Joe wrote:
> Mike,
> Thanks so much for the download info. Actually, I am helping a guy with this
> problem.  He was able to download OpenOffice 2.1 and install it from the
> website you provided.
> 
> Now there are a couple of issues. Again, this is on an iMac running Panther
> 10.3.9
> 
> 1). He can get OpenOffice 2.1 to open a .pps file (with some finagling) ,
> but the fonts are so jagged and distorted that they are just about
> unreadable.

Ask him if he has his monitor set to thousands of colors or less? If so
(or no) he should either set his display to millions of colors and/or
follow this hint from:
<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060531063708478>

"Launch X11 and open the Preferences section. On the Output tab, change
the Colors pull-down to 'Millions' instead of 'From Display.' Restart X11."

When he installed OOo 2.1, did he click "yes" to OOo's installer request
asking if he would like to use the Mac's own fonts? I assume (hope) that
he would have said yes.

I installed vers 2.1 onto a Mac running Panther to test it for myself.
The font rendering in Writer was pretty unsightly. I found that some
fonts looked better than others. Times New Roman of all fonts was
particularly awful. But they were legible, just not pretty (kerning or
the lack of, my biggest issue).

I then opened a .pps file in OOo ver. 2.1, and the fonts in it were
perfectly legible (looked much better than in Writer) and easily passed
inspection. So...

The .pps file he is trying to open was perhaps created using fonts that
he does not have installed or available to OOo (they may even be bitmaps
of fonts and not actual fonts). Ask if all .pps files that he's tried,
are rendering as badly?

If his iMac has a G4 cpu, and if he were to upgrade his OS to Tiger he
could install OOo version 3.0 or newer, which would negate having to use
X11. Fonts look just as good as on any Mac app in vers. 3.0

If he can't upgrade he might take a look at NeoOffice which is a Mac
port of OOo running under Java. It doesn't require X11 and can run on
Panther or newer. <http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php> I
can't say how well it works as I have not tried it, myself. It is an
option that he should be made aware of.

> 2). Second, he is unable to quit X11 without force quitting it. He does not
> even have a menu bar up on top for X11.
> 
> I told him to run Disk Utility and repair permissions as well as repair the
> disk--in case that is related to the problem. He will do that tonight, but I
> thought I'd see if any of you Mac people were familiar with either of these
> problems.

I don't get that issue. That is, X11 quits quickly and cleanly on my PPC
running Panther.

If by "force quitting" X11, he means that is how he is quitting out of
OpenOffice, then ask him to exit the (OOo) program first by choosing
"Exit" from the "File" menu of the front most OOo window, or by typing
"Ctrl + Q" to quit OOo. He should be able to quit X11 after OOo exits at
that point by typing "Command + Q".

But not having a menu bar for X11 indicates that something is either
wrong with his install or that the Finder or some other running app is
front most when he decides that he wants to quit X11. Ask him to toggle
his running apps to see what is running at the time. By holding the
Command key down and tapping at the tab key, he can cycle through his
running apps (same as in Windows with Alt + tab keys).

If he still cannot see an X11 menu bar by toggling through running apps
then perhaps there is a problem with his install of X11.

> Thanks again for all of your help.
> -Joe

YW Joe.

-- 
Mike Dawe
OOo 3.0.1rc2 MacOSX PPC US English

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