Open Office
Open OfficeSee http://www.openoffice.org/ International Userforum: http://www.oooforum.org
See also StarOffice, OpenOfficeBase
The relationship between the previous version of StarOffice (5.2), the current OpenOffice (1.1.x), and the current StarOffice (StarOffice 7), is somewhat analogous to the relationship between NetScape 4.x, MozillaBrowser 1.x.x, and NetScape 6-7.x.
SunMicrosystems bought StarOffice from a company called StarDivision?, and released the source code. The OpenOffice project has fairly significantly modified the code, which forms the basis for the new releases of StarOffice. -- JosephDale
The most refreshing and revolutionary feature about both OpenOffice and StarOffice 6 is the abandonment of the proprietary binary format for user files, so well exploited by Microsoft over the last 10 or so years, and the (re)introduction of a pure ascii format, now updated to XML. This could be the most important change in computing philosophy for many years and could begin to break the monopoly that MS has enjoyed for so long.
The next version of MS Office will also use an XML file format
Anyone know if the two XML formats will be compatible? There is probably an infinite number of ways that XML could be used to define document structure.
No they won't be same. And only the Enterprise and Professional releases will have this support, not Standard. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/13/2031259&mode=thread&tid=109
Even if they are not, writing a translator should be trivial.
It is far from trivial. MicrosoftCorporation released the specs only to give a good impression, not because they wanted to help the competition. Still, it seems like OpenOfficeOrg post 1.1.x is doing pretty well in translating MicrosoftOffice files!
After looking at moderately complicated XML schemas (such as the DocBook DTD and the OpenOffice XML Specification) and looking at MicrosoftWords machine-generated HTML output, I'm guessing that writing a translator would not be trivial. It would take some hard work to create and maintain (perhaps an upcoming project for SourceForge?). But the XSLT stylesheets were written, imagine the rejoicing... Seamless translation between the formats, as well as output to LaTex, PostScript, RichTextFormat, HTML, PDF, YaddaYaddaYadda.
It would definitely not be trivial, as MicrosoftWord's XML output will apparently not contain any formatting information. And for those who claim that XML's supposed to be like HTML and not have that, please, get a clue. For WYSIWYG word processor documents, formatting information is part of the content.
OpenOffice is supposed to have a scriptable ComponentFramework called UNO. Apparently bindings exist for CeePlusPlus, JavaLanguage, PythonLanguage, CeeLanguage and something called StarBasic?. Anyone tried to script or write apps around it? If it were done right (like KParts), it could be a real boon for OpenSource.
Related to OpenOffice is the OASIS project whose aim is to come up with document standards. OpenOffice embraces this effort.
see OpenDocumentFormat from the OasisOrganization
My wife does copy-editing and proof-reading. The material is sent to her by (encrypted) email in Word format and she would dearly love to switch to using OpenOffice. However, OpenOffice repeatedly screws up the formatting and she is forced to continue using Word. For everything else we use Linux. Suggestions welcome.
OpenOffice suffers from the common problem facing lots of OpenSource projects. Developers are either not sufficiently motivated after a while, or get religious about the superiority of their favorite approach and cannot cooperate for the greater good. Similar to ContentGeneration? at WardsWiki.
That having been said, the new MicrosoftOffice can perhaps offer a new opportunity for OpenOffice. The significant UI changes can alienate existing users and developers. Maybe the steep learning curve of its XML will also help check the mindless migration to the next version of MSO as dictated by Redmond cashflow needs.
Perhaps. I have yet to see anything other than M$ products properly treat files generated by M$ Office products. No doubt M$ inserts all manner of kaka that only their products can interpret properly. I for one am not interested in either chasing down the land mines that M$ inserts into their output nor fixing the formatting and other problems that come up when trying to translate to OpenOffice or any other productivity package.
As much as I hate M$, I am stuck using M$ Office until my clients and development partners all switch over to something else. Oy. Imagine my joy. -- MartySchrader
I find the later versions have less problems with MSO Documents than described previously. It's improved with each release, and they're discussing version 1 above. 3.1 is much nicer.
Yes, this is so. However, problems remain. It seems likely that this is less of an application side than a source side issue, since Microsoft is well known for burying MS-only details in their output.
Does anybody know how to make "connected" arrows in O-O-Draw? There are arrows and there are connected lines, but I couldn't find something with both. The regular arrows don't "stick" to the shapes such that you have to re-shuffle them if you move the shapes.
I just messed around with it (using OO 3.4.1). There are different styles for connected lines under a menu in the connected line tool or you can use the menu in the toolbar next to the pen point thing
See: StarOffice, OpenOfficeBase
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