OpenOffice.org 3.1 arrives, improves user interface
- 08 May, 2009 14:25
- Comments 3
OpenOffice.org 3.1 improves graphics manipulation
The first major release of the 3.0 series of open source office suite OpenOffice.org, version 3.1, is now available with big improvements in usability and the user interface.
OpenOffice.org now has anti-aliasing making graphics look “smoother” on screen and dragging objects now displays a “shadow” of the object, rather of a dotted outline.
General text formatting improvements include “overlining” in addition to regular underlining, subtle highlighting of background text and better grammar checker integration.
The OpenOffice.org spreadsheet, Calc, can now rename sheets with a double-click, the zoom slider control arrives, improved sorting of cells, more functions for statistical analysis, and formula hot hints which keeps the syntax of a formula displayed next to the cell as you type.
Calc has had performance “bottlenecks” removed, resulting in “dramatic” performance improvements, according to the project.
The charting application, Chart can now position axes with better flexibility and missing data points can be managed.
For database developers, Base adds SQL syntax highlighting and macro support for creating database applications.
“This is an important enhancement for people wishing to create complete 'packaged applications' in Base,” according to OpenOffice.org.
For people collaborating on documents version 3.1 has improved file locking to prevent people accidentally overwriting other people's changes, and it is now possible for many document editors to have a structured conversation through comments by right-clicking on a Comment and selecting “Reply”.
The Search facility now also searches the text of comments.
OpenOffice.org version 3.1 is cross-platform and can be downloaded from the Web site.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
- Follow Computerworld on twitter
- iPhone 5 rumour rollup for the week ending February 10
- 3D mapping revives underwater city
- Academic challenges Turnbull over NBN satellite criticism
- What are you saying: Telstra’s customer service slowly improving, SA minister urging Facebook to overturn its photo ban
- In pictures: Capgemini opens new Canberra office
-
Maingear's six-core laptop has 1.8TB of SSD storage
-
After Megaupload shuts, BTJunkie follows
-
Windows Event Viewer phishing scam remains active
-
NeuroSky MindWave: Fun with Brainwaves
-
20 popular Ubuntu Linux apps you may want to try
-
Computers for Seniors for Dummies, 2nd Edition
-
Office 2007 for Dummies
-
Windows 7 for Seniors for Dummies®
-
Teach Yourself Visually Windows 7
-
Office 2007 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies
-
MYOB Software for Dummies 6E Australian Edition
-
Microsoft Office
-
Windows 7 for Dummies® Dvd+book Bundle
-
Excel 2007 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies
Comments
Anonymous
OO
Yawn....what is the point in OO? Why would anyone choose to use this dog? Will it ever do more than try to catch up with MO?
Anonymous
The point for most businesses is cost and productivity.
The only MS Office licence that survives a hardware replacement (dead MoBo, HD) or Major OS upgrade (XP to Vista) is the full retail version ($804.00 per seat at City Software). The OEM version is only licenecd to the original PC and is NOT transporatable or upgradable if you read the fine print. Volume discounts for less than 20 are 5-10% -- whoopee! Our experience with PC's in 5 different businesses is that MTBF for even brand-name boxes is 2 years. And a business that figures cutting costs by cheating on MS is totally self-deluding...
Productivity for MS Office 2007 is low except for very young staff with recent school experience, and computer nerds. Why? Because all the hard-learned functionality that most staff have, and was common to MS Office 97 / 2000 / 2002 (XP) / 2003, has been replaced by a new functionality model. It's not bad, it's just different, and our experience is that staff need at least 1 day's remedial training for Word, and 2 - 3 days retraining if they're using the whole package. That's another $1000 - $3000 per seat when you factor in training and lost days.
OO works pretty much like MS Office 2003 -- our transition training was 2 hours / $250 per seat. OO 3.1 reads/writes doc & docx and the distro cost is $9.95 for the magazine cover DVD. Makes sense to a lot of businesses.
Bottom line -- 10 users for OO 3.1 = $2509.95; MS OFF Pro 2007 = $17,638.00. OO looks like the deal from where I'm sitting, and also from where my bank's sitting too. There is a recession out there if you hadn't noticed...
Anonymous
OO Has it's Place
For occasional simple word processing and spreadsheet use, why would you spend money on MO when you can get something that does the job for free? If you don't need the extra features that MO has that OO doesn't, it's a no brainer really.
Post new comment