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OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X Goes Final Beta

Posted by pudge on from the like-school-in-the-fall dept.

WizardOfFoo writes "Time to break out the bug hammers, the Final Beta of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X is now ready for testing. It still requires X11 though... I want my Quartz OpenOffice.org..." I tested it, and it works great with Apple's new X11 for Mac OS X.

8 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Well.. by bsharitt · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's techincally usable, but it's not much to look at. The fonts are especially terrible. I guess until a native Mac version(i.e. Aqua, Quartz), I'll stick with AppleWorks and use this to convert those nasty .doc files.

  2. My Review of OOo X11 Beta by pbaker · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sent this as a story submission. Guess WizardOfFoo beat me too it, or perhaps it's just because his was shorter. :-) Anyway here goes my review:

    So OpenOffice.org released the final beta version of OpenOffice.org 1.0.1 X11 for Mac OS X yesterday at MWSF. I'm surprised to have not read about it on any sites yet. I managed to download it pretty quickly off of one of the mirrors (probably because the downloading frenzy hasn't begun yet). My first impression is that it does appear to be very stable, but it's not quite polished enough to replace Office X for the everyday Mac user.

    Yesterday Apple also quietly released a beta version of X11 for Mac OS X which is an optimized version Xfree86's X server that also includes a speedy quartz based window manager. It works much like Orobourosx but much faster thanks to Apple's optimizations. I bring this up because it looks like the new OpenOffice build was unfortunately built before anyone know about Apple's new X11. After installing OpenOffice.org, a nice "Start OpenOffice.org" icon is created in your Applications folder. Double clicking it the first time asks you what program to use as your X11 server. I choose Apple's X11, but after a minute or tool, Console is nice enough to report that soffice.bin has crashed. So no go with a nice double click to start up OOo. I'm sure this will be fixed by the time it is finally released though. Fortunately, I had no problems starting it from within an xterm or adding it to the X11 Applications menu by entering the command "/Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.1/program/soffice "

    On from there it looks to be very stable. The few Word and Excel documents I opened loaded perfectly and printed without a hitch. I didn't have to do anything special to make this happen. Just open and print and done. So the basics are definitely there.

    Printing is a little confusing though from a user feedback standpoint though, as it does not go through Print Center. And it prints so fast through CUPS (on a TiBook 667) that I wasn't even sure anything had been printed until I went to the other end of the office to check the printer. Maybe if we are lucky it will use Printer Center in the final release.

    My last gripes are that as far as being a Macintosh program it's just not there yet. I don't fault anyone for this as this release based on the X11 version does not attempt to be a full fledged Mac program anyway. No attempt has been made with this version to follow the Aqua Human Interface Guidelines of course. And since it uses X11 instead of Aqua, menu bars are of course within each window instead of in the standard menu bar (as with any X11 program running on Mac OS X). All the shortcut key combinations use Ctrl instead of Cmd. This means that you hit Ctrl+S to save and Ctrl+P to print instead of Cmd+S and Cmd+P respectively. I was also not able to hit some of the key combinations such as Ctrl+F7 to bring up the Thesaurus. These problems should of course be addressed when OpenOffice.org completes their native Aqua port which is currently under development.

    All and all it looks like OpenOffice.org has built a very solid application that anyone coming from Unix/Linux should feel very comfortable using and save them from having to fork over cash to Microsoft in order to edit Word documents on a Mac. For people that are used to the beauty and consistency of Macs and Mac apps, they are probably still better off spending the money to purchase Microsoft Office X if they need to work with these documents everyday. But for anyone that doesn't spend much of their time in a word processor, perhaps less than once a week, this is definitely a great alternative to spending $500.

    1. Re:My Review of OOo X11 Beta by pbaker · · Score: 3, Informative

      Okay looking into this further, it appears that you are in luck. It does not convert your fonts automatically, but the fondu program does indeed work. To get my Apple fonts into OOo all I had to do was open up Terminal and execute these commands:

      cd /Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.1/share/fonts /usr/local/bin/fondu /Library/Fonts/*

      Starting up OOo now has many new fonts and they are even anti-aliased. Very beautiful!

    2. Re:My Review of OOo X11 Beta by pbaker · · Score: 2, Informative
      Okay so I don't know why my last post put both commands on one line. I guess that will teach me to not hit preview before submitting.

      Execute these commands in Terminal:
      cd /Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.1/share/fonts
      /usr/local/bin/fondu /Library/Fonts/*
      If you get an "Can't find an appropriate resource fork in /Library/Fonts/XftCache" warning don't worry about.
  3. Re:Install procedures? by bsharitt · · Score: 4, Informative

    My download didn't install X11

  4. Re:Install procedures? by pbaker · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think the old beta used to include X11, but this new beta does not include it. It did not overwrite my Apple X11 Beta install.

  5. Re:Slightly OT: OS X and X11 by blech · · Score: 2, Informative
    In a way, this is already better integrated than Classic, in that it uses the Aqua look. (Apple could have provided an Aqua theme using the old OS 8 Appearance Manager, but presumably chose not to so as not to reduce the need-to-upgrade factor (as it would inevitably have leaked to Mac OS 9 users)).

    The lack of command-tabbing between applications is listed in the Known Issues of the installer, which could imply that Apple will fix this before the release of a final X11. I quote:

    Known Issues

    X11 window server
    • OpenGL offscreen rendering is not yet supported.
    • XInputExtension is not yet implemented. Maya and some GLUT applications require this extension.
    • Cannot launch OpenGL applications unless the user is root or the current logged in user in Mac OS X.


    quartz-wm window manager

    • X clients do not appear as separate applications, e.g. in the dock and when Command-TAB'ing through applications.
    • When closing an X11 window, if a native window is next in order, it won't be focused, the next X11 window will be.
    • App window placement policy currently piles windows up in the top-left, instead of cascading them.
    • Currently focused window is not checked in the Window menu.
    --
    DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  6. Re:Eventual iOffice, anybody? by macmurph · · Score: 2, Informative
    > Now all they need is a access killer...

    I'm sure you are joking. Apple owns Filemaker Inc.. Filemaker Pro 6 beats the pants off MS Access. Filemaker is the secret weapon of so many companies... MS Access is more the achilles heel of the companies that choose to use it.

    If you need to see the pros and cons of filemaker over Access go here. This document is outdated but there is plenty of material when you search for "filemaker vs access" on google:

    http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:PRK03pY0GFcC: www.filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/fm_access_comparis on.pdf+filemaker+vs+access&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    Also available as PDF:

    http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/fm_access_c omparison.pdf