Thread: OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org has remained (arguably, of course) the most popular piece of open source software for the better part of this decade. So much so that, for a good fraction of the users out there, open source software does not exist beyond OpenOffice.org. Thus, any major release of the suite generates a buzz, euphoria and great expectations. Unfortunately, it also draws wild comparisons with pricey proprietary office productivity suites, and that is where things turn ugly.

Top view

My curiosity swelled as I downloaded OpenOffice.org 3.0 amid news that the servers had experienced seizures a few hours into the release due to overwhelming traffic. That this is the first proper 000 release for Mac OS X probably explains the rush. When I ran the new release for the first time, it seemed to load faster than its ancestors.

The 000 user interface has< apparently gone under the knife, and is now well integrated at the suite level. The nifty Start Center not only lets you launch any of the 000 component applications, but also gives you quick access to the ever-growing library of templates and extensions on the Web.

Coming to the headcount, OpenOffice.org 3.0 does not bring any new components to the suite, unlike 2.0 that added 000 Base. The core arsenal remains the sameWriter, Impress, Calc, Draw, Math and Base.

The goodies

As far as Web 2.0-style collective authoring goes, 000 seems to be moving in the right direction. You can now create spreadsheets in Calc and share them with other users. Any edits that they make can be quickly incorporated into the original file. I am hopeful that this functionality will soon be extended for Writer documents and Impress presentations.

Amid other notable ,enhancements is support for Microsoft Office 2007 arid 2008 binary file formats. I tried importing a .docx file in 000, and the conversion worked beautifully. ODF 1.2, the upcoming version of the OpenDocument Format, is also fully supported. Thus, 000 now supports all of the three major document formats that are ISO standards-ODF, PDF and OOXML.

OO0 3.0 also incorporates a solver component in Calc that optimises scenarios where the value of a cell needs to be determined based upon constraints provided in other cells. The marketing pages office.org make a tonguein-cheek remark taking on the office suite from Redmond:

"The new solver component should be particularly interesting to Mac users considering that Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X apparently does not include a solver feature anymore." Not related to the Linux version of 000, but interesting nevertheless! Multiple chart-related enhancements have also been introduced in Calc, including support for custom error bars and regression equations.



The 000 team has revamped the notes feature in Writer to make it more usable and intuitive. Notes now appear on the sides of a document instead of showing as yellow rectangles right within the text. Image cropping in Draw and Impress has been revisited as well. You can now crop images by simply dragging their handles as much inwards as you want; no convoluted procedures there! Working in long documents in Writer should be a breeze now, thanks to the new zoom slider and the much-anticipated functionality to view multiple pages simultaneously in different layouts.

Besides the Gosmetic changes, 00o.3.0'afso provides enhanced support for XML and XSLT-basecf filters. The programmability enhancements in this release mean that developers can write add-on applicatiofis (extensions) that run atop 000. For instance, deV€!opers can write an extension to generate online help formats from a bunch of Writer documents. The possibilities are endless.

In addition to the six core components, 000 3.0 also provides ready-to-use extensions and complementary tools. There's a Wild Publisher extension that facilitates the creation of wiki pages on Media 'Njki servers. There is also a Report Publisher extension that you can use to create reports for Base databases. Extensions and tools are added to the online repository at regular intervals, so there will always be dope for you to download and use.

Dreaming on ...
To me, the one application that has been most conspicuous by its absence in 000 is a counterpart to MS OneNote. I've grown fond of OneNote and the way it helps me organise my disarrayed thoughts. FreeNote, anyone? One wild thought that crosses my mind is integrating FreeMind, that wonderful free mind-mapping software, with 000. I'm going to file it as a feature request!

While the OpenOffice.org website directs the user to download Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning as the calendar and e-mail client extensions to 000, these applications haven't been customised for integration with the suite. MS Outlook seems to be the top reason why enterprises are finding it hard to replace MS Office with 000. Coupled with MS Exchange, I see it deeply entrenched into the workflows of many organisations, often with multiple third-party plugins providing additional functionalities.

I am sure the 000 community will address this void sooner than later.
Also, the 000 team seems to have touched 000 Base very little since it was first incorporated into 000 2.0. While the 'queries within queries' feature rolled out in 000 3.0 is good to have, users have been hoping for greater compatibility between Base and MS Access, as well as improvements to the 000 macros language to facilitate more streamlined access to database features from within the other suite applications.

The verdict

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is a worthy update to office suite. It delivers a bunch of enhancements, but probably not enough crucial breakthroughs for enterprises to consider it ready for prime time yet. I would rate it 3/5. For the integration, the VI and the freedom!