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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 04 - Issue 4 - 10/2006
Please send news clippings to:
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
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For up-to-date news visit the OpenOffice.org Newsletter Blog:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com
To read all of this month's stories in full:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
ATOM feed:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/atom.xml
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Contents
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1. Announcements
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* "OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 Is Here.... And It's Our Birthday!"
* phpMyAdmin with ODF support
2. Success Stories
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* French Ministry for Agriculture and Fishing choosing OpenOffice.org
3. Featured News
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* Norwegian OpenOffice.org team wins prize
* Saving money with OpenOffice.org
4. Tips & Tricks
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* "Manipulating lists in OpenOffice.org Calc"
* "Creating Menus and Toolbars With the StarOffice API"
* "Developing OpenOffice extensions using Java and NetBeans"
* "OOoBasic crash course: Working with files"
5. OpenDocument News Roundup
6. Clippings
All news for this month can be found at:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!
http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html
http://development.openoffice.org/todo.html
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Announcements
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"OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 Is Here.... And It's Our Birthday!"
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"This is Friday 13 October and the day marks two important events:
the immediate availability of OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 and our sixth
anniversary.
...
New features, bugfixes, and improvements include:
* Enhanced PDF management
* Direct export to LaTex
* Nested queries in Base
* New functionality in Calc and Impress
* Mac OS X (X11) uses system fonts
* And a lot more..."
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=301
phpMyAdmin with ODF support
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"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."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/09/phpmyadmin-now-can-export-to.html
Success Stories
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French Ministry for Agriculture and Fishing choosing OpenOffice.org
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"Great news! If I understood this article correctly (please correct me
if I'm wrong!), the French Ministry for Agriculture and Fishing chose
OpenOffice.org due to the EOL of Microsoft Office 2000. The article
also refers to the recent Danish TCO/cost study which mentions the
possibility of significant cost savings based on OpenOffice.org."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/french_ministry_for_agriculture_and
Featured News
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Norwegian OpenOffice.org team wins prize
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"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."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/10/norwegian-openofficeorg-co_116203806096562674.html
Saving money with OpenOffice.org
--------------------------------
"The Danish government could save about 125 million Danish kroner
(US$21 million) over the next five years if it adopted the OpenOffice.org
productivity software instead of upgrading to Microsoft’s Office 2007
suite."
http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=25503
Tips & Tricks
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"Manipulating lists in OpenOffice.org Calc"
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"However, as the number of list items creeps up into the hundreds and
beyond into the lower fringes of database territory, the different ways
that you can manipulate lists in spreadsheets starts to give them a
distinct advantages. In Calc, searching, the printing of selected items,
and, to a lesser extent, privacy can all be made easier through the use
of outline group controls, filters, and customized sorts."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000114
"Creating Menus and Toolbars With the StarOffice API"
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"StarOffice software add-ins and extensions are often integrated into
StarOffice's menus and toolbars so users can employ the functionality.
This article introduces a new API in the StarOffice 8 Software
Development Kit (SDK) that enables you to do that integration.
Note: This API is not available in StarOffice 7 or OpenOffice.org 1.1."
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/menus_toolbars/
"Developing OpenOffice extensions using Java and NetBeans"
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"You can call Sun people slow when it comes to creating an ecosystem
of plugins. NetBeans had a platform years ago, but it's only been a year
since it became brain-dead easy to develop on top of it. As the saying
goes: better late than never...
Now comes OpenOffice.
Starting with version OpenOffice 2.0.4 (freshly released) which was just
released, packaging has evolved (new .oxt extension) and tools (Java for
the time being) are now available to help you write code to extend the
features of the suite or to interact with a silent instance. If you want
to find out more about it, read this. Also, the last OpenOffice
Conference in Lyon had a presentation by Jürgen Schmidt on
“OpenOffice.org Extensions Infrastructure”. Note that all this applies
to StarOffice 8 (Update 4) also."
http://blogs.sun.com/alexismp/entry/developing_openoffice_extensions_using_java
"OOoBasic crash course: Working with files"
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"OpenOffice.org's OOoBasic gives users tools to programmatically access
and manipulate files. To see how that works, we'll create a simple
macro that allows you to save text snippets from the current document
in a plain text file. This macro can be used to store text fragments
from multiple documents in one text file, or to save deleted passages
in an external file in case you need them later.
To build this macro, you can reuse the component that grabs the selected
text fragment in the current document. If you've followed the previous
installments of the OOoBasic crash course series on creating a lookup
macro and working with words, the following code will look familiar:"
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/28/1825209
OpenDocument News Roundup
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Accessibility improved OpenDocument v1.1 approved as OASIS
Committee Specification
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OpenDocument v1.1 has just been approved as an OASIS Committee
Specification and is thus available for implementation.
The subcommittee of the OASIS OpenDocument Format TC focussing on
accessibility aspects of OpenDocument recently published an
Accessibility Evaluation of the OpenDocument v1.0 specification.
In order to address the accessibility features identified by the
accessibility study as quickly as possible, the OpenDocument TC prepared
OpenDocument v1.1, which now has been approved an OASIS committee
specification.
The Committee Specification ballot for OpenDocument v1.1 closed on
October 19, and the specification was unanimously approved by the
eligible voting members.
The OpenDocument v1.1 specification documents are available at
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office#odf11
ODF at IGF in Athens
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"Sun Microsystems Inc and like-minded organizations will promote the use
of open standards, including the OpenDocument Format much feared by
Microsoft Corp, at the Internet Governance Forum summit this week in
Athens, Greece."
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=AD0B215C-5207-43F8-9515-581C519D1D84
More from IBM's Rob Weir on ECMA Office Open XML
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"By mandating the perpetuation of this bug, we're asking for trouble.
Date libraries in modern programming languages like C, C++, Java, Python,
Ruby will all calculate dates correctly according to the Gregorian
Calendar. So any interpretation of dates in OOXML files in these
languages will be off by one day unless the author of the software adds
their own workaround to their code to account for Excel's bug. Certainly
some will make the "correction" properly, at their own expense. But many
will not, perhaps because they did not see it deep within the 6,000 page
specification."
... and this one:
"But we need to keep in mind that there is a difference between a
specification and a standard. A specification tells the plain facts
of what a particular technology does without comment as to whether
it is good or bad. I could drop a box of toothpicks on my desk and
write up a detailed specification on how they landed. An open standard,
on the other hand, goes beyond mere specification, and promotes
a preferred way of achieving cross-vendor and cross-application
interoperability."
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/10/chernobyl-design-pattern.html
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/10/ass-backwards-compatibility.html
"Where ODF stands in the EU"
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"So where do we go from here? The more stakeholders voice their support
for ODF, the more likely it is that Europe will standardise on it, either
with a legally binding decision or a series of unambiguous recommendations.
Citizens of the EU can talk to their representatives in the European
Parliament, pressing home the advantages of ODF by referring to the EIF
and the IDABC's recommendations made in 2004, and also talk to their
national representatives, increasing the pressure to standardise on ODF
on a national and even local level."
http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/20/1621200&from=rss
IBM's Bob Sutor about Open XML
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"So this is how I see this playing out: Open XML will be nearly fully
read and written by Microsoft products, but only written in subset form
by other software. This means that data in Open XML form will be largely
sucked into the Microsoft ecosystem but very little will escape for full
and practical use elsewhere."
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1145
"When Standards Are Political"
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"Web pages are build upon the foundation of open format - called HTML
- for hypertext mark-up language. The standards for HTML are determined
by the World Wide Web Consortium - which is not controlled by any one
company. The formats are open, well documented, and designed to work
with different software and hardware. It has probably been the most
influential and important data standard in the history of publishing.
There are now thousands of high quality and innovative tools to author
web pages. Microsoft offers a few, but they were never able to establish
a significant market share. Indeed, there is no "leading" tool for
creating web pages. Instead, there is an astonishing variety of methods
of doing so - ranging from bare bones text based html editing tools to
incredibility easy to use blogging software - offered by a variety of
companies, free software projects or even individuals.
...
Next year Microsoft will try to sell the public on it's latest file
format -- "Open XML", which they are marketing as a "competitor" to
ODF as an "open" data format. Open XML was described by one expert
as a standard that only Microsoft could implement - similar to a
job description custom made for a single job applicant."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/when-standards-are-politi_b_32192.html
Standardizing bugs!?
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"Datetimes in Excel are represented as date serial numbers, where dates
are counted from an origin, sometimes called an epoch, of January 1st,
1900. The problem is that from the earliest implementations Excel got it
wrong. It thinks that 1900 was a leap year, when it clearly isn't, under
Gregorian rules (not divisible by 400). This causes functions like the
WEEKDAY() spreadsheet function to return incorrect values in some cases.
See the support article on this issue.
Now I have no problems with that bug remaining in Excel for backwards
compatibility reasons. That's an issue between Microsoft and their
customers and not my concern. However, I am quite distressed to see
this bug promoted into a requirement in the Ecma Office Open XML (OOXML)
specification."
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/10/leap-back.html
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/10/bit-about-bit-with-bits.html
New ODF Alliance Member Web Page
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"A new ODF Alliance member web page has been created. The ODF Alliance
has now more than 320 members. Very impressive and encouraging!"
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/date/20061019
ODF reader for PalmOS
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"An ODF reader for the PalmOS can be found here. Unfortunately, some of
the information about the ODF reader seems to be in Russian only."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/odf_reader_for_palmos
New version of ODF plug-in for Word to be released soon
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It's time to standardize document-centric workflows on ODF:
"Microsoft is close to releasing a plug-in for its Microsoft Word
application that will be able to open files saved in the OpenDocument
Format, the company has indicated. While initially the program will not
be able to save files, such functionality will be added later this year.
The plug-in is on track for an October 23 release, the company has said.
Microsoft first indicated it would support ODF in July of this year.
The move was an abrupt about-face for Microsoft, who had been pushing
its Open XML format as a superior alternative. However, increasing
support for ODF has forced the company to provide a solution for
customers."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/new_version_of_odf_plug
ODF improvements in KOffice and Textmaker
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"Softmaker just released a service pack for Textmaker which is supposed
to improve the ODF support among other things. KOffice 1.6 just got
released and KFormula now supports ODF and MathML."
http://www.mobilitysite.com/2006/10/service_packs_for_textmaker_2006_and_pla.php
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1215
ODF on Symbian
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“Odendahl SEPT-Solutions has announced the release of " Mobile Office".
It is the first and only application for Symbian (or any other mobile
platform) that enables users to read OpenDocument format files on the go.”
http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/3736/
CNET: French government report lauds ODF
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"He recommends that the French government "propose to its European
partners to systematically favor open standards and, as the first
example, to mandate the international ISO format ODF for the creation
and diffusion of all official document exchange at the European level."
Carayon notes that the standardization of ODF "authorizes its use
without risk by commercial and government bodies and promotes the
development of current software which adheres to the format."
In addition, he argued that free and open-source software can provide
French businesses with an economic benefit.
Although a relatively young standard, OpenDocument has found interest
among government users."
http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-6122939.html
AODC (An OpenDocument Converter)
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"That's when you turn to AODC (An OpenDocument Converter), a small,
free utility that quickly converts .odt files into .html files that
you can see in your browser or text editor -- no office suite necessary."
http://software.newsforge.com/software/06/09/29/2015246.shtml?tid=79
Clippings
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* OpenOffice.org in Education
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/openoffice_org_in_education
* Blogging with OpenOffice.org
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/blogging_with_openoffice_org
* StarOffice on Boeing 777 and Airbus A380
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11250-2408401,00.html
* Avoiding PowerPoint security issues
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/79471
* "Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'"
http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=7109
Newsletter Archive
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Past issues of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter can be found in the archive
of the announce mailing list:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce
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