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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 05 - Issue 04 - 10/2007
Please send news clippings to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Contents
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1. Announcements
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* OpenOffice.org is Seven Today
* New version of Outlook alternative available
* Community edition of Sharepoint alternative released
2. Success Stories
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* German Foreign Office comes out in favor of Open Document Format
* OpenOffice.org Market Share Analysis
* Linux-based laptops ordered by Nigeria and Uruguay
* German department store chain saves money with StarOffice
3. Featured News
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* Great OpenOffice.org 2.3 Review / Tutorial
* Global ODF Conference Convened in Berlin
* About the ODF Adoption in India
* ODF becomes government standard in South Africa
* Apple starts supporting ODF
* Corel introduces ODF support in latest WordPerfect beta
* Adobe's Buzzword will support ODF
4. Tips & Tricks
================
* "Parliamentary Toolbox" including OpenOffice.org
* Fax support for OpenOffice.org
* Test the new OpenOffice.org Presenter Screen!
* XQuery and ODF
* Better Statistics Support in OpenOffice.org Chart
* Open Source Archiving Software with ODF Support
* "Creating interactive forms with OpenOfice.org Writer"
* "OpenOffice.org Base primer"
5. Clippings
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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!
http://contributing.openoffice.org/index.html
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/To-Dos/index.html
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Announcements
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OpenOffice.org is Seven Today
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"Today, the open source project OpenOffice.org celebrates its 7th
birthday. Founded by Sun Microsystems on October 13th, 2000,
continues to experience tremendous growth. The project recently
counted 104 million downloads from its website, and downloads have
been increasing since the release of OpenOffice.org 2.3 last month.
It is widely considered the most important open source productivity
suite and one of the largest open source projects."
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=339
New version of Outlook alternative available
============================================
Version 0.7 of Mozilla Lightning has just been released.
The Mozilla Thunderbird email client together with the Mozilla
Lightning calendar client extension is quickly becoming a feasible
alternative to Microsoft Outlook. In connection with the Sun Java
System Calendar Server Mozilla Lightning offers many enterprise-type
features. Check it out!
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/new_version_of_outlook_alternative
Community edition of Sharepoint alternative released
====================================================
"The Community Edition is a free to use, fully featured Workplace
solution for up to 10 team members. Furthermore, the Community
Edition 2.2 can be seamlessly migrated with a Workplace Professional
subscription. The O3Spaces Workplace 2.2b Community Edition is
available as a number of new easy installers for various Linux and
Windows Operating systems. It will also be available as a virtual
appliance."
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=50444
Success Stories
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German Foreign Office comes out in favor of Open Document Format
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"By hosting the conference the German Foreign Office has made its
position at home clear. In his words of welcome Federal Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier called ODF "a completely open and
ISO-standardized format." It was thus an "excellent basis" for "a free
exchange of knowledge and information in a time of globalization," he
declared. This in turn was a necessary ingredient of the knowledge
society, he averred. Within the Federal Government the Federal Foreign
Office is considered the strongest proponent of free software. After
having early on networked its foreign missions with the help of
open-source programs and migrated its laptops to Linux and OpenOffice
the Federal Foreign Office intends to extend its program of migration
to all workstations of its diplomats by the middle of next year."
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/98208
OpenOffice.org Market Share Analysis
====================================
"At the ODF government user workshop in Berlin we talked quite a bit
about deployments in different countries and ODF-related complementary
software solutions. You all can contribute to improving the story but
adding to and updating the following two wiki pages: the OpenOffice.org
Market Share Analysis and the OpenOffice.org Solutions page. I noticed
that recently someone contributed information about Hungary to the
market share analysis. Great! This helps a lot! Thanks to the contributor!"
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/openoffice_org_market_share_analysis1
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Market_Share_Analysis
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Solutions
Linux-based laptops ordered by Nigeria and Uruguay
==================================================
"As can be read here, Linux-based laptops have been ordered by Nigeria
and Uruguay. Since these Laptops have been designed for Linux, it's very
likely that the use of these laptops will increase the global use of
non-Microsoft technologies including OpenOffice.org. This reminds me
of this Forrester study saying that we just more or less completed the
first billion and that the next billion will happen in just seven years.
I'm sure a large number of the second billion PC's will run open source
operating systems and open source applications."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/linux_based_laptops_ordered_by
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/30/1939229
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,42496,00.html
German department store chain saves money with StarOffice
=========================================================
As can be read in the German article below, the German department store
chain Karstadt saves about 60% in operating costs due to their recent
switch to Linux and StarOffice. Quite impressive, I think! In case you
don't know Karstadt, Karstadt has about 32,000 employees and had in 2006
an annual revenue of close to 5 billion Euro. Thus, we're not talking
about a small company here.
http://www.computerwoche.de/it_strategien/581721/
Featured News
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Great OpenOffice.org 2.3 Review / Tutorial
==========================================
"Solveig Haugland just published a great OpenOffice.org 2.3 review.
Actually it is more a tutorial than just a review. Check it out! You can
find the article here. Talking about Solveig, you should also check out
the interview that my colleague Barton George recorded a few weeks ago.
The interview can be found here."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/great_openoffice_org_2_3
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid39_gci1275483,00.html
http://blogs.sun.com/barton808/entry/talking_with_solveig_haugland_open
Global ODF Conference Convened in Berlin
========================================
"Open standards and ODF, more specifically, are about better
interoperability,” said Peter Strickx, Director-General, Architecture
and Standards, of FEDICT Belgium. “This workshop, with participating
government representatives from all over the world – Brazil, India,
China, South Africa, among others – is a true illustration of the ways
in which ODF opens the doors to global interoperability and information
sharing.”
...
"It has been a valuable opportunity to share experiences, make connections
and learn about progress being made across an emerging global public
sector community," added Gavin Beckett, Bristol City Council (UK).
http://www.odfalliance.org/press/Release20071030.pdf
About the ODF Adoption in India
===============================
"For instance, the Department of IT, Government of National Capital
Territory of Delhi, adopted the open document format (ODF) standard,
and as a result has saved around 78 per cent in costs by eliminating
the need to purchase proprietary office suites or licenses. This has
encouraged other government departments to adopt open standards
instead of proprietary softwares.
The high court of Allahabad is another case in point. It moved all its
electronic documents to ODF because it felt that it was cost-effective
and safe to store its documents in a format which is open and also to
carry out any kind of information exchange through open standards.
So is the case with the West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments.
Even the Election Commission decided to migrate to OpenOffice.org after
the elections of May-June 2006.
In terms of license costs, the switch to ODF also means potential savings
of 15,000 per license on each of the 2,000 licenses recurring for license
upgrades which amounts to Rs 3 crore."
http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu9&subLeft=2&autono=302313&tab=r
ODF becomes government standard in South Africa
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"Open Document format (ODF) yesterday became an official standard for
South African government communications. The ODF standard is included
in the government's Mininimum Interoperability Standards for Information
Systems in government (MIOS) released yesterday."
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1838
Apple starts supporting ODF
===========================
"Take advantage of TextEdit support for the Word 2007 and OpenDocument
formats for reading and writing."
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html
Corel introduces ODF support in latest WordPerfect beta
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"Corel® has recently introduced a new beta of WordPerfect Office.
This new beta adds important capabilities to WordPerfect Office by
allowing users to open two new file formats: Microsoft Office
Open XML (OOXML) and OASIS Open Document Format (ODF)."
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1191009902786
Adobe's Buzzword will support ODF
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Adobe's new online document editor Buzzword will support ODF,
the FAQ says:
"What file formats does Buzzword support?
Buzzword currently imports and exports Rich Text Format (RTF) files,
Microsoft Word DOC files, and Word 2003 XML files. Adobe plans to
add support for standard open file formats such as PDF, Open Document
Format (ODF), and others over time."
http://www.adobe.com/special/buzzword/faq.html
Tips & Tricks
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"Parliamentary Toolbox" including OpenOffice.org
================================================
"Our goal
Build together a parliamentary toolbox for assemblees, from a local
council to a national parliament.
The Tabellio software suite is currently rebuild in Open Source and
migrated to Plone/Zope and Openoffice.org.
...
The new components will be based on these:
* Tabellio Procedure: Parliament workflow ("Procedures") management
* Tabellio Libellium : Enterprise Content Management
* Tabellio Traitement de texte : XML Word Processor
* Tabellio XML2PDF: Formalised presentation from XML files
* Tabellio CMS: Parliament website management and online presentation
of the work of the assembly
* Tabellio Expedition: electronic and paper delivery management ."
http://www.tabellio.org/
Fax support for OpenOffice.org
==============================
"eFax is conveniently located in the menu bar and enables both StarOffice
and OpenOffice customers to activate an eFax-powered faxing solution
directly from their word processing and spreadsheet
programs. eFax allows the opportunity for customers to create documents
within StarOffice and OpenOffice.org and fax them instantaneously."
http://www.pr-inside.com/j2-global-offers-efax-solution-for-r273412.htm
Test the new OpenOffice.org Presenter Screen!
=============================================
"Implementation of the Presenter Screen extension has begun and there is
an early extension that shows its basic capabilities. The look, layout,
and detailed behaviour of the controls, however, are far from final.
This is where you, dear reader, come into play. You can help us develop
this extension by giving feedback when you try out the developer snapshot,
by telling us what would help you most giving a presentation, or by
joining us in implementing it on the [EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailing list."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/presenter_screen
XQuery and ODF
==============
"In ODF the content of your office document is stored in the content.xml
document. Availble here here is the example for the table in Figure 3.
... This query constructs an HTML document with all tables from the
ODF text document, usedcars.odt. Figure 4 is an example of the result,
usedcars.html.
... And by simply changing the container document you want to access,
you can use the same function to query your ODF spreadsheet,
usedcars.ods. Look similar?"
http://www.ddj.com/linux-open-source/202401913
Better Statistics Support in OpenOffice.org Chart
=================================================
As can be read in the blog entry below, the statistics support in the
chart module of OpenOffice.org has been improved. With the update it's
possible to display the equations for trend-lines. The improvements
are not in the regular download yet, but should become available
sometime soon.
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/more_than_just_a_check
Open Source Archiving Software with ODF Support
===============================================
The National Archives of Australia have made their archiving software
Xena available as Open Source. The application and more information can
be found on the project website. Xena has support for ODF.
http://xena.sourceforge.net/
"Creating interactive forms with OpenOfice.org Writer"
======================================================
"With OpenOffice.org Writer you can create any kind of form from simple
questionnaires to sophisticated interactive tests. Here’s how to create
a simple quiz using the form tools, and how to add interactivity to it
with a couple of macros."
"OpenOffice.org Base primer"
============================
"Of all four OpenOffice.org applications, Base is probably the most
complicated one. It is a powerful tool that allows you to build complex
databases, but this power comes at a price: if you’ve never worked with
database applications, you might find Base a bit overwhelming. This
article provides an introduction to the most important aspects of Base
that will help you to create databases with consummate ease."
http://nothickmanuals.info/doku.php/articles:ooobaseprimer
Clippings
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* EADS hires people with OpenOffice.org skills
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/eads_hires_people_with_openoffice
* Office 2007 encouraging users to adopt OpenOffice.org
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/office_2007_encouraging_users_to
* OpenOffice.org 2.3 Screenshots by eWeek
http://www.eweek.com/slideshow/0,1206,pg=0&s=25942&a=216990,00.asp
* New version of Sun's ODF plug-in available
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/new_version_of_sun_s
Newsletter Archive
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Past issues of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter can be found in the archive
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