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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."
MS Office isn't 100% compatible with MS Office...
HTH
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In the Openoffice issue tracker outline mode is a low priority issue that has been open since 2002 - that is almost five years ! Meanwhile, many users keep MS Word around just because this way of handling text makes them much more productive.
Not well. I'm using JDK 1.5.0_09, for the record. I'm also using the OpenGL pipeline for Java 2D, since I heard that can lead to speed improvements.
I did try to use NetBeans recently, and I found that it was terribly slow, too. Worse than this release of OpenOffice, even. So maybe you're right.
I don't know much about the architecture of OpenOffice, but why do they need to depend on Java? Couldn't they rewrite those portions in C++, or some other more performant language?
My big thing as a scientist is that it would be nice to have equations display ON THE GRAPH. It's really hard to suggest this as an alternative to students in lab classes when it doesn't have even this basic feature.
On the other hand, this is/has been my only real complaint for years. I use it exclusively, but then, I'm a geek.
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.
I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't be thrilled by the way Office 2007 looks. I think it looks fantastic. I've been using it since Beta 2 was released and I can't get enough of the little things that Microsoft has added to make using their software easier.
The Equation Editor is very functional now and you no longer need to install MathType to enter complicated expressions. Also, the equations produced by Word 2007 look perfect every time I open the document or send it to anyone else. PDF exporting is not required to fix minor typesetting issues. If OpenOffice can get their equation editor to work as nicely as the one in Word 2007, then they'd be on to something.
The Themes selector applies the theme as you choose it so you can preview the final result before applying it. This feature is best used in PowerPoint 2007 to browse through the available "looks" you can give your presentation.
The Ribbon menus are brilliant and they have made it easier for my parents to do common things in Word. They always complained that things were 'hidden' in the menus and they could never remember "where to go to do something". They no longer ask where things are because the ribbons present them in a way that they find very organized.
Also, Office's new file format is a change of pace, but you can still save your files in Office 97-2003 formats just as easily.
I use OneNote to scribble down things on my tablet while I'm in meetings. I use Publisher when I don't have the time to dedicate to Adobe InDesign. Both of these applications have become better, and I love the fact that they're so polished. Granted, Microsoft probably stole OneNote and Publisher from someone else, but they're nice tools to have!
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
It's MicroSoft...you will be paying again.
Winter 2010: With Glowing Hearts
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.
Arggh! Word is a Word Processing application. It is NOT a typesetting program!
Word is centered around getting you the info in the doc, it doesn't care much about how it was displayed on the originator's computer. Fair enough, that works when you're just worried about the info. If you're at the point where you care about design, Word fails it. By design. (You should have the info in some other program at that point.)
Sorry, but that sort of confusion makes my life hell (but also keeps me employed.)
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
That's 15K in opportunity costs just flushed away. What if 15K allowed you to keep your doors open for an additional week so you could land that large account or contract? At that point 15K wouldn't seem so trivial.
You consider an Athlon 3000 with 2 gigs of RAM fairly underpowered? Wow.
What an achievement of OOo's coders that it even runs on such a lowly machine.
Java apps by in large are 3-5x slower than the same apps written in C++. That's because:
1 -- C++ gives you access to low level routines and these are used to improve efficiency
2 -- C++ is inherently faster because of its more C like defaults
3 -- Java tends to create longer chains of function calls because of the way the libraries are architected
4 -- Java is running on a JVM not on the hardware and thus adds another layer of calls
Its perfectly correct to blame Java for being slower than C++. The fact that there exist fast Java apps doesn't mean that Java apps on average aren't substantially slower.
Sorry, regardless of what your workflow is (or "should be", although I'm not an elitist jerk to tell other people how they should be doing things), bugs like that should be fixed. Also, as a good philosophy, applications should be adapted to users, not the other way around... look at how Excel killed off other spreadsheets for a perfect demo of how this should work.
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