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OpenOffice.org 3.0 Is Officially Here
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Oct 13, 2008 07:30 AM
from the who-needs-office-anyway dept.
from the who-needs-office-anyway dept.
SNate writes "After a grinding three-year development cycle, the OpenOffice.org team has finally squeezed out a new release. New features include support for the controversial Microsoft OOXML file format, multi-page views in Writer, and PDF import via an extension. Linux Format has an overview of the new release, asking the question: is it really worth the 3.0 label?"
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Submission: OpenOffice.org 3.0 Is Officially Here by Anonymous Coward
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OpenOffice.org V3.0 Sets Download Record, 80% Windows 451 comments
thefickler writes "The newest version of OpenOffice, version 3.0, has set a download record in its first week of availability. Most surprising is the fact that over 80% of downloads were from Windows users. As one commentator noted, when it comes to a choice between almost identical software (e.g. Microsoft Office and OpenOffice), price is the determining factor."
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As always, KDE leads the way (Score:5, Funny)
Look, it's simple: 3.0 is not really 3.0, but it should be considered 3.0-developer-alpha-gold. The next release will be 3.2-beta-silver-GTi, followed quickly by 3.1.1.0-gold-gold-always-believe-in-your-soul, which may (or may not) be ready for end users. Provided no show-stopper bugs are found in that (& if they are they'll just be re-classified as "WORKSFORME" and the submitter flamed), the final 3.0.1.45 version will be released to end users (apart from those in Arizona and Ohio. They have to wait for 3.1.5)
This is so obvious you'd have to be an idiot not to understand it! Duh!
Johnny Walker (Score:5, Funny)
They should just kill the minor versioning altogether and move to a "red label"/"black label" system.
Parent
Google Cache of Mirror List (Score:5, Informative)
http://74.125.113.104/search?q=cache:chsA7FTyP3wJ:distribution.openoffice.org/mirrors/+mirrors+openoffice&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us [74.125.113.104]
Re:Google Cache of Mirror List (Score:4, Informative)
RSS feed of torrents for all platforms:
http://borft.student.utwente.nl/~mike/oo/bt.rss [utwente.nl]
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A link? Simply do:
eix-sync && emerge -autv openoffice
Do you still live in the stone age or what? ;)
Great ... err ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Or it will be once the openoffice.org sysadmin fixes their server. Major egg on the face there.
Anyway, this release has one feature that I've been longing after for years now: proper support for marginal comments.
While OO.o has long been capable of opening documents with comments in them, the user interface for reading those comments sucked HARD. The presence of a note was indicated by a tiny, light yellow rectangle at the end of the sentence. Easy to miss. And then if you wanted to actually read the comment, you had to hover your mouse over it to trigger a small yellow pop-up box containing the comment text (which would be cut off if it was a long comment). Basically, actually READING a commented document in OO.o was not practical.
This new version is much, much better. I tried it out using one of the copies that hit the mirrors before the official release, and it's soooo much better. Comments now actually show up in the margins, they've got little lines connecting them to the section of the document they apply to, and they're color coded by author. Hallelujah! Now I can finally quit depending on Word for grading student papers.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So as a newbie to this free software; open software paradigm:
- Can I use OpenOffice to create "Word formatted resumes" and forward them to potential employers? Or is this like when I used GEOSwrite, and nobody could read the file, except another Commodore 64 user?
Re:Great ... err ... (Score:5, Informative)
Btw, unless word is specifically requested, pdf resume's look a lot nicer.
Parent
Re:Great ... err ... (Score:5, Informative)
Can you explain how PDf resume's look a lot nicer? It's going to look the same as a printed copy which will look the same as the copy in the word processor you are printing it from.
If the word processor is Microsoft Word, that depends on whether the recipient has a) the same Word version and language (and therefore the same platform) b) the same printer model and c) the necessary fonts.
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PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
Send your resume as PDF. As long as even different Word versions can't open other Word files correctly there is no hope formatting will be preserved.
And if 'they' insist on Word files, you wouldn't want to work there anyway, as they are clearly deluded and stupid beyond measure.
Not kidding either, actually.
Parent
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
Wrong. It means they are used to paying more than they should for things. Sounds like a great environment for negotiating a starting salary in.
Parent
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
If you only look for money, instead of quality of life...
Parent
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes...
Using word also forces you to use windows (yes i am aware there is a very different and not fully compatible mac version)... So it takes away your freedom to choose your operating platform...
It also makes it much harder to write standalone scripts to parse the documents, and if you want to use macros (which require the entire runtime bloat of word running) you only have one language you can use, which is going to be deprecated soon (and the mac version has its own incompatible language for macros).
I can be far more productive in my job with a linux workstation and files in open easily manipulated formats.
Parent
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
As for not wanting to work for a company that insists on MS docs... well. That really only speaks to how HR works. I work for a staffing company that mainly supplies employees for IBM. I'm a tester in IBM's superlab. I get to play with big iron servers: stuff like quad 6-core machines (yeah, 24 cores in a rackmount system). I use linux for my workstation with no problems. I come in and leave when I wish (we report our time via a webapp) and as long as my work is done and I'm here when I say I'm here management has no problems.
Don't be so quick to judge a company.
Parent
Re:Can you spot the flaw in the reasoning? (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Great ... err ... (Score:4, Informative)
I think GeoWrite existed for Apple-II as well.
Anyway, yes, you can export them to a Word-compatible format, and since OpenOffice is using a standard file format, MS Word should be able to read it as well. Also, OpenOffice will create smaller and nicer Word-files than Word.
Parent
OO.o makes great .doc resumes! (Score:5, Funny)
I make my resume in OO.o and save it to .ODF.
I then take screenshots of it (or print to postscript), then paste the cropped screenshots into OO.o and save that result as a .DOC file.
And hey, it keeps formatting exactly as you want it! :)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You'd be surprised, windows is about the only os that doesn't have a pdf viewer by default these days.
PDF (Score:5, Interesting)
The only thing of any interest, then, is the PDF import/editing/export. Ironic, considering that the ad's on /. for this article seemed to consist mostly of Adobe Acrobat ads...
But if it really *can* import any PDF, allow basic editing and export, that could really be a boon. Other apps that allow that are either incredibly expensive, horrible to use or just too out-of-date. Does it support "encrypted" PDF's if you have the passwords, etc.? Does it allow image/text editing/extraction from a PDF? If so, then this update would be worth it for that alone.
The rest is just eye candy and basic bug fixes (e.g. >256 columns in Calc).
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
The things that pays for the bandwidth, servers, and salaries of those that run Slashdot.
I would really like to white list Slashdot but every time I have tried they put up some stupid animated banner.
Really is too bad since I would bet the ads on Slashdot are for things I may be interested in.
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
(Also, it's 'ads' and PDFs -- plural form, and not possessive form or a conjunction.)
Indeed, poor word usage and grammar in a posting about an office suite is ironic.
Re:PDF (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, it can really import PDF's
tested this out on the RC's (haven't tested the final release yet) and it worked OK
not great, but OK
there seemed to be no problem at all loading a simple PDF'd document or spreadsheet
importing took a little longer than I'd have hoped, but I got a fully editable document, formatting intact
just for kicks, I loaded the PDF of my motherboard manual into OO.o just to see
and while I did get editable text, it did not do particularly well on complex formatting
in particular, changes in page orientation & dimensions threw it, resulting in some pages being malformed
Just from briefly playing around with it, I've found the following:
- Importing a PDF'd spreadsheet gets you a tabulated word processing document, with spreadsheet rows & columns made up of drawing lines and text in textboxes
- sometimes (haven't been able to narrow down what causes it) random spaces are inserted into words
"Some text" may become "Som e te xt"
- Borders around objects (textboxes, shapes) are sometimes inconsistent
- no support for transparent PNG's (alpha channel turns to solid black)
Parent
Its useful to update version numbers... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll wait a few days for fixes (Score:5, Funny)
In a few days 3.01, 3.02 and 3.03 will be coming out, so I'll wait for those fixes to come out before I put down my hard-earned money
Re:I'll wait a few days for fixes (Score:5, Funny)
You jest, but $0 here, $0 there might start to add up. Sure it's not much money to some, but unlike many other computer users I already spent $0 on my operating system, $0 on my DVR software, and $0 on nearly every application I run. Now OOo is asking for yet another $0 just to run their little "Office suite".
Parent
Re:I'll wait a few days for fixes (Score:5, Funny)
You're the reason the economy is tanking! You must consume and spend lots of money! All this irresponsible zero expenditures are the cause of all our woes! Oh I'm sure the overspending by Congress plays a small role, but you are just plain EVIL!!!
Parent
Best feature for me? (Score:4, Insightful)
That alone for me is worth the upgrade for me, as I can now see two full size A4 pages on my monitor at home whilst typing. Thanks guys! that was a major annoyance with me.
OOXML *is* controversial and I expect a flame war - but they have read-only and I suspect it is a justified inclusion simply to keep abreast of current MS Office and help encourage adoption. I predict MS will be coming out with lots of new versions of this format, so lets see them keep pace....
Re:Best feature for me? (Score:4, Interesting)
Ah OOXML support - So now even though I have licences for 4 different versions of MS Office I can now only read the documents people send me, by using a free program..... don't you just love Microsoft ....
Parent
Re:Best feature for me? (Score:4, Insightful)
Hell, .docx can't be opened by half of a typical office staff now, even sans OOo (you know, where the execs and wannabes thereof rush out and get/requisition MS Office 2k7, but the rest of the office gets by on Office 2k3? Yep - I know there's patches for it, but apparently MSFT hadn't bothered to push it via Windows Update... I think they're kinda torn between wanting to sell 2k7 licenses and trying to push the format.)
Even now, any document that you want to send outside of the company or for others' use, you send in "Office 97-2003" (plain ol' .doc) just to make sure the recipient has at least some hope of reading the thing... I just do PDF; makes it easier all around.
To be honest, read-only of the .docx format is all that OOo actually needs. Then if you get a file ending in .docx, you send back the changes in PDF, then watch as the recipient gets all red-faced and demands to know why you did that (evil grin).
Methinks it'll come to a head sooner or later.
Parent
Torrent link (Score:3, Informative)
Openoffice.org has been KO'd. Here's where you can snag a torrent file though:
http://borft.student.utwente.nl/~adrian/bt.php [utwente.nl]
Still Has The 6.5-Year-Old Lethal Bug? (Score:4, Interesting)
I registered a bug with OO 6.5 years ago [openoffice.org], still unfixed, that causes spreadsheets to give utterly wrong results in even the simplest calculations. Sometimes OO treats a number as a string, and assigns it a value of "0" in calculations, e.g., 1+1 could equal 0 or 1.
Either OO should throw an error "can't treat a string as a number" or it should guess the number of the string is a valid number. But a major undetectable error like this is murderous, as has been testified to by the folks reporting the same bug after I did.
(Note the OO bug tracker seems to be having problems at this moment, so the link doesn't work.)
OOXML (Score:5, Funny)
OpenOffice.org: "It's fully compliant and supports Microsoft OOXML file format."
Microsoft: "AHAAAAHH!! That's not possible. Uh, ... I mean ... uh, ..." (Psst, hey, did we miss something? How'd they do that?)
Re:Forbidden (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Forbidden (Score:5, Funny)
ContentHelmNoodle?! WTF?
The next thing we'll be serving our pages with ParkingBrakeTurboAubergines.
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The Squeeze (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they should have just eaten a lot of prunes.
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Re:Forbidden (Score:5, Funny)
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NO ! It's a miracle ! (Score:5, Funny)
Despite your atheist propaganda, you cannot deny that we whitnessing a miragulous miracle of HIs widsom and glory in full extend.
HIs noodle appendages haveth thouched the server and thus it displays his words to enlighten the unbelievers.
Behold the word: "ContentHelmNoodle"
In this time of unrest and crisis his tells us to trust in his tomatoe sauce and that we will be protected by his mercy and meatballs.
Parent
Re:OOXML (Score:5, Insightful)
"How could they possibly implement OOXML support in OpenOffice? We've been hearing over and over how the OOXML spec is so convoluted and ill-specified that it is impossible for anyone but Microsoft to implement!"
I know you're a troll, but I'll bite back...
This may be be the first actual OOXML IMPLEMENTATION in a release version of ANY office suite... ;-)
Parent
Re:OOXML (Score:4, Insightful)
People say that it's a bogus standard because no one but Microsoft can really ever claim to have 100% compatibility.
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Re:OOXML (Score:5, Informative)
The Linux Format article says it can import docx, pptx etc., which means they are Microsoft Office 2007 XML files, and not OOXML, the Published Standard.
Flawed summary.
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Re:OOXML (Score:4, Informative)
The Linux Format article says it can import docx, pptx etc., which means they are Microsoft Office 2007 XML files, and not OOXML, the Published Standard.
Office 2007 OOXML files *are* a published standard -- the published standard in question being ECMA 376.
If what you actually meant was "...not OOXML, the Published ISO Standard", then say what you mean. But your original comment could be understood as saying that the spec Office 2007 uses is unpublished, wihch is obviously wrong.
(Not to mention that even saying that is ambiguous -- does "The ISO standard" refer to ISO 29500/Transitional or ISO 29500/Strict? The former is practically identical to ECMA 376, with the exception of minor tag semantic cleanup; whereas the latter is significantly different).
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Pre-Slashdotted (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, it was down before Slashdot posted the story. I tried to access it a couple of hours ago, and it was down then. (Albeit without the ContentHelmNoodle error.)
Check your local friendly mirror. ;-)
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Re:Pre-Slashdotted (Score:5, Funny)
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Startup time seems fixed (Score:4, Informative)
On a stock Dell low-end Dimension C521 running Vista Business, Open Office Writer loads in 9 seconds the first time, and in 1 second thereafter. Not really an issue anymore. Most of my apps take 5-10 seconds to start on this box.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like the default settings suck.
Its a fucking word processor - you shouldn't have to nergle your snerds correctly to get it working.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends on the dates of their next releases, I would think. Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) might have a fighting chance to have it included in its release at the end of October, there are already testing previews (ppa's). But then, 8.10 is an in-between release that does not promise maximum correctness, so they can afford to take some risks.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)