News Blog

Sun Microsystems has released the first beta for OpenOffice.org 3 for Windows and Mac. The new version of OpenOffice, which is a popular open-source competitor to Microsoft Office, looks to offer users improvements on every component from interface to features to behavior.

OpenOffice.org 3 Start Center

(Credit: CNET Networks)

OpenOffice now natively supports OS X, so Mac users won't have to install the X11 module before running the suite. Full Vista support is also included in the beta, and didn't cause any problems during light testing. 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. Support for Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac has been lacking until now.

The user interface doesn't look to have undergone many changes, besides getting a slightly snazzier gradated background and slightly larger icons. However, the new features more than make up for this. 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 should appeal to users who like having a landing page or only want to have one link on their desktop. It opens up a window that highlights all of the OpenOffice tools with big icons. Another of the more exciting OpenOffice extensions also being released is a Wiki Publisher tool that should make uploading wiki information from the program to a MediaWiki server a snap.

In-depth details of the changes planned for OpenOffice 3 can be found at the OpenOffice.org feature list and release notes.

It's much easier to notice the similarities between the programs in the free OpenOffice.org suite and their Microsoft Office counterparts than to see their differences. Unfortunately, it's the differences that can slow you down as you make the switch from Word to Writer, Excel to Calc, and PowerPoint to Impress.

For example, you may find that you don't have the same selection of fonts available in Writer as you did in Word, nor will you have access to the templates you used in Office. This doesn't mean you have to do without, though. There are plenty of free resources available that let you use OpenOffice without sacrificing functionality.

Find free fonts
If you stick with such tried-and-true fonts as Times New Roman, Arial, Garamond, Courier New, and Calibri, you probably won't need to add any types to Writer's roster. People who rely on a wider range of typefaces may find their favorites missing, however. To supplement the fonts built into OpenOffice, visit 1001 Free Fonts, HighFonts.com, or Mike's Sketchpad. Place the new fonts in the C:Windows\Fonts folder to make them accessible in OpenOffice applications.

Convert your templates
To import Office templates to OpenOffice's Writer, Calc, and Impress programs, open one of the programs, and click File > Wizards > Document Converter. Select Microsoft Office, choose all three Office applications, and click Next.

Browse to the folder holding your Office templates in the "Import from" text box, choose a destination folder for the templates (you can also import your Office files), and click Next again. Do the same for Excel and PowerPoint on the next two screens, review the files that will be converted on the following screen, and click Convert.

When the conversion completes, you'll see the files that were converted. Click Close to return to the OpenOffice program.

Convert your Microsoft Office templates to OpenOffice via the Document Converter wizard.

(Credit: OpenOffice.org)

Now choose Tools > Options, click Paths in the left pane under OpenOffice, select Templates in the right window, click Edit > Add, navigate to the folder you placed the templates in, and click OK three times.

The templates will now be available when you click File > New > Templates and Documents, and select the appropriate application. Note that the templates may not look and act exactly as they did in Office, and PowerPoint templates will likely have to be renamed because the conversion changes all their file names to "PowerPoint Presentation."

Add productivity-enhancing extensions
You'll find dozens of useful add-ons for OpenOffice applications on Sun Microsystems' Extensions page (the link leads to the most popular extensions).

One of my favorites is Andre Schanbel's Template Changer, which adds an "Assign new" option to the File > Templates menu. This lets you assign a template to the currently open file. Also, Sun offers the Professional Template Pack that includes cover pages, presentation backgrounds, certificates, business letter templates, and personal-finance templates.

For more on making the switch to OpenOffice, see Solveig Haugland's great article, which includes links to OpenOffice training sites and other resources (scroll a little past the middle of this long page to find them).

Tomorrow: Perform any operation on your PC without using your mouse.

The first few times I worked on Word files in the OpenOffice.org Writer program, I was satisfied if the documents opened at all. That's a long way from being able to trust the open-source app with a Word file from your boss that you need to work on and return with all functions and formatting intact. These steps won't guarantee trouble-free file transfers between Word and OOo Writer, but they'll help you prevent some of the most common conversion glitches.

Keep it simple: Word files with complex graphics, nested tables, fancy fonts and formatting, and OLE Objects belong in Word and Word only. OOo Writer uses public-domain fonts primarily, and many of the fonts in Word are proprietary. If you know you'll be moving files between the word processors regularly, use only common fonts, such as Arial, Helvetica, and Times Roman. Keep in mind, however, that fonts may share the same name and still be incompatible (Garamond is an example). You can import proprietary fonts to OOo Writer, but make sure you have licenses for them.

If a Word font isn't installed in OOo Writer, the program will substitute one of its own fonts, which can mess up your document's formatting. If you have to preserve the appearance of a file you're going to share, consider saving it as a PDF. This makes it more difficult for the recipient to work on it, of course.

Tweak OOo Writer to work with Word: Open Writer and click File > New > Text Document. Select Tools > Options, double-click Load/Save in the left pane, and choose Microsoft Office. Make sure all the options in the right window are checked. Now click VBA Properties and ensure that all these options are checked (they should be by default). OpenOffice.org apps don't support macros and other VBA scripts, but they will preserve them so that the files will retain them when they're reopened in the original Office program.

Select these options in OpenOffice.org Writer to preserve Word features the open-source word processor doesn't support.

To make Word's .doc file format the default in OOo Writer, click General under Load/Save, choose Text document as the Document type under Default file format in the right window, and choose Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP in the drop-down menu under Always save as.

Choose Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP under 'Always save as' in OpenOffice.org Writer's default file format options.

Next, double-click OpenOffice.org Writer in the left pane, choose Compatibility, and check these options:
Use printer metrics for document formatting
Add spacing between paragraphs and tables (in current document)
Add paragraph and table spacing at tops of pages (in current document)
Do not add leading (extra space) between lines of text
Add paragraph and table spacing at bottom of table cells
Consider wrapping style when positioning objects
Expand word space on lines with manual line breaks in justified paragraphs

To ensure smooth file transfers between OpenOffice.org Writer and Microsoft Word, select these options in Writer's Compatibility settings.

Finally, click Use as Default > Yes > OK to use these settings in all new documents.

Here are a few other formatting inconsistencies to keep in mind:
Many of Writer's advanced features aren't supported in Word, such as page breaks and custom hyphenation. The last line of Writer's justified paragraphs could generate line or page breaks in Word. Writer files that use Outline Numbering may not save as Word docs, and nested tables in Writer documents don't convert to Word. Writer retains Word's character and paragraph styles fairly well, but graphics aligned in Word as characters don't convert to Writer.

Wednesday: Give viewers control of your PowerPoint slide show.

Everex has unveiled its $298 back-to-school desktop, touting its open-source productivity software.

Databases, spreadsheets, word processing and graphics, open-source or not, are lost on most K-through-5 kids. I know. I have one.

(Credit: Everex)

Ditto for the junior-high market, where concerns over acne and hormonal changes are likely to outrank the question of "to open-source or not to open-source." Similar issues may plague kids in high school, unless it's shown that using open-source productivity software can boost SAT scores or geek cred.

Nonetheless, parents, aka the walking wallets, may care.

It's all about giving our kids an edge in life, and if it means getting them familiar with open-source technology at a young age, hey, that may be useful.

The Everex Impact GC3502 features open-source office productivity suite OpenOffice.org 2.2, which is designed to run on all major computing platforms and be compatible with Microsoft Office files.

Everex's back-to-school desktop also comes with a 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor that is designed to be energy-efficient.

"In creating the eco-friendly GC3502, our main focus was to build a no-compromise, back-to-school PC with all the software applications a typical student would require, without resorting to bundling frivolous trial versions or increasing prices 30 percent," Eugene Chang, Everex product manager, said in a statement.

Maybe Everex will develop a back-to-work version.

OpenOffice.org programmers have released a very rough version of the open-source office suite that runs natively on Mac OS X.

An alpha version of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X's native Aqua interface is available

(Credit: OpenOffice.org)

The Microsoft Office competitor works on Linux and Unix systems using the X11 graphical interface, but the new version uses Apple's native Aqua interface.

It's alpha software, though. "This software may crash and may destroy your data. Do not use this software for real work in a production environment," the download site warns. And there are serious issues yet to be addressed: it can't print, copy and paste aren't fully functioning, and the software crashes after quitting.

RedFlag Chinese 2000 Software will work with Sun Microsystems to improve the OpenOffice.org software in the Chinese market, the companies said Wednesday.

RedFlag will work on integrating features for the Chinese market, adding about 50 engineers to the project, and Sun will help train the company's engineers, a Sun representative said. No money is changing hands as part of the partnership.

RedFlag produces a Chinese variation of OpenOffice.org called RedOffice. The company is a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Science.