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Open Office 2.0 Beta Candidate Released

Posted by Zonk on from the that-other-office dept.

JPyObjC Dude writes "The OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta candidate has been released. You can find the feature guide that covers the wide array of improvements over the current 1.1 release. There are a bunch of problematic UI quirks in 1.1 that have been fixed in 2.0." Feature categories include increased interoperability with Microsoft Office, Asian Language Features, Developer-Specific Features, and new Internet based features. Commentary and an interview with Colm Smyth available at NewsForge.com.

10 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WP? by Marthisdil · · Score: 5, Informative

    WriterPerfect filter spec link Writer The WordPerfect import filter is supported. You can now open a WordPerfect document in OpenOffice.org. http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/fileIO/writerpe rfect.sxw Seems so.

  2. Re:OO.o for OS X? by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Informative

    The most native that I have seen is NeoOffice. Native look & feel through carbon and java.

  3. Torrent link here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://borft.student.utwente.nl:6969/ is the tracker

    OOo_2.0bc_Win32Intel_install.zip
    OOo_2.0bc_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz
    these are direct links to the windows and linux installers.

  4. Re:Corel Suite by wes33 · · Score: 5, Informative

    wordperfect import is supported via the libwpd project. This evidently still needs some work (although wpd2sxw does a good job for me). As the OO people acknowledge (in a linked document):

    "the filter needs continuous development to arrest bit-rot, and to improve it's capabilities. Many such developments have already taken place, but are not merged/proposed due to the voracious demands of bureaucratic process, and the commensurate stifling of the will-to-live."

    I know the feeling ...

  5. Re:Corel Suite by arivanov · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, you simply have not run into the other big OO gremlin yet.

    Not a single vector graphics import format works properly.

    The ones that barely work (Autocad for example) lose colors and most of the formatting. So if you want to draw a half decent diagram using DIA and import it into an OO presentation you might as well forget it. Your only chance is to export it as a raster image and import it in OO. The result is horrible by all means. Horrible size, horrible visually, horrible in a print form and horrible to edit.

    And OO 2.0 does not fix a single one of this issues. Instead of that we get visual candy - KDE widget support. Excuse me, but can we actually get the basic functionality fixed first before we get into Clippy land.

    --
    Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
    http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  6. Re:track changes? by ictyl · · Score: 3, Informative

    I would assume that version 2.0 of OO.o will support track changes, since the version 1.1.3 that I am running does... (look in the Edit->Changes submenu)

    It has even worked with the MSWord track changes the few times I have tried it.

  7. Re:Native Widgets! by moonbender · · Score: 4, Informative

    No.

    No engineering work has been performed on Quartz or Aqua development within the OpenOffice.org project since mid 2003. For the last year and a half all engineering work focusing on a native Mac OS X OpenOffice.org version has been concentrated in the NeoOffice/J project, using a combination of Java and Carbon technologies to replace X11.

    Due to various licensing, political, and fundamental engineering difficulties it is likely, for the near future, that native Aqua porting work will be based off of the NeoOffice.org project and not under the direct aegis of OpenOffice.org.     (from http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/timeline.html)

    This was reported on Slashdot a couple of weeks ago.

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  8. Yay! Multi-lingual! by sbryant · · Score: 3, Informative

    One thing that was an annoyance about OO.o 1.x was that you needed a complete new installation if you wanted a different language. I have users who have different language preferences using the same system, and while the desktop software (KDE in this case) can be switched, OO.o couldn't.

    Well, that's now fixed in 2.0! You can add language packs to an existing installation! spec link

    Yay!

    -- Steve

    PS. Anyone know if Firefox can/will support this functionality?

  9. Re:How's the database? by SixDimensionalArray · · Score: 3, Informative

    On a side note, using M$ Access as a front-end to MySQL has been possible for quite a while using MySQL's MyODBC connector. It might not give you all the features of MySQL, but it works fairly well for simple stuff. Just try googling "Access & MySQL" http://www.google.com/search?q=using+ms+access+wit h+mysql&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie =utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:e n-US:official.

    Regardless, I definitely agree with everyone - I would LOVE, SUPPORT and CONTRIBUTE to a 100% open source "generic" database interface. I think it would be a huge hit with open source advocates and corporations because that way, end users could have any easy way to interface with open source databases!

    -6d

  10. On Moving NeoOffice to 2.0 by soullessbastard · · Score: 4, Informative
    Disclaimer: I am a developer of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X and a founder of the NeoOffice project.

    I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but NeoOffice/J won't be available in a 2.0 beta anytime soon. There are a number of reasons:
    • 2.0 isn't finished yet on any platform! We've already got so much on our plate that we simply can't spend our time working on such a large codebase that hasn't even yet reached code-freeze.
    • Mac OS X (X11) build support and testing for 2.0 isn't finished yet! In fact, it's only just begun. Because NeoOffice/J is built on top of the X11 base, we need to have a solid X11 version running and compiling before we can isolate whether bugs are inherent to Mac OS X or whether they are unique to the GUI replacement layer.
    • We haven't even finished NeoOffice/J 1.1! We're still working on trying to iron out all the bugs in the 1.1 based product. Moving to 2.0 is obviously going to introduce new bugs, and we can't consciously shoot ourselves in the foot right before a final release.
    • Translation of 2.0 isn't complete. NeoOffice/J supports localizations in over 40 languages, and we definitely don't want to leave any languages behind. We won't be considering moving until all of our supported languages are available.
    • 2.0 is not the final 2.0.x release. This is just a matter of fact...2.0 will probably have bugs after it is introduced and will have another 2.0.1 release, a 2.0.2 release, etc. It's easy to get caught up in the hamster wheel of keeping up with the torrent of patches and point releases from Hamburg and we can't afford to lose focus and let native porting suffer.
    • Moving to 2.0 is going to be a lot of work. Definitely months worth of dedicated work, actually, perhaps even more than a year. Just going from 1.0 to 1.1 took Patrick over a year easy and we're still not finished with that jump yet.
    • There are higher priorites than moving to 2.0. While folks love to clamor for "feature parity", we have different priorities (well, I do, perhaps Patrick disagrees). I am more than happy to trade 2.0 features in exchange for working on and completing the equally complex Mac OS X specific tasks, including:
      • getting the first "Final" release of NeoOffice/J!
      • moving to Java 1.4/1.5...crucial for the long-term viability of Neo/J on Tiger and future operating system revisions. There's no sense in spending a year perfecting 2.0 only to find it won't run on the latest and greatest. We already have to work around crashing bugs in the 1.3.1 VM every time there's just a minor update (e.g. 10.3.7 -> 10.3.8), and there's gotta be only so many more updates for which we can find workarounds until the VM just plain no longer works.
      • implementing the NWF and other Aqua widgets
      • using native file dialogs
      • beginning to redesign the interface to adhere to Aqua HIG
    • We only have so much time available! Although Patrick is truly astounding, there really is only so much time available as we need to feed our families and pay the rent from time to time. With limited resources available and several large and very technical projects looming on the horizon, they need to get prioritized.

    We're intending to backport the major feature of 2.0 that is required...OpenDocument format support. There are plans for an OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 release on other platforms that provides OpenDocument support which we hope to incorporate.

    What's most likely going to happen is that we'll try doing a NeoOffice/J 1.5 release with Aqua widgets and other Mac-specific features and technical enhancements. Our #1 goal isn't to keep up with the most up to date OOo release, but rather, to make a great Mac OS X office suite. NeoOffice/J 1.1 is the most solid foundation upon which to build it since it's the most bug free.

    Without substantial assistance (e.g. perfecting