On Sun, 2009-09-27 at 20:32 +0800, Zhang Weiwu wrote: > Hello. > > I have been using OpenOffice Draw for five years for desktop publishing > purpose as a replacement of Microsoft Publisher 2000 (part of MS > Office), back in the year 2003 when I decide to switch away from > Microsoft Office. At current stage Draw is just one-step away from a DTP > software for "prosumer" market, which in my understanding is the biggest > DTP market segment now in China and probably also the world. By > "prosumer" I refer to those who have DTP requirement beyond word > processing software can offer yet are not usually DTP professionals. > > Before going on the discussion please download these example > publications created using OpenOffice Draw to have an impression how the > result looks like when OpenOffice Draw is used for publication purpose. > Mind the 16MB size! with about 10 samples in it: > http://www.yuliansu.com/cc_works/publications_odg.tar
It could be argued that Draw is not intended to be page layout software. In the FOSS world Scribus is probably the choice for that particular application in the prosumer space. Would it be easier to cooperate with the Scribus people and enhance that product? Having said that, the enhancements suggested would be useful in Draw in their own right. > You can see most of these examples are difficult to do in Writer but > easier in Draw, and Draw provided all features necessary to make them. > > I recommend to market openoffice Draw to this market segment as well as > improve software to suit this need. Reasons: > > 1. OpenOffice Draw can do prosumer DTP. > 2. Office users need prosumer DTP products. > > I recommend only a few (I guess less than 10% of the effort of making > Draw itself) improvement that can make it adapt to DTP needs. If your > email client software tabstop is set to eight spaces, you should see the > following table in the way I created them: > > Feature COMPARISON table: > DTP requirements and how much OpenOffice Draw & MS Publisher > satisfy these requirements. > > MS Publisher 2000 > | "Must" for prosumer DTP > | | OpenOffice Draw 3.0 (2009) > | | | Prosumer Features > | | | | > [The "MS did it better 9 years ago than we are doing now" group] > Yes Yes No Even/odd page can use different page setting > Yes Yes No Text frame linking > Yes Yes No Rich template + meta data management (e.g. phone number) > Yes Yes No Fast loading > Yes Yes No Justified alignment in text frame > Yes Yes No Wrap text around object > Yes Yes No Bleeding and corner mark > Yes Yes No Booklet layout > Yes No No CMYK color space > Yes No No More colors to choose from > Yes No No Color-set management for each publication > Yes No No Color-to-alpha for raster images > Yes No No On WYSIWYG show only preview but not load image > Yes No No Outline finder for raster images > Yes No No Repeatitive line pattern or its pattern clipart > Yes No No Page background pattern into page margin > [The "Now we are doing better than MS 9 years ago" group] > No No Yes Editable document should be in a standard format > No No Yes Any object can hold text > [The "We now don't have them, neither MS Publisher in 2000" group] > No Yes No Multi-column text frame > No Yes No Perfect vector image import for various formats > No No Yes Multi-layer > [The "Even MS didn't do them in 2000" feature group] > No No No Objects on non-current layer not selectable > No No No Text along curves > ? No No Smooth shades for objects with parameters > > Note that I left out all the "prosumer features" that is > available now in OpenOffice Draw. If I enclude them, this list's > length is trippled with "Yes Yes Yes" features. Haven't used MS > Publisher for 6 years I also could not compare OpenOffice Draw > to the latest MS Publisher. > > Best regards > Zhang Weiwu > -- > 锐业软服（北京）信息技术有限公司 > Real Softservice Information & Communication Technologies > > 邮政编码： 100089 北四环中路238号 柏彦大厦406b室 > Beisihuan Zhong Road No. 238 Baiyan Building Unit 406B > > Tel: +86 (10) 8231 8580 > http://www.realss.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] -- Ian Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications A new approach to assessment for learning www.theINGOTs.org - 01827 305940 You have received this email from the following company: The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
