OpenOffice 2.2 Released 291
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."
probably (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Made me stick to LaTeX for all my technical writing.
Side note: No MS-Office Component can handle EPS, despite of what some people claim. Some can handle EPSI, which is EPS with an embedde bit-image for non-EPS capable applications.
Re: (Score:2)
(this can be different in Linux, where there often is a "virtual" postscript printer that uses ghostscript to convert to the printer-specific format before sending it to the printer. but this depends on the spooler configuration which usually depends on the particular distribution and the printer installation wizard they use)
It's nearly unusuable. (Score:5, Interesting)
This is pretty bad. It takes three to four seconds for the menus to appear, even after opening them several times. There's a noticeable delay when typing. It actually reminds me of college, when we had to use the teletypes connected to the DEC PDP-whatever, and there were 45 other users connected.
Anyway, does anyone know what might be causing these problems? KOffice runs just fine, as done AbiWord. I know my system isn't the fastest, but 1 GHz should be more than sufficient for an office suite. I haven't used previous versions of OpenOffice, so I don't know how they compare to this release. Regardless, I am not impressed. Could these speed problems be due to OpenOffice's supposed use of Java for certain tasks?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's nearly unusuable. (Score:5, Informative)
Office Mac 2004 (I'm assuming that's what you are using) was compiled for PowerPC, therefore the Rosetta PPC emulation layer is executing the program. Even the best PPC emulation can come close to but is not going to match the "real thing". (http://www.emaculation.com/ppc.php [emaculation.com]) I run MS Word for Mac 2004 on a G3/266 (OS 10.2.8 w/ 384MB RAM) and it is fairly snappy. Using the MS office suite on Intel based macs will get better when the next version comes out, since it will be a Universal application ("Fat binary").
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's nearly unusuable. (Score:5, Informative)
On the Mac? First, you don't want to use that on the Mac. Try NeoOffice [neooffice.org] instead. That will keep you from having to run X11. Second, for all the nice things I would want to say about NeoOffice, it's not exactly snappy.
Really, I use NeoOffice. I've donated to the project. I'm grateful for all the good work they've done. But even the Intel-native version doesn't run any faster than Word 2004.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It's nearly unusuable. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
File -> Tools -> Options -> Memory
Increase the values of: Use for OpenOffice.org
from the default value to something like 64MB or more.
YMMV.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not saying OpenOffice hasn't been bloated and slow to start--but this is a huge improvement. I'm happy.
Plus, it IS free (beer/source)...
Re:How do other heavy Java apps perform? (Score:5, Informative)
OpenOffice isn't what you'd call a pleasant experience to hack on (some might blame the closed source roots where it would mostly be the same group of developers for a long period of time that are paid to work on it).
Re:How do other heavy Java apps perform? (Score:5, Informative)
> (some might blame the closed source roots where it would mostly be
> the same group of developers for a long period of time that are paid
> to work on it).
I would blame the fact that it is a very diverse and unique code base. It is mostly C++ but it is not based on any common libraries. Even for their GUI they decided to completely go it alone, which means that they make no contributions back to any libraries, and learning to hack it is very hard. At one point they considered switching to standard libraries but then didn't get around to following through. And then they started adding Java everywhere they could.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:How do other heavy Java apps perform? (Score:5, Informative)
That's wrong. StarOffice was developed by a company called StarDivision in Germany in 1986. Sun didn't enter the picture until 1999.
See here [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
According to Wikipedia you need Java for some database access, latex, xslt and some other filters, accessability tools, the media player (not on all platforms) and scripting in Beanshell.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
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?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a big fan of Java and I don't recall seeing any high-performance Java apps, but I certainly wouldn't proclaim any other languages/libraries/frameworks as "the best desktop software development system in existence". You want to justify that conclusion a bit, or should we just take your word for it.
Re:How do other heavy Java apps perform? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah if you ignore the 2gigs of swap vista uses on boot.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Equation editing in Open Office (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Equation editing in Open Office (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Equation editing in Open Office (Score:4, Informative)
It was a pleasant surprise for me when I switched to LaTeX and found I already knew all of the equation syntax.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
One thing I like about Word's equation editor is that it shows up instantly as you type, OO'o, while I prefer the way equations are written in it (since I'm a coder), is incredibly slow in actually showing me what the equation looks like.
Give me oo's syntax, with Word's speed, and I'll be happy =)
Nice :) (Score:5, Interesting)
To the first poster: No, I assure you it is NOT 100% compatible with all the bells, whistles, proprietary hidden tags, and closed formats of Office 2007. Nothing short of MS switching to ODF will allow that to happen. It WILL however, produce
Hmmm, methinks we need more ODFmentation in online manuals. The switching by several European goverments is a good start....
Re: (Score:2)
> that call me asking for a "real" word processor after they bought their
> bottom-dollar Dell have complained that many of the fonts "look funny".
> Personally, that was my only complaint about OO. Many times, during an
> edit, I would try to delete that small space between characters thinking
> I had fat-fingered the space bar while typing.
Pheeeh. You shouldn't be bothered about shit like that when writing. When you actua
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Equations still aren't fixed (Score:3, Informative)
I've never had any other sort of display problem with OOo. It's still a good program.
*All Windows machines... The one time I opened a
Re:Equations still aren't fixed (Score:4, Interesting)
I've been extremely happy with the 2.1 version of OOo, and I can't wait to try out 2.2.
I do wish their revision log were better written, though...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Equations still aren't fixed (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
"GNU called. They want their snooty arrogance back!"
Face it. Complex systems become mostly worked out, and then smart experts create turn-key implementations of said systems, which after ten years or so are better than what an expert could do themselves. It happened with assembly lines. It happened with automobiles. And it happened with computers, more than ten years ago.
(And a computer really isn't THAT complicated. It's not ma
Re: (Score:2)
Spoken like one of the laypeople or MCSE's I spoke to earlier. Next thing you know you'll be telling me how frontpage allows laypeople to design webpages. Just watch any real web coder cringe at that claim.
'which after ten years or so are better than what an expert could do themselves. It happened with assembly lines'
This must be in some strange alternate universe that you live in. Where I live custom built automobiles far exceed the cookie cutter ve
Re: (Score:2)
That is only true of old people. Young people aren't afraid of the computer at all and they are more dangerous than the old people for preciously that reason. The old people think that just because the young people can figure out how to install a webcam and use a few applications they downloaded from the internet (along with all the spyware that came with those applications) that they are competent.
Not bei
You're just playing with yourselves (Score:2)
Equations ROCK in Office 2007 (Score:2)
More than money (Score:2)
Re:More than money (Score:5, Interesting)
OO's word processer and spreadsheet are pretty much on par with Microsoft. If those are the only components of office you regularly use, you probably shouldn't be shelling out for MS Office, period.
I can't speak to OO's powerpoint equivalent - I hear its decent on its own, but not as compatible with MS as it should be. So if you need to create and present powerpoint its fine, but if you need to share power point with others its not as good. (Although OO is free so there is nothing stopping the people who you need to share with from getting their own copy - this may or may not be practical depending on who you have to share with. Conversely if you only need to view other peoples powerpoint stuff then you can use MS's free powerpoint viewer.
The real OO killer in business is Outlook. Businesses essentially buy outlook and get the rest of office for free. And outlook is tough to unseat, there aren't a lot of great alternatives, especially once you start looking for groupware features, calendering, and PDA sync support.
But for home users, where most of them are on webmail/gmail/msnlive/whatever, outlook express, or are just using outlook as POP3 client, OO is a great alternative.
That said, even in business Office isn't unkillable -- Exchange web access is rapidly reaching the point of unseating outlook, PDA sync is becoming wireless direct with the server, and if outlook takes a fall then evaulating Office v OO becomes a much more level playing field.
Meanwhile, in the home market, Microsofts increasingly aggressive anti-piracy moves are finally starting to shift people away. It used to be that everyone had a pirated version of Office at home, but as these become more of nuisance to use, users are starting to open up to alternatives instead of shelling out for office or fighting with Genuine (dis)Advantage.
But I think the biggest thing OO needs is some advertising to build some brand awareness and credibility. Couple that with a pre-installation deal with the likes of Dell or HP and they could make some serious inroads.
Re:More than money (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I find the graphing feature in both of them too annoying to use except for basic data visualization, in which case either are perfectly adequate.
Its true Excel's extra options get one closer to 'presentation quality results' but not close enough.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes but I wonder why? Evolution was good but I've never seen an actual cross-platform open source attempt usurp outlook. If you had a cross-platform backend that provided groupware and email functionality then I could use your app tomorrow. The only thing that keeps exchange in most offices is the fact that you need it for groupware functiona
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Tangent: Office 2007 (Score:2)
Having played with Office 2007 a little bit, I feel like they were mostly trying to get two things done:
1) Improve the UI. I can't think of anything I ever wanted Office 2003 to do that it wouldn't do -- but figuring out how the hell to make it happen, that was the rub.
2) Open up the APIs better from a developer perspective and make it easy to write other programs that interact with Office easily, such as p
I disagree (Score:4, Interesting)
So have they fixed... (Score:5, Interesting)
So, I have just two questions:
Firstly, does anyone have a useful, user-focused summary of the new features, instead of the cryptic mess on the development site?
And secondly, have they fixed PDF export bug in Writer that we were discussing here the other day [slashdot.org]? The bug database suggests not. :-(
Open Office (Score:4, Interesting)
Just yesterday she was telling me that she doesn't like it and wants Microsoft Office (for Word and Excel). Open Office is slow and ugly, according to her, and the default font size in Writer is way too small.
Re:Open Office (Score:5, Funny)
RMS (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I see your point (Score:2)
Seriously, I understand that people have preferences. But every time I hear that someone doesn't want to use OpenOffice, or Linux, or even LaTeX, and that this is a reason wh
Re: (Score:2)
Let's have a look at your program, then...?
Open office is a pretty damned good program considering the PRICE. Yes it's missing bells and whistles. Yes there are a few bugs in there. But instead of saying how crappy it is, you are invited to contribute to the development process. Perhaps that way when Microsoft decides to tax you again, a non "crappy" alternative will be available.
PDF = wow! (Score:2)
Wow, I just glanced at it, but this whole "pee-dee-eff" thing looks like it might do well...
Document exchange with Word 2003 and below... (Score:5, Informative)
Disappointing - can't even install (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway I still haven't managed to install.
On running the install it complained there was no disc in my CD drive. I closed it - it had a Hiren's boot disk in there - installation proceeded. Why on earth is it insisting on the CD door being closed?
Then the install tried to clean up my OO 2.0 install. (I'm using 2.1) It asked for the location - in my temp folder - of the OO 2.0 install files. Of course they were deleted long ago - they were in temp folder - where OO 2.0 put them. I pressed cancel thinking the installation would handle this gracefully but
No, install was aborted. Still haven't checked out OpenOffice 2.2
Re: (Score:2)
Rather I was using OO 2.1. OpenOffice just uninstalled it for me. Now I'm left with an uninstallable OO 2.0. Welcome to the OpenOffice downgrade wizard!
'a real alternative to Office 2007'
Re: (Score:2)
This should be a capital offence, by the way...
"Linux" category inaccurate (Score:5, Informative)
OOo runs on Solaris as well (Score:2)
OOo runs on both Solaris/Sparc and Solaris/x86 - both Sparc and x86 versions will work on 32 bit or
Numeric keypad still unusable in Calc (Score:5, Interesting)
This has been a bug (submitted by myself and many, many others) since before 1.0 came out.
Re:Numeric keypad still unusable in Calc (Score:5, Interesting)
And don't get me started about the graphing function. Here's a fun parlor trick. Using Calc, make a couple of columns of about 2000 numbers each. Then highlight them and graph them as lines. Be prepared to wait awhile. Go get a coffee. Maybe read War and Peace. And no, your computer didn't crash even though the UI is frozen
Another parlor trick with Calc. Save those two columns of numbers as a CSV file. Exit Calc. Change the CSV file to read only. Now open it with Calc. Try to graph it again. Note how it lets you highlight and select graph... and then
Excel sucks, it has no games. (Score:2)
Comma is the decimal separator in Europe (Score:5, Informative)
In most European countries the comma is used as the decimal separator. Three thousand dollar and twenty-five cents would be $3.000,25 (not $3,000.25 you might be used to). In a locale that does this Excel uses the semi-colon too.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's it. I'm not using Open Office until someone in their organization can explain to me why they hate America.
For the "it looks different than word" (Score:2, Interesting)
i just told them it was the new version and they were satisfied.
like most people, they dont mind different and new, as long as they feel like its not too different and new.
And STILL no OpenType support on OS X (Score:3, Interesting)
I realize that the Windows port uses the Windows font API, and thus provides the ability that way. NeoOffice does the same on OS X. Yes, it's not so easy to use OS X Core services from X11, but why not switch to a decent type library like FreeType that already has the support? Not robust enough for typography? I just don't get it. You would think this would be a priority.
Re: (Score:2)
OOXML (Score:2, Interesting)
Family Guy (Score:2)
Office 2007 killer? Where's the video support? (Score:2)
Re:but (Score:5, Insightful)
HTH
How OpenOffice fixed my Word doc (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How OpenOffice fixed my Word doc (Score:5, Interesting)
Following the same logic (Score:4, Funny)
A: Why bother, Linux isn't 100% stable either.
The issue when deciding which to use is their relative compatibility.
Re:but (Score:5, Interesting)
While I agree with you about companies not switching, remember that there are other vectors for OO success. Where I am, in the world of VC funded startups and contractors, OO has become a defacto standard; nobody here pisses away money on word processors or spreadsheets. It all leads to PDF anyhow. Microsoft's stuff is too expensive, isolated to one platform and a security problem. OO is cheap, fast, portable and more than sufficient.
same experience here... (Score:5, Interesting)
$2 millions in funding (first round). I visited their office. 30 employees, 29 Windows machine, 1 MacOS X machine, 30 OOo installations, 30 Firefox. Why spend money on an Office suite that brings nothing but lock-in?
With the level of inefficient inertia plaguing big companies, I expect these to be amongst the last to switch. Though, well, some are leading the way (e.g., Peugeot-Citroen switching 20 000 desktops to Linux)
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't seem like a huge savings when put into perspective. But then again, My last business was started with less then $10,000. I think If i had 30 computers needing MS office, I would be about $5000 in debt from the start. And yes, contrary to popular belief, You don't have to be rich to own your own business. God knows you will be poor in the first couple years though
Re:2.2 - It does have one outline mode (Score:2, Informative)
Just double click on the page number on the botton of the screen and
select "Headings"; you will have buttons to show/hide levels and
promote/indent sections, move sections, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe macros actually save many people from pointless redundancy and massive headaches, and you don't really know what you're talking about. But nah, that couldn't be. Not on Slashdot...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
MS Office is great for writing memos or doing spreadsheets that would be better done in
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How does themes matter to anyone? thta is a way to kill productivity because they are trying adjust the damned theme instead of using the application
PS the ribbons menu is beyond idiotic
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Most of OpenType, unfortunately, making all the nice typographical features available in Microsoft's new Vista fonts (not to mention pro fonts from sources like Adobe) effectively inaccessible. Then again, MS missed that boat with Word 2007 too. That seems odd to me, given the emphasis BillG had put on readability issues and the hype surrounding the new fonts shipping and Vista's swanky new UI, but there you go.
Oh, and a decen
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the war is indeed over (Score:2)
Add that to the fact that, even if I hose my HD, I can boot into a Knoppix|Kanotix|Ubuntu|whatever CD|DVD and use MS Offi
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It was said earlier in the thread, but I think it bears repeating.
"You can't fight the future".
As OO.org or other, more nimble alternatives (like KOfice 2, which is coming to Windows [kde.org]) get better and better, it will approach (and perhaps even overtake) Microsoft's functionality.
Look at what happened with IE6; Firefox and Opera aren't just arguably better than IE6, they are a lot better. Obviously Microsoft put some money into making IE7 better, but Firefox and Opera are still better at rendering CSS we