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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 04 - Issue 10 - 04/2007
Please send news clippings to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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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/2007_04_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
ATOM feed:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/atom.xml
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Contents
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1. Announcements
================
* Pentaho and OpenOffice.org
* OpenOffice.org joins SPI
* Online form for submitting papers for OOoCon now available
* OpenOffice.org 2.2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK)
2. Success Stories
==================
* Michael Dell running Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org
* More than 800 JCA's signed
* Scribd adds ODF support
3. Featured News
================
* OpenOffice.org got 10 Google Summer of Code projects
* Mac port and the Google Summer of Code 2007
* New Application for Status bar control to display/change the language
* New Tables have arrived!
* Metalinks and OpenOffice.org
4. Tips & Tricks
================
* Bruce Byfield about OpenOffice.org Calc Functions, Part 2
5. OpenDocument News Roundup
6. Clippings
All news for this month can be found at:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2007_04_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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Pentaho and OpenOffice.org
==========================
The OpenOffice.org community is pleased to announce plans to extend
the power of the database application, Base, with Report Designer,
based on Pentaho's open-source reporting engine. [0] Scheduled to be
available in the next feature release of OpenOffice.org, Report
Designer will particularly interest business users, as it will give
them the ability to create sophisticated business intelligence
reports from various sources, including OLAP and XML, and save them
using the OASIS OpenDocument format, or ODF, the ISO-approved open
standard for file format, among others.
The collaboration between Pentaho and OpenOffice.org proves once
again the strength not only of open source but of open standards.
Unlike with proprietary applications, there are no encumbrances to
getting things done, for users and developers. OpenOffice.org works
for businesses.
To learn more, read the GullFOSS blog. [1]
-The OpenOffice.org Team
[0] http://www.pentaho.com/products/reporting/
[1] http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/report_designer_will_extend_the
OpenOffice.org joins SPI
========================
"OpenOffice.org and Software in the Public Interest (SPI) are pleased to
announce an agreement to place OpenOffice.org under the SPI umbrella as
a member project. OpenOffice.org joins such estemed projects as the
Debian, PostgreSQL and Freedesktop.org projects and the Open Voting
Foundation."
http://technology.newsforge.com/newsvac/07/04/27/141258.shtml
Online form for submitting papers for OOoCon now available
==========================================================
An online form for submitting papers for the OpenOffice.org Conference
is now available. Proposals should be submitted before 1 June 2007.
http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2007/registration.html
OpenOffice.org 2.2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK)
===================================================
"OpenOffice.org 2.2.0 was released last week and at the same time the
related OpenOffice.org 2.2.0 SDK was released as well.
What's new in the 2.2.0 SDK?
The ObjectInspector example (<sdk>/examples/java/Inspector) got improved.
It's now far more than a simple example. It's a really useful developer
tool to inspect UNO objects or simply browsing through the object
hierarchy. The tool supports now the generation of small code snippets
for Java, the next version will support C++ and StarBasic as well. It's
cool and it's fun to explore the object hierarchy of for example a text
document. Start with a blank document and dive into the object jungle.
Try it out. I am sure you will like it.
We have introduced 63 new API's (1 new published interface). The
following list gives you a rough overview of new the API's. But keep
in mind that most of them are not published yet."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/openoffice_org_2_2_0
Success Stories
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Michael Dell running Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org
==============================================
"Yes, the head of Dell, with a market-capitalization of just south of
$56 billion, isn't just saying that Dell will be selling Linux-equipped
PCs in the near future—he's already running Linux at home.
To be precise, Mr. Dell, in addition to running the latest version of
Ubuntu, which is still scheduled for final release on April 19, is
also running the VMware Workstation 6 Beta, OpenOffice.org 2.2,
Automatix2, Firefox 2.0.0.3 and Evolution Groupware 2.10."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2115645,00.asp
More than 800 JCA's signed
==========================
OpenOffice.org hit 801 signatories of the OpenOffice.org JCA on 4/18.
Thus, more than 800 organizations and individuals have expressed their
intent to contribute to OpenOffice.org.
http://www.openoffice.org/copyright/copyrightapproved.html
Scribd adds ODF support
=======================
The online document sharing service Scribd just added ODF to its
listed of supported document formats.
http://www.scribd.com/
Featured News
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OpenOffice.org got 10 Google Summer of Code projects
====================================================
"10 slots have been allocated by Google to OpenOffice.org. This is far
more than we expected this year. It will help us to move some important
areas forward. We are glad to work with students on the Google Summer of
Code Projects listed below.
Besides some formalities the first steps will be to familiarize with the
task, the project , the environment and clarify the schedule for
deliverables with the mentors. According to the official timeline coding
work will start in May and after a mid-term milestone in July the end of
the program is planned for August."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/10_projects_starting
Mac port and Google Summer of Code 2007
=======================================
"Two applications have been slotted :
Complete User Interface respecting Aqua Human Interface Guidelines
...
The second application is the Mac OS X Address book integration in
OpenOffice.org (both for Aqua and X11 versions)"
http://eric.bachard.free.fr/news/2007/04/mac-port-and-google-summer-of-code-2007.html
New Application for Status bar control to display/change the language
=====================================================================
"The Google Summer Of Code 2007 (tm) initiative from Google was a great
success for OpenOffice.org and the framework project. The framework team
has two active projects within OpenOffice.org. These projects should
help users to work more efficiently with OpenOffice.org. Please look at
the following description of these two projects.
* New Application for Status bar control to display/change the language
by Lili Sun, mentored by Carsten Driesner and Thomas Lange
Currently OpenOffice.org doesn't provide an easy way to change the
language of a word, paragraph or text selection within the Writer
application. The user has to use the menu and a multi-tab dialog to
choose the appropriate language. A status bar control which provides
this function would greatly enhance usability for people who have to
work with multiple language documents."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/hot_framework_projects
New Tables have arrived!
========================
"A couple of weeks ago I blogged about implementing the rowspan table
model in the Writer core (see ' too complex to merge'). Now I'm back
with some good news: It's done. Have a look at this screenshot:"
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/new_tables_have_arrived
Metalinks and OpenOffice.org
============================
"How does OpenOffice.org serve the hundreds of thousands of files it
delivers every week? We have a network of volunteer mirrors, allow the
selling of CDROMs, and increasingly, utilize sophisticated Peer-to-Peer
(P2P) systems, among them Metalinks.
Anthony Bryan, who manages (and evangelizes) the Metalink service,
writes that,"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2007/04/metalink-and-openofficeorg.html
Tips & Tricks
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Bruce Byfield about OpenOffice.org Calc Functions, Part 2
=========================================================
"In part 1 of this article, I gave an overview of functions and what they
do. Now, in part 2, I'll continue by explaining how you enter formulas
(or formulae, if you prefer), and how you can check and review them
afterwards."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000211
OpenDocument News Roundup
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Higher costs due to increased competition
=========================================
"Costs rise when competition increases, right? The more vendors and
products there are in a specific market, the higher the prices that
customers have to pay, correct? I don't know what business schools
Microsoft's employees and their friends went to, but some of them seem
to have a strange understanding of the economy, market powers and the
impact of competition.
In Rob Weir's latest blog entry I found this link to an anti-ODF /
pro-OOXML document. In the document it says "An ODF procurement mandate
would also drive up costs for government." As I indicate above, this
statement seems to be against any logic to me. Why would increased
competition based on one common open standard increase costs?
The exact opposite should be true!"
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/higher_costs_due_to_increased
"Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation"
====================================================================
"It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped
into a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but
within 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits,
were pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental
Operations (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate
bill 1974."
http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss
Croatia proposes ODF adoption
=============================
"Central e-Croatia office proposed adoption of ISO/IEC 26300:2006 as
a national standard for Office documents.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, ISO/IEC 26300:2006 is
OpenDocument standard."
http://ivoks.blogspot.com/2007/04/proposition-of-isoiec-263002006.html
Clippings
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* VBA for Macintosh goes away
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/04/25.html
* Sun Anniversary Sale: StarOffice for just $34.95
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/sun_anniversary_sale_staroffice_for
* The fastest way to get an installed OpenOffice.org
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/the_fastest_way_to_get
* Windows display driver woes & what it gives you
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/windows_display_driver_woes_what
* OpenOffice.org Online Update numbers
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/openoffice_org_online_update_numbers
* Keeping tabs on "tabs" development
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/keeping_tabs_on_tabs_development
* New MS Word Filter for Writer (Milestone 1)
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/new_ms_word_filter_for
* Continuous work on unconfirmed defects is needed
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/continuous_work_on_unconfirmed_defects
* Acceptability of applications to Mac users
http://shaunmcdonald131.blogspot.com/2007/04/acceptability-of-applications-to-mac.html
* Beryl and visually impaired persons
http://cedric.bosdonnat.free.fr/wordpress/?p=51
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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