OpenOffice.org 3.1 is 65 days away, and developers are finishing up more than 1000 issues targeted for this Microsoft Office killer packing an army of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.
Antialiased drawings
By far, the most requested feature in this release is anti-aliasing, which smooths edges of diagonal lines. On the left is OpenOffice.org 3.0, and the right is OpenOffice.org 3.1. Both images are enlarged to show detail.
Drawing primitives (including lines, circles, and charts) are antialiased in Calc, Draw, Impress, and Writer. Antialiasing is supported in editing and export modes, but not yet in full-screen mode.
Solid dragging
Drawing objects are further improved through the new solid dragging feature. Before only a wireframe was shown; now a 50% transparent copy is painted.
Translucent selections in Writer
OpenOffice.org 3.0 brought eye candy for selections to Calc, and OpenOffice.org 3.1 brings the same eye candy to Writer. Compare the un-highlighted text (top) to selections in Writer 3.0 (middle) and in Writer 3.1 (bottom):
Chart axes and labels
When charting negatives values, Calc would always draw the axes and their labels at the outermost edges. That's unnatural compared to the way we were taught in school: the labels should cross the axes at zero. Now there is a new set of options to place the axes and labels wherever is convenient. Take for example this XY scatterplot (shown in OpenOffice.org 3.0 without antialiasing):
In OpenOffice.org 3.1 set the position of axes and their labels in the new properties dialog tab called Positioning:
The result is a more familiar chart:
Outline levels
Technical writers can now can define outline level and numbering style independently for each paragraph (or paragraph style). This feature is useful for creating a sophisticated table of contents.
Replying to notes
OpenOffice.org 3.0 introduced notes in the margin, and in 3.1 collaborators can carry discussions through these notes. Notice any text that is highlighted when the Reply option is selected becomes a citation (like quoting an email).
Increase font size button
Two new buttons accelerate the process of increasing and decreasing the font size in Impress presentations.
Grammar checking
OpenOffice.org 3.1 incrementally improves the grammar checking infrastructure. Version 3.0 allowed the LanguageTool extension to provide as-you-type-your-mistakes-are-underlined-in-blue grammar checking, and version 3.1 extends the spell checking dialog for grammar checking.
Overlining
You can be "overwhelmed," so can you be "underwhelmed" too? Yes, and likewise to underlining, now you overline characters too. Stranger yet, it turns out overlining has practical uses including repeating decimals, line segments, high energy physics, logic, and electronics
Hyperlinks management
When you type a web site address, OpenOffice.org automatically converts it to a clickable hyperlink. Many people don't know how to convert it back to regular text. (The methods include Undo, CTRL+Z; Default Formatting, CTRL+M; and disabling URL recognition in AutoCorrect.) Now there is a more obvious method: the context menu (also know as a right-click menu) features the new commands Open Hyperlink, Edit Hyperlink, Copy Hyperlink Location, and Remove Hyperlink.
Accept tracked changes
Collaborators will enjoy the new context menu facilitating acceptance or rejection of recorded changes.
Control slideshow media
Before OpenOffice.org would play any movies and audio when the slide opened, but Impress 3.1 can flexibly start, pause, and stop media using custom animation effects.
Sorting improvements
A - B - C - D - E - F - G. You would think there isn't much left to do with sorting, but OpenOffice.org 3.1 brings no less than four improvements to sorting cells in Calc. They are keeping cell notes with their contents, identifying the default column for the sort toolbar buttons, not sorting column headers, and stable sorting. In previous versions, the unstable sorting would yield random results in certain situations.
Missing values
There is a new option to determine how missing values will be handed in charts.
Macros in Base
OpenOffice.org Base gets a huge boost now that OpenOffice.org 3.1 allows macros in .odb files. Furthermore, Base macros can be bound to events. Helping it compete with Microsoft Access, Base developers will save time and enjoy new possibilities such as creating navigation forms (called switchboards in Access).
SQL syntax highlighting
SQL is a first-class citizen in Base. In OpenOffice.org 3.1 the SQL editor highlights SQL syntax, which is helpful for finding typos such as a missed quotation mark.
Relative database paths
The paths of spreadsheet and dBase files serving as databases can be stored relatively in .odb files. This feature makes it easier to share these databases across machines, networks, and especially across operating systems.
See more new features in Base.
Internationalization
People whose native languages are Hebrew or Arabic will delight in OpenOffice.org 3.1's the RTL improvements. Foremost, controls can now be RTL. Also, prominent new buttons on the toolbar (next to paragraph alignment) make it easy to mix RTL and LTR text. RTL settings are honored throughout OpenOffice.org—now including charts text elements, HTML export, Impress slide view, and page preview. See also "RTL related issues fixed in OpenOffice.org 3.1".
Speed
Each OpenOffice.org includes performance improvements.
Bugs
Some 1000 bugs were fixed in OpenOffice.org 3.1. One such bug, serious for office networks, was introduced in OpenOffice.org 3.0. The new file locking didn't work with OpenOffice.org version 2, Microsoft Office, or any application other than OpenOffice.org 3, so OpenOffice.org 3.1 reintroduces the file locking at the operating system level (in addition to its own file locking system based on hidden files).
Download
UPDATED: Download the final version from https://openoffice.org/download.
Warning: This is still an alpha quality release. Keeping in mind it may eat your data, download the OpenOffice.org 3.1 developer snapshot [link no longer available] and try all the features for yourself. Find the closest mirror with the extended directory (not all mirrors carry it). Then, open the developer directory, and find the latest directory starting with DEV300.
Report any bugs you may find.
The final release is expected April 30, 2009 was released May 7, 2009. The release has been delayed to fix bugs: thank you to Sun for taking the time to release a high-quality product.
Comments
Control slideshow media (Impress enhancement) sounds great. I wish there was more Impress progress in general though, it seems to be the slowest progressing application in the OO suite.
Just look some kick ass eye candy here :
http://img142.imageshack.us/my.php?image=new1bq0.jpg
These little things are nice, but OO needs to get the fundamentals right.
On a really picky not technically 1/3 would be 1.33 with the second 3 with a dot or over-line. (As I say super picky).
Don't let me put you off though it is a good write up and has me looking forward to the next update.
MS Word uses a highlighted selection and it is just better. At least give OO.o the option for it.
There is no option to restart the numbering of endnotes for individual chapters, nor is there any facility for having endnotes at the end of chapters/papers at the end of that chapter rather than the end of the whole document.
...1/3 = 0.3 repeating. Not 1.3 repeating. The number of decimal points does not matter.
Anonymous: Marking a note against a range of text (instead of a single point) is targeted for OpenOffice.org 3.2 (issue 5487), so check back on this web site in six months.
Anoymous: You want OpenGL for Windows? Vote for issue 87529.
Satri: There were 47 issues in OpenOffice.org targeted to Mac OS X. I see 92224: MacOSX keyboard shortcuts not quite there is fixed, so you may be in luck! The only other exciting-sounding changes (to a non-Mac-OS-X user) are the "Apple Remote support in Impress" and "nicer polygons on Quartz."
Anonymous: Vote for issue 25989: OpenOffice endnotes cannot be renumbered by chapter.
How is overlining useful in Chinese?
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It's useful for Romanized Hanyu pinyin characters, which employ overlines over certain characters.
Of course, I am not blaming you for that ;-)
[Overline is] useful for Romanized Hanyu pinyin characters, which employ overlines over certain characters.
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No, that would be doing it The Wrong Way. The correct way is to simply use the appropriate character entities: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ
No, that would be doing it The Wrong Way. The correct way is to simply use the appropriate character entities: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ǖ
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I did not know that :-) Good point!
Is there some kind of benchmark for the rendering engine?
For example: ספר (he counted) vs. ספּר
(a hairdresser).
It is not common to see overlining in daily usage, since hebrew is usually written without any punctuation. Hence, it's used mostly in educational situations.
Still on intrinsic outline moe. It's been so close for so long. Navigator, while useful, doesn't cut it, even as an extrinsic outliner.
Is there some kind of religious objection to this feature?
I'm sorry, Navigator, while useful, isn't the same thing. It's close, but real outlining is about combining composition and reorganization seamlessly. You can get the final effect of outlining using the Navigator and styles, but you can say the same thing for a simple RTF editor without paragraph styles at all. It's not the effect that is missing, it's the process.
Sure, you can get the effect by using styles and the Navigator. But you can get the effect by writing HTML in a text editor. It's not the effect, it's the process that is wanting. The navigator supports just enough of the process to show that the underlying model has all the pieces needed.
It's been so close now, for so long. Is there some kind of ideological reason why it's never been done?
grumpynerd: As with any software project, there is limited resources. You can register in the Issue Tracker and add two votes for issue 3959: "Outline View (aka MS Word)".
Miles Prower: The performance seemed fine during my casual usage. However, a benchmark is an interesting idea! I'll see what I can do.
Anonymous: For the AutoSum in Excel (ALT+=), vote for 45563.
PLEASE... add better support to writer for alternate navigation keybindings.
I myself prefer emacs keybindings. It seems with each release I must tediously create new keybindings (old config files no longer work).
And is there a feature to automatically load alternate bindings at startup?
How hard would it be to add a feature that easily allowed emacs style editing keybindings, like firefox does? Users could contribute different 'standard' keybindings that would be bundled with OO and would continue to work with each new release.
Users shouldn't have to create their own keybindings files. Sometimes finding the equivalent operation can be very difficult (what is the command to delete the character to the right of the cursor, etc).
I, and I'm sure others, would be willing to help make this happen.
Thanks for listening!
“Change hyperlink to regular text” is what you want.
The macros and event macros in Base seem to be a great way to put a frontend on a MySQL database.
One thing I wish for is having a sane object model like Microsoft Office's. OO.o's model seems insanely complicated (just take a look at the code after you record a simple macro in Excel vs. Calc). The latter contains all sorts of weird references to UNO this and UNO that: dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun
.star.frame
.DispatchHelper")
On the other hand, I've written small bits of OpenOffice.org Basic code for Microsoft Word and for OpenOffice.org Writer, and yes, MS Word was easier and shorter.
http://openofficetechnology.com/node/77
Professionals may lose a paragraph or more with time based system.
Agree?
Why does the OO.o teem waste its time on minor features when massive bugs continue to plague their software?
Because people don't agree on what "massive bugs" are. I see plenty of important fixes here, including anti-aliasing, chart labels, and replying to notes.
Just give me a great or just descent spelling/gramatical checker for OOo, and I am ready to switch!!
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=93210
Benson Margulies: Bug 97921 indicates RTL spacing is broken in 3.0.0 for Mac OS X. It's targeted for 3.1, but it's not marked fix yet. It may get bumped.
But could not find a working link to download a developer version. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Adam.
A spell checker won't help you with your deadly malaprop problem:
"just descent spelling/gramatical checker"
It's "decent"; descent is a real word meaning drop or decline.
And the / prevented your spell-checker from telling you that it's "grammatical". But that's the wrong word anyway; it should be "grammar checker".
I think your problems are beyond the help of any correction system that isn't a powerful AI engine.
I for one am looking forward to the new version... and will continue to recommend this program to friends and family.
To everyone who has been working so hard behind the scenes - great job and a big thank you!
(Mac keybindings includes the way Cmd/Option navigate words with the arrow keys, Plus the emacs-like Ctrl bindings; almost every other app on the Mac allows Ctrl-a/e/k/y/n/p)
Been using OO both in Windows and Linux for over a year, and in each release there is noticeable improvements. Gotta love that reply thing on comments ;)
Regards.
Wow. If that's really the worst bug you fixed, you need some serious help with prioritization.
Henri
Henri
When colleagues in the office send me OO documents, it takes forever to fire up and there is more visual clutter than Word.
All for good reasons I'm sure, but the experience isn't going to win any fans.
Maybe OO 3.2 will have a huge smoothing over and lightening, and not worry about new features?
Great job, folks!
With the ability to add notes to Writer it is one small step to move the right hand margin in for the main text and put the notes just outside the margin.
That makes a great tool for minutes of meetings as you can use the note for recording who has an action against the relevant sentence in the minute. That's important because when you later edit a minute early in the minutes then all the "Action: Joe" notes will move correctly and stay with their relevant lines. Export to pdf and that's a handy minute taking tool.
Maybe one day it will be done properly.
Other than that, great work on the improvements!
Assuming there is no stupid idea, here is mine:
What about people paying a contribution to have their 'dream feature' implementing, assuming it can be a standard one that would stay in the product later. In my case, I am ready to send a small amount for this for such improvement.
I say it's too little, too late. We were moving to OOo until that ugly file locking issue reared it's head.
As a result of the file locking bug that you mention in your article, we decided to dump OOo and buy new licenses of Microsoft Office for everyone in our company.
If OOo wants to think they can be a "Microsoft Office killer" - they're going to do better with the basics.
"...they're going to do better with the basics."...ok if your sooo perfect, get your ass in there & code!...
I would prefer not to have the "new" file locking (just use 2.0's) or no file locking at all...if I open the same file again, that means I want to SEE the version currently on disk, to compare with the opened, unsaved, version...but I understand in a network environment you need file locking to prevent more than one person from messing up a file...but you still need a way to open even a locked file & either 1) open it read-only...2) save as & work on your own copy...3) automatically notice that I might wanna compare it to the unsaved version...
Not to whine but if I install it in english doesn't it stand to reason that I want the english dictionary installed and working?
I got as far as downloading the dictionary and it's sitting there in the Extension manager but I CAN'T GET THE LITTLE LOCK TO APPEAR!...this has me tearing my hair out, what's worse is it's probably something simple like a check box somewhere I can't find or something.
Overall very nice 3.0 OOo running on winblows but AIUGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
I swear to God I'll donate $20 to OOo if they add a check box IN THE INSTALL to add and hook up the dictionary!
U/Linux has been getting easier and I still love it....3 UBUNTU boxes in the house, one Winblows left and as soon as it starts getting buggy it's getting a lobotomy.
Comments on thgis get sent to me for the next while if anyone cares to point me in the right direction.
Calc--Already use and find it very good for manipulating data in CSV files and writing back, in fact much better than excel.
Writer--Unfortunantly a no go from the start as you can't easily put a heading into the Endnotes section, also the compatability with word doc file format is limited to say the least when you have document with extensive refs and cross references along with footnotes and endnotes + TOC and headings, which is a normal document for me.
Overall I would love to move away from MS Office, but can't for the reasons above, which to me is a real shame. But I have hope for the future. Good work! to all the team at OO. OO isn't a professional office suite yet but its getting there slowly.
Henri
Yeah, right. Like they did with release 3.0.0? Releasing the product even though the auto-recovery feature was severely broken, causing a program crash to lose any changes since the last manual save. The issue was found in the beta but was released anyway. (bug 92968) You sir, are an ignorant ass kisser.
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I really don't like to take my eyes of the screen to find off-keyboard keys.
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Thank you!
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Y.
How to get the context about 'Hyperlink Management' anyway?
When I started to use Writer I had a similar problem and my images were jumping all over too until I found about this.
I just started to anchor my images as characters and then centering them with the same centering icon that text uses and after doing that my Writer documents stopped doing that completely and it's being working very well ever since.