Sun Microsystems released the first beta for OpenOffice.org 3 for Windows and Mac. The new version of OpenOffice, an open-source competitor to Microsoft Office, claims to offer users improvements on every component from interface to features to behaviour.

OpenOffice now natively supports OS X, so Mac users won't have to install the XlI module before running the suite. Full Vista support is also included in the beta. Notably, OpenOffice 3 includes filters for the new Microsoft Office document formats such as DOCx and XLSx as well as continuing support for standard Microsoft formats.

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The user interface is snazzier. Enhancements include support for OpenDocument Format 1.2, a Solver feature, spreadsheet sharing to facilitate collaboration, improved PDF creation and importation, and improvements to the Notes feature in Writer. The new Start Center opens up a window that highlights all of the OpenOffice tools with big icons. Another OpenOffice extension is a Wiki Publisher tool that should make uploading Wiki information from the program to a MediaWiki server a snap.