on my Beowulf with WINE and Office XP.

      --

      As my father lik@(munch munch)... ....
    5. Re:Great news by k98sven · · Score: 3, Funny

      For high-accuracy nuclear bomb simulations, particle interactions, that sort of thing.

      Whoever sold Excel to you may have violated the M$ EULA...
      You specifically agree not to export or re-export the SOFTWARE PRODUCT:
      (...)
      (ii) to any end-user who you know or have reason to know will utilize the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or portion thereof in the design, development or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons

    6. Re:Great news by AntiNorm · · Score: 2

      I have a lot of Excel spreadsheets[1] but upgrading the format every time M$ decides to release a new version is the pits.

      Don't use M$ Office then. OpenOffice, WordPerfect Office, etc. have spreadsheet programs that are just as good as Excel. And they don't change their file formats anywhere near as often as M$ likes to.

      --

      I pledge allegiance to the flag...
      of the Corporate States of America...
  3. Re:Is there any way to access Old ms Office files by caolan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Star/OpenOffice opens office 95 documents.

    --
    I sometimes write stuff
  4. Good Stuff by Alien54 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I routinely use this. Often I will have someone ask me if I have a copy of Office I can load on their system. I'll give them this instead.

    It avoids the piracy issue, promotes open source, and avoids another Microsoft Tax.

    Winners all around

    Just need to go through the application and set the defaults from Metric to English, changed the default fonts to arial and times roman instead of the default Thorndale, etc. just for document compatibility. Also set the document save default to MS , since most folks will get caught by surprise otherwise first time they try to share a doc.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
    1. Re:Good Stuff by Vryl · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Here is a good question:

      Is there a converter/plugin for Word (latest versions also) that goes the other way?? ie, Save em in the nice xml star/openoffice format, and when folks say they can't open em, post em the filter.

      Subvert the dominant paradigm and all that guff.

    2. Re:Good Stuff by big_groo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm sure if you ask Microsoft nicely, they'll include it in their next SP for Office.

      Or...maybe not.

    3. Re:Good Stuff by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      That would be a great program for someone to write. the Open-office fixer for US residents. a seperate app that does all that.... OR the OO team can make a configuration available for the US.

      I have given out almost a hundred copies of the stable beta... I guess it's time to start making CD's for the next round of installs.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    4. Re:Good Stuff by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 2
      One of my faorite Dave Barry lines:
      Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.
      --

      This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

    5. Re:Good Stuff by sphealey · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Is there a converter/plugin for Word (latest versions also) that goes the other way?? ie, Save em in the nice xml star/openoffice format, and when folks say they can't open em, post em the filter.
      Too young to remember the word processor wars? When WordPerfect was king [1], WP had import routines that would read other word processors' formats exactly, but export routines that would only write to, say, MS-Word format with 90% accuracy. At that time MS-Word had export routines that would write to WP format exactly.

      Fast forward 5 years. MS-Word has dethroned the King and reigns as Usurper. Now Word will only write to WP format with 90% accuracy, while suddenly WP can write to MS-Word format 100%.

      And if you think about it, that is the only way it can work in a competitive environment, particularly with publicly-held companies. There is negative incentive for the leader to be able to write to the challengers' formats.

      Now, we could talk about an entirely open standard for document formatting... Oops, we already have SGML and TeX. Oh well...

      sPh

      [1]This argument extends back to PFS:Write and Electric Pencil as well of course.

    6. Re:Good Stuff by Vryl · · Score: 2

      It's arguable that things like the Star/Openoffice file format are 'standards'. That is, they are self describing documents, based on XML, that a variaty of tools can process.

      In theory, it should be poss to do transforms between xml formats ...

    7. Re:Good Stuff by psocccer · · Score: 2

      Kind of funny you mention the whole document compatability thing, because my friend just ran into an interesting problem the other day. He has MS Works at home, because he didn't want to buy office, the PC came with works, and he didn't want to "borrow" a copy. Works was good enough, and he'd been using it for a long time and had a lot of documents in wps format.

      He wanted to bring a document to the office so he could work on it, and we run MS Office 97. You'd expect similar applications to read each other's formats within the same vendor, so it seemed like a good idea. Except Word97 can't read MS Works files, even though MS Works can read MS Word files. Doesn't make any sense to me.

      So instead, he was playing around in Linux since we just installed it for him, and he was looking at the office apps. He opened KWord and thought "I wonder if I could open those Works documents" and gave it a try. Worked great. Then I told him about OpenOffice and he's been using that instead, the special 6.0 version that comes w/ Mandrake.

      So now, instead of using MS Office for anything anymore, he just uses OpenOffice because for him it's been more compatible with documents than MS Office!

      --
      Free Online Woodworking Resources Directory
    8. Re:Good Stuff by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 2
      I knew they were close, yes. Seems like the chief reason the cops like nine's, as opposed to say a .45, is that they can cram all those smaller rounds into the thing.

      I wouldn't lean too hard on the egalitarian aspect of things, though, not unless you know a good source of 9 x 11-1/2" typing paper, 1-1/2 x 5" lumber, or even double-wide TP. We have standards too, but they tend to be mandated by industry for their convenience rather than by government.

      That decimal currency thing seems to have caught on nicely, though.

      --

      This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

    9. Re:Good Stuff by sphealey · · Score: 3, Informative
      He wanted to bring a document to the office so he could work on it, and we run MS Office 97. You'd expect similar applications to read each other's formats within the same vendor, so it seemed like a good idea. Except Word97 can't read MS Works files, even though MS Works can read MS Word files. Doesn't make any sense to me.
      The MS-Works import/export converter is not installed by default with Office 97. You have to rerun setup, drill down on "Converters", and select the ones you want. Works is in there.

      When you do so it will ask you for the original Office 97 CD (which must be exactly the same version). Since you have touched the original CD, don't forget to reinstall all Office and operating system service packs in the correct order when you are done.

      Now the fun part is figuring out how to rerun Setup if you didn't install the Office tool bar, since the tool bar is the only organic location to start Setup, and you need to run Setup to install the tool bar :-).

      sPh

    10. Re:Good Stuff by FattMattP · · Score: 2

      For 85-90% of the documents out there, RTF format will work just fine.

      --
      Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
    11. Re:Good Stuff by bdeclerc · · Score: 2, Informative
      the tool bar is the only organic location to start Setup, and you need to run Setup to install the tool bar :-).

      Start-Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - MS Office97

      This doesn't directly uninstall Office, but runs the Setup tool.

      Obvious, isn't it ;-/
    12. Re:Good Stuff by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 2

      Oh, I'm not missing it all. I was just pointing out to the parent poster that ~metric doesn't mean arbitrary sizes available at whim, that we here in the States have standard sizes as well, logical or otherwise. Yes, the ISO sizes do make a great deal of sense.

      --

      This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

    13. Re:Good Stuff by FattMattP · · Score: 2

      Yes, but that has nothing to do with the question that I was answering. Thanks for playing.

      --
      Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
  5. Bunch of links by ChrisRijk · · Score: 5, Informative

    download

    Screen shots

    List of changes

    Marketing flyer

    From Q&A section:
    Q. Is OpenOffice.org 1.0 100% Microsoft Office file compatible?
    A. As Microsoft rarely publish their file specifications, no-one can answer that question. However, there are plenty of users who regularly edit and exchange documents, spreadsheets, etc with Microsoft Office users without any problems. Indeed, some users claim they've seen bigger compatibility problems moving between versions of Microsoft's own products.

    Q. I've just saved a file from Microsoft Office in OpenOffice.org format, and it's much smaller - yet it hasn't lost anything?
    A. Good, isn't it?

    Q. Has this suite got that annoying paperclip?
    A. No. Never has, never will. No. No!

    Testimonials

    Timeline

    Credits

    1. Re:Bunch of links by cowbutt · · Score: 5, Informative
      Here is a question. What is the difference between the sover and the installer besides 50 meg?

      As far as I can see as an OOo outsider, the solver is the object files (+ source?) so that if you're hacking on one specific part of OOo, you can compile, link and test without having to recompile the whole suite overnight.

      If all you want to do is play with the "finished product", just grab the installer.

      --

    2. Re:Bunch of links by 4of12 · · Score: 2

      Indeed, some users claim they've seen bigger compatibility problems moving between versions of Microsoft's own products.

      Considering the hassles users experience thrashing between versions of Word (and exchanging Word documents between platforms), that's not exactly a ringingly strict infimum of compatility.

      But hey, it's probably a whole better than catdoc, so I won't complain too loudly.

      --
      "Provided by the management for your protection."
  6. Does it support printers now? by ringbarer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not wishing to be flamebaitey, but can Open Office print under Linux yet? I remember when the Star / Open split happened, Sun kept hold of a lot of the proprietory printer code.

    If so, what printing systems does it support? CUPS?

    --
    "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
    1. Re:Does it support printers now? by nedrichards · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes it can. Check out the timeline in the comment above. This happened last year. It uses it's own printing system AFAIK.

      --
      http://www.nedrichards.com
    2. Re:Does it support printers now? by vondo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, it prints. I think it just uses printcap, so in cupsd.conf put this line:

      Printcap /etc/printcap

      if your /etc/printcap doesn't match the printers you have through your CUPS server. (Different versions of CUPS shipped with different defaults, IIRC.)

    3. Re:Does it support printers now? by pmz · · Score: 2

      Does Open Office not even print to PostScript?

      If it does, then you should have no problem. RedHat has a very easy default ghostscript setup. Other popular systems should have something similar, or you can just roll your own ghostscript command line. Or you can buy a PostScript printer; they are pretty inexpensive now-a-days.

      With ghostscript you can also print PostScript on Windows, so you can keep a consistent system going across platforms.

      --
      Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
    4. Re:Does it support printers now? by djoham · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes it does, it even supports the KDE print system if you're creative...

      I've created a printer who's print command is "kprinter" (if memory serves). Whenever I hit "print" it pops up the nice KDE print dialog with all of the neat features it offers.

      Best regards,

      David

    5. Re:Does it support printers now? by laserjet · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes. If you are us9ing linux, check out the install guide that is linked to on the download page. It shows you how to install is (easy) and then shows you what to do to setup your printer.

      so far it has been printing great. I even used it tp type up a 10 page report yesterday for school, and I was very impressed.

      --
      Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
  7. Re:Slashdotted already. Mirrors anyone? by u01000101 · · Score: 5, Informative

    A working mirror - well, *still* working: planetmirror

    --
    if you use a good enough junk-filter, slashdot.org will display a single, *blank*, page
  8. Mirrors by flipflapflopflup · · Score: 5, Informative

    here

    and

    here

    Here's some characters to get past the filter. And some more. And some more.

    1. Re:Mirrors by u01000101 · · Score: 2

      And here

      --
      if you use a good enough junk-filter, slashdot.org will display a single, *blank*, page
  9. List of mirrors! by moonbender · · Score: 2, Informative

    Check this Google cache of the Open Office Mirrors Project website. Not as convenient as the direct download links from the fontpage, but definitely a start.

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  10. Mac OS X by Lomby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now the only thing missing to the office suit domination is the Mac release.
    I can't wait to see it.
    I use Mac/Win/Linux machines and a real cross platform office suite would be a great improvement!

    1. Re:Mac OS X by Thunderbear · · Score: 4, Informative

      Since apparently the porting process was halted by a deficiency in the Apple version of gcc 2.95, this may take quite a while yet.

      I tried compiling gcc 3.0.4 the other day, and it doesn't. All in all, a large amount of patience is appropriate for Mac platforms.

      --

      --
      Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen "...and...Tubular Bells!"
    2. Re:Mac OS X by kollivier · · Score: 2, Informative

      Apple has already released a beta of their new developer tools, which includes gcc3.1. Maybe it's time to try compiling again, against the 1.0 branch? =)

  11. Re:Slashdotted already. Mirrors anyone? by moonbender · · Score: 2, Informative

    As posted below, there's also a Google cache of the Open Office mirror list. PlanetMirror is painfully slow, at least for me.

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    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  12. Re:Its *not* written in java. by Vern196 · · Score: 2, Funny

    It just seems that way because it's so slow

  13. Re:Is there any way to access Old ms Office files by mpe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Does any one know of a way to convert office 95 files into something that could be used by either star office or open office.

    Have you tried just opening them?

    does any one know of anything which would fit my requirments ? I looked at open office before and I do not think it does

    In what way does it not?

  14. DAMN! Never submitted... by Havokmon · · Score: 4, Informative
    I never got around to submitting my Terminal Server bug...

    Log in on Terminal Server, and let the 'quickstart' come up (the butterfly by the clock).
    Log in ANOTHER Session (with the first one still up), and you will not be able to start OpenOffice in that session. Every OO componant you start will appear in the first session. Not being very useful if you left a session open at work, and are logging in at home.

    But hey, it's free, and it works!! So I'll just kill the first session, because I'm administrator. :) (but that should be verified because end-users wouldn't be able to do anything about it.)

    --
    "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
    1. Re:DAMN! Never submitted... by Havokmon · · Score: 2
      If terminal server actually worked, someone might give a damn.....

      It's works just fine, just treat it like the workstation it is.

      Actually I have one at a customers site that's also a PDC. And after working with NT, I'll gladly pay for Netware.

      --
      "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
    2. Re:DAMN! Never submitted... by Havokmon · · Score: 2
      Kind of a shame as this could prevent OOo from being a viable replacement to MSO for some people.

      Bummer. At least the bug has been reported.
      Basically all thin-client companies are out, why have two different word processors?

      --
      "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
  15. Re:Slashdotted already. Mirrors anyone? by nedrichards · · Score: 4, Informative

    google directory of mirrors. theres defianatly some that work there.

    --
    http://www.nedrichards.com
  16. List of mirrors by Riddles · · Score: 3, Informative

    See this list of mirrors. It's the google cache of the original list of mirrors. I'm downloading from the Dutch mirror at the moment.
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:VznF ah_clJsC: whiteboard.openoffice.org/mirrors/+&hl=en

  17. OSX ???? by CDWert · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I looked and connot find OSX support,

    With all the new Apples shipping on OSX wouldnt this be a great product for them ?

    Every person I know that is/has bougth a iMac G4 whatever has also purchased MSOffice X.

    It cant be that hard to port, can it ???

    --
    Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
    1. Re:OSX ???? by David+Kennedy · · Score: 2

      I agree.

      I've a Mac OS X machine being built for me now (can't wait!). For work reasons I'd need some sort of way of producing Word/PowerPoint - just because that's what all corporate offices use. I'd planned on trying OpenOffice - Mac OS X support would be nice.

      However, if it's not there, I'll use Linux instead. *shrug*

    2. Re:OSX ???? by nedrichards · · Score: 3, Informative

      There isn't yet an OSX port. They're working on porting it at the moment. If you can develop on OSX then please give them a hand. It will rock.

      Note that there is a PPC Linux build available at the Yellow Dog Linux site.

      --
      http://www.nedrichards.com
    3. Re:OSX ???? by Nomad7674 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I believe the problem so far is lack of volunteers for a MacOS X port. Sun and the OpenOffice groups both were pleading for developers a few months back, and near as I can tell there were few to no responses.

      This may be a case where we want to just use the Linux port as a basis and use an X11 front-end, the way many are doing so for GIMP.

      Course, we need a lot more coders before we make that happen.

    4. Re:OSX ???? by Linux_ho · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Wouldn't it be nice if Apple pitched in with this? Seeing as how Microsoft threatened Apple with discontinuing Office support for MacOS unless they complied with Microsoft terms... one would think Mr. Jobs would be interested in helping develop OpenOffice on the Mac.

      --
      include $sig;
      1;
    5. Re:OSX ???? by rizzy · · Score: 2, Informative
      >It cant be that hard to port, can it ???

      actually, i guess it is:
      http://porting.openoffice.org/mac
      os x makes a distinction between a shared library and a loadable module ( "plugin" ). It's quite a different platform to target. the open office team would love people familiar with it to help out.

      read the macslash discussion on this topic here

    6. Re:OSX ???? by Dominic_Mazzoni · · Score: 2

      It looks like the few people who are working on the OS X port are definitely looking at that route: there will actually be two OS X ports, one for X Windows and one for Aqua. The X one should be ready far sooner.

      However, there are still very few developers. Unfortunately Mac developers are far too used to developing shareware software, and the Mac community is far too used to paying for it.

    7. Re:OSX ???? by nedron · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are very nice. Frankly, they're much better than the Windows versions.

      But they also cost $460. That's a pretty steep price for someone who may just want a general suite.

      Even AppleWorks (which is very funtional) costs $129.

      --


      * As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
  18. Googlecache here. by haeger · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:W15GmmXoe7sC: whiteboard.openoffice.org/mirrors/+&hl=en

    Or just click here.

    Call it karma whoring if you like, I just think that the more people that use the mirrors and get this great Office app the better.

    .haeger

    --
    You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
    1. Re:Googlecache here. by rbeattie · · Score: 2


      Beautiful! Whore-away, big guy! That link just got me to a mirror close by with 1.0... Nice. I wouldn't have thought of it myself at all.

      Downloading now...

      -Russ

      --
      Me
  19. Working link by noizy · · Score: 2, Informative
    An information that would be even more useful if posted with a

    working link.

  20. Re:Is there any way to access Old ms Office files by moonbender · · Score: 4, Funny

    In what way does it not?

    Note he said he "looked at" OO - that's exactly what he did, he looked at it, saw the price and thought, nah, that can't be good.

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    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  21. It's good by Majix · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is my impressions of 1.0 so far:

    It renders my old MS Word 2000 files correctly, even with some pretty advanced tables and stuff. I'd say the import filters are certainly good enough for 95% of all users out there.

    Load time (measured with clock in hand): 5 seconds (without the program preload and that tray stuff), on my Thunderbird 800Mhz, 256MB machine. It still wants a lot of memory, but otherwise it's in a completely different class than the old Star Offices, performance wise.

    It's free, it's good, it has a quality spell checker, what more could I possibly want? :) (Actually an Access replacement would be nice...)

    GNOME 2.0, KDE 3.0, Mozilla 1.0, Open Office 1.0 (or SO 6.0), it's all coming together nicely IMO. And you can't beat the price.

    1. Re:It's good by Vryl · · Score: 2

      It's free, it's good, it has a quality spell checker, what more could I possibly want? :) (Actually an Access replacement would be nice...)

      Bloody good point. What is the Access replacement of choice lately. And don't say SQL Server!

    2. Re:It's good by mpe · · Score: 2

      What is the Access replacement of choice lately.

      Has anyone developed a file based database whichc an read access files?

      And don't say SQL Server!

      You could get similar functionality from an SQL front end. Again, not sure if anyone has yet written one.

    3. Re:It's good by kmwertma · · Score: 4, Informative

      Check out mdb tools on sourceforge.

      They are reading both access 97 and access 2000 mdb files successfully.

      http://mdbtools.sourceforge.net/

  22. basic scripting by oever · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is even support for Basic in OpenOffice!

    It's pretty good, although the documentation could be better.
    Oh well, just look for examples on the web.

    --
    DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
    1. Re:basic scripting by McFly777 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, but does it fully support VBA Macro Viruses?

      If not, it doesn't truly replicate the "Microsoft Experience."

      (Note to moderators: Laugh, it's funny!)

      --

      McFly777
      - - -
      "What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?" -Marilyn Pittman
    2. Re:basic scripting by Micah · · Score: 2

      It's pretty good, although the documentation could be better.

      Could be better? I've been searching for it, and the ONLY thing I've been able to find in it at all is a blurb in the help about writing a Calc function with the Basic IDE!

      Nothing whatsoever about the language, or what it can do, or the object structure of the documents.

      I'd like to find this stuff out so I can dig into it.

      Anyone know how it compares with Microsoft's VBA? The IDE looks OK on the surface -- it has color syntax highlighting, breakpoints, and watches! But some docs are more than a little necessary.

  23. Dude, OpenOffice Is Smooth (An Impress Review) by BRock97 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Please note, it is first thing here in the central part of the US and my brain doesn't normally work as well. So, read at your own risk...

    Until recently, I had been running Win2k on my Toshiba laptop due to a need for good presentation software (heck, when you work for the US Air Force, it is either Powerpoint or you don't do your job...). Well, the need to do some web/sql development pushed me to put Source Mage Linux on the ol' workhorse. Needless to say, I needed some presenation software.

    Enter OpenOffice. I had looked at Koffice, but I didn't want to run a full blown desktop environment (currently, I am running X 4.2 with E) and the dependencies to get Koffice up were huge. I had read about OpenOffice and was pretty pumped that would be the solution. I had no idea.

    As I said above, Powerpoint was my main concern, but to a lesser extent, Excel since I import a lot of spreadsheet activity into my presentation. So, I get OpenOffice installed and I pull out my last ppt file from a recent meeting and go to work. First thing I noticed is that it takes OpenOffice a while to start. I am not quite sure what to contribute this to, as my system is a Celery 650 with 192 meg of ram. Once it has been loaded, though, it appears to be cached since it starts very fast there after. Next, it loaded my Powerpoint file, something from Powerpoint 2000. It takes a little while, something that doesn't really surprise me since I have quite a few Excel tables imbedded in the show. After about 25 seconds, it is up.

    The first thing I notice about the presentation is that it looks great! In presentation mode, the slides are clear and the text is even anti-aliased. Doing a side by side comparison with my XP machine, I was actually more impressed by the Impress display. Great job there. Next, I went to one of the many Excel objects and double clicked it. Boom, it loaded the Calc object in the presentation and I was able to edit the spreadsheet like Powerpoint/Excel. Too damn impressive.

    What else do I like.... hmmmmm:
    • I like the fact that what ever OpenOffice app you are in, you can open up any document. Very cool
    • My Word documents look as good in OpenOffice. Very nice.
    • The desktop thing is gone. Thank God...
    • I am sure there is more, but I have just started playing...
    If you can, go and help out these people. It is good stuff...
    --

    Bryan R.
    The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
  24. Get yer mirrors right here by jdfox · · Score: 5, Informative

    Courtesy of good ol' Google:

    Sunsite.dk HTTP, Denmark -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Qkaka HTTP, China P.R. -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Utwente HTTP/FTP, Netherlands -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Planet Mirror HTTP, Australia -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    VLSM HTTP/FTP, Indonesia -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    E4A HTTP, Italy -
    English and italian binaries.
    Edumail HTTP, Belgium -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Giganet HTTP, Hungary -
    Mirror with sources, binaries.
    GD TU Wien HTTP/FTP, Austria -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Stud FHT-Esslingen FTP, Germany -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    3Way FTP, Hong Kong, China P.R. -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    RWTH-Aachen FTP, Germany -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files (german, french, english).
    PWR Wroc FTP, Poland -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Sunsite Cnlab-Switch FTP, Switzerland -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files (german, french, english).
    CHG FTP, Russia -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Mirror AC HTTP, United Kingdom -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Unam FTP, Mexico -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files.
    Stardiv FTP, Germany -
    Complete mirror with sources, binaries and contrib files (german, french, english).

    Thanks OpenOffice team!

    1. Re:Get yer mirrors right here by bconway · · Score: 2

      Awesome. For the record, it appears both http://openoffice.e4a.it/1.0.0/ and ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/packag es/OpenOffice/1.0.0/ have it. I pulled it off the former at a decent speed.

      --
      Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
  25. Brainstorm for OpenOffice by mikosullivan · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I had a brainstorm this morning about OpenOffice. I'd be interested to hear what /.er's think.

    The problem:: One of the big complaints about moving to OSS is that people insist that they need to be able to exchange MS Word documents with other people around the country. Now, I hate sending or receiving Word docs when typing the text in the email would work just as well, but some people seem to only communicate by sending Word docs as attachments. Of course, OpenOffice can read from and write to Word format, but natively it writes to its own open format, and its a hassle to constantly save-as just to send a document as an attachment.

    Solution: develop a mail server module that uses OpenOffice. When a mail going out of the network has an OpenOffice word processing document attached, the module automatically creates a version of the document converted to MS Word and adds it as an attachment. Conversely, mail coming into the network automatically converts Word->OpenOffice adds the attachments. By default, documents sent internally in the network (for some flexible definition of "internally") are not converted. A nice added touch would be to allow users to have their own settings on when conversions should be done. They could set users or entire domains who don't get conversions, choose to have documents substituted instead of added, etc.

    --
    Miko O'Sullivan
    1. Re:Brainstorm for OpenOffice by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 2, Informative

      easier.

      Have the installation program ask you what you want as your default save formats.

      if you do not mix with Ofice folk, then you can use OO files, if oyu do, then you can use MS files.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  26. Re:Theme music for sites that are /. by MeNeXT · · Score: 2
    Thanks alot now it's in my head too...

    --
    DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
  27. Re:download install or solver? by caolan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Install file, the solver is a collection of prebuilt object files and similiar development stuff to speed up development, not required (or desirable) for casual user install.

    --
    I sometimes write stuff
  28. SOTO office effect by Gyorg_Lavode · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is it possible that the recent release of SOT or SOTO offfice, the Open Office clone spurred the Open Office group to get it out? When I downloaded SOT office I wondered if Open Office would rush to minimimize the number of people getting hooked on SOT office before they were finished.

    --
    I do security
  29. Excellent! - Hoping for real save as PDF in 1.1 by dara · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've played with OO a bit over several betas and did have stability problems (on both MS and Mandrake 8.1). I'm excited to try 1.0, since I'm very bullish on the format even if the execution hasn't worked perfectly for me so far.

    By far the number one feature I would like to see added is a "save as PDF" which is as efficient as Framemaker. When I try the procedure outlined for windows (download a Postscript driver from Adobe, print to file, and use Ghostscript to convert), I get unbelievably huge files, as opposed to smaller files. It would also be nice to have a PDF target with links which is impossible going through .ps formats I think.

    What is everyone else's number one requested feature?

    Dara (hmmm - have to learn how to start a new thread)

    1. Re:Excellent! - Hoping for real save as PDF in 1.1 by tweek · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://www.lusis.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=N ews&file=article&sid=44

      Here's hoping slashdot doesn't fuck up the link.

      If you're running a linux workstation, it's even easier but if you happen to have a linux firewall or just one on your network, it'll get the job done.

      --
      "Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
    2. Re:Excellent! - Hoping for real save as PDF in 1.1 by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Informative
      By far the number one feature I would like to see added is a "save as PDF" which is as efficient as Framemaker

      check out http://www.pdf995.com.

      This is a free pdf file producer.

      read the docs, requires the Apple Laser II NT printer driver.

      --
      "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
    3. Re:Excellent! - Hoping for real save as PDF in 1.1 by DeeKayWon · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Tektronix Phaser 300i driver for Windows produces nice Postscript output that, when converted using Ghostscript, produces very small PDFs. Using it, I turned a 1800kB Word document (with many diagrams) to a 144kB PDF.

  30. Re:Is there any way to access Old ms Office files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes! Besides the fact that OpenOffice will open MS files, there is an excellent AUTOPILOT function which will batch process all of them and turn them into StarOffice/OpenOffice files. I transferred about 400 old MS Office documents this way in a matter of minutes -- and the documents stayed perfectly formatted. Check it out.

  31. Re:Binary size: Linux vs win32 by mikey504 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A Win32 environment provides a much more limited range of choices with respect to GUI managers, printing solutions, etc. There are services provided by the OS that you can more or less rely on being present and functional- print preview code, windows and buttons, et al. This consistency allows for the dynamic linking of a lot of stuff.

    Flip to Linux-- there is a huge array of choices for window managers, printing, etc. So the developers have to choose between putting out several diffeent dynamically linked versions that use external library code, or one larger statically linked version.

    I believe, in the interst of ease of support, maintnenance, and installation for the newbies, the binary is statically linked. Even if it weren't, there is a lot of code provided at the OS level in Win32 that you can't necessarily rely on in a Unix environment.

    People who want the most efficient use of resources (disk space. et al) always have the option of compiling from source-- at least with Open Office they do.

  32. Thanks! by supabeast! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Along with all the talk of mirrors, performace, bugs, etc., we all need to make sure and thank the following people:

    - StarDivision, for creating StarOffice in the first place.
    - Sun Microsystems, for buying StarDivision and opening the StarOffice source code.
    - Everyone who worked on the development of OpenOffice, coders, testers, web admins, and so on.
    - All the government, business, and educational facilities out there who continue to mirror the files for us all to download!

    These people have done a great job providing the open source community with one of the best apps out there. No matter how much we bitch, moan, and flame, remember that we only care because we love what you do so damned much!

  33. Re:Star or Open? by cowbutt · · Score: 2
    Which is better, StarOffice or OpenOffice?

    Well, as SO6 and OOo are based on SO5.2, both have more features than the only widely available SO release. Further, since SO6 went gold a few weeks back (it must have done, in order for Mandrake purchasers to have something to download!), I would imagine that OOo has more bugfixes than the first release of SO6 when it turns up in a month or so.

    That said, it's entirely possible that Sun's first release of SO6 will have all the fixes found in OOo 1.0.0 (i.e. it'll be SO6-SP1 or something).

    Finally, SO includes a bunch of extras - clipart, fonts, templates and the like.

    --

  34. Is there... by skribe · · Score: 2

    an upgrade route available from SO5.2?

    --
    Blog
  35. damnit!! by gonar · · Score: 2

    I just upgraded to 641d THIS MORNING!!!

    hate when that happens.

    --
    The difference between Theory and Practice is greater in Practice than in Theory.
  36. Pre built Linux boxes with mozilla Open Office by weycrest · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ok I don't know what the hardware requirements are to run OO, but strikes some business types could knock out
    pre installed linux pc's with Open Office already installed on second user equipment for little more than the cost of the Microsoft Office 'tax.' I'm sure stuff like this really sell Linux to joe public now...

  37. Configuration tips: margins by eugene+ts+wong · · Score: 3, Informative

    For some odd reason, in earlier versions we never really had full control over our default margins. One thing that may help a bit is .../spadmin. This will allow you to change your default paper. For some reason it is set to A4 instead of US Letter. I don't live in the US, but still. In the previous stable version, you can now finally have equal margins all the way around.

    I don't know what version 1.0 is like. I hope that what I said helps you guys.

    --
    testing out my trending skills
    1. Re:Configuration tips: margins by lubricated · · Score: 2, Informative

      found this while perusing the openoffice mailing lists, hope it helps. First create a document. Make changes. Then click File - Templates - Save. Save it somewhere. Then click File - Templates - Organizer, find your saved template, you may need to double click on a folder. Right click on your template and click set as default template. Hope this helps, it saved me much time and frustration.

      --
      It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
    2. Re:Configuration tips: margins by pointwood · · Score: 2

      Probably because StarOffice was made in Germany first and in Europe (well at least here in Denmark where I live), we use A4 as the standard document format. I have no idea what size the US Letter format is...just because you Americans use all sorts of wierd formats doesn't mean that the rest of the world have to use them ;) :p

    3. Re:Configuration tips: margins by pointwood · · Score: 2

      If I only knew what a inch was :)

  38. Talk about coincidence... by Quila · · Score: 2, Funny

    I haven't had anything to do with OpenOffice so far. I just now decide for the first time to go there and download it, turns out it's now 1.0 and it's been Slashdotted.

    Thanks to Slashdot for the links.

  39. More mirrors by jdfox · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oops, sorry, there appear to be some broken links on that last mirror list, should've checked them all I guess.
    Here's what looks like a more authoritative list, from Google's cache of the 641d build page:
    Australia FTP/HTTP - http://planetmirror.com/pub/openoffice/
    Austria HTTP - http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/office/openoffice/ (de, fr)
    Austria FTP - ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/office/openoffice/ (de, fr)
    Belgium FTP - ftp://openoffice.vosberg.be (de, nl)
    Belgium HTTP http://www.edumail.be/index.php/static/openoffice (de, nl)
    China P.R. HTTP http://office.qkaka.com/ (All listed localizations)
    Denmark HTTP http://mirrors.sunsite.dk/openoffice/(da)
    Denmark FTP ftp://sunsite.dk/mirrors/openoffice/ (da)
    Finland HTTP http://www.kongogroup.com/openoffice/oo.asp (fi-only?)
    Germany FTP ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/openoffice/ (de)
    Germany HTTP http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/openoffice/ (de)
    Germany FTP ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/packag es/OpenOffice/ (de, fr)
    Germany FTP ftp://openoffice.tu-bs.de/OpenOffice.org/641c/ (de, fr)
    Germany FTP ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/ftp.op enoffice.org/ (de, fr)
    Germany FTP ftp://ftp.stardiv.de/pub/OpenOffice.org/ (de, fr, es, sv, pt, zh-cn, zh-tw)
    Hungary FTP/HTTP http://office.fsf.hu/letoltes.html (hu)
    Iceland FTP ftp://ftp.rhnet.is/pub/OpenOffice
    Iceland HTTP http://ftp.rhnet.is/pub/OpenOffice
    Indonesia HTTP http://sapi.vlsm.org/openoffice/win32split/
    Indon esia FTP ftp://sapi.vlsm.org/openoffice/win32split/
    Italy FTP/HTTP http://openoffice.e4a.it/ (it)
    Mexico FTP ftp://mirrors.unam.mx/pub/OpenOffice/
    Netherlands FTP ftp://borft.student.utwente.nl (nl)
    Netherlands HTTP http://borft.student.utwente.nl/openoffice/ (nl)
    Netherlands HTTP http://niihau.student.utwente.nl/openoffice/ (nl)
    Poland FTP ftp://ftp.openoffice.pl/ (pl; NOTE: please use an FTP client program if your browser doesn't download the files)
    Spain FTP ftp://ftp.cyberfenix.net/pub/openoffice(ca, es)
    Spain HTTP http://ftp.cyberfenix.net (ca, es)
    Spain HTTP http://ftp.rediris.es/ftp/mirror/openoffice.org/ (ca, es)
    Spain FTP ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/openoffice.org (ca, es)
    Sweden FTP http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/Office/OpenOffice.org/ (sv)
    Switzerland FTP ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/OpenOffice/ (de, fr)
    U.K. HTTP http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ny1.mirror.openoffic e.org/
    U.S.A. FTP ftp://ftp.mn-linux.org/linux/openoffice(Linux only)

  40. Re:great, but... by tps12 · · Score: 2

    You should probably install Linux or a BSD on those to make them useful. Some of the lighter weight *nix office apps (tho probably not OO) should run.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  41. Re:Which commercial product is next? by subgeek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    i don't think it is about putting people out of work. i can only speak for myself, but i think it is good that people can code for a living. i don't think open source is going to kill the programming profession.

    your quote doesn't prove that most people who code write commercial software. but it does say that people who write commercial software are included in the largest group of professional coders, the computer and data processing services industry. this could also include tech support, firmware, and companies like SAP that basically write customer specific code for each application. so there is both consumer and corporate level programming in this "largest concentration."

    i think the fuss about MS Office is that it is very expensive ($500.00 to buy it outright - not the upgrade). it is expensive because most people in the business world have to use it. if your software is not compatible, you have deviated from the standard in the business world. demand increases value.

    also, Sun does plan to make money on this. Sun will soon be releasing Star Office 6.0. Star Office will cost money. though there was community input into Open Office, Sun also paid people to work on it. Sun is paying people to write the extra code going into Star Office. this strategy builds community support, gives you a great free alternative, and produces a quality commercial product. it may not be perfect, but it is a fairly elegant compromise of making money and supporting open source and the community in general (even outside open source).

    --
    you probably shouldn't have read this.
  42. my mirror by gimpboy · · Score: 2

    hey.

    i made/in the process of making a mirror here:
    http://sage.che.pitt.edu/linux/sunsite.informatik. rwth-aachen.de/pub/packages/OpenOffice/1.0.0/
    i believe i have the linux files. the sun and windows will be there shortly.

    enjoy

    --
    -- john
  43. wtf? ugly fonts? by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 2
    Ok, no one else seems to be complaining about this, so it must just be me, and my coworker.

    What is the deal with the fonts? They are friggin ugly! I assume it's just my system, but I'm using the default XFree86 fonts. Does it simply look like crap with the default fonts?

    Every other program I have looks just fine, but with OpenOffice all the fonts look terrible, the menus are nearly unreadable.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  44. Convert to RTF by crow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Granted, I'm not a serious user of Word, but in my limited experience, RTF preserves all the formatting for most regular documents, and it works with word processors that don't handle Word files (like AppleWorks on my wife's old iMac).

    I would love to have a filter that watches for Word documents, checks to see if they use any of the weird features that RTF doesn't support, and if not, converts them to RTF.

    (*) RTF: "Rich Text Format"

  45. Re:Star or Open? by subgeek · · Score: 2

    it has the extras your other replies mention, and Star Office can also do database stuff (silimar to MS Access).

    --
    you probably shouldn't have read this.
  46. Available on Kazaa by doublem · · Score: 2

    I'm downloading it now, and as soon as it finishes I'm making it available via Kazaa (The lite version, which is something else I have available for download)

    Windows will be available first, mainly because my work machine runs Windows, and I'll be using it first.

    My default file associations at work and home are to open Word and Excel docs in OpenOffice. I don't even use MS Office unless I need to run some VBA macros embedded in the file.

    This means I can open e-mailed Office files with impunity! Mwhahahaha (And yes, I do know how to tell the difference between real Word files and files with a myfile.doc.exe style filename)

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  47. Here are the MD5sums by pepik_knize · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since I had trouble getting them after downloading, here they are:

    OpenOffice.org MD5sums

    2002-04-30

    24b64e79509f4e6b4e458fe35f82c762 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz
    4e64260ed39c81e895551364e25d3258 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_LinuxIntel_solver.tar.gz
    f29b608ebc5512401f3c315475f4593c 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_Win32Intel_install.zip
    67bf15ac86aaf3a09e334661d4cbe49e 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_SolarisSparc_install.tar.gz
    f5dbcf74a3b025280a2afd3e5913da16 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_source.tar.bz2
    e40dfc192a7b963ea998619425316057 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_source.tar.gz
    6e96524d13a76e612715ab95f9607b68 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_SolarisSparc_solver.tar.gz
    a1b2339eeb66f0cacdbf878464c05628 1.0.0/OOo_1.0.0_Win32Intel_solver.zip

  48. Re:Star or Open? by rutledjw · · Score: 2
    Slap me with a big trout if I'm wrong, bu I thought the "biggie" between Open and StarOffice was the spell checker that was in Star but not Open.

    Has that changed? Did the Open guys come up with a checker? I don't suppose it would be that tough, but it seems like a LOT of grunt work...

    --

    Computer Science is Applied Philosophy
  49. Re:Can I ask your help please? by Peyna · · Score: 2

    Yes.
    Yes.
    It works.
    Yes, it is good, but I'm curious, if he can "get his hands on some MS Office CD's" then he's either paying a crapload so you all can have MS Office, which makes your first statement invalid. Or you will have pirated copies of MS Office, in which case, you might as well use pirated copies of MS Windows as well. You're better off getting legal copies of MS products or sticking with some Linux distro + XFree86 + some office product, which there are plenty out there..

    And who modded this as offtopic? He is making an inquiry to the feasibility of his company making use of an Office product, I think that's related. Silly Moderators.

    --
    What?
  50. How much contribution from outside? by pubjames · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In less than two years, the OpenOffice.org community has grown to more than 10,000 volunteers,

    I would be really interested to know more about this. If anyone from OpenOffice can comment I'd love to hear you.

    How many external contributors actually make significant contributions? How many people (that don't work for Sun) are paid by their employers to contribute to this project? What proportion of new code (or documentation or whatever) comes from non-Sun people?

    I personally believe that Open Source represents a much superior development model to the way Microsoft uses, but I would like to hear how effective it is on this project.

  51. Mail by Peyna · · Score: 2

    At least to me, having a good mail client is an important part of an Office Suite, but OpenOffice 1.0 is lacking. Is there something that I can use instead of MS Office that is pretty powerful? Also, are there any free/open source clients that interact well with Exchange Servers? (required for work). Thanks.

    --
    What?
    1. Re:Mail by vidarh · · Score: 2

      Try Evolution. It works great for mail via the IMAP server in Exchange and handles Outlook meeting invites reasonably well. Ximian in addition has a closed source addon called Ximian Connector which apparently gives you full access to the rest of the Exchange features.

  52. Re:OpenOffice v1 vs. SOT Office 2k by nedrichards · · Score: 2, Informative

    SOT Office is merely a slightly older version of OpenOffice.org. I'm sure that the source updates will be included in the Bundles Of Helpful Fixes soon.

    Get SOT if you want commercial support otherwise OOo will always be more up to date.

    --
    http://www.nedrichards.com
  53. a small step.. by pere · · Score: 2, Insightful

    MS Office almost doubles the price of a low price computer. In any business setting, you have to have it.

    Having an office suite that can read 95 percent of all Word documents is the first small step in overcoming this monopoly, but it is not enough. Even 99 percent compability is not enough. The cost of Office is high, but not so high that you risk having some of your documents destroyed.

    The .doc-monopoly will never be broken by someone making Word-clones that reads the format almost perfect. Sorry....

    Here is the only way to brake the monopoly(that I can think of):
    * Attack the weaknesses of the .doc-format. There are plenty of good reasons for saving your documents in XML-format instead of a proprietary, binary format.
    * Develop 1 - one - XML-based document standard. Here is the most important small step that OO is taking. Now we have to convince AbiWord, KWord ++ to use the same format 100 percent.
    * Start making plugins for Word that reads this format. Plugins that can be installed with one click if somebody recieves a document in XML. And plugins that allows the administrators to decide that this XML-based format should be default instead of .doc.

    Then you can introduce other programs that reads this format perfectly.

  54. Describing OpenOffice by pubjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Open Source community needs to be more aware of the power of the subtle use of language. Simple words can be a very effictive tool in changing the mindsets of Joe Public. Marketeers do it all the time.

    When talking about OpenOffice with Joe Public, be sure to use appropriate descriptive words.

    "I see you're still using traditional software on your computer, Bob. Don't you know that stuff is susceptible to Microsoft Outlook viruses? Have you tried Openoffice? It's free! It's free because it is developed using a leading-edge development method that's superior to the old-fashioned way that Microsoft develops software. Microsoft software is expensive because the conventional methods they use to create it are inefficient. That's why there are so many Microsoft viruses around. There aren't any OpenOffice viruses. Why don't you give it a try?"

    1. Re:Describing OpenOffice by SilentStrike · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know... the geek in me wants all the marketting trash out of the window. The prevelance of viruses in microsoft software is probably due as much to the widespread usage (bigger target), and focus on usability rather than security (easier target) in it's software than in Free Software ("free software is only free if your time has no value"). That said, converting people to free software by spewing half truths just is just something I can't do.. it's like encouraging someone to buy a pentium 4 because it's clockspeed is high, or buy an athlon XP because it's obviously compatible with Microsoft XP, it's as much marketting as it is truth.

    2. Re:Describing OpenOffice by pubjames · · Score: 2

      Did I say anything that wasn't true?

      it's like encouraging someone to buy a pentium 4 because it's clockspeed is high, or buy an athlon XP because it's obviously compatible with Microsoft XP, it's as much marketting as it is truth.

      This is how the IT industry works.

    3. Re:Describing OpenOffice by pubjames · · Score: 2

      yes. you said "That's why there are so many Microsoft viruses around." because of the way office is developed. That is not true.

      Well, I am sure if Microsoft developed their software using the kind of clean room programming that NASA uses, it would have fewer holes to exploit. Therefore, it is not untrue to say that the way MS develops makes it easier to develop viruses for their software. Hell, Bill Gates himself has recently told his developers that they need to pay more attention to security.

  55. "Bugs and Issues" by admiral-v · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was reading the news on the Open Office site, and noticed the "Bugs and Issues" link. I clicked on it, and it gave me the following message: "Error occurred while accessing content."

    I'm still going to grab the new version, but I'm not sure it's a good sign that their bug list has bugs ;)

  56. Text in the default save format by eclectric · · Score: 2

    One thing it desperately needs is to allow an option to store in the default, XML based format, but to also append to the file a clean copy of the text. This is because if you have nothing but a simple text reader at hand, you should be able to look at the document. This was possible in old MS formats and wordperfect formats (provided you don't do things like "track changes"). Granted, I could save everything in text only, but for the most part, I want all of the formatting options. Perhaps a tool could be created to "uncompress" the default format so that you have just the plain XML.

  57. Re:Completing the Linux desktop by platypus · · Score: 2

    Yes, I also suspect (hope), that we all underestimate the importance of Open Office.
    It might be, that in the long term, Open Office might be worse for MS than java (was it bad for MS at all? ... I think so).

    Open Office is _not_ "only" about and office package, it's much more. It has a standardized, documented, cross plattform API (as far as I read) and bindings are beginning to get developed for different languages (I know of a python one). IIRC the name of the API is UNO.

    What does that mean? It means that we (non-MS developers) now finally have a quite good possibility to do something on the server side which was quite difficult/impossible before.
    Think content/document management systems, (MS) office integration for intranet publishing etc.

    If the open source community gets to speed with this and integrates the open office API in products like zope, midgard etc., we will have an enormously strong contender against proprietary systems like SiteServer etc. "Oh, and our doc.management system will automagically convert your clobbert MS-Office documents in a fully open , future proof XML-standard compliant format."

    And this is still an very interesting market ...

  58. mozilla mail by eclectric · · Score: 2

    I think mozilla mail makes a fine email client, and it seems more appropriate to for mail to be linked with your browser rather than your office suite.

    Evolution is great for contact management and calendaring. Unforuntately, i can't test it because they do not make a win32 version.

    1. Re:mozilla mail by Peyna · · Score: 2

      I don't see why it makes more sense to have e-mail linked with your browser. E-mail is a highly used communication device, and especially in a business you are going to use it for sending documents and everything else. For that reason, it should be tied to productivity items, etc. How often do your browser and e-mail client work together? How often do your browser and document editing tools interact? (In fact, with MS Office, word is the default mail editor). I would prefer to see a browser tied up with an office suite instead of my mail tied up with a browser.

      Hmm.. maybe IE should be bundled with Office instead of Windows. Aye, shouldn't start a discussion like that. *ducks*

      --
      What?
  59. It's *still* missing two things by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's still missing an email-program and a calendar.

    Granted, when compared to Outlook, it's only missing one thing, but still ...

    Okay - so I don't need to have those two functions embedded into the office program, but I would rather not be without them, and I'm somewhat sure, that the rest of my office wouldn't either.

    Here's what I need:
    1) A calendar function comparable to Outlook, preferably one that isn't dependant on a specific platform (ie. Windows, Linux, Mac OS et al). This means the ability to include/invite other people in/to meetings and to view other peoples calendars.

    2) An email function comparable to Outlook, again, preferably one that isn't dependant on a specific platform. Support for multiple accounts and Usenet would be a boon.

    No, the programs don't have to be free, neither as in beer or speech, they just need to work, be cheaper than Office and safer with regards to vira etc.

    Preferably the two/three mentioned programs/functions should be integrated into one program.

    Suggestions are more than welcome :-)

    --
    We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
    1. Re:It's *still* missing two things by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 2

      Well, as far as I've been able to find out, they have no intention of porting it to Windows, which makes it pretty much useless for the rest of the company. And no - dropping Windows is impossible, as 90% of our work requires programs that are only available for Windows.

      I'd be willing to pay good money for Ximian Evolution and Connector for Windows, but aparantly that's not an option - God knows for what reason.

      --
      We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
  60. Re:wtf? ugly fonts? by laserjet · · Score: 2

    My fonts look great. maybe you should install some more fonts on your system? I would recommend installing a bunch of truetype fonts.

    --
    Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
  61. mozilla by eclectric · · Score: 2

    mozilla makes a fine mail program that works with pop3 and imap, and I imagine it's only a matter of time for it can talk to http: mail servers and possibly exchange.

    They also have a calendar feature, but it's still in the alpha stages... it can't as yet talk to calendaring servers.

  62. Re:Site is slashdotted by Drachemorder · · Score: 2

    Slashdot has more bandwidth capacity than the sites that get victimized.

  63. Does the install work? by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 2

    I could never get 641d (or c) to work properly on my MDK8.1 system. It always coredumped.

    Is 1.0 more stable than 641d?

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    1. Re:Does the install work? by ainsoph · · Score: 2

      Theres a reason why System administrators will not touch MDK with a 400,000 foot pole.

    2. Re:Does the install work? by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 2

      Yep, that's exactly what happened to me with 641c/d. Install was OK, but you couldn't run as non-root.

      Anybody got a solution for MDK 8.1?

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    3. Re:Does the install work? by kozmonaut · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wellllp

      I run mdk8.1 just installed it fine

      not exactly intuitive though ;)

      tar -xvvzf'd the tar'ball,

      decompressed into a directory named 'install'
      (stupid name, not very original)

      run ./install from install
      run ./setup from install after dat

      setup gives a real nice gui (complete with special effects even_) but never told me what to run after installing the thing.

      the actual binaries get put in user's homedir, a directory called 'OpenOffice.org1.0' by default ugly again. and it's not been entered in my path.

      the executable i ran was called 'soffice' (hmm whered they get that name?)

      oh yeah and it didn't put a menu-entry on my Blackbox or Enlightenment menus :( (did it make one on KDE or Gnome?? I don't know why would i use those???)

      but hey thats a standard linux package for ya.... I like it even...

    4. Re:Does the install work? by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 2

      Oh, now *THAT'S* real intuitive and user friendly!

      I'll try it, but why should a *USER* have to run the setup for OpenOffice? That's what administrators are for!

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    5. Re:Does the install work? by unixmaster · · Score: 2, Informative

      cd ./install ./setup -net Choose folder /opt/office to install log in a normal user /opt/office/setup not choose a folder like ~/openoffice and boom. Someone said installation doesnt work?

      --
      Never learn by your mistakes, if you do you may never dare to try again
  64. I believe there are several such services... by mikosullivan · · Score: 2

    See, for example, TOM Conversion Service seems to get the most linkage.

    --
    Miko O'Sullivan
  65. I hope you are careful by sjbe · · Score: 4, Informative

    You are aware that Excel is notorious for innaccurate calculations right? Some of the functions using the built in math libraries return answers that are wrong. And if you use VB scripting, which uses different libraries, the problem gets compounded to answers that are really wrong. See bugnet for some examples. If you insist on using Excel, use a third party (and adequately tested) math library with it for serious precision math.

    1. Re:I hope you are careful by cowbutt · · Score: 2
      Bleh - looks as though OpenOffice's scalc is similarly flawed.

      --

  66. Re:Maybe the error was not really an error... by ArsonSmith · · Score: 2

    but he clicked on the "bugs and issues"...

    ahh nevermind

    --
    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  67. Re:Binary size: Linux vs win32 by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 2

    Do you know if they're planning to move their widget lib to Qt or GTK?

  68. Aw, man! by Decimal · · Score: 2

    And I just downloaded .641 last night!

    --

    Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
  69. Re:Star or Open? by johnnyb · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, I believe that the "biggie" is that SO comes with a full-featured desktop database package.

    --
    Engineering and the Ultimate
  70. Re:Star or Open? by cowbutt · · Score: 2
    OOo has a spellchecker - MySpell. Extra dictionaries are downloadable from here.

    IIRC, it's been adapted from ispell, the UNIX spellchecker, by Kevin Hendricks. Bravo!

    --

  71. PHP Groupware by Micah · · Score: 2

    Might check into that for calendering. Yeah, it's web based, but that works OK, and as an added bonus you don't need to be on your network to get to it!

    Link

    Mozilla would probably fit the bill for e-mail. And with Mozilla you also go to PHP Groupware. So it's *kind of* integrated. :)

    I don't really see the point in having all that embedded in the office suite anyway.

  72. Re:Binary size: Linux vs win32 by spitzak · · Score: 2
    Actually the "window manager" is not the culprit. A program can rely on the existence of a window manager, and the interface to window managers is standard.

    Probably the code is GUI widgets (although if you are writing portable code you will need to put a lot of stuff on Win32 to get a layer that is reasonable portable) and printer stuff such as fonts that can be asssummed to exist on Windows.

  73. Re:Slashdotted already. Mirrors anyone? by donovansmith · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well, I might as well see if my DSL connection and my new FreeBSD server can handle a real load, so here's a mirror for the Win32 version: ftp://is2.integratasolutions.com/mirror/openoffice . rg/OOo_1.0.0_Win32Intel_install.zip.

    I have a max upstream speed of 384Kbps, so don't expect this to be too fast. And if you do download from this site, thanks for testing out my server for me ;-)

  74. cool, docs!!! by Micah · · Score: 2

    Maybe I spoke too soon! Here's a PDF that seems to document it. At least the API. You're expected to know BASIC, but that can be picked up from the examples, and there are also a lot of samples under OpenOffice.org1.0/share/basic/

    Link to The API Project -- at the bottom of the page is a link to the programmers tutorial PDF and an online reference guide.

    Have fun!

  75. RTF suites me fine by DABANSHEE · · Score: 2

    If everyone just used RTF there would be no problems.

    Afterall 90% of users don't use 90% of the crap that they pad these officesuites with to justify the price.

  76. You mean 'debassed Imperial system' by DABANSHEE · · Score: 2

    Just compare the size of a US pint (about 500mls) with a Brit/Commonwealth pint (about 600mls)

  77. Just save to RTF by DABANSHEE · · Score: 2

    That seems to solve the problem

  78. Install script buggy by richmaine · · Score: 2, Informative

    The install script seems to have gotten added between 641d and 1.0 in the linux version....

    And it's got an incredibly high big density. It must have been tricky fitting that many bugs into such a small script.

    I was glad to see that the install script did a network install by default. With 641d, you just had to be in the know - the -net flag wasn't documented anywhere I could find, but if you didn't use it, you couldn't install on linux (requiring each user to install a personal copy of the whole thing practically counts as not being able to install). But back to 1.0.

    If you just run the install script with no options, it actually does a more-or-less reasonable install, aparently more by accident than design - multiple bugs manage to cancel each other out.

    The script has a strange attempt to override the default installation path on the strange theory that if you failed to specify the path, that must have been an accident, so you must really want it somewhere different; luckily the script fails to do the override correctly, so the default remains in effect.

    You also get a bunch of error messages about symlinks failing because the script used the wrong shell variable in trying to set the symlinks. But since the program can't be run via a symlink anyway, it is probably good that this failed.

    Once you have completed the shared install as root, you are in for another collection of bugs new to 1.0 during the user install. You'll get about a dozen errors from a script error in attempting to make symlinks in your gnome and kde setups. Looks like misguided attempts to use
    blanks in file names (but not managing to quote them as needed to get such names through a shell).

    In the end it worked, but what a sucky collection of install bugs, all new between 641d and 1.0

  79. Re:Is there any way to access Old ms Office files by pdhines · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thank you, Anonymous. Good tip.

    Only last night I was amazed to find that OpenOffice's files are not only smaller that MSWord's, they're smaller than rich text .rtf and even (this stunned me) plain .txt files.

    So I began laboriously saving years of old MSWord verbiage into OpenOffice's space-saving .sxw format. But, having read your post, I just went off and checked AUTOPILOT. Cool! A couple of minutes later a twenty-two file 2.04 MB folder only weighs 516 KB.

    And they Save As back into MSWord just fine. The only functionality I lost was that I could no longer use the Table of Contents to jump to the entry. But simply reinserting the ToC in Word took five seconds. I'm impressed.

    Thanks again, Anonymous. And thank you OpenOffice!