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Open Office 2.0 Beta Candidate Released
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.
I just don't know what I would do without all the incredibly useful toolbars in MS Office! Publishing my documents to the web, imbedding oh-so useful macros into all my documents. I like to turn them all on at the same time. I think there might even be an FTP client in there somewhere. You know what else I like about MS Office? I totally love th
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Slashdot = ((Technology + Politics) / Trolls) % Grammar Nazis
It's about time!
(From TFA)
Native system theme integration (native widget rendering)
To enhance integration of OpenOffice.org with the underlying operating system, all user interface elements (such as buttons and scrollbars) will have the same look as those used in most other 'native' applications for that platform. OpenOffice.org will react on-the-fly to changes of the desktop theme, so when the user changes the desktop colors or theme, OpenOffice.org will adjust its own appearance to match.
Native system theme integration will be available for Gnome (version 2.4 or higher), Microsoft (R) Windows (including XP and future versions), and KDE (version 3.2 and higher) desktop environments. On Windows XP the 'Windows XP Style' must be chosen under Settings - Control Panel - Display - Appearance to achieve the correct look.
Theme integration will be the default for desktop environments that support it (listed above). Systems (for example, Windows 98/ME/2000, CDE) that do not support it will see no visual change in OpenOffice.org. On supported systems OpenOffice.org will always adopt the theme of the system and cannot choose not to do so.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
I'm more interested in how the database is looking to be.
pi=sigma{n:0-infinity}[(1/16)^n][(4/(8n+1))-(2/(8n +4))-(1/ (8n+5))-(1/(8n+6))]
Not to be off topic, but there was a great OO.o 1.1 based version native to OS X - cannot recall the name.
Has this (yet to be remembered by me) group made any announcement on using the new 2.0 code in their OS X implementation?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
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.
The only thing keeping my small office from switching over to OpenOffice is compatability with the Corel Suite, specifically Word Perfect and Quattro Pro.
It used to be what our officed used exclusivley, but several people have been having issues with them. I've slowly started a switch to Open Office, but opening old documents and spreadsheet is impossible with Open Office, if they are any of the Corel Formats.
Can someone on the inside of OO.org give a quick rundown on what to expect from this beta RC in terms of stability/usability?
It sounds like "Release Notes, a list of know issues, system requirements are in preparation" but I assume that'll be written for the LCD and hard for folks to get the big picture from.
So... if anybody in the know is out there, what's this release like? How buggy is it? What's the worst-case scenario if I start using it?
RD
At last 65536 rows as Microsoft Excell. Now lots of people will be able to use their xls files on OpenOffice.org as that's the major blocker for those people I know.
have any professional (for-profit) organizations switched to OO yet?
Just in case StarOffice 8 beta is also available here.
A month ago I installed a pre-relase build of OpenOffice.org (not the RC) and run very very slowly and buggy. Then, i download and try StarOffice 8 and it run beautiful.
I assume OO.org RC must be at the same stability/maturity level as Sun beta is.
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.
Just today, I got a friggin' Excel spreadsheet from my distributor. They wanted me to complete it and send it back to them. It would kill me to fork over my hard-earned dough for Microsoft Office, but thanks to OpenOffice.org I never have to. I just fired up the OpenOffice spreadsheet, inserted the data, saved it as an .xls file, and my distributor won't have any idea I don't even own Microsoft Office.
This wasn't the time and place, but whenever I get a chance I tell people they can probably get by with OpenOffice.org instead of purchasing Microsoft Office. OpenOffice 1.1 is more than good enough for most tasks, so I can't wait to see how good 2.0 is. It's always nice to use a fantastic product that also just happens to keep me from having to pay the Microsoft tax.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
. . . wait, that's a kernel joke. Crap!
I didn't see ANYTHING about it a few hours ago. At least for Mac Os X. I find that really weird. It's nice that there's a new Open Office, but the old one has successfully driven me insane with the long waits. NeoOfficeJ seems to be only slightly better, but that's good enough for me. I don't know that I'd try the new one unless I hear rave reviews. And I mean *rave*. Ready to be modded troll in 3, 2 . . .
Monster Zero is the reason we cannot live on the surface, but must live forever live underground like this.
What does that mean?
"Please let us know if you have any problems. We'll go through a couple of release candidates and then, once it's stable enough, we'll release it as a beta and you can all start testing it!"
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
Anyone noticed that it is about 30megs smaller than the previous verison.
Wonder why...
Created in the shadow of Mt. Hood: http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bob/hood.jpg
Sigh. Everything was so simple and clean back then.
All these new office suites make me feel depressed, and they make baby Jesus cry.
:(
Is this a beta candidate? The only thing worse than google having betas for years is a company releasing a beta candidate.
I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
>Native system theme integration (native widget rendering)
Does the descriotion for this mean that the user interface will now ACT like the native OS interface, or just LOOK like it now? My main gripe with OOo is that it seemed to try and emulate the MS Windows user interface in its operating window. While it seems the widgets drawn will no longer be trying to look like MS Windows widgets, I'm more interested in how I'll interact with the program.
If it's still an MS Windows-like _interaction_ then I'll still be less happy than if it used native OS style user interactions, in terms of actualy scrolling the scrollbars and other stuff that don't feel like they're Solaris or Linux interactions in 1.x versions. The user interactions in MS Windows is the major reason I don't get along with it well, and was disappointed to see older OOo versions trying to bring that baggage to different OSes that I otherwise got along with better.
When is OOo going to include more standard templates. To most people, Impress is useless because it doesn't come with a sufficient amount of bundled templates. Sure you can find more online, but people used to MS Office are not going to deal with that.
I don't understand why they want to copy Excel so tightly. The 256 column limit is a real problem. I regularly use data sets that have more then 256 columns. I will adopt OO.o as my main office suite when that is overcome. Until then, quatro pro will have to do.
is to work exactly like MS Office. Let's learn from the success of Firefox (vs Mozilla). Shortcuts, Menus, should be similar even if functionality is different. So people can migrate from Word without noticing the difference.
On my Windows install, it installed in half the time 1.1.4 did, didn't say anything about java (which it usually does), the splash it better looking.
I have two issues with this version in my short test, one was that they removed the program shortcuts from the "Quick Starter" in the tray?! Why on earth would they do that? Now the only thing you can do with the quick start is decide if it should load at windows start, and exit it.
The second thing is that I chose File - Wizards - Install new dictionaries - Chose the language I wanted to install, and then nothing happens when you press the "Start DocOOo"-button, so no automated installation of dictionaries I guess.
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
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.
I hope they will fix the problem with inserting java applets into the presentation software some day. If it actually worked, that would be a neat feature that PowerPoint does not have.
2 2661
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=
Do people actually use the grammar checker in MS Office? I find that it usually suggests that I change something that is grammatically correct to something totally wrong.
I just downloaded it to check the widgets; in particular, I was curious if they really did manage to get it to look like Windows widgets. It's very annoying when something looks close to Windows, but isn't exactly it, especially if it's differing in behavior. JBuilder has horrible problems with this.
Anyway, it appears that they do their own drawing, so it's likely things won't work correctly with WindowBlinds. Anyone else tried it with WW? The menu fonts, sizes are noticeably different from Windows. Dialog box buttons are oversized. In fact, it seems like the fonts they use are slightly too big. At least the fonts use ClearType properly; JBuilder's ignorance of ClearType made it virtually unusable for coding on an LCD screen for me.
I know I'm being knitpicky, but it really is a problem when all Windows apps look one way, and then a strange duckling such as OO.o comes along. Some of you may point out that Office and Visual Studio look different, but I believe the difference is that they're used more often, and that people get used to the different look. Of course, the same could happen with OO.o, but it'll have to overcome that initial bump in looking different first before it'll be okay to look strange.
I've been using OO 1.x for a long time now, and really, I probably won't go back to MS Office. However, the one feature that I want more than anythning is in OO Writer - to support MS Word's "Normal" text entry mode. With this, you don't see unecessary gray borders, as it doesn't try to make you think you're typing on an actual piece of paper. Normal Mode in MS Word just gives you a blank window. Page breaks are shown as dotted horizontal lines. That's it - why make it more complicated and take up screen real estate?
OO 2.0 does not support Normal mode, and there are some threads on the Writer board over at OO.org requesting the feature. I have no idea why this isn't supported, and I'm tired of having to resize my Writer window every time I open a document, just so I don't have to look at the stupid borders. Those that are preachy about oo Writer will post here that all I have to do is make a template with my window resized, but that's not the point - I just want it to work in as simple a way as possible. Is that so wrong?
For gentoo users though who are used to compiling both from scratch, OOo takes much longer. Of course, that's why I use openoffice-bin.
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?
Now you know what the rest of the world has had to put up with MS products for years!
Every now and again, I get a call from a user saying that the page setup has gone weird and I show them how to reset the paper size to A4.
Perhaps they can teach you about logical date formats too?
I also get calls from people with stories like I entered the date for 1 March this year and it changed it to January 3. Be logical - small - middle - big ddmmyy is a logical order. Middle - small - big mmddyy is backasswards.
Vive la difference! If we all did things the same, there would be no room for innovation.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
I'm discouraged by the tremendous amount of comments here by people who have obviously not read the article but rather rushed to post "I hope it imports WP files" and the like. Holy schmoly.
:)
I think it's a great step forward. I signed up to be a beta tester for Star Office 8 and while I have only downloaded it this afternoon and won't get to install and play until tonight, I'm looking forward to the new features:
Word Perfect import, a cleaned up user interface, better PDF export, better input filters for crapomatic Microsoft documents, and a database front end that can interface with MySQL? Who's yo daddy? Those are features that mean a lot to me.
I'm a writer and I'm picky about my tools. And I take a Mac to school with me but run SUSE 9.1 and Xandros XD3 at home. Openoffice is the only software that really allows me to bridge the gap between those two platforms. On the Mac I run NeoOffice/J - a tremendous piece of software that's far more robust than people make it out to be. It doesn't load quickly, but once it does it gives me all the goodness of Openoffice.org with all the power of Mac OS X, and the interface is nice and clean, including native Mac print dialogues, and the like. I don't know what kind of alchemy went into marrying OO.o to Java to Mac OS X but I'm grateful someone went ahead and did it.
Look closely at OpenOffice 2.0r1 and what you see is an attempt to steal marketshare away from existing MS Office users. That means cleaner widgets, better import/export capacity, and a look and feel that isn't too foreign. It's not breaking any barriers in the document-writing paradigm here (check out Mellel for Mac OS X for that), but it is making it easier for existing Office users to jump ship. And jump they will.
There are several things I like about OO.o, including the stylist and navigator, the export to PDF functionality, and the way the interface meets my needs. At work I use MS Word 2003, and I swear to God I hate it, not because of who produces it but because it's the most awkward, confusing, automatic-in-unnecessary-ways piece of crap I've come across. And all that additional complexity has done little to make the secretaries I work with write good documents. I'm talking about borked-up formatting, inconsistent styles, and so on. OO.o deals specifically with those issues in a way I really appreciate.
The new database component is a huge addition. To all you pinheads pontificating about how important an Access-like program is for the future of OO.o, shame on you for not having RTFA. This could very well be a killer app when all is said and done (the Star Office 8 beta forums make it look like it's still a bit buggy). That is: a front end that "looks like" Access, tied into a MySQL back end. That's fantastic! I currently use Rekall for my database front end, but I can't get a version for Debian, which is a major pain in the butt.
In sum, ease up on all the "they better have included feature X." This is a major but manageable step forward, and while it doesn't solve all our problems, I think it's a big step forward to improving upon the success of previous editions of OO.o, and a big step forward to convincing potential MS Office refugees to give something new a shot. As for myself, I've decided compatability with MS Office users is no longer a concern to me. I'd rather just work alone with my grumpy ol' self.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
Yes. It's one of the things I really miss from MS Office. Of course I never used it in-line. Rather, I'd run it after finishing the document. It kept me from sounding too much like an idiot. It also helped improve my writing skills. After all, the fewer mistakes I made in the first place, the less time it took to correct. As for pointless suggestions, it's easy to ignore them.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
Cross References are still crap. Until they fix this issue, and I find an addon tool to interface with Bibtex, I cannot use OpenOffice Writer to replace Framemaker (or Latex, or even MS Word).
I need to easily reference numbered sections, figures, and bibliographic entries. The problem is that OpenOffice doesn't automatically create a reference point for numbered sections.
Amazon lists MS Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2003 for $125.
Installs on three PCs, no student-teacher ID required. Ranks #3 on the Amazon software sales chart. Student-Teacher Office 2004 for the Mac is $136. Ranks #18.
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:
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
OOo 1.1 had TERRIBLE problems with workstation / all user installs. It relied on files being placed in a user's local home directory which is not good when you have computers in a lab-like setting. Workstation installs required user input (unless you scripted it otherwise - but then you'd lose the ability to set OOo defaults), and putting it on a Windows server running Terminal Services was buggy as hell.
By default, OOo 2.0 now installs an 'all users' install, meaning that there are no more issues with OOo registering icons or having one person mess with everyone else's settings.
To me, this was the hugest issue of all next to MS Word compatibility (check the OOo forums if you don't believe me) and yet very little is said of it.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
that OO needs to have before they'll switch, and I'm looking for abbreviation replacement. Well, for my sister. She works as a medical transcriptionist, and would really like to switch over to Linux. She started out a few months ago using Windows, IE, Outlook Express, and Word and has switched over to Firefox and Thunderbird so far. If she could get a good replacement for Word (+some plugins she uses), then she'd drop Windows in a second. She's also been using a desktop automater program and was very interested to learn that you can do the same things in Linux using a standard programming language like python (with dcop bindings) and shell scripts, for free. Basically, she wants to be the most efficient she can possibly be, and see's Windows as a stumbling block towards achieving that.
By the way, an abbbreviation expander program is something that looks for you typing something like abd and it expands it to abdomen. Obviously, the programs she uses (shorthand and speedtype) are aimed directly at the medical transcriptionist market and come preloaded with abbreviations, but even something that she could customize would suffice for her needs. There are other MTs that are looking into Linux as well, and they could probably spread the load of inputting the medical terms into an abbreviation database and share it with one another, if only a word processor on Linux supported this. Any suggestions? I spent a goodly amount of time yesterday surfing google trying to find anything, and came up empty.
The OO.o equation editor syntax is amazing, but it's useless for all but the most simplest of documents until they get the equations properly aligned. Manually aligning fives pages of equations is no fun, I can assure you.
Oh well, back to MathType and Word.
Allergy advice: Contains eggs.
Disclaimer: I am a developer of OpenOffice.org Mac OS X and a founder of the NeoOffice project.
:)
There's no support for them in Mac OS X because OpenOffice.org itself still runs in X11 on Mac OS X. The Native Widget Framework doesn't actually use native widgets at all. The way the NWF works is by introducing a new abstraction layer (first pioneered by NeoOffice/C) that allows the OOo SFX/VCL based widgets to call a platform-specific function that essentially translates to "draw a button background here" or "draw a scrollbar thumb here". On Mac OS X you can only get access to low-level widget rendering routnies through the Appearance Manager (Carbon) or the HIToolbox (Carbon/CG). Neither of those are available to X11 applications.
Besides...I think it'd be frustrating to have "Aqua-ish" buttons in an X11 app that can't even copy to the clipboard correctly. Kinda defeats the purpose putting the look onto an app that doesn't even have the right Mac OS X functionality, not to mention the "feel/UI design"
ed
This is bullshit, this is a tar.gz file on the mirrors. The author has his head up his ass.
This is the beta (hell...beta candidate) however, maybe when the final release is out?
That annoying little purple box even nags me for more stuff than clippy used to.
:O
And OO has more annoying "features" turned on by default... however, they are all listed on just a handfull of tab thingies.. so after 4 minutes or so my OO.org system is up and running without goofing up my grammer...
(I type dogs, then want to type dog(newline) and it types dogs for me.... stupid, stupid stupid)
But heck, I avoid MS office, MS and Bill Gates do enough things that I don't agree with that, I'd even work extra to not give them a penny.
The only things I need for OO to suit me, are email form letters (not for spam, I swear!) and better impress printing of multiple slides, and an embedable chart that can take data from other embeded documents, rather than manually type the entire huge dataset by hand on every change
Please use [ informative / summarizing ] SUBJECT LINES
Flame me here
Ok now the problem is you are saying what you think things should be, I'm telling you how things are. If you want an underdog product to eat away at the dominant one, one of the things you have to do is offer what people want. It doesn't matter if you think that what they want is stupid, or that they shouldn't use your thing for that, you have to give them what they want.
So you can scream until youa re blue in the face about how you shouldn't be useing a spreadsheet for financial projections, the bussiness people will say "That's nice" and go back to using Office. I'm not claiming it's the way it should be, I'm claiming it's the way it is.
However, I will note that this is the orignal reason spreadsheets were developed, and the orignal reason peopel were so excited. Accountants could use them to easily store, tabulate, and modify massive amounts (relitively speaking) of data.
Either way, it's how they like to do it and telling them "No, you are wrong" isn't going to change it.