Montag November 20, 2006

Welsh OpenOffice.org released
A Welsh version of OpenOffice.org 2.0 has just been released:
"Agored is office software for the bilingual office in Wales. It is being developed from OpenOffice.org 2.0 which is an international package that has been translated into over 50 languages."

The announcement can be found here:
"Agored, a new free office software suite is being launched today by Culture Minister Alun Pugh. The suite, a Welsh and English dual-language version of the OpenOffice suite used worldwide, has been developed over the past two years at the Mercator Centre, University of Wales, Aberystwyth."
( Nov 20 2006, 06:41:41 PM CET ) Permalink

New German open source study
I just came across this article which talks about a new German open source study. Here is a key quote from the article:

"Around 47 per cent of the 115 public administrations polled for the study "Structural Change or Flash in the Pan?" said they estimate cost savings potential of more than 50 per cent by using open-source software. Nearly 60 per cent said they plan to deploy open-source software as part of the medium or long-term IT strategy."
( Nov 20 2006, 05:14:46 PM CET ) Permalink

Bruce Byfield about printing spreadsheets
Here is another OpenOffice.org article by Bruce Byfield. This time he writes about printing spreadsheets:

"Spreadsheets are primarily used online. For this reason, printing them can be challenging even to experienced users. However, OpenOffice.org offers more help than most spreadsheets with printing, starting with the introduction of page styles. In this entry, I'll explain how Calc page styles can help with printing spreadsheets. In Part II, I'll continue by explaining the other tools available for printing in Calc."
( Nov 20 2006, 05:09:37 PM CET ) Permalink

MySQL AB joined ODF Alliance
I just noticed that MySQL AB also joined the ODF Alliance. AFAIK, the alliance now has more than 340 members.
( Nov 20 2006, 05:06:55 PM CET ) Permalink

Interview regarding ODF viewer for Symbian OS
I just found this interesting interview:

"Richard: So how did you identify the demand for a mobile OpenDocuments application?

Maximilian: I believe that OpenOffice is going to spread widely. SUN and IBM are pushing it. I see it being adopted by many businesses and in the government sector, where they are switching from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice because of licensing costs. So it just seemed like a good idea to create OpenDocument support for Symbian OS and it appears to have been a good decision. I've had feedback from as far away as Australia, where one company has asked about a corporate license, as have several others. So there seems to be a demand for OpenDocument support on Symbian OS.

Richard: As OpenOffice is an open source application, was this an advantage?

Maximilian: Not from a code point of view, as we could not use the open source code in any way. However, the fact that the OpenDocument specification is freely and fully available was a great benefit.

We did look at whether it was feasible to use any of the open source code; I still have it here on my laptop. However a mobile device is very different from a PC, I'm sure that if we had used the original code we would have not achieved the performance we have, Mobile Office is pretty fast. So it is written from scratch in native Symbian C++."
( Nov 20 2006, 05:03:50 PM CET ) Permalink