by Solveig Haugland, June 2008
This is another article in my series showing the similarities
between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office (pre-Office 2007).
Using a new product requires some re-learning. That’s unavoidable. But you rarely have to learn an entirely new set of skills - it’s just that the new stuff sticks out at us. This article is to emphasize the similarities between the OpenOffice.org Impress and Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation tools. These are the things you can instantly do with no relearning. I hope that not only will this show some of the similarities but will show you some shortcuts you might not have known about in either program.
Read on, mon cher! »
Posted by FA Editors at 2:50 PM PDT
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oooPortal.com - The worldwide portal for OpenOffice.org users was launched Prague, the Czech Republic, 26 May 2008 - Today a gate to the virtual city of users of OpenOffice.org from the whole world was opened. The users get their own portal where they can find the fresh information, articles, directions, templates, extensions or discussion forum.
The target of the project oooPortal.com is to offer an opportunity for mutual communication and sharing information among OpenOffice.org´s users, thereby one of the great communities of users in the world should be created.
Portal stands on an open-source content management system Drupal which ensures further spreading of function of project in the future. The users can start their own blog at the portal where they can write about their office package experiences and can publish not only their trips and tricks, but also inform about their personal life, which is a typical feature of a blog. They can also publish their templates, extensions etc.
“Similar portal was missed by community of users for a long time. We decided to allow them the flexibility for sharing information and thus to help the whole project OpenOffice.org. The current version of the portal is only a starting line for the whole project, we prepare a row of interesting functions, for example multi-lingual support.” says Filip Molcan, the author of the project.
“We are the company which puts up its products on open-source projects and, among others, the company tries to return what it takes away from open-source projects by this way.” sums up Filip Molcan.
OpenOffice.org is one of the open-source key applications and represents adequate substitute for MS Office. It contains a text editor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, database tool, graphics editor and also a mathematical expression editor. It uses opened format Open Document for document saving which became the official ISO standard for document formats in 2006. OpenOffice.org is available in most of used languages and supports MS Windows, MacOS X, Linux, Solaris and the other operating systems.
Posted by FA Editors at 11:02 AM PDT
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The ODF Alliance today greeted with skepticism Microsoft’s announcement of its intention to include support for the OpenDocument Format in the first half of 2009. “The proof will be whether and when Microsoft’s promised support for ODF is on par with its support for its own format. Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases,” said Marino Marcich.
Office 2007 won’t support ISO’s OOXML. Customers wanting an ISO-conformant Office Open XML (OOXML) in Microsoft Office 2007, it will not happen. They will have to wait until Office 14 ships and as of now there is no time line.
Clearly this announcement reflects the strong demand from customers worldwide, especially governments, for access to ODF, a truly universal, open standards-based file format,” Marcich continued. “Microsoft continues to answer with a steady stream of promises. However, until Microsoft enables Office users to create and save in ODF by default as easily and fully as in Microsoft’s own formats, governments will continue to adopt a ‘buyer beware’ attitude. Because Microsoft has a history of broken promises, no one should celebrate this news until we see what is actually done and how quickly it is put in place.”
Marcich advised caution for now, noting that Microsoft announced its intention two years ago to implement “support” for ODF for via a third-party translator that is still in beta (under development) and will not be completed until the first half of 2009. There was limited functionality available via the converters and they were poorly integrated into the overall Microsoft user interface, as compared with the integration and functionality Microsoft offers for its own OOXML format.
“What governments want is direct, internal support for ODF in Microsoft Office. Governments do not want to waste time waiting for translators to load or re-engineering default-save functions for their workforce,” added Marcich. “If Microsoft actually follows through with this most recent promise, it will reinforce the global market-led demand by customers, particularly governments, seeking open standards based interoperability through ODF.”
Despite these concerns, Marcich cited the progress reflected in today’s announcement. “The era of public information being locked in a closed format requiring the public to purchase a particular brand of software in order to secure access is rapidly coming to a close, thanks in no small measure to the courage and foresight of leading ODF-supporting governments that have been willing to take a stand on this important public-policy issue,” concluded Marcich. “Today’s announcement validates the ODF Alliance’s mission and indicates the growing demand and support for ODF among governments. If it acts on its promise, Microsoft will join a list of some two dozen vendors that have implemented support for ODF in their products.”
Posted by FA Editors at 7:27 PM PDT
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