Also see: What is OpenOffice? For more information and Download Links.

The Open Office Blog
OpenTaal Publishes Dutch Word List 2007-06-20T18:17:00.000-07:00 Since the end of 2005 the project OpenTaal has worked to improve and extend an existing open source Dutch word list. The approved word list contains more than 140.000 keywords. The word list is available in packages that can be installed in OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Thunderbird. The approved word list is available under a free license (LGPL) and may be used by open source projects. Charles
Groovy For OpenOffice 0.1 2007-06-20T18:16:00.000-07:00 "Groovy For OpenOffice is an OpenOffice.org extension which adds support for scripting OpenOffice.org Macros in Groovy." Charles
Japan's IPA Accepts List of Requirements 2007-05-28T00:52:00.000-07:00 Information Technology Promotion Agency of Japan in May announced results of FY2006 OSS projects, which includes "Summary," "Report" and "List of Requirements and Specifications" submitted by Good Day Inc. and its team whose proposal for an IPA public bid in 2006 was adopted to study OpenOffice.org. Further efforts and contributions of them are expected by OpenOffice.org and Japanese Native Language Project. More information would be available at the team's page: http://ooo-research.good-day.net/?en_top Charles
SB/BadBunny-A, a harmless 2007-05-26T22:10:00.000-07:00 OpenOffice.org has the security team. If you find ones like the budbunny, please contact our security team and send one to the team. "SB/BadBunny-A, a harmless little bunny at least until you kick it!" said Mate Temmermann, our security expert, in his blog. Sure Openoffice.org has a macro language with access to local resources, but "nothing bad can happen to you as long as you don't allow the macros to run." he said. "Users shouldn't run macros from unknown sources, same like they shouldn't run any programs or other scripts from unknown sources." This is the message he repeats, and we, the OpenOffice.org Community, repeat. On May 23rd the Community issued comments "About Security, BadBunny, and Macros" based on the information available so far. Repeat. "The OpenOffice.org community repeats the consistent message from security experts that users should never accept files from unknown sources. For any security issue, please visit OpenOffice.org's Security Team page." Thank you. Charles
OpenOffice.org in Africa 2007-02-11T19:03:00.000-08:00 Chris Charuhas pointed me to a story about OpenOffice.org in Africa - "how a school created a new computer lab without buying computers, software, or books". And OpenOffice.org is involved! Charles
Free Online OpenOffice Tutorials 2007-01-14T19:00:00.000-08:00 Today In Pictures launched its new line of free computer how-to tutorials, available at www.inpics.net. There are 12 online tutorials, including OpenOffice.org. The tutorials can be used by anyone, free of charge. Charles
French National Assembly switches 2006-11-24T02:22:00.000-08:00 http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7687 Deputies elected to the French National Assembly in the next legislative session will find open-source software on their desktop PCs. The use of free software will result in substantial cost savings, despite the cost of migration and training, the Assembly said. Free and open-source software now offers all the functions the deputies need, according to a study conducted at the request of the president of the assembly, Jean-Louis Debr¨¦. The software on the deputies' computers will include the Linux operating system, the OpenOffice productivity suite, the Firefox web browser and an open-source email application. Charles
OpenOffice.org Mac Porters Meeting 2006-11-20T19:12:00.000-08:00 OpenOffice.org Mac porter meeting at Google office -------------------------------------------------- "he main developers of the Mac OS X port for OpenOffice.org project meet to work together over a weekend - show, analyse, work on current development version, - share our knowledge in workshops (e.g. for debug ) - define tasks and objectives - meet, collaborate and have fun coding. Charles
Norwegian Native Lang Project Wins 2006-11-20T19:10:00.000-08:00 Here's a rough translation of the jury decision: "The jury has chosen to award an IT project that through large community contributions, expert knowledge, and extensive project cooperation has created an office suite in Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk, which is user-friendly and keeps to high language standards. 投资顾问 Charles
Why OpenOffice.org uses OpenDocument 2006-11-17T03:28:00.000-08:00 On GullFOSS, blog of OpenOffice.org Engineering at Sun, Michael Brauer, OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC Chair, said a clear "no" to whether OpenOffice.org may switch to ECMA Office Open XML as native file format. http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/why_openoffice.org_uses_opendocument "The documents that our users and customers create with OpenOffice.org belong them, not us. They, not us, must be able to read or process them in the near, far, and very far future. And they, not us, must have the choice to use whatever application they want to do so. And they, not us, have to bear the consequences if this is not given." "For this reason, the XML project already in 2000 decided to develop an XML file format for office applications that ensures interoperability and long-time access to documents, and that may be used by other office applications as well." Charles
BharateeeyaOO hits Sunday Times, Bangalore 2006-11-15T11:45:00.000-08:00 The main page of Sunday Times, leading daily in Bangalore, India, on November 12th, carried an article about the Kannada CDs launch scheduled in the coming month. BharateeyaOO figures as one of the main items in the "Whats Coming" inset. Charles
Team from China for QA 2006-11-10T19:14:00.000-08:00 On November 24, Zhiyue Cao from National Application Software Testing Labs (NAST)/Beijing Software Testing & QA Center (BSTQC), announced to dev@qa.openoffice.org that they will participate in QA works for OpenOffie.org. Charles
Office Open xml will be welcome 2006-11-05T00:29:00.000-08:00 Alliance Statement On Microsoft/Novell Collaboration Regarding Document Format Compatibility Washington, DC, November 3, 2006 The OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), a broad cross-section of organizations, academia and industry dedicated to improving access to electronic government documents, issued the following statement regarding Microsoft and Novell's announcement regarding collaboration on document format compatibility: "We see yesterday's announcement as further acknowledgement from Microsoft that ODF is something customers are demanding," said Marino Marcich, Managing Director of the ODF Alliance. "By making it easier for some Open Office users to access files stored in Microsoft's Office Open XML format, it makes it easier for customers to adopt ODF without worrying about the difficulty of tapping into files stored in a proprietary format that others may send them, or that they may have stored in their own systems." "Open Office and other ODF-supporting implementations already support a variety of legacy or proprietary formats, and Office Open XML will be a welcome addition. In terms of Microsoft's translator project that would save Word files in the ODF format, the Alliance still thinks that the translator project does not yet provide true interoperability, and we encourage Microsoft to provide native support in Office that will allow users to save to ODF as easily as any other format." Charles
Novell and Microsoft Collaborate 2006-11-04T19:37:00.000-08:00 I think they mean "OpenOffice.org" when they say "OpenOffice." They are going to collaborate on "Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support," "OpenOffice and MS Office Interoperability and Support" and "OpenDocument and Open XML Interoperability and Support." But many people questions, "How do they do?" Let us go to their FAQ and find an answer. FAQ from Novell and FAQ from Microsoft Q. How will the technical cooperation work? Document Format Compatibility. Microsoft and Novell have been focusing on ways to improve interoperability between office productivity applications. The two companies will now work together on ways for OpenOffice and Microsoft Office users to best share documents and both will take steps to make translators available to improve interoperability between Open XML and OpenDocument Formats. Q: What does the patent agreement cover with regard to Mono and OpenOffice? Yes, under the patent agreement, customers will receive coverage for Mono, Samba, and OpenOffice as well as .NET and Windows Server. All of these technologies will be improved upon during the five years of the agreement and there are some limits on the coverage that would be provided for future technologies added to these offerings. The collaboration framework we have put in place allows us to work on complex subjects such as this where intellectual property and innovation are important parts of the conversation. ------- Have you gotten an answer to your question? Charles
Microsoft Office Joins Mss Genuine 2006-10-28T23:17:00.000-07:00 You thought Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) sucks? Wait, there is more to it: soon it will be up to Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) to show up. You have been warned, folks. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127678/article.html Charles
Norwegian OpenOffice.org community wins prize and cash 2006-10-28T13:19:00.002-07:00 OpenOffice.org translators receive prize by Eirik Rossen This years prize for advancement of Free Software went to the translators of OpenOffice.org The annual prize for the advancement of Free Software was handed out yesterday. Of the 25 nominated candidates, the Foundation for Free Norwegian Office Software won. The prize is given on the initiative of the Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG) and the Oslo Polytechnic and amounts to 30 000 NOK. The goal is to increase awareness of free software and open standards, and is awarded to individuals or groups in Norway who distinguish themselves with their contribution. Yesterday's tribute was the fifth time the prize has been given out. The Foundation for Free Norwegian Office Software received the prize for its work with the organization and coordination of the translation of the Free productivity suite, OpenOffice.org to both main dialects of Norwegian. The foundation also works to influence key stakeholders to adopt financial, business and archival systems using OpenOffice.org The jury opines that access to software in ones native language is important to guarantee that everyone can benefit from the tools needed in today's IT-Norway. In the introduction it continues: "The Foundation for Free Norwegian Office Software has contributed to the guarantee that writing tools that are needed at many work places now exist in both Bokm0Š2l and Nynorsk, and thus helped the continuation of the Norwegian language. It has also increased general knowledge of open standards by enabling usage of an open data format, and contributed to greater choice by providing Linux-users access to a complete productivity suite." "The prize winners have in a distinguished manner put deed before talk in regards to open standards and Free software. Instead of forcing all to use software from a single vendor, they have given everyone the freedom to choose software in Norwegian. Through the translation of this freely available productivity suite, everyone gets full support for open data formats. The OpenDocument format is ratified by the International Standards Organization (ISO). Norwegian users have gained an productivity suite which can be freely downloaded both for commercial and personal use, on a range of platforms such as Windows, Linux and Macintosh." Link in Norwegian: http://www.digi.no/php/art.php?id=355064 Thanks to Lars Nooden for the news! Charles
Germanophone project to exhibit at 2006-10-07T23:36:00.000-07:00 This years Systems (October 23rd-27th in Munich), the Germanophone project will be present again with its own booth, supported by the association OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V. and four companies exhibiting together with us. Companies present their products ranging from migration support and development to training, and we will present the project and the community, completed with public speeches about OpenOffice.org. The Germanophone has good experiences from the last exhibitions done this way, and we look forward to a very interesting week. If you can make it to Munich - join us! We are in hall A3, booth 441. Kelvin Hui
News about limux migration project 2006-09-20T23:38:00.000-07:00 The city of Munich today announced the next step in its LiMux migration project. The original press release, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be available in English, can be found at http://www.muenchen.de/Rathaus/dir/limux/ueberblick/175149/windowsabloesung.html In short: The first official release of the base client has been finished and will be deployed to a first set of workstations by the end of the year, apart from the "beta testers" that already worked with LiMux. After that, more workstations will follow. OpenOffice.org is being used as the office suite within LiMux. Kelvin Hui
Phpmyadmin now can export to 2006-09-20T19:16:00.000-07:00 phpMyAdmin with ODF support --------------------------- "phpMyAdmin is a web administration tool for MySQL databases, intended to handle a whole database server as well as a single database. It is maybe one of the most used tools for administering MySQL databases. The new version 2.9.0, released yesterday, now contains an export functionality to OpenDocument Text and OpenDocument Spreadsheet." Charles
News from Georgian Native Lang Project 2006-08-28T23:47:00.000-07:00 SEA, SUN AND GEORGIAN OPENOFFICE.ORG Tbilisi, Georgia - August 20, 2006 Blue sea, sun, ancient Colchian nature, Georgian wine and celebration spirit. What else would one need from a place to organize a localization summercamp? In August 2006 eRiders Georgia in cooperation with OpenOffice.org Georgian Native-Lang project selected a group of volunteer community members from open source, linguists and IT-experts and organized OpenOffice.org Georgian Localization Summercamp at Chakvi, a popular Black Sea resort in Georgia. The aim of the project was to localize OpenOffice.org user inteface and user assistance messages to Georgian language, as well as increase community interest and public awareness of OpenOffice.org and other FLOSS products. During 6 days the group of 30 participants and organizers localized the whole user interface and majority of user assistance messages. The QA will be accomplished with cooperation of OpenOffice.org Georgian NL project and Deer Leap Foundation, a school computerization programme by Georgian Ministry of Education and Science. As a result, OpenOffice.org will be distributed to all Georgian schools, where all students will get a chance to get used to FLOSS products from the first beginning of their study. The forthcoming changes in Georgian intellectual property law should reduce piracy rate within Governmental, corporate and private users and will eventually increase the demand on FLOSS products. About Georgian Native-Lang - http://ka.openoffice.org OpenOffice.org Georgian Native-Lang project is dedicated to promoting and providing localization, distribution and migration support of OpenOffice.org throughout Georgia and Georgian-speaking community. Georgian NL also provides free technical support to Georgian OpenOffice.org users. Email contact: aietkolkhi AT openoffice.org About eRiders Georgia - http://www.eriders.ge eRiders Georgia, along with ICT consulting and FLOSS promotion, strives to introduce internet to Georgan regions by using wireless technologies. eRiders Georgia is also involved in Georgan localization of open source products. Email contact: eriders AT googlegroups.com by Aiet Kolkhi, KA project lead. Charles
Information Technology Promotion 2006-08-20T19:36:00.000-07:00 We, the leads of the Native Language Confederation, would like to thank the Information Technology Promotion Agency of Japan (IPA) for proposing a study of OpenOffice.org. The study would focus on enhancing OpenOffice.org's usefulness for the Japanese user. It represents a major step toward the Japanese adoption of OpenOffice.org, the world's leading open-source and open-standards-based office suite. Charles
OpenOffice.org is available in the ten most spoken languages in the world 2006-08-20T19:29:00.000-07:00 While you can use OpenOffice.org in more than 80 languages (with localized versions varying in quality and status), it is interesting to note that with the latest developments taking place inside the Bengali Team, OpenOffice.org is now available in the ten most spoken languages in the world. Charles
Danish Company Integrates CAD Drawings into OOo 2006-08-04T00:55:00.000-07:00 Finn Gruwier Larsen has brought us news "Danish company integrates CAD drawings into OpenOffice.org" at dev/AT/marketing.openoffice.org. He has shortened and translated an announcement made by Danish company A. B. Jensen Maskinfabrik and OpenOffice.org in Denmark. Danish engineer Lars Brandi Jensen and German software developer Simon Mieth has developed a program extension that makes OpenOffice.org capable of reading CAD files into an OpenOffice.org spreadsheet and make automatic calculations on it. "We didn't choose OpenOffice.org just because it's cheaper," says Lars Brandi Jensen who is co-owner of company A.B. Jensen Maskinfabrik A/S. "OpenOffice.org does of course fullfill the basic needs, but it also gave us open access to develop the functionality we needed to automatise the workflow when the production cost of an order is to be calculated." The software extension called DXF2CALC makes it possible to import vector graphic files of type DXF into OpenOffice.org and make calculations based on the graphic. It's also possible to see an outline of the drawing directly in OpenOffice.org. With this extension OpenOffice.org can act as an integrated part of the complete software setup used by the company to fulfill orders – from first sketch to the customer invoice. A. B. Jensen is a production-to-order company in the area of sheet metal processing. Metal sheets are processed using laser and water beams. The company uses open source software whereever possible, and the tendency goes towards using more and more OSS. OpenOffice.org is the software cornerstone that binds together drawing, calulation and ERP. DXF2CALC is free for all to use and can be downloaded from this web address: http://abj.dk/dxf2calc/ Charles
Extentions! Major Topic at OOoCon Lyon 2006-08-04T00:50:00.000-07:00 Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier sat down with Louis Suárez-Potts, chair of OpenOffice.org's community council and community manager, at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Ore., to see what's on the OpenOffice.org development roadmap. Suárez-Potts says that development is moving along nicely, but it will probably be a while before we see OpenOffice.org 3.0. http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/02/1625228 Suárez-Potts says there really aren't many popular extensions for OpenOffice.org at this time -- but extension development will be a major topic of discussion at the OpenOffice.org Conference (OOoCon) 2006 that will be held from September 11 through September 13 in Lyon, France. ----- OpenOffice.org Newletter readers, are you coming to OOoCon Lyon? Register Now! http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2006/registration.html Charles
Northern Netherlands Municipality of 2006-07-25T19:37:00.000-07:00 The northern Netherlands municipality of Groningen has opted to drop Microsoft Office and switch to OpenOffice.org, saving a total of €330,000 [US$418,500] annually Charles

OpenOffice Version 2.2.1 Released

Also see: OpenOffice Download Links

 OpenOffice.org 2.2.1 is now ready for download. It is a significant release and recommended for all. As with all OpenOffice.org releases, it runs natively on Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X (X11) and many other platforms; and it probably runs in your language. Check with your favourite Native Language Project to see if the application is available today.

Key features of the new release:

• Enhanced PDF management
• Direct export to LaTex
• Nested queries in Base
• New functionality in Calc and Impress
• Mac OS X (X11) uses system fonts
• built-in check for updated versions
• And a lot more...

OpenOffice.org News Release:
 But the most important is our improved use of extensions. We've been very busy here, and have succeeded in making it easier for developers of any level to create extensions (aka "packages") for OpenOffice.org. With 2.2.1, a new door to the future is opened: Developers everywhere are invited to start writing extensions! To learn more, visit our Extensions Project.

 OpenOffice.org is also the first office suite to support the ISO approved OpenDocument Format as its native file format. The standard - ISO/IEC 26300 - defines how office documents (spreadsheets, wordprocessor documents, etc.) must be stored so that they can be exchanged with any compliant software package. Its adoption represents an historic "Freedom of Information" breakthrough for the IT industry.

Also see: What is OpenOffice? For Download Links.

 

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