OpenOffice.org 3.0 Is Officially Here 284
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?"
OOXML (Score:2, 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!
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: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... ;-)
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Google Cache of Mirror List (Score:3, Insightful)
A link? Simply do:
eix-sync && emerge -autv openoffice
Do you still live in the stone age or what? ;)
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.
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.
Re:Faster loading? (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:Its useful to update version numbers... (Score:1, Insightful)
Why off-topic has he is on-topic? Has he express his opinion on the numbering of this new version with an anecdote. Continuing on the question of "Linux Format" about if the version can or can't be a 3.0...
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.
Re:PDF (Score:5, Insightful)
If you only look for money, instead of quality of life...
Re:PDF (Score:2, Insightful)
I think you have it wrong. Since the spend too much for software, they save by offering lower salaries. Look elsewhere.
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.
Re:Great ... err ... (Score:2, Insightful)
You can't get reliable and consistent documents from Word...if I print a document to a printer, that same document will look different when sent to another printer. It's damn near impossible for me to do a simple page replacement in a report without finding out who/where the original was printed because the pagination never matches.
Stick to PDF if you're trying to impress a potential employer.
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.
Re:PDF (Score:1, Insightful)
The stuff I look at to pay for your bandwidth, moron.
Re:I'll wait a few days for fixes (Score:1, Insightful)
Apparently your time isn't worth anything. For me it takes time to have to recompile my kernel so I can upgrade from 3.00 to 3.01 while still maintaining Wireless support. I'd hate to have to recompile again when 3.02 comes out to maintain bluetooth, which is why I'm going to wait on this one.
Re:PDF (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:PDF (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not what people want. I get asked endlessly by differnet people in different places for a program which can take in a hundred-page PDF and, for example, change just one word, correct one spelling mistake, etc. Most of the time it's nigh-on impossible to do in a non-technical way when PDF is really no worse a format than a Word document or a Powerpoint presentation. The only real product that can do it reliably is Adobe Acrobat itself, which is prohibitively expensive for such small changes.
All I want is a program that can take a PDF, change parts of the text, and not have the formatting go to hell. I want "lossless" editing where the PDF I export is identical in quality to the PDF I imported. Inkscape can't do that. OpenOffice's filters look like they can. If they can do that, Adobe will lose an awful lot of money very quickly. There are shareware apps that claim to be able to do it but they inevitably screw even the simplest of documents up.