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LibreOffice Gets a Streamlined Makeover With 4.4 Release
TechCurmudgeon sends word that LibreOffice 4.4 has been released. "The Document foundation announced availability of the latest version of LibreOffice on Thursday, which it says is the most beautiful version of the open source productivity suite yet. LibreOffice 4.4 also fixes some compatibility issues with files that are saved in Microsoft's OOXML formats. LibreOffice 4.4 has got a lot of UX and design love," Jan "Kendy" Holesovsky, who leads the design team for Libreoffice, said in a statement. LibreOffice 4.4 is currently available for Windows."
Depending on your OS the Windows link above will now take you to either the Windows, Mac, or Linux LO download page. If you have an Ubuntu-based distro you can apt-get install from the developer PPA at https://launchpad.net/~libreof...
They added MS style ribbons, all in the name of UX
A lot, if not most Distros have LibreOffice in their Package Managers, and a lot, if not most install LibreOffice with the initial default installation. Ubuntu is NOT the only Distro in use.
Unpopular comment, but something that would put any of the OpenOffice family branch head-and-shoulder above the rest would be ditching Java.
NeoOffice did this on the Mac, and NeoOffice as a result is very responsive.
I do not like having Java installed because
A) It's slow.
B) It is a security risk just like Flash.
C) I have had malware attempts do pop-ups asking and recommending Java be installed, no kidding.
I prefer a web browser with no non-HTML options even being available.
This makes installing a Java-using variant inconvenient.
I well-understand this will "never" happen because the people who maintain it are, well, Java programmers --- the Oracle and IBM types.
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
Streamlined and Most Beautiful ever. I am too scared to look :O
...if I can still make it crash within ten seconds, like all the previous versions. :-p
Ezekiel 23:20
While I don't belittle or despise the WAMP stack benefits. that stack just won't cut it for me as I need to put business and common logic into the forms before committing data to a table.
Example, clerk inputs sex as "Male" for a child bearing individual, I need to disable data fields asking about how many pregnancies this individual has had. I know this is possible by other means, but it gets complex if my needs are to be met.
One of my problems with LibreOffice (and OpenOffice, and some other FOSS apps) is that it doesn't fit with native UI conventions. It doesn't look like a native application, it doesn't feel like a native application, and it doesn't behave like a native application. Although it may seem like a very superficial thing, it makes it much harder to sell in a business setting. First, because a lot of business users (including "decision makers") are pretty superficial, and using a non-native UI makes it look cheap and unfinished. Second, because if it doesn't feel or behave like the applications that users are familiar with, then it's going to be jarring and confusing, requiring more training and resulting in more help desk trouble calls.
So when I read that LibreOffice "has got a lot of UX and design love", I was hoping that some of the incongruences were fixed. Looking at the OSX version, it seems that it's gotten worse. It looks distinctly like an application written for Linux that was hastily ported to OSX.
All menus and no ribbons yuck. Sticking with Office
http://saveie6.com/
For those that want to look at the pretty pictures:
https://wiki.documentfoundatio...
I think the ability to theme with firefox color themes is intrigueing.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Having used both, I think LibreOffice Calc sucks compared to Excel. Every time I use it, I come across at least one limitation it has, that Excel does not. Sometimes it's usability-related, but frequently it's just because it doesn't implement a particular feature. It's a death by a thousand paper cuts. I don't think anybody who works on the project realises quite how bad it is, otherwise they would surely have rewritten the whole thing by now, rather than persevering with what's clearly a dead-end codebase.
I used to use Excel very heavily for work. Not only is Excel (2007 or later) easier and quicker to use (and not just because of the ribbons), but there are also things in Excel that are either a pain or simply impossible to achieve in a sensible way in Calc. Using Calc is like if I was used to using Photoshop and then somebody came along and gave me Paint.NET and said it could do everything Photoshop does. It might technically be feasible to achieve all the same outcomes, but it sure as hell isn't going to be as easy, and you're going to be fighting against the software and doing things extra manually half the time. (Not that I have anything against Paint.NET; it's a great bit of software if you're not trying to do everything that Photoshop does. Maybe this was a bad metaphor.)
So, for all Excel's flaws, if I was using spreadsheets for anything remotely serious on anything like a regular basis, I would buy a copy of Excel. But not the 2013 version; what the hell were they thinking with that UI?
Fix it. No one likes to visit the site and download the same thing over and over. Updater, make it update!
we had a hooker and blow party at my store.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I want a consistent experience from one release to the next, so I can make use of what I've already learned.
I have an image in mind of UX designers gearing up in Redmond WA at the beginning of each product cycle for Windows or MS Office. It's a brand new crew because the old group moved on or were pushed out. The new people proclaim, "Boy, what we have is just awful. I don't blame customers for being critical. We need to make a clean break from the past."
Same thing at Mozilla, etc. We don't want your fucking creativity! We are trying to get things done.
And then it comes out, and nobody can find the damn controls they're used to because they're gone. Even after doing a google search, the answers come back for different versions that might not correspond to what you have now. Aaargh!
"Libre Office" is really clunky to say and just sounds bad. Open Office stays on my machine for the sole reason that I like the name better.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
It amazes me how many companies are trying the same abuse: Charging monthly. It is not possible to OWN the software. If an employee uses another computer for 6 months, or is sick for 6 months, you still have to pay for the original computer. Also, there is constant outside control.
And you have to pay monthly for backup computers.
Have they fixed that massive bug yet where if you paste text into a find box, it silently replaces part of the document instead, causing data loss? This bug was reported ages ago, yet the developers have a hard time understanding it's a bug.
I don't use Calc or Excel much, but I ran into two such limitations just recently. So, for anyone looking for concrete examples, here are two:
- Column limitation. A student of mine wrote a Java program that exported data into a spreadsheet, using some library or other (don't remember which). Now, I was impressed that this automatically started up Calc, when my student had clearly used Excel. However, as an initial step, the program created a zillion columns. Crash - max columns exceeded. Why should there be any sort of limit, other than exhausting all memory in the computer?
- Macros. I have a small spreadsheet that counts up the students' points and curves them into final course grades. The actual curving is done by a function I defined and attached to the spreadsheet. In Calc, if I alter the points, the sheet doesn't recalculate - I have to save and reload the sheet. No idea why - everything ought to work (and does in Excel).
There are similar irritations in all of the applications. Writer and Impress are the ones I use the most, and sometimes it's damned frustrating. I obviously haven't tried version 4.4 yet - here's hoping that they did more than fiddle with the UI.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I really appreciate LibreOffice's existence in making Linux a complete desktop OS. However do I find it hard to use due to the lack of live updates or an "Apply" button when making changes in character, paragraph, and, page dialogs. I must estimate the change I want, press "OK", and bring the dialog up again if it's wrong. It's still this way in 4.4.
I'm fully with you. RSM doesn't sleep because the adjective 'free' in English does not say what he wants to say. Get over it, Richard, you can't change it. Instead, find new names. LO would profit immensely without an akward combination of Spanish and English. Slashdot should start a contest for a good alternative among its readers. My entry is Liberty.
@nine-times: 'One of my problems with LibreOffice (and OpenOffice, and some other FOSS apps) is that it doesn't fit with native UI conventions'
...
I've sat people down in front of LibreOffice Writer - and they can't tell the difference. LibreOffice-Writer (1) A First Look
Define 'native UI conventions' and give examples where the LibreOffice breaks them and if you're talking about the 'Office ribbon', then no one likes it, it makes simple tasks more complicated and is totally non-intuitive
I don't use any office suite because I don't like the word office.
They really shouldn't use that Mexican word.
Microsoft/Liberty/Open Offence would fit better anyway.
@Anonymous Ribbon Supporter: "This post was modded funny but I am not sure whether the poster was joking or not. The Slashdot groupthink mandates that everybody hate the ribbon interface, but you do realize that there are some people in the world who do not automagically subscribe to it, don't you?"
..
It's understandable why you would want to remain anonymous
My main requirement for programs today is that they don't make me wait too much.
The payoff is an application which is more productive, forgiving, usable and attractive.
Has spreadsheet conditional formatting been fixed yet? The last time I tried to use it, it went berserk after a few copy/paste/deletes of ranges of cells.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
WE get a pretty UI... Yay!
Because those damn show stopper bugs in Calc are not important. nobody really wants to have an accurate spreadsheet over pretty icons and UI redesign!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I've been waiting since, well, forever, for staropenlibre office's word processor to have a Draft or Galley mode (called "Normal" in Microsoft Word, or at least it was). Why in the world people think they should see the header, footer, and margins while writing and editing a document is beyond me.
That's one reason I would love to switch to LaTex all the way: the IDEs out there have one panel where you do your writing and editing, and a separate panel for viewing the fully rendered result when or if you want to.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
"LibreOffice 4.3.5 is up to date." Technically correct: I have the latest version of LibreOffice 4.3.5 installed.