OpenOffice.org 2.0 Test Review

Here, like The Gimp or of Mozilla, a small jewel gracefully offered by the community of the free software coming from a keen and constant collaborative work. During free of the commercial continuation Star Office, OpenOffice.org is a complete office automation continuation. This one passes in version 2 and reaches a maturity here such as it does not suffer any more from unspecified comparisons with its counterpart’s owners. For proof, many administrations and companies adopted it instead of the continuation of Microsoft.

Our preferred office automation continuation proposes:

* text processing (Writer),
* spreadsheet (Calc),
* software of presentation (Impress),
* vector drafting package and CAM (Draw)
* editor of Web pages
* a module of creation and management of the data bases (bases)

OpenOffice.org is multiplatform (it exists for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, Solaris and FreeBSD). It is compatible in reading and writing (and thus in modification) with the files resulting from the office automation continuation Microsoft Office version XP

(and of the former versions 2000, 97 etc…) like with the WordPerfect files.

Compatibility between OpenOffice.org and the files of the continuation Microsoft Office are excellent: it thus authorizes the passage carefully one with the other, which we encourage you to do without restriction. Moreover, its format of file remains open and based on the XML what constitutes a guarantee of independence, interworking and access to information for all the users. Among the many characteristics of OpenOffice.org, let us quote in particular:

• an improvement of the support of the format of file DBASE. We appreciated the recognition of files .dbf in the spreadsheet.
• of new localizations (i.e. the support of new languages)
• facilitated export XML
• the FontOpenOffice Autopilot which downloads and installs police forces starting from different sources.
• the integration of the DicOpenOffice Autopilot for the orthographical correctors and the dictionaries
• interchangeability of the decimal point
• of new complementary tools of which most recent is “PincOOo”, the brush which makes it possible to copy the styles like the brush of MS Word.
• export with format PDF of the documents carried out. With this new version, you obtain active files PDF preserving the hyperlinks and the bookmarks, as well as an optimization of the compression of images of the document.
• the modules of presentation (Impress) and drawing (Draw) make it possible to export with the format Macromedia Flash (format .swf). It is possible from now on to visualize the above mentioned files in a Web navigator comprising the plug-in Flash.
• Open Office includes options of accessibility (in particular a possibility of high contrast) for the people having a visual deficiency.
• of the improvements of internationalization (bidirectional writing and vertical): this makes it possible OpenOffice.org to be translated into Japanese, Hebrew and in much of other languages.
• a recorder of macros
• a powerful tool for filtering of files XML
• a powerful equation editor
• OpenOffice.org makes it possible users to export documents of OpenOffice.org towards formats compatible with those used for the PDA of the type Palm Pilot and Pocket PC

Among the innovations of this version 2, one will note:

• Appearance of the basic module of data. This one allows the basic importation of existing data since many formats (for example: MySQL, DBASE, LDAP, Access,…)
• the format owing to lack of recording is the open format OpenDocument validated by the OASIS
• It is from now on possible to add an electronic signature to its documents
• Increase in the maximum number of line available in Calc (the spreadsheet) of 32000 to approximately 65000.
• Possibility of creating forms using the standard of the W3C XForms
• smoothing of the police forces, which returns the legibility of certain police forces easier, like Cleartype of Microsoft
• possibility of making requests in requests with Base
• There is a better support of the ODBC of Oracle
• Basic general ergonomics was re-examined.
• Importation of Excel sheets is improved: support of the goniometrical functions, importation of the dynamic cross tables).
• Impress allows a better management of the hidden slides
• Export PDF was improved by adding options of exit.

OOo is under license GNU LGPL for “Lesser General Public License” what means approximately that it is fully compatible with the LPG except the fact that if one do-it-yourself the code of OOo for his own needs one is then not obliged to also put the fruit of his do-it-yourself them under license LPG (one loses the recursively of license LPG “to be clearer”). In other words a company can be very well based on a version of OOo and make of it a product owner and commercial.