Office Archive

"I must admit that I had mixed feelings when I saw the new toolbar metaphor for OpenOffice.org 2.0. On the one hand, the 1.x system for seeing different toolbars was a bit complicated and weird. On the other hand, the huge list of toolbars under the "View" menu of the OpenOffice.org 2.0 (release candidate) seemed potentially overwhelming. I must admit, though, that I am a happy convert to the new system." (Part 1|part 2)

The notion of "business intelligence," or easy access to critical company data, is one of the key areas for improvement that the company has identified for the next version of its flagship desktop software. On Monday, Microsoft shared some of its plans in that area, including the outlines of a new server-based system for managing Excel spreadsheets.

Corel had a chance of a lifetime handed to it on a silver platter - support OpenDocument and take an immediate lead in the charge to supplant MS Office. They've decided to stick their head in the sand instead, according to Andy Updegrove.

"What would help the most is to eliminate both the dependency on expensive commercial software and also eliminate the company-owned computer. If, like master mechanics in machine shops, the employee owned his or her own tools, none of this would be an issue. That means the company would require its knowledge worker to purchase specific tools and he or she would then own them. A company store could sell these products and even buy them back at the end of an employment period."

A lot of misinformation about the OpenDocument digital format has started to appear in the mainstream media and interest groups. Answers to many questions on the topic already have appeared, but they are written by techies for techies. This article is different, however. You can print out this one and pass it on to everyone, regardless of their computer skill level.

"We sat here watching Ben Goodger doing a talk about Firefox at EuroOSCON, it got me thinking about this concept of taking a huge and bloated project (such as Netscape) and cutting it down to the core and releasing a spin-off project such as Firefox. With all of the recent discussion and email I have been receiving triggered from Opening the potential of OpenOffice.org, it makes sense if this process was drilled into OpenOffice.org." In addition, OpenOffice is nearing the 50 million downloads.

"No one makes bad software on purpose. No benevolent programmer has ever sat down, planning out weeks of work, with the intention of frustrating people and making them cry. Bad software, or bad anything, happens because making things is hard, making good things doubly so."

According to Andy Updegrove, Microsoft seems to be reconsidering support for OpenDocument. A quote from the blog: "So there is no line drawn in the sand, nor (to put it another way) has Microsoft painted itself into a corner. If OpenDocument picks up steam, a back door for support is ajar."

Although OpenOffice.org had planned to release the final 2.0 version of its open-source office suite on Oct. 13 - the fifth anniversary of the founding of the organization - the company has decided to hold off due to a "show-stopping" problem with the software, community members said Wednesday.

Hot on the heels of yesterdays interview of Sun's Florian Reuter (part one in a series of three), comes a two-page interview with OpenOffice.org's Gary Edwards. In this installment, Gary discusses the importance of open document formats and hints to the release date of OpenOffice.org 2.0: "No one knows for certain when OOo 2.0 stable will be released, but Mad Penguin's bet is that the stable 2.0 release will come before any recently purchased cartons of milk expire in your refrigerator."

The Open Document Fellowship was launched to add momentum to what appears to be a growing movement to support the open standard for the production, storage and dissemination of documents.

Massachusetts' plan to standardize desktop applications on OpenDocument, an open standard not supported by Microsoft Office, essentially comes down to a matter of control, according Stephen O'Grady. O'Grady has been following the story closely and explains that as a sovereign entity, Massachusetts feels the need to be in complete control of its desktop technology, rather than relying on a single company for its office productivity needs.

This week, Microsoft announced that, with the next version of Office, it will support saving files to Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF. While logical, the move raises questions about how the PDF support will coexist with Windows Vista's move to its own page description format, known as Metro. Sinofsky also addressed how Microsoft views the controversy surrounding Massachusetts' mandate for the OpenDocument standard.

"Today, I want to take you on a journey. A journey that starts back into the cold recesses of the mid-1980s, back into the days of EGA and serial port mice and the MS-DOS Executive. Microsoft Word 1.0 for Windows shipped in 1989 after a long development cycle and was designed to run on Windows 386. There's not much more to the program than what you see here, but it gives you an idea of how far Word's come."