Donnerstag Mai 15, 2008

Another cool OpenOffice.org review
"The first noticeable item is how quickly OpenOffice 3.0 beta loads, even when compared with Microsoft Office 2008. In less than five seconds you are at the welcome screen ready to create your next masterpiece. Where the X11 interface felt choppy and looked…like an X11 interface, OO 3.0 definitely looks and feels like a fully integrated Aqua application, with menus being very responsive and keyboard shortcuts working (mostly - hey, it’s beta) as expected. How does each behave in this newly integrated world? Let’s take a look.
...
I was truly impressed by just how well the two programs worked together, making me a bit more confident if I ever have to use OO 3.0 to edit/share docs with others. I did not have an opportunity to test the new collaboration (i.e. track/merge) feature.
...
Some features spread across the individual components and others were just noteworthy or interesting. For example, when comparing the PDF export feature in Calc, it wound up creating a smaller file than the OS X “print to PDF” option and created table of contents labels based on the spreadsheet tab names."

Found here.
( Mai 15 2008, 01:10:34 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

More OpenOffice.org 3.0 on Mac OS X Feedback
"Just a few words here... The Openoffice Aqua is still only an alpha version, - not even a beta.:-)

but when this said, I can only say that the last build of OpenOffice 3.0 Aqua is running very, very stable on both OS X 10.4.11PPC/10.5.2PPC as well as on a MacPro with both 10.4.11 and 10.5.2.

It is more that three times as fast as NeoOffice and more than twice as fast than both MSOffice 2004 and 2008! - And until now i haven't had a single 'unexpected quit' with the last two builds of OOo3.0. - Also the fonts handling is quite a lot better than in NeoOffice and MSO2004/2008. - I have apprx. 1550 fonts active in my main set, and apprx. 23.000 fonts on the HD - all 100% managed by Linotype Fontexplorer.

So now printing with quite a lot of various fonts and various typefaces within the same font is just like a dream, though the OOo crew still tells us that printing can be a problem.:-)

So what can't we expect, when first OpenOffice 3.0 Final is released? - Mmmmm.... I can hardly wait.:-)"

Found here. What are your experiences on the Mac?
( Mai 15 2008, 12:41:51 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Cool OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta Feedback
I just came across the following OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta feedback:

"I've been using the beta version of Open Office 3 for a week now and am quite impressed. It is a Mac-native build that doesn't require X11. It seems quite stable and noticeably faster than NeoOffice and Office 2008. There's no Entourage equivalent but an interesting database component. The spreadsheet and presentation components seem more or less equivalent to Office. And OO does have a pretty robust macro system built in.

The database component isn't really a complete db in and of itself, rather a front end that connects to database servers like MySQL. As such it requires a bit more technical savvy than the average user is likely to have, but opens interesting possibilities for custom database management.

Import and export of OO and Office files is very good. I'm worked with some heavily formatted Word files and a reasonably complex Excel spreadsheet. OO maintained the formatting and formulas better than iWork 08.

OO has a seemingly deep built in help system that provides on-hover pop up boxes that explain extra functionality.

As an open source project the fit and finish are not up to Microsoft standards let alone Apple's, but OO is not butt ugly either.

My biggest quibble is that scrolling with a scroll wheel is slow, even on 5 page Writer documents. Also the conversion between Windows/Linux conventions isn't complete. When mousing over an embedded hyperlink, OO instructed me to "Ctrl-click" on the link to open it in my browser. Oops. With a Mac that's Cmd (command)-click. (I did submit a bug ticket)

Still, I'm very impressed with the first public release beta of OO for OS X. It is both faster and more stable than the Office 08 demo I tried out. Since I'm not working in a corporate setting and don't need absolute compatibility with Microsoft, I see no reason to purchase Office 2008 for an Intel native office suite. The presentation module isn't near as slick as Keynote but the word processing and spreadsheets are more capable than Pages and Numbers. If you need that extra functionality then give OO a try."

Pretty cool! I found the feedback on this page.
( Mai 15 2008, 12:38:32 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Mittwoch Mai 14, 2008

OpenSolaris running on popular Eee PC
Very cool! I just found out that OpenSolaris can be installed on the popular Asus Eee PC. Yesterday at the local book store I also noticed the first books about the Eee PC showing up on the shelves. During my recent trip to the US, I noticed the Eee PC everywhere, at JavaOne, at Starbucks, etc. For example, I asked the guy at Starbucks how happy he was with the pre-installed OpenOffice.org. He told me that he is extremely happy and that he is recommending OpenOffice.org to all his friends. He also recommends OpenOffice.org to all his evening class students. Thus, it's nice to see the Eee PC have such a positive impact on OpenOffice.org's market share.
( Mai 14 2008, 07:19:06 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Donnerstag Mai 08, 2008

199 Euro laptop with OpenOffice.org pre-installed
I just found about this offer in Germany. A vendor called "one" is selling a low-cost laptop with Linux and OpenOffice.org pre-installed for 199 Euro. This special offer lasts until May 12th according to the website. Cool to see more and more hardware vendors bundle OpenOffice.org!
( Mai 08 2008, 06:32:36 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

New ODF API available
A new ODF API just became available. A first preview version of ODFDOM has just been released.
( Mai 08 2008, 01:56:13 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Mittwoch Mai 07, 2008

Running different operating systems in parallel
In case you did not notice, a new version of VirtualBox just came out. I use VirtualBox on my MacBook to also run Windows, Linux and OpenSolaris, so that I can easily take screenshots on other platforms or test software on other platforms. For example users might want to test the new OpenSolaris using VirtualBox. VitualBox definitely has made my life much easier!
( Mai 07 2008, 03:44:47 PM CEST ) Permalink

Groovy For OpenOffice.org
Cool! With it's now even possible to use Groovy for OpenOffice.org programming. The website says: "Groovy For OpenOffice is an OpenOffice Extension that adds support for scripting OpenOffice Macros in Groovy".
( Mai 07 2008, 03:36:05 PM CEST ) Permalink

Useful MySQL / OpenOffice.org Tutorial
Roland Bouman wrote a very nice tutorial about using MySQL in connection with OpenOffice.org. Here is a short extract:


"Of course, I do not want to suggest that MySQL "...is a Desktop Database", because it's not. Rather, MySQL is a general-purpose database, so there's no reason at all to dismiss it for typical "Desktop Database" purposes.

Even though MySQL is a server product, MySQL resembles a typical Desktop Database in a number of ways. For example, MySQL is not extravagantly resource-hungry, and does not require much maintenance - (not for this purpose anyway). So, there's not much against using MySQL here.

In fact, it's probably a good idea to back your Desktop Database applications with MySQL. A lot of the typical problems (resource contention due to locking, file corruption due to crashing application programs, scale limits, and much much more) that you encounter as these applications grow larger, are either not-existent or easily solved using a server solution such as MySQL.

So - let's dive in, and see what it takes to use MySQL in the daily office. Oh yeah - I once did a write-up on connecting MS Access and MySQL. This time, we won't be using MS Office at all. We'll use OpenOffice.org instead."
( Mai 07 2008, 03:30:39 PM CEST ) Permalink

OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta now available for download!
As can be read in the announcement, OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta is now available. Considering these customer reviews at Amazon, I have the feeling that the Mac version of OpenOffice.org will become very popular!
( Mai 07 2008, 03:23:59 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Freitag Mai 02, 2008

"ODF Validation for Dummies"
Here is Rob Weir's answer to Alex Brown's validation test.
( Mai 02 2008, 07:10:12 PM CEST ) Permalink

Mittwoch April 30, 2008

"Wiki page for OpenOffice adoption in Malaysia"
I just became aware of this "Wiki page for OpenOffice adoption in Malaysia". Very cool! I hope I'll soon find some time to copy the names to the OpenOffice.org "Market Share Analysis" wiki page and/or "Major OpenOffice.org Deployments" wiki page.
( Apr 30 2008, 01:40:03 PM CEST ) Permalink

Dienstag April 29, 2008

ODF Development using Perl, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, etc.
In case you're a developer and are looking for libraries simplifying ODF development with technologies like Perl, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, etc., you should check out this summary of ODF tools and libraries. BTW, most of these efforts are open source projects. Thus, if you have a little bit of spare time, feel free to join the projects!
( Apr 29 2008, 07:48:44 PM CEST ) Permalink

Freitag April 25, 2008

ODFDOM to become available in May 2008
I already mentioned jOpenDocument today. Here is another piece of news for developers. A first preview release of ODFDOM will become available in May 2008. In case you don't know what ODFDOM is, check out the ODFDOM wiki page on OpenOffice.org.
( Apr 25 2008, 02:39:24 PM CEST ) Permalink

"A pure Java library for OASIS Open Document files manipulation"
More and more ODF tools and libraries are emerging. I just came across jOpenDocument which sounds promising. On the homepage it describes itself as "A pure Java library for OASIS Open Document files manipulation". Developers should also keep their eyes open for more news from the OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit Project. In addition, there are ODF tools available for Perl developers and for PHP developers (check out this and this). BTW, if you know of any tools for ODF development or applications supporting ODF, make sure they are listed at opendocument.xml.org.
( Apr 25 2008, 10:41:33 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]