is a
Free and
Open Source Office Suite , including a
Word Processor ,
Spreadsheet , presentation, vector drawing and
Database components. It is available for many different
Platforms , including
Microsoft Windows ,
Unix-like systems with the
X Window System including
GNU/Linux ,
BSD ,
Solaris and
Mac OS X . It is intended to be
Compatible with, and compete with,
Microsoft Office , it supports the
OpenDocument standard for data interchange, and can be used at no cost.
OpenOffice.org is based on the codebase of
StarOffice , an office suite developed by
StarDivision acquired by
Sun Microsystems in
August 1999 . The
Source Code of the suite was released as an open source project in
July 2000 , with the aim of breaking the market dominance of Microsoft Office by providing a lower-cost, high-quality and open alternative. The source code for the application is available under the
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
The project and software are informally referred to as "OpenOffice", but project organizers report that this term is a
Trademark held by another party, requiring them to adopt "OpenOffice.org" as its formal name, and abbreviated as OOo.
According to its mission statement, the OpenOffice.org project aims "''To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.''"
The project aims to compete with Microsoft Office and emulate its look and feel where suitable. It can also read and write most of the ,
2006
The primary development platforms are
Microsoft Windows ,
GNU/Linux and
Sun Solaris . There are also ports available or in progress for
Mac OS X ,
OS/2 and many
Unix -like
Operating System s.
The software has drawn praise from many quarters. Federal Computer Week's ,
2005 .
OpenOffice.org is a collection of different applications that work together closely to provide the features expected from a modern office suite. Many of the components are designed to mirror those available in Microsoft Office. The components available include:
- Calc — a Spreadsheet similar to Microsoft Excel with a roughly equivalent range of features. Calc provides a number of features not present in Excel, including a system which automatically defines series for graphing, based on the layout of the user's data. Calc is also capable of writing spreadsheets directly as a PDF file.
- Draw — a Vector Graphics Editor comparable in features to CorelDRAW . It features versatile "connectors" between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowcharts.
- Base — a Database program similar to Microsoft Access . Base allows the creation and manipulation of databases, and the building of forms and reports to provide easy access to data for end-users. As with Access, Base is able to work as a front-end to a number of different database systems, including Access databases (JET), ODBC data sources and MySQL / PostgreSQL . Base only became part of the suite starting with version 2.0.
- Math — a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor . Formulae can be embedded inside other OpenOffice.org documents, such as those created by Writer. It supports multiple Fonts and can export to PDF .
- Quickstarter — a small program for Windows that runs when the computer starts for the first time. It loads the core files and libraries for OpenOffice.org during computer startup and allows the suite applications to start more quickly when selected later. The amount of time it takes to open OpenOffice.org applications was a common complaint in version 1.0 of the suite, and Quickstarter was a solution of sorts. Substantial improvements were made in this area for version 2.0.
It is not possible to download these components individually on Windows, though they can be installed separately. Most Linux distributions break the components into individual packages which may be downloaded and installed separately.
Originally developed as
Proprietary office suite
StarOffice by the German company
StarDivision , the code was purchased in
1999 by Sun Microsystems. In
August 1999 version 5.2 of StarOffice was made available free-of-charge.
On
July 19 ,
2000 , Sun Microsystems announced that it was making the source code of StarOffice available for download under both the
Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and the
Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL) with the intention of building an open source development community around the software. The new project was known as OpenOffice.org, and its website went live on
October 13 ,
2000 .
Work on version 2.0 began in early capabilities; better integration, particularly with
GNOME ; an easier-to-find and use database front-end for creating reports, forms and queries; a new built-in
SQL database; and improved
Usability . A
Beta Version was released on
March 4 ,
2005 .
On ,
2005
On ,
2005 However, eight weeks after the release of Version 2.0, an update, OpenOffice.org 2.0.1, was released. Version 2.0.1 remedies minor bugs and introduces new features.
OpenOffice.org recently changed its release cycle from 18-months to releasing updates, feature enhancements and bug fixes every three months.
OpenOffice aims to boost lagging performance , URL accessed on
20 April ,
2006 .
Sun subsidises the development of OpenOffice.org in order to use it as a base for its commercial StarOffice application software. Releases of StarOffice since version 6.0 have been based on the OpenOffice.org source code, with some additional proprietary components, including:
- Added Font s (especially Asian Language fonts)
- Adabas D database
- Added document Template s
- Clip Art
- Sorting functionality for Asian versions
- Added file filters.
- Migration assesment tool (Enterprise Edition)
- Macro migration tool (Enterprise Edition)
- Configuration management tool (Enterprise Edition)
As of ,
2006
The OpenOffice.org
API is based on a component technology known as
Universal Network Objects (or UNO). It consists of a wide range of interfaces defined in a
CORBA -like
Interface Description Language .
The
Document File Format used is based on
XML and several export and import filters. All external formats read by OpenOffice.org are converted back and forth from an internal XML representation. By using
Compression when saving
XML to disk, files are generally smaller than the equivalent binary Microsoft Office documents. The native file format for storing documents in version 1.0 was used as the basis of the
OASIS OpenDocument file format standard, which has become the default file format in version 2.0.
Development versions of the suite are released every few weeks on the developer zone of the OpenOffice.org website. The releases are meant for those who wish to test new features or are simply curious about forthcoming changes, they are not suitable for production use.
The project is still essentially run by StarOffice staff, and getting non-Sun contributions into the core codebase can be difficult, even for the project's other corporate sponsors.
OpenOffice.org 1.0 was criticized for the lack of .
KDE Integration Project
OpenOffice.org can also be used on
Mac OS X . A version using the
Aqua interface was planned for OpenOffice.org version 2, but due to technical challenges, licensing complications and limited development resources, the project was abandoned. Instead OpenOffice.org is available in two varieties that run on OS X:
- OpenOffice.org Mac OS X ( X11 ). This version requires the installation of X11.app or XDarwin . It is a close port of the well-tested Unix version. It provides the functional capabilities of the Unix versions, but does not integrate smoothly with OS X fonts, and its user interface is that of an X11 application.
- NeoOffice . This version integrates with OS X by using Java . NeoOffice is easier to install, adheres fairly closely to OS X GUI standards (for example, using native pull-down menus), and has full access to OS X's font and printing subsystems. It is the work of a very small team and relies on completion of the OS X X11 version of OpenOffice.org, so its releases lag behind the official OpenOffice.org releases.
Other projects run alongside the main OpenOffice.org project and are easier to contribute to. These include documentation,
Internationalization And Localization and the
API .
OpenGroupware.org is a set of extension programs to allow the sharing of OpenOffice.org documents, calendars, address books,
E-mail s,
Instant Messaging and blackboards, and provide access to other
Groupware applications.
There is also an effort to create and share assorted document templates and other useful additions at OOExtras.
The OOExtras site , URL accessed on
20 April ,
2006 .
A set of access and
UTF-8 encoding modules.
A distribution of OpenOffice.org called "Portable OpenOffice.org" is designed to run the suite from a ,
2006 .
Although Microsoft Office retains 95% of the general market, OpenOffice.org and StarOffice have secured 14% of the large enterprise market as of 2004.
Desktop apps ripe turf for open source Jack Loftus, ,
2006
Large scale users of OpenOffice.org include the Singapore Ministry of Defense, and the ,
2006 .
On
October 4 ,
2005 , Sun and
Google announced a strategic partnership. As part of this agreement, Sun will add a Google search bar to OpenOffice.org, Sun and Google will engage in joint marketing activities as well as joint research and development, and Google will help distribute OpenOffice.org.
FAQ: The Sun-Google partnership by Stephen Shankland, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, October 4, 2005.
Besides Sun's
StarOffice , there are still a number of OpenOffice.org derived commercial products. Most of them are developed under SISSL license (which is valid up to OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta 2). In general they are targeted at local or niche market, with proprietary add-ons such as speech recognition module, automatic database connection, or better CJK support
OpenOffice.org derived work .
Version 1 made use of
Java for some auxiliary functions, but version 2 increased the suite's use of the programming platform. The following areas depend on a
Java Runtime Environment being present on the user's computer:
A common point of confusion is that
Mail Merge requires Java. This is true of
StarOffice . As of version 2.01, OpenOffice.org uses a
Python -component instead.
How To Email Mailmerge using mailmerge.py (PDF document)
This had drawn criticism from advocates of
Free Software , since the
Java Runtime Environment needed to enable these features are typically not licensed using free software principles, thereby undermining the "Free-ness" of OpenOffice.org. The fact that Sun is both the inventor of Java and the chief supporter of OpenOffice.org has drawn accusations of ulterior motives for this technology choice.
The issue of OpenOffice.org use of Java came to the fore on ,
2005 ].
Fedora Core 4 (released on
June 13 ,
2005 ) included a beta version of OpenOffice.org version 2, running on
GCJ and
GNU Classpath , a free replacement for Sun's Java implementation. This demonstrated that the use of Java did not need to be a barrier to the use of OpenOffice.org on free software platforms. When 2.0 stable was released, the same continued. The OpenOffice.org developers also placed into their development guidelines various requirements to ensure that future versions of OpenOffice.org could be run on free implementations of Java.
Some users experience start-up performance problems when launching OpenOffice.org. This can usually be moderated by deselecting "Use a Java runtime environment" in the ''Tools - Options - OpenOffice - Java'' dialogue box.
OpenOffice.org is working to iron out several performance bottlenecks following complaints that the application takes relatively long to start up, especially on Linux systems. The project plans to solve the issue, partly by allowing the application to pre-load on systems.
There are also several alternative office suites available, including:
- Microsoft Office , which is considered to be the De Facto standard for productivity software.
- Corel's WordPerfect Office .
- IWork , Apple's Mac-only office suite. Includes Pages , for word-processing, and Keynote , for presentations.
- KOffice , an open-source office suite which is part of the KDE Desktop Environment.
- GNOME Office , a group of open-source applications including Abiword and Gnumeric , which is targeted for the GNOME desktop environment.
- Lotus SmartSuite , provided by IBM contains a word-processing program called Word Pro, spreadsheet program called Lotus 1-2-3, a presentation program called Lotus Freelance Graphics and a database program called Lotus Approach. Lotus Notes provides the email/PIM portion of the Lotus offering.
- SoftMaker Office , an office suite from Germany including a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database manager, and a programming tool.
- ThinkFree Office , a free web-based alternative office suite. It is almost fully compatible with Microsoft Office files.
- AppleWorks , Apple's works suite for Mac and Windows. It includes a word-processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, vector and raster graphics, and a database.
- WPS Office , mainly targeted at Chinese users. It includes a word-processor, spreadsheet, presentation software. The most recent version is WPS Office 2005. Its personal version is freely downloadable. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office files.
- By going into Calc and putting into any cell, a version of Space Invaders is playable. Although if you try to play it again too soon you will be greeted with the message "oh no, not again". To play again, you must fully close OpenOffice
- By going into Calc and putting into cell A4, a version of Tic-tac-toe is playable.
- By going into Calc and putting into any cell, the names and picture of the OpenOffice.org Calc developer team are shown. To view again, you must fully close OpenOffice
- In the About window, holding down Ctrl and pressing s, d, t displays the build number and a list of credits
