OpenOffice.org Community Announces OpenOffice.org Version 2.2

OpenOffice.org Releases New Version of Free Software Alternative to Microsoft Office

March 29, 2007.

The OpenOffice.org Community announce the release of OpenOffice.org 2.2, the latest version of the leading open-source office suite. With upgrades to its word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, and database software, the free software package provides a real alternative to Microsoft's recently-released Office 2007 product — and an easier upgrade path for existing Microsoft Office users. OpenOffice.org 2.2 also protects users from newly discovered vulnerabilities, where users' PCs could be open to attack if they opened documents from, or accessed web sites set up by, malicious individuals.

In version 2.2, users will immediately notice the improvement in the quality of text display in all parts of OpenOffice.org. The reason for this is that the previously optional support for kerning, a technique to improve the appearance of text written in proportional fonts, has now been enabled by default. OpenOffice.org's unique pdf export function has also been enhanced with the addition of the optional creation of bookmarks feature, and support for user-definable export of form fields.

While OpenOffice.org 2.1 functions well on Microsoft's Windows Vista, version 2.2 makes use of some of the new cosmetic changes available in Vista, the new file dialogues being an example. Apple Mac users will notice a smaller download and a smaller installed size. The Apple Mac Intel version has many stability improvements, and bug fixes ranging from .ppt export to improved UNO connections. Version 2.2 now requires Mac OS X 10.4.x running X11.

Turning to some of the enhancements made to the individual components of OpenOffice.org, the Calc spreadsheet has received additional enhancements to its support for Microsoft file formats, including improved support for Pivot Tables and some specialised trigonometric functions. Base, the database component, has improved SQL editing functionality as well as a new "Queries within Queries" feature. Compatibility options for some database drivers, such as Oracle ODBC, have been improved. Impress, the presentations component, offers improvements in the handling of hidden slides which has been made more intuitive.

It is important to remember that OpenOffice.org is not just a software package, but is also a development and user community. One demonstration of this is the ability of third party developers to create extensions in a simple manner. Third party extensions can now be more closely integrated and features have been added to dramatically simplify the installation and updating of these. In addition, features have been added to assist those participating in the translation and localisation of OpenOffice.org.

In addition to being immediately available for download from the traditional download servers, OpenOffice.org is also available from a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. Alternatively, OpenOffice.org Community Distributors supply the software on CD-ROM in many countries and native language translations will be available from their relevant communities.

About OpenOffice.org

The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org's leading edge software technology (UNO) is also available for developers, systems integrators, etc to use in OpenOffice.org extensions or in their own applications.

OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) as well as legacy industry file formats and is available on major computing platforms in over 70 languages. OpenOffice.org software is provided under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL) and may be used free of charge for any purpose, private or commercial.

The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding sponsor and primary contributor.

Official Press Release

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/03/prweb508436.htm
http://mediaserver.prweb.com/pdfdownload/508436/pr.pdf

OpenOffice.org 2.2 may be downloaded free of charge from: http://download.openoffice.org/

The OpenOffice.org Community can be found at: http://www.openoffice.org/

To learn more about the Community see: http://about.openoffice.org/.

The Native Language Project is at: http://projects.openoffice.org/native-lang.html

Further Information About OpenOffice.org products

The OpenOffice.org office suite for users: http://www.openoffice.org/product/
OpenOffice.org Universal Network Objects (UNO) for developers: http://udk.openoffice.org/
OpenOffice.org Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers: http://api.openoffice.org/

Press Contacts

Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -04h00)
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
Email: louis@openoffice.org
Tel: +1 (416) 625 3843

John McCreesh (UTC +01h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
Email: jpmcc@openoffice.org
Tel: +44 (0)7 810 278 540

Cristian Driga (UTC +02h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
Email: cdriga@openoffice.org
Tel: +40 7887 000 60

Worldwide Marketing Contacts
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

[Source: http://www.openoffice.org/press/press_release_ooo2.2.0.html]

See also:

OpenOffice.org Version 2.2 Release Notes
"And now we are 2.2." Meall Dubh, Blog.
"OpenOffice.org 2.2 released." Blog: larryni.me.uk. "OpenOffice.org released the latest version of their free open source software alternative to Microsoft Office today. It includes updates for the word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database packages. They also patched some security holes which were recently discovered. Here's a rundown of the improvements:
- improvement in the quality of text display in all parts of OpenOffice.org due to kerning enabled by default
- enhanced pdf export function with the addition of the optional creation of bookmarks feature
- support for user-definable export of form fields.
- new cosmetic changes available in Vista
- smaller download and install size for Apple Mac users
- Apple Mac Intel version has many stability improvements and bug fixes. Version 2.2 now requires Mac OS X 10.4.x running X11.
- additional enhancements to support MS file formats in Calc
- improved support for Pivot Tables and some specialised trigonometric functions
- improved SQL editing functionality as well as a new Queries within Queries feature for Base
- improved compatibility options for some database drivers
- improvements in the handling of hidden Impress slides.

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.

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OpenOffice.org 2.2 also protects users from newly discovered vulnerabilities, where users' PCs could be open to attack if they opened documents from, or accessed web sites set up by, malicious individuals. In version 2.2, users will immediately notice the improvement in the quality of text display in all parts of OpenOffice.org. The reason for this is that the previously optional support for kerning, a technique to improve the appearance of text written in proportional fonts, has now been enabled by default. OpenOffice.org's unique pdf export function has also been enhanced with the addition of the optional creation of bookmarks feature, and support for user-definable export of form fields. While OpenOffice.org 2.1 functions well on Microsoft's Windows Vista, version 2.2 makes use of some of the new cosmetic changes available in Vista, the new file dialogues being an example. Apple Mac users will notice a smaller download and a smaller installed size. The Apple Mac Intel version has many stability improvements, and bug fixes ranging from .ppt export to improved UNO connections. Version 2.2 now requires Mac OS X 10.4.x running X11. Turning to some of the enhancements made to the individual components of OpenOffice.org, the Calc spreadsheet has received additional enhancements to its support for Microsoft file formats, including improved support for Pivot Tables and some specialised trigonometric functions. Base, the database component, has improved SQL editing functionality as well as a new "Queries within Queries" feature. Compatibility options for some database drivers, such as Oracle ODBC, have been improved. Impress, the presentations component, offers improvements in the handling of hidden slides which has been made more intuitive. It is important to remember that OpenOffice.org is not just a software package, but is also a development and user community. One demonstration of this is the ability of third party developers to create extensions in a simple manner. Third party extensions can now be more closely integrated and features have been added to dramatically simplify the installation and updating of these. In addition, features have been added to assist those participating in the translation and localisation of OpenOffice.org. In addition to being immediately available for download from the traditional download servers, OpenOffice.org is also available from a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. Alternatively, OpenOffice.org Community Distributors supply the software on CD-ROM in many countries and native language translations will be available from their relevant communities. About OpenOffice.org The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org's leading edge software technology (UNO) is also available for developers, systems integrators, etc to use in OpenOffice.org extensions or in their own applications. OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) as well as legacy industry file formats and is available on major computing platforms in over 70 languages. OpenOffice.org software is provided under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL) and may be used free of charge for any purpose, private or commercial. The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding sponsor and primary contributor. Official Press Release http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/03/prweb508436.htm http://mediaserver.prweb.com/pdfdownload/508436/pr.pdf OpenOffice.org 2.2 may be downloaded free of charge from: http://download.openoffice.org/ The OpenOffice.org Community can be found at: http://www.openoffice.org/ To learn more about the Community see: http://about.openoffice.org/. The Native Language Project is at: http://projects.openoffice.org/native-lang.html Further Information About OpenOffice.org products The OpenOffice.org office suite for users: http://www.openoffice.org/product/ OpenOffice.org Universal Network Objects (UNO) for developers: http://udk.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice.org Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers: http://api.openoffice.org/ Press Contacts Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -04h00) OpenOffice.org Community Manager Email: louis@openoffice.org Tel: +1 (416) 625 3843 John McCreesh (UTC +01h00) OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead Email: jpmcc@openoffice.org Tel: +44 (0)7 810 278 540 Cristian Driga (UTC +02h00) OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead Email: cdriga@openoffice.org Tel: +40 7887 000 60 Worldwide Marketing Contacts http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html [Source: http://www.openoffice.org/press/press_release_ooo2.2.0.html] See also: OpenOffice.org Version 2.2 Release Notes "And now we are 2.2." Meall Dubh, Blog. "OpenOffice.org 2.2 released." Blog: larryni.me.uk. "OpenOffice.org released the latest version of their free open source software alternative to Microsoft Office today. It includes updates for the word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database packages. They also patched some security holes which were recently discovered. Here's a rundown of the improvements: improvement in the quality of text display in all parts of OpenOffice.org due to kerning enabled by default enhanced pdf export function with the addition of the optional creation of bookmarks feature support for user-definable export of form fields. new cosmetic changes available in Vista smaller download and install size for Apple Mac users Apple Mac Intel version has many stability improvements and bug fixes. Version 2.2 now requires Mac OS X 10.4.x running X11. additional enhancements to support MS file formats in Calc improved support for Pivot Tables and some specialised trigonometric functions improved SQL editing functionality as well as a new Queries within Queries feature for Base improved compatibility options for some database drivers improvements in the handling of hidden Impress slides. Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive.