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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 05 - Issue 10 - 04/2008
Please send news clippings to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Contents
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1. Announcements
================
* ODF now national standard in South Africa
* A PIM for OpenOffice.org – What's going on?
* OpenOffice.org and ODF Featured in Hackerteen Comic Book
2. Success Stories
==================
* City of Munich and German Federal Foreign Office start collaboration
* OpenOffice.org and ODF adoption in Malaysia - thumbs up!
* OpenOffice.org on 41,000 computers
* Schools in Swiss canton switch to Linux and OpenOffice.org
* HP shipping laptops with OpenOffice.org pre-installed
* Spanish low-cost notebook including OpenOffice.org
* German portfolio analysis software supports OpenOffice.org
* German ERP software vendor adds OpenOffice.org support
3. Featured News
================
* Reminder: "A maximum total of $175,000 USD may be awarded"
* Mac/Aqua port - state of the union
* OpenOffice.org Study by the Copenhagen Business School
* The second extension crossed 100,000 downloads
* Calc Usability Improvements in OpenOffice.org 2.4
4. Tips & Tricks
================
* A native Database Driver for MySQL
* Make the best out of OpenOffice.org extensions
* Doing a mail merge via API
* "An OpenOffice Letterhead Tutorial"
* A Solver for Mac OS X
5. ODF News
===========
* ODF enhancements for OpenOffice.org
* "A pure Java library for OASIS Open Document files manipulation"
* ODF Development using Perl, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, etc.
* ODFDOM to become available in May 2008
* ODF Seminar for Municipalities
* ODF development effort for KOffice sponsored
* Gartner about ODF
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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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ODF now national standard in South Africa
=========================================
"Open Document Format (ODF) has been approved as a South African national
standard by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
According to Bob Jolliffe, of the Department of Science and Technology,
ODF was approved on Friday last week, after a long evaluation process by
the SABS department dedicated to standards assessment, Stanza
(South African Standards)."
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2008/0804221046.asp?O=FPTOP&S=Open%20source&A=LIN
A PIM for OpenOffice.org – What's going on?
===========================================
"By now, we have contributed to several releases of Lightning and
Sunbird. Not only in terms of code – but also in terms of feature
and roadmap planning, user interface design, testing and release
engineering. We first focussed on improving the core product(s) rather
than an integration story with OpenOffice.org, implementing features,
but also fixing bloody bugs.
The product(s) already offer a pretty decent feature set like nice
event and task handling, a today pane for Thunderbird, popup alarms,
good timezone support, E-Mail based invitations, support for various
remote protocols, e.g. WebDAV (ics files), CalDAV, WCAP (Sun Java
System Calendar Server) or Google Calendar. With the latest
Lightning 0.8, a new task mode has been added, providing fine-grained
control over tasks.
What I like most on Thunderbird/Lightning is to have both E-Mail and an
aggregrate of all my various calendars in one application: public holiday
calendars, my Sun work calendars and all people I am subscribed to, my
private calendar, my wife's Google calendar, the team's calendar...
Check it out! It's certainly not final, but we like to know what you
think about it. Moreover if you have fresh ideas about an integration
with OpenOffice.org or want to help another way, let us know."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/a_pim_for_openoffice_org
OpenOffice.org and ODF Featured in Hackerteen Comic Book
========================================================
According to pictures I have seen the Hackerteen Comic Book mentions
OpenOffice.org and ODF as part of the story. If you don't know what
or who Hackerteen is, here is the description from the website:
"Hackerteen is an educational project that trains teenagers to work
with computer security. With an innovative and fun methodology, young
people learn how to protect companies - not to break into them -
while reducing time spent on computer games, MSN and MySpace."
http://www.hackerteen.com/
Success Stories
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City of Munich and German Federal Foreign Office start collaboration
====================================================================
According to this German article, the City of Munich and the German
Federal Foreign Office have started to collaborate on the implementation
of their open source and open standards strategies. I would not be
surprised if other organizations decided to join the "alliance" as well.
Anyway, very cool to see government organizations collaborate regarding
the usage of open source and open standards.
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/city_of_munich_and_german
OpenOffice.org and ODF adoption in Malaysia - thumbs up!
========================================================
"Now, you can hold them to their word, as they update a Wiki page,
informing you about how many agencies are moving to OpenOffice.org.
Big wins, once all of the Malaysian government related agencies are
on OpenOffice.org (open source software in general). Again, read
OpenOffice.org and ODF Adoption!"
http://www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2008/04/27/openofficeorg-and-odf-adoption-in-malaysia-thumbs-up
http://knowledge.oscc.org.my/solution-areas/desktop/OpenOffice.org/openoffice-adoption
OpenOffice.org on 41,000 computers
==================================
"At the same time, technology chief Stephen Wilson announced the
department will install a free alternative to Microsoft's Office
suite, referred to in industry circles as OpenOffice, on 41,000
computers due to be distributed to schools across the state by the
end of 2008. "For the first time we're going to install OpenOffice
on every computer under our Technology 4 Learning programme," he says."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/FE73A77E2BB96F21CC257425007DCB21
Schools in Swiss canton switch to Linux and OpenOffice.org
==========================================================
According to this German article, the Swiss canton Geneva is switching
to Linux and OpenOffice.org for 9,000 computers in education.
Yet another OpenOffice.org success story!
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/schools_in_swiss_canton_switch
HP shipping laptops with OpenOffice.org pre-installed
=====================================================
According to this HP product page, HP is shipping low-cost laptops with
Linux and OpenOffice.org pre-installed. I guess, soon all major laptop
vendors will have an OpenOffice.org option in their portfolio.
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/hp_shipping_laptops_with_openoffice
Spanish low-cost notebook including OpenOffice.org
==================================================
According to this Spanish article, yet another low-cost notebook
including a Fedora-based Linux distro as well as OpenOffice.org will
be sold for about 300 Euro. With more and more hardware vendors
shipping computers with OpenOffice.org pre-installed, I'm convinced
that the OpenOffice.org market share will grow quickly over the next
few months and years.
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/spanish_low_cost_notebook_including
German portfolio analysis software supports OpenOffice.org
==========================================================
According to this German announcement, the German portfolio analysis
software "Strategie-Portfolio" from the company "Aplan A" supports
OpenOffice.org. It's great to see that an increasing number of ISV's
is adding OpenOffice.org support to their products!
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/german_portfolio_analysis_software_supports
German ERP software vendor adds OpenOffice.org support
======================================================
I just came across this German press release. The ERP systems NVinity
now also supports OpenOffice.org for doing mail merges and printing
invoices. Yet another product that I can add to the OpenOffice.org
Solutions wiki page.
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/german_erp_software_vendor_adds
Featured News
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Reminder: A maximum total of $175,000 USD may be awarded
========================================================
This is just another short reminder that the OpenOffice.org Community
Innovation Program is still accepting projects and that a
maximum total of $175,000 USD may be awarded. Thus, check out the
links below for ideas and background information and submit your
project!
http://development.openoffice.org/community_innovation_program.html
http://contributing.openoffice.org/programming.html
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/To-Dos
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2008/proposals
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi (query for high votes)
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OpenOffice_NetBeans_Integration
Mac/Aqua port - state of the union
==================================
"In contrast to this we have achieved a lot of system integration tasks
in addition to the necessary basics (in no particular order):
* Native file picker
* Native print dialog
* Quicktime integration
* System dictionary integration
* Spotlight integration
* Mac special font handling (what hdu likes to call "fancy ligatures")
* lots of smaller things like the black dot in the close button or
using the system's recent items menu
All in all I think we now have a really usable OpenOffice.org/Aqua version
that does not need to fear being compared to the other platforms.
There are of course still bugs. Like on all other platforms ;-)"
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/mac_aqua_port_state_of
OpenOffice.org Study by the Copenhagen Business School
======================================================
A study regarding OpenOffice.org by the Copenhagen Business School was
just released. The study is in Danish, but the executive summary
fortunately is in English. Here are a few quotes:
"The total TCO for implementing OpenOffice.org at Klaksvík hospital
... OpenOffice.org results in a cost reduction of 24 % ... The total
TCO for implementing OpenOffice.org at Landssjúkrahúsið ...
OpenOffice.org results in a cost reduction of 67 % ... The total
TCO for implementing OpenOffice.org LandsNet (the entire public
sector) ... OpenOffice.org results in a cost reduction of 91 %."
Quite impressive numbers!
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/openoffice_org_study_by_the
The second extension crossed 100,000 downloads
==============================================
After the "Professional Template Pack - English" the "Sun Report Builder"
was the second OpenOffice.org extension that crossed the 100,000 downloads
number. Currently the top-5 most popular extensions are:
* Professional Template Pack - English
* Sun Report Builder
* Writer's Tools
* eFax for StarOffice and OpenOffice.org
* OxygenOffice Extras - Gallery
And the top-5 newest extensions are:
* Compose Special Characters
* OpenCards - A free flashcard learning extension for Impress
* French dictionaries - "Classic & Reform 1990" spelling
* French dictionaries - "Classic" spelling only
* French dictionaries - "Reform 1990" spelling only
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/most_pop_ext
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/recent_updated
Calc Usability Improvements in OpenOffice.org 2.4
=================================================
"We founded a team to improve the usability of Calc last year. First
usability improvements made by this team are visible in OOo 2.3. The
new OOo 2.4 release contains even more usability improvements for Calc.
This article list those improvements and links to specifications,
further articles and videos:"
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/calc_usability_improvements_in_openoffice
Tips & Tricks
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A native Database Driver for MySQL
==================================
"If you use OpenOffice.org Base to connect to your MySQL database, you
probably know that OOo's existing implementation requires you to install
an additional driver – either the Connector/ODBC or the Connector/J from
the MySQL site. OpenOffice.org itself wraps the external driver,
to accommodate to some peculiarities.
Well, this is neither convenient (ever installed an ODBC driver on Unix?),
nor efficient, plus prone to losing functionality in the different
involved abstraction layers.
Yesterday, our friends over there at MySQL announced a preview release of
the MySQL Connector/OpenOffice, a dedicated, native driver which
implements OpenOffice.org's database access API, providing access to
your MySQL databases."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/a_native_database_driver_for
Make the best out of OpenOffice.org extensions
==============================================
"The OpenOffice.org project offers help for all ISVs, help to port or
migrate their solutions to OpenOffice.org. Or even to implement new
solutions for OpenOffice.org. It's quite easy to offer that because you
can join and ask on our mailing lists for help, it's FREE. And most often
you will get answers from the developers directly. Where get you direct
developer support apart from open source projects? And of course if you
need more help and if you are willing to invest some money there are a
lot offerings from OpenOffice.org specialist available too including
Sun Microsystems.
By the way i am happy with all extensions, the free and open and the
commercial ones. Especially the ones that are coming from individual
community members and i hope that they will and can do more and more
in the project."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/make_the_best_out_of
Doing a mail merge via API
==========================
I lately talk quite a bit to ISVs about the integration of StarOffice,
OpenOffice.org and ODF. One topic that frequently comes up is mail merge.
Thus, I thought it can't hurt to mention in my blog how a mail merge can
be done via API. In case you are interested in this topic, you should
take a look at this code snippet and this IDL reference. In this context,
you also might want to check out the SugarCRM extension on java.net.
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/doing_a_mail_merge_via
"An OpenOffice Letterhead Tutorial"
===================================
"This tutorial is a guideline on making your own letterhead on Open Office.
Although there are letterhead templates in the wild, you may have a design
in mind that you can only put together yourself. This should give you
enough background information to do this on your own. Depending on how
much glitter you want on it, it may take some artistic skill - sorry,
I cannot impart that in this document."
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/101243/
A Solver for Mac OS X
=====================
Even though the market leading office suite vendor just dropped the
Solver component with it latest Mac version, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will
have a Solver component. Curious Mac users can already test it by
downloading the latest developer snapshot of OpenOffice.org. Since
OpenOffice.org is truly multi-platform, the Solver component obviously
is not only available on Mac OS X, but also on all the other platforms
supported by OpenOffice.org. The download files can be found at:
http://download.openoffice.org/680/index.html
ODF News
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ODF enhancements for OpenOffice.org
===================================
"It is rumored that adding new features to OpenOffice.org is very hard
or close to impossible for volunteer developers if that feature is not
already a part of ODF, the file format OpenOffice.org uses for its
documents. I think this is unfounded rumor, but understanding that
needs some explanations.
...
Please refer to issue 53420 for further reference. We discussed the
situation and Giuseppe agreed to post a suggestion to the comment list.
After some discussion this was accepted as a proposal and three weeks
later the proposal was accepted to become included into the next
ODF version.
...
Perhaps you are now curious about the feature that will be part of
ODF 1.2. Well, after taking a break of a few months Giuseppe started
to specify and implement the feature in close cooperation with Oliver
Wittmann (Development), Frank Meies (Development), Frank Loehmann (UX),
Michael Ruess (QA) and Uwe Fischer (Documentation) from Sun. The work
was finished and integrated into the DEV300_m2 milestone and so will
be available in the OOo 3.0 Beta. Giuseppe's work is great and I will
take this opportunity to thank him in public for this work and all
the other patches we got from him in the past.
Thanks, Giuseppe!"
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/odf_enhancements_for_openoffice_org1
ODF Development using Perl, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, etc.
=========================================================
In case you're a developer and are looking for libraries simplifying ODF
development with technologies like Perl, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, etc.,
you should check out this summary of ODF tools and libraries. BTW, most
of these efforts are open source projects. Thus, if you have a little
bit of spare time, feel free to join the projects!
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/odf_development_using_perl_python
ODFDOM to become available in May 2008
======================================
ODFDOM is the name of the upcoming free OpenDocument framework
sponsored by Sun Microsystems Inc.
It will be the next evolutionary step after AODL and Odf4j. Designed
together with their architects with the intent to provide an easy
lightwork programming API for the ODF developer community. ODFDOM is
meant to be portable to any object-oriented language.
The first pre-version of the Java 5 reference implementation of ODFDOM
is planned to become available under LGPL3 in May 2008.
Please find further detailed information in the OOo Wiki.
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/odfdom_the_new_opensourced_multi
"A pure Java library for OASIS Open Document files manipulation"
================================================================
More and more ODF tools and libraries are emerging. I just came across
jOpenDocument which sounds promising. On the homepage it describes itself
as "A pure Java library for OASIS Open Document files manipulation".
Developers should also keep their eyes open for more news from the
OpenOffice.org ODF Toolkit Project. In addition, there are ODF tools
available for Perl developers and for PHP developers (check out this
and this). BTW, if you know of any tools for ODF development or
applications supporting ODF, make sure they are listed at
opendocument.xml.org.
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/a_pure_java_library_for
ODF Seminar for Municipalities
==============================
On May 19th there will be an ODF seminar for municipalities in Schoten
(Belgium). More details can be found here:
http://opendocument.xml.org/calendar-event/odf-seminar-for-municipalities
ODF development effort for KOffice sponsored
============================================
According to this announcement, the Dutch NLnet foundation decided to
sponsor the ODF development effort for KOffice. Great news for the
larger ODF ecosystem!
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/odf_development_effort_for_koffice
Gartner about ODF
=================
"Silver said the market share for the Linux operating system and
applications that use the Open Document Format is small but growing fast
in emerging markets, where consumers and businesses lack large technology
budgets. "They're much more price sensitive and don't have a pre-existing
installed base that locks them into commercial products," said Silver
[Gartner analyst Michael Silver]."
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterpriseapps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207001577
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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