Office Archive

OpenOffice.org v2 Beta 2 Released

Submitted by Dennis Jakobsen 2005-08-29 Office 49 Comments

The OpenOffice.org project has released the second beta of version 2 of their office suite. "This is our second beta of OpenOffice.org 2.0. That means it probably has bugs; use caution. Download, test it out, and file bug reports with the QA Project."

Word Processors Compared: OOo Writer, AbiWord, and KWord

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-24 Office 44 Comments

OpenOffice.org receives most of the attention among FOSS office suites, but users shouldn't forget that free software includes at least two other word processors: AbiWord, and KWord, part of the KOffice suite. From their inception, both have been playing catch-up with OpenOffice.org's Writer. But now, after several years of development, AbiWord and KWord are both reaching early maturity. How do Writer, AbiWord, and KWord compare?

Inside OpenOffice 2.0

Submitted by Mark Brunelli 2005-08-23 Office 43 Comments

OpenOffice.org instructor Solveig Haugland explains why the upcoming OpenOffice 2.0 is set to make her job a whole lot easier. She says, "As an OpenOffice.org and StarOffice trainer, I teach a lot of one-day classes on the core software features. As I introduce the program and then word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc) and presentation maker (Impress), I teach students how to deal with the oddities of each application before we get into the primary lessons. My first half hour of each section is gone."

Submitted by Tyr. 2005-07-29 Office 29 Comments

Friday, July 29th, 2005, is the 6th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. "Let's face it," the website reads, "System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year. This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe, will be showered with expensive sports cars and large piles of cash in appreciation of their diligent work."

Review: Virtual Privacy Machine

David Adams 2005-07-12 Office 28 Comments

The Tor Desktop Virtual Privacy Machine is a USB JumpDrive preloaded with a complete Linux OS and a roster of useful applications. Plug it into a Windows or Linux machine and launch a virtual Linux desktop that routes all network traffic through multiple network proxies using the Tor network. This provides a totally secure way to access your data, even when using an internet cafe PC or an untrusted network.

Power Plays: The Phenomenon of Vendor Lock-in

David Adams 2005-06-29 Office 53 Comments

Fans of just about anything alternative all seem to suffer from a similar affliction: a naïve underestimation of the pains of switching. This goes for U.S. fans of the metric system, alternative fuel proponents, vegetarians, and yes, OS fanatics. Now, personally I'm all for a lot of those things I just mentioned, but as a lapsed vegetarian, I know full well how, despite the advantages of the alternative, sometimes it's hard to switch and easy to go back.

OpenOffice 2.0 Beta Review

Thom Holwerda 2005-06-29 Office 20 Comments

I have been using Open Office for about 8 months now for my word processing needs. In a nutshell I am satisfied. Last week the version 2.0 was released, I downloaded it as soon as it was made available, on first view, even though the key functionality in version 2.0 Beta remains largely intact, it promises dozens, possibly hundreds, of changes.

VMware Workstation 5 Review

Submitted by anonymous 2005-06-29 Office 18 Comments

In last week's article, we discussed virtualization and its role in reducing server sprawl. We included VMware server as one of the products used to virtualize a data center. VMware also sells a workstation with a well-established reputation. This week we take a look at VMware Workstation 5.0.

KOffice 1.4 Released

Eugenia Loli 2005-06-21 Office 35 Comments

The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KOffice 1.4 for Linux and Unix operating systems. The KOffice 1.4 release is a large step towards embracing the OASIS OpenDocument file format which has become an approved standard for office file formats. This format is also used by the upcoming OpenOffice.org 2.0, thus providing high interoperability. New applications in the 1.4 release: Krita - A pixel based image manipulation application and Kexi - An integrated data management application.

Office developer speaks about the Office XML format

Submitted by Varg V 2005-06-15 Office 30 Comments

Brian Jones, a Microsoft employed Office developer, speaks about the new XML format to appear in the new version of Microsoft Office and answers a lot of questions about the OASIS issue. No the formats will not be compatible and Brian takes the time to say why: "Our primary goal at Microsoft was to create an open format that fully represented all of the features that our customers have used in their existing documents, documents that have been created using the existing Office products over the past couple decades."

LaTeX isn’t for everyone but it could be for you

Guest post by Andy Roberts 2005-06-06 Office 122 Comments

Anyone who has used Microsoft Word for a reasonable amount of time will recognise my very own Andy's Laws on Word:

Introduction to ClearHealth

Guest post by David Uhlman 2005-06-02 Office 38 Comments

Open Source has a wealth of offerings across many different arenas of software, to date a great deal of the offerings out there are development tools, general purpose applications, and first generation vertical applications. In the medical market there has been a long history of development on first generation software such as OpenEMR, FreeMed, FreeB and others. For some users these applications have offered a productive and capable platform on which to run their practice, but it is apparent to most the first time they go to use them that there is not the level of richness and depth found in proprietary alternatives like WebMD's Intergy, NextGen, or The Medical Manager. With the the release of ClearHealth 1.0 RC1 there is now a credible and full featured Open Source (under the GPL) offering that competes point for point in the big five areas of medical software:

Microsoft adding XML files to Office 12

Eugenia Loli 2005-06-02 Office 43 Comments

Microsoft said Thursday that it will introduce new XML-based file formats for its Excel, PowerPoint and Word applications when the company launches its Office 12 software package next year.

OpenOffice Gets Some Mainstream Press

Submitted by Aaron Benedict 2005-05-06 Office 50 Comments

The Associated Press has run a short review of OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta. They ran into some beta-type problems with installation and stability, but overall found it to be a good alternative for casual Office users.

Microsoft gunning for Adobe’s PDF format?

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-03 Office 40 Comments

When Bill Gates showed off the new Metro document format in Longhorn at a hardware conference last week, some analysts were quick to call it a PDF killer.

Approval of OpenDocument v1.0 as OASIS Standard

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-03 Office 13 Comments

OASIS announced that OpenDocument v1.0 will be recognised as the OASIS standard for documentation. Several open source office suites including Openoffice 2.0, Koffice and Abiword (Planned) will support the new standard.

KOffice 1.4 Beta 1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-01 Office 65 Comments

This release specifically introduces the database management application Kexi, the image editor Krita and upgrades the major KOffice components to use the OASIS Open Document format, an industry standard allowing better interoperability across applications and platforms.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 delayed until July

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-20 Office 72 Comments

According to this Linuxworld article, OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be delayed until at least June or July because of the level of feedback received on the beta. The project's other significant problem, according to developers at this year's OpenOffice.org conference in Canberra, Australia, is the shortage of developers not tied to Sun.

Best practice XML importing to OpenOffice with XSLT

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-01 Office 2 Comments

When it comes to importing generic XML into OpenOffice, the user is on his own. This article offers a quick XSLT tool for this purpose and demonstrates the Calc import of records-oriented XML. In addition to learning a practical trick for working with Calc, you might also learn a few handy XSLT techniques for using dynamic criteria to transform XML.

Interview of the Open Office.org Team

Submitted by Aditya Nag 2005-03-19 Office 70 Comments

Aditya Nag recently got the chance to ask the OpenOffice.org team a few questions about OpenOffice.org in general, and their upcoming release. The interview is fairly long and detailed, and there are a few interesting tid-bits, like Louis' assertion that there will come a day when there will be no proprietory file formats for Office Suites.