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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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OpenOffice.org obeys Moore's Law?
2 days ago
Kryder's Law, a variation of Moore's Law, describes the trend "magnetic disk areal storage density doubles annually" [1]. In other words, you don't want to know how much I paid for a 40MB Seagate MFM drive in 1989, but today 1000GB drives rule the day for much less money. This increase in capacity follows a predictable trend. -
OpenOffice.org Beta Fails the Office 2007 Test
1 week ago
I'm not embarrassed to admit it: I'm a big fan of Office 2007. I think Microsoft got a lot right with its latest release, starting with the ribbon interface and including any number of tweaks and improvements that make my day easier. I can't say I'm thrilled about the price of the suite, however; nor the countless SKUs to choose from. Plus, I'm also a big Linux fan. That's why I always try to keep my eye on the current state of OpenOffice.org, the open source office suite founded by Sun Microsystems. -
OpenOffice 3 Beta out and Waiting for Download
1 week, 2 days ago
A new beta version of OpenOffice, the famous open source alternative to Microsoft Office, was officially rolled out. OpenOffice 3 Beta 1 comes with several new functions supposed to be included in the final version of the application, scheduled for release in September 2008. Among the new features, one of the most important functions is surely the Mac OS X support which now allows Mac users to install and run the Office suite without the need of X11. This means that OpenOffice 3 Beta will look and behave just like any other Aqua application, the release notes published on the official OpenOffice website read. -
OpenOffice.org Extensions: Writer's Tools
3 weeks, 3 days ago
One of the perqs of being a journalist is that I often hear about software and events before most people. A case in point is Writer's Tools, an extension for OpenOffice.org Writer being developed by my fellow journalist Dimitri Popov, whose articles about macros have taught me most of what I know on the subject. As the name suggests, Writer's Tools is a collection of various utilities that might be useful for writers. It's a little rough in places, being only at version 0.9.27, and possibly a little idiosyncratic, but like Emacs, Writer's Tools is so varied that it undoubtedly has something for everyone, regardless of their writing habits. -
OpenOffice.org Storms Away – on the Continent
3 weeks, 4 days ago
Some people get sniffy about OpenOffice.org, calling it mickey mouse in comparison to the “serious” and “grown-up” Microsoft Office. That may have been a vaguely plausible jibe for version 1, but I've found version 2 to be incredibly fast and powerful – it really does everything I need in an office suite, and it does it well. And yet OpenOffice.org rarely gets the respect it deserves. -
OOXML helps XML take center stage for the future
4 weeks, 1 day ago
XML is now poised to consolidate its position as the dominant format for high value business data according to Dr Alex Brown, director of Griffin Brown, an industry leading data quality specialist and convenor of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Ballot Resolution Process... Dr Brown went on to say, “Now that OOXML is to become one of ISO’s standard document formats alongside PDF and ODF, it brings previously opaque office content into a format where it can reused and repurposed, while monitoring and improving its quality.” Alex Brown was convenor of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Ballot Resolution Process, and has recently been appointed to the panel to advise the British Library on how to handle digital submission of journal articles. -
Sun touts big plans for OpenSolaris as first release nears
1 month ago
Sun's Ian Murdock gave a presentation about OpenSolaris at LugRadio Live this past weekend. He explained how OpenSolaris reflects Sun's changing platform strategy and also discussed some of the technical attributes that differentiate OpenSolaris from Linux. -
Alex Brown: OOXML is like a baroque castle with secret passages and crumbling towers
1 month ago
Here's a quotation for the ages, from an Alex Brown comment on Andrew Updegrove's Standards Blog (scroll down) asking Brown if he'd agree that ODF was cleaner than OOXML: -
Introducing OpenDocument for Office Apps
1 month ago
Discover OpenDocument for Office Applications, an XML standard that lets you store and exchange documents, including word-processor, spreadsheet, and presentation files. Learn about OpenDocument files as multipart packages and as single XML documents, and how to structure text and tabular information in OpenDocument. -
ISO calls for end to OOXML 'personal attacks'
1 month ago
The International Organization for Standardization has called for "personal attacks" to cease in the debate surrounding Microsoft's Office Open XML standard. -
EC Investigates OOXML 'Process'
1 month, 1 week ago
Microsoft may have won the gold for its Office Open XML (OOXML) file formats last week, but it appears that the company's gung ho push for adoption as a standard has gotten it embroiled in yet another investigation by the European Commission (EC). -
The silver lining in OOXML approval
1 month, 1 week ago
I kept waiting to weigh in on the ISO approval of Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format, searching for some kind of silver lining for open source. Sure, there are those that say technical and interoperability issues will limit uptake of the standard. But this is Microsoft and Office we’re talking about, so it seems clear that there will be some pretty widespread adoption. While Microsoft will likely be penalized to an extent for any perception or reality of gaming the system, this will also be limited largely to its most ardent opponents. So we’re still in need of some truly silver-tinted lining. -
Extensions for OpenOffice.org Impress
1 month, 1 week ago
Extensions for OpenOffice.org Impress Extensions have long been written for OpenOffice.org Writer. However, the fact that attention is finally being paid to other applications seems a sign that OpenOffice.org is finally starting to develop an active extension-writing community. -
OpenOffice may support OOXML
1 month, 1 week ago
OpenOffice may support Microsoft's Office Open XML standard in future, but the organisation behind the open source productivity suite anticipates that everyone including Microsoft will have "difficulty" in making the format work. -
Congrats to the OOXML Team!
1 month, 1 week ago
Yes, Office Open XML is now (almost) a standard. Open source users are upset, which seems a natural course of events. Heck, I am too. - More News
Linux.com : Office Software
Predictive text input with Soothsayer
Soothsayer is a predictive text input system. Many folks reading that sentence will think of the word completion offered by mobile phones. Soothsayer is different from such mobile phone systems in that it tries to use context and other statistical information to offer predictions instead of just presenting a list of words that might match the first few letters you type.
Connect OpenOffice.org to Zoho Writer and Google Docs with OoGdocsIntegrator
Do you fancy Web-based word processors but aren't ready to leave OpenOffice.org? You can work with your Zoho Writer and Google Docs files from the convenience of OpenOffice.org Writer, courtesy of the OoGdocsIntegrator extension.
Getting data into and out of an OpenOffice.org Base database
The ability to import and export data is crucial to any database management system, and OpenOffice.org Base is no exception. While you may be surprised to discover that OpenOffice.org lacks a dedicated import/export feature, it does allow you to get data into and out of a database in a variety of ways.
New AbiWord looks solid but suffers from age-old Linux problem
In this age of multi-core processors and 3-D desktops, some people still get work done on old resource-strapped single-core machines, thanks to programs like the AbiWord word processor. The latest stable AbiWord 2.6.0 release was unveiled last month, two years after the software's last stable release. Feature-wise, the little cross-platform word processor has closed the gap with heavyweight OpenOffice.org Writer, but it suffers from the oldest Linux ill of all -- it's a pain to install.
Test-driving OpenOffice.org 3.0
With OpenOffice.org 2.4 just released, OpenOffice.org 3.0 (OOo3) has already passed its feature freeze, and is scheduled for release in September. Based on recent development builds, what can you expect? In the Base, Draw, and Math applications, very little change, at least so far. But in the core programs of Writer, Impress, and Calc, some long-awaited new features are arriving. Combined with the improvements in the charting system that are the major feature of the 2.4 release, these new features promise to increase both usability and functionality, although some of the changes do not go far enough.
OOo Basic crash course: Creating a simple game using strings in a database
Just because OpenOffice.org Basic is designed to automate mundane tasks doesn't mean that you must use it only for serious work. It's a programming language after all, and nothing stops you from using it to write something fun. Today we'll use it write a simple game where you have to guess a word, a letter at a time, from among words you've stored in a Base database. Although this is not a particularly sophisticated game, it contains a couple of string manipulation techniques and a clever trick for picking a random record from a database, which you might find useful when writing your own macros.
Recording sounds for Impress slides with eVoice
Over the last few years, OpenOffice.org has started to develop a respectable number of extensions, mostly for Writer and Calc, the two most widely used applications. The OpenOffice.org Extensions site lists only a handful that are unique to Impress. The recently released eVoice, which records sounds for direct insertion into a slide, is one of them. Once configured, eVoice is straightforward to learn, and becomes even more useful when you're working with other Impress features.
New consulting company gambles on KOffice demand
Although KOffice has its admirers, in many people's minds, it runs a poor second to OpenOffice.org. However, some European developers expect that situation to change, and to encourage that change, they have created KOfficeSource, a company incorporated in Germany. The company plans to offer support and training not only for KOffice, but also for Open Document Format, and programming using the Qt toolkit. The company's business plan highlights its founders' hopes that KDE-related technologies will become mainstream, and illustrates the current level of acceptance of free software tools in business.
Sun Presentation Minimizer serves purpose, but needs work
Sun Presentation Minimizer (SPM) represents free software's answer to PPTminimizer. Designed for OpenOffice.org 2.3 or StarOffice 8 Impress and released under the Lesser GNU General Public License, SPM is an extension that creates a wizard that guides you through reducing the size of your presentation, making it easier to transport and, on some systems, quicker to run. Those who present large slide shows -- especially graphics-heavy ones -- will find it a well-designed and effective addition, although several features require more work.
Commentary: ISO should kick OOXML off the standards bus
ECMA, the international IT standards association, recently published its responses to comments of the ISO National Bodies in response to Microsoft's Office Open XML application for ISO standardization (the actual 2,293-page response is closed to the public). The ECMA proposals will be discussed at a Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) in Geneva after which the National Bodies may reconsider their original vote. Microsoft's responses make clear that within one year, it will have four different OOXML specifications to implement and interoperate with, and each of those specs will be closed. Under no circumstances should such a flawed specification become an international standard.
Nifty OpenOffice.org extensions
Apparently, the only thing that stopped developers from creating useful OpenOffice.org extensions was the lack of a place to publish them. With the launch of the OpenOffice.org Extension Repository, the number of extensions listed there has shot up, and there are no signs of a slowdown. Although quantity doesn't always mean quality, the repository already offers a few nifty extensions that can expand the functionality of OpenOffice.org and make your work more efficient.
KOffice's stance against OOXML more practical than political, developer says
In the recent accusations that the GNOME Foundation has been supporting Microsoft's OOXML format at the expense of ODF, KDE has been presented as a counter-example. Based on a KDE News article, Richard Stallman suggested that "major KDE developers" had announced "their rejection of OOXML" and urged GNOME to do the same. More recently, a widely linked story on ITWire used the same article to declare that KDE has taken a "principled stand" against OOXML. However, if you go the source, the story is more nuanced than these claims suggest.
How to make a daily calendar with OOo
When I hear "mail merge," I usually think of personalizing letters and printing envelopes. However, many other projects can make use of mail merge. This year I tackled a new Christmas gift project by using mail merge in OpenOffice.org (OOo) to create a tear-off daily calendar, personalized with holidays and family events. Here's how.
GNOME/OOXML podcast shows two sides closer than appears
Despite technical difficulties with the phone lines, Linux.com's live podcast with Jeff Waugh of the GNOME Foundation and Roy Schestowitz, cofounder of the Boycott Novell site, attracted a large audience eager to discuss GNOME's involvement with the efforts to make the Microsoft Office Open XML (OOXML) document format an ECMA standard. Hosted by Rod Amis on his Lightning Strikes show at BlogTalkRadio, and with questions from Linux.com's Editor in Chief Robin Miller and me, the discussion revealed that the two sides of the issue are closer than they have appeared in the past.
GNOME Foundation defends OOXML involvement
The GNOME Foundation has issued a statement in response to recent accusations that it has been supporting the acceptance of Microsoft's Office Open XML format (OOXML) as an ECMA standard at the expense of the Open Document Format (ODF), the open standard used by OpenOffice.org, KOffice and other free software office applications. However, whether the statement's attempt at logical rebuttal will do anything to reduce the emotions or altruism behind the criticisms is anybody's guess.
Create an OpenOffice.org extension the easy way with BasicAddonBuilder
So you've written a nifty OpenOffice.org macro and want to share it with the world. You can, of course, publish the code on your Web site, but a better way to go is to pack it as an easy-to-install OpenOffice.org extension.
Basic presentations with LaTeX Beamer
Since slide shows are graphical themselves, most people associate them with GUI programs. Yet you can build slide shows just as effectively with some of the simplest and oldest of GNU/Linux tools. A case in point is LaTeX Beamer, which adds extensions to the classic LaTeX typesetting program to produce PDF presentations. Although LaTeX Beamer is capable of considerable complexity, you need to know surprisingly little in order to produce a slide show.
Back up and print your blog with OpenOffice.org Base
If you are running a blog (or any Web publishing system, for that matter) that relies on a database back end, you will sooner or later face the problem of backing up the content stored in the database. One way to go about it is to build a backup tool using OpenOffice.org Base. Since Base can pull data from a MySQL or any ODBC-compliant data source, you can create a simple database that connects to the blog's back end and extracts content from it, which you can then export in different formats.
Sun Report Builder: Better reporting in OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org Base is undoubtedly a powerful database application, but when it comes to its built-in reporting engine, words like "underpowered" and "outdated" come to mind. Fortunately, you don't have to put up with this situation any longer: with the Sun Report Builder (SRB) extension, you can add nifty reporting features based on Pentaho reporting engine -- assuming you can figure out how to use it without any help.
O3Spaces 2.2: A step closer to open source
O3Spaces is a proprietary integrated collaboration and document management application for workgroups and businesses. Almost a year after its launch, the company behind the software has released version 2.2 beta. While the new version doesn't offer any earth-shattering new features, O3Spaces 2.2 sports a wealth of improvements aimed at solidifying its position as a viable alternative to Microsoft SharePoint.
