Slashdot Mirror
An Early Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0
ahziem writes "With the final release 167 days away and an alpha version available, it's time to look at OpenOffice.org 3.0's new features: view multiple pages in Writer, notes in the margin, Microsoft Office 2007 file format support, Solver in Calc, new visual theme in Calc, native tables in Impress, more columns in Calc, error bars in charts, performance improvements, real native Aqua Mac support, and more."
Any chance to get database support outside of Windows ?
Still the show-stopper to get rid of Office, what do you do about the pervasive Access applications ? last time I checked, couldn't run them outside of Windows...
I've given up on OO Calc for charts. Once created they are practically impossible to edit.
stop handling menu and dialog font spacing and anti-aliasing
Except the problem with letting the WM handle anti-aliasing is they maintain their own gui toolkit so they minimize dealing with WM bugs and quirks. Sure, it sounds like a big deal to maintain a gui, but the time spent doing that may be shorter than debugging WM issues. Mozilla maintains their own gui for the same reason.
My 2nd hope is for OOo 3 to stop using Java for the wizards. Or for anything really.
Well, now that's just not going to happen considering it's Sun's project.
3rd hope is for OOo 3 to finally make tables creation and editing in Write as easy
While my Wife and I have no issues with tables, maybe it's just not intuitive for you. It happens all the time. Maybe shelling out the dough for an MSOffice license is what you should do rather than complain about something you got for free?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Yes, that's a tremendous advancement. Now you can finally say goodbye to those awful VBA scripts and the "programmers" that follow them as baggage.
It's not new, but OpenOffice.org macros and scripting support both Javascript and Python. So, you don't need to learn a separate language just for macros. Even better, you have a larger pool of people to hire from. And best of all, that pool is of higher quality not being limited to the self-selecting One Microsoft Way crowd.
Since both javascript and python are used in web development and XML tools handle OpenOffice's main format, the OpenDocument Format, there is much less overhead in integrating document management and web apps and less need for disparate skill sets.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Or perhaps Ubuntu should change their policy, making it so that users just need to visit the developer's site, download and install the software, without relying upon repositories anymore. Yeah, like in Windows. Or like in Mac OS X. IMHO, this whole centralized, repositories-based way of getting things done just sucks.
Sig
Why would you need VBA programmers? We're talking about the product in the article, OpenOffice.org 3.0, and that does not use VBA.
You get javascript and python macros. So that means you don't have to waste money on a bag of shit just to do macros. You can have your macro programmers with a comp sci background. And you can have them participate in web development and other projects.
So it kills two birds with one stone. You are less likely to hire MS boosters who will run their little anti-technology jihadz against you from inside your own office, work is so much easier without them around. You get programmers that can participate in more than one area. Win-win situation.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.