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OpenOffice 2.2 Released
xsspd2004 wrote with a link to a Desktop Linux post about the newest version of OpenOffice.org. Bug fixes and the usual changes can be found in the project's release notes. The developers are using the turn of phrase 'a real alternative to Office 2007', hoping to win over some folks not too thrilled with the commercial software's new look. "Overall, version 2.2 should appear better to users thanks to its support for kerning, a technique that improves the appearance of text written in proportional fonts; kerning is now enabled by default. OpenOffice's PDF (Portable Document Format) export function has also been enhanced with the addition of the optional creation of bookmarks feature, and with support for user-definable export of form fields. A quick look at the release notes also reveals that many minor bugs have been repaired in this new version. Most of these appear to relate to the Calc spreadsheet and Base database programs."
I stopped using OO because the equation editing is really difficult. I'm sorta dumb, so I wasn't able to pick up the jist of it. In my own defense, I can use TeXmaCs without any problem so I was able to figure that one out. But for interoperability with Word, OO is the only option on Linux, so I don't generally use TeXMaCs unless I really want something to be pretty. But in any event, I hope they work on the equation editor in OO and then I'll switch over.
When I read what was new in this version a few days ago (and it's the only main thing I've read to be new about this release), I expected the most obvious fix to be in the equations objects. Every computer* I've seen has had some sort of problem rendering and often even printing a document with equations in it. It still isn't fixed. The workaround for this, however, is exporting to PDF.
.odf file on OOo in Linux, the formatting was entirely different from what it was on Windows and I had to back to a Windows machine...
I've never had any other sort of display problem with OOo. It's still a good program.
*All Windows machines... The one time I opened a
OpenOffice is not Java 'based'. It does have Java sprinkled all around (like the help system requires Java I believe, and it uses several other languages as well (I think OpenOffice uses at least 11 different languages, counting all compile time as well as run time...).
OpenOffice isn't what you'd call a pleasant experience to hack on (some might blame the closed source roots where it would mostly be the same group of developers for a long period of time that are paid to work on it).
It's gonna take a lot more than just saving some money
Freedom, a bargain at any price! Also, my company standardized on open office because we can export to that format from our tools that are written in perl.
Added bonus: OO is more secure than MS Office.
Microsoft Word on Mac with a super dual core intel has an irritating delay. I can type significantly faster than it can display. This is problematic because I work past errors because the don't display until I'm sometimes a few words down. I am guessing MS word is faster on its native Windows. But the point is, even in the 21st century here, typesetting programs are still slow. Who'd athunkit.
Microsoft Word on Mac with a super dual core intel has an irritating delay
Office Mac 2004 (I'm assuming that's what you are using) was compiled for PowerPC, therefore the Rosetta PPC emulation layer is executing the program. Even the best PPC emulation can come close to but is not going to match the "real thing". (http://www.emaculation.com/ppc.php) I run MS Word for Mac 2004 on a G3/266 (OS 10.2.8 w/ 384MB RAM) and it is fairly snappy. Using the MS office suite on Intel based macs will get better when the next version comes out, since it will be a Universal application ("Fat binary").
Accentuate the positive, don't waste your mod points on the negative.
> OpenOffice isn't what you'd call a pleasant experience to hack on
> (some might blame the closed source roots where it would mostly be
> the same group of developers for a long period of time that are paid
> to work on it).
I would blame the fact that it is a very diverse and unique code base. It is mostly C++ but it is not based on any common libraries. Even for their GUI they decided to completely go it alone, which means that they make no contributions back to any libraries, and learning to hack it is very hard. At one point they considered switching to standard libraries but then didn't get around to following through. And then they started adding Java everywhere they could.
It does have one outline mode and it's been there since the early versions.
Just double click on the page number on the botton of the screen and
select "Headings"; you will have buttons to show/hide levels and
promote/indent sections, move sections, etc.
I'm running the Ubuntu Feisty Beta with OO2.2 and I exchange fairly complex Word docs with others, including legal pleadings and other hairy stuff, and I'm having no problems whatsoever.
You can download this free update to get the faster word processor you desire!
Could not open
Glad this is finally available. I checked the website periodically and noticed the release date slip from 14th March to 24th March to 28th March ... and then a bit more.
...
Anyway I still haven't managed to install.
On running the install it complained there was no disc in my CD drive. I closed it - it had a Hiren's boot disk in there - installation proceeded. Why on earth is it insisting on the CD door being closed?
Then the install tried to clean up my OO 2.0 install. (I'm using 2.1) It asked for the location - in my temp folder - of the OO 2.0 install files. Of course they were deleted long ago - they were in temp folder - where OO 2.0 put them. I pressed cancel thinking the installation would handle this gracefully but
No, install was aborted. Still haven't checked out OpenOffice 2.2
On the Mac? First, you don't want to use that on the Mac. Try NeoOffice instead. That will keep you from having to run X11. Second, for all the nice things I would want to say about NeoOffice, it's not exactly snappy.
Really, I use NeoOffice. I've donated to the project. I'm grateful for all the good work they've done. But even the Intel-native version doesn't run any faster than Word 2004.
Come on Zonk, why is this categorized under "Linux" with a Tux icon? OOo is cross platform--runs on Linux, Windows, and OS X (even if it does take X11 to run under Mac.) I'd even be willing to bet that there are more Windows users of OOo than there are Linux users of OOo.
Penny - plain text accounting
There is a Carbon port of OO.o in development. It is not quite finished, but it was shown at FOSDEM, and is surprisingly fast. The current plan is to port it to Carbon, and then gradually move to Cocoa. Some people from Apple, apparently, recommended this to the team as the best way to port an existing C/C++ codebase to OS X.
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Try this:
File -> Tools -> Options -> Memory
Increase the values of: Use for OpenOffice.org
from the default value to something like 64MB or more.
YMMV.
That's wrong. StarOffice was developed by a company called StarDivision in Germany in 1986. Sun didn't enter the picture until 1999.
See here
Je ne parle pas francais.
OOffice is compatible with MSOffice in that is has problems handling EPS. Under Linux it works usually, by using GostScript to render the graphics. However the same documents do not display EPS on MS platforms.
Made me stick to LaTeX for all my technical writing.
Side note: No MS-Office Component can handle EPS, despite of what some people claim. Some can handle EPSI, which is EPS with an embedde bit-image for non-EPS capable applications.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
In most European countries the comma is used as the decimal separator. Three thousand dollar and twenty-five cents would be $3.000,25 (not $3,000.25 you might be used to). In a locale that does this Excel uses the semi-colon too.
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My experience with NO has been positive. I used OO.o with X for about 9 months on a dual-core Macbook (and many years on linux). I loaded NeoOffice to use the mac remote for a presentation. It does seem a little slower but it is very usable. I like the ability to switch between apps with the apple-tab (can't do that with OO+X). It was absolutely solid for preparing and presenting a 3 hour lecture with 160 slides, including many data tables, figures, some ppt imports, and some animation. I think I'll stick with NO instead of going back to OO.
to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...