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The Free and Open Productivity Suite
OpenOffice.org 2.0 Office SuiteGuide to New Features
Last Updated: 6 February 2005
This feature guide is a list of new features in
OpenOffice.org 2.0 as compared to OpenOffice.org&1.1.
The guide was compiled by Sophie Gautier and Elizabeth Matthias
with input from many proofreaders, with final copy editing conducted
by Valden Longhurst and Ron Ness.
OpenOffice.org Writer ( and ), and
versions of the guide are available for printing,
offline viewing or translation. Please send any comments or feedback for inclusion in future editions
of the features guide to the OpenOffice.org Marketing Project
, or append to issue
-- Jacqueline
Table of Contents
The background colors in the following tables indicate the
respective OpenOffice.org modules and the yellow stars highlight the
particularly useful features.
Cell Color
OpenOffice.org Module
All (or modules other than those listed above)
General Features
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
Word count
in selections
Now you can
count both words and characters in the currently selected text
and compare it against the whole document. This new menu item
makes it quick and easy.
Select the
text in which you want to count the words and choose Tools
- Word Count.
This allows
much more flexibility by allowing you to insert a second table
into a primary table's cell.
feature also improves the document import / export of Microsoft
(R) Word documents, which may contain nested tables.
Place your
cursor in the desired cell of a table, choose Table
- Insert - Table.
Bullets and
numbering in table cells
This allows
you to format several cells with either bullets or numbers with a
single mouse click.
Furthermore,
numbering and bullet functionality is now available within table
cells when multiple cells are selected.
Select one
or more cells in a table, click the Numbering On/Off
or the Bullets On/Off button on the Formatting
Hidden text
attributes addition
'Hidden Text' character attribute can be applied to hide various
text within your document.
Format - Character - Font
Effects - Hidden.
choose View - Nonprinting Characters
to toggle the display of hidden text, provided Tools
- Options - OpenOffice.org Writer
- Formatting Aids - Display of Hidden
text is set.
for Edit - Paste Special
You can now
use the keyboard to perform this action also found under the menu
Edit - Paste Special.
Shift+Ctrl+V.
Default tab
stop position changed in Illustration Index, Index of Tables,
and Table of Objects
feature makes the behavior consistent with the behavior of tab
stops in a Tables of Contents. The tab stop is now
aligned right and uses the '.' (dot) as a fill character.
object positioning with 'Follow text flow' option
functionality for positioning various objects (such as frames) in
Writer text has been enhanced. The new option 'Follow text flow'
has been introduced for Writer frames.
format dialog for Writer frames on the tab page 'Type' in area
'Position' :
'Follow text flow' is activated, the Writer frame has to follow
the text flow and can only be positioned inside its anchor.
'Follow text flow' is deactivated the Writer frame doesn't follow
the text flow, but can now be positioned on the complete page
with the anchor.
alignment of 'Line of text' addition
better conversion of Writer documents to Microsoft (R) Word
format and vice versa, vertical alignment at line has been
introduced for Writer frames which are anchored to characters.
format dialog for Writer frames on the tab page 'Type' in area
'Position', the selection list for the vertical alignments is
extended by the entry 'Line of Text' for Writer frames that are
anchored to a character. The possible positions already exist.
text direction in tables addition
You can now
specify a different text flow direction for each cell of a table.
By default, the text flow within a table follows the same
direction as the page it is in.
Select one
or more cells in a table then choose Table -
Table Properties - Text Flow -
Text Direction to set the text direction you
selection for text and tables
select whole sentences or paragraphs quickly and easily with left
mouse-clicks. (Multiple selections using the CTRL key are also
possible using this technique.)
Triple-click
the left mouse button anywhere in a sentence to select the whole
sentence (not the line as in OpenOffice.org 1.0); quadruple-click
to select the paragraph. (Double-clicking on a word still selects
the word as in OpenOffice.org 1.0).
number recognition default changes
recognition in tables is now switched off by default so numbers
you enter will not be changed automatically.
To turn the
number recognition back on, choose Tools -
Options - OpenOffice.org Writer
Mail Merge
feature changed
are assisted by a Merge Wizard. Advanced users will get a Toolbar
which the most needed functions for creating a Merge are
accessible. The new Merge will be much more flexible in managing
and editing databases and allows
saving into one single file.
Under Tools
menu, choose Mail Merge Wizard . . . .
Bibliography
has a Tools - Customize menu entry
customize the Bibliography Menu and Short Keys.
Tools - Bibliography Database - Tools & Customize.
Spacing on Table Borders
OpenOffice.org 2.0 now considers spacing and indent set for left
/ right and for above / below paragraphs when calculating the
entire spacing to a table's border. Those two sorts of spacing
(paragraph and table) are now being added instead of only
considering the distance to the border set in the table's
properties. This new feature improves the Microsoft
interoperability and is also set as default for new created
Writer documents to improve the export to Microsoft Word format.
Accelerator
Key to move paragraphs
only does Ctrl+Alt+Key Up/Down move a paragraph up/down but Ctrl
+ Key Up/Down does the same.
Press Ctrl
+ Key Up/Down to move a paragraph.
Change in context menu in read only documents
The context menu in 'read only' documents in
Writer and Writer/Web now has a 'Copy' entry to copy selected
content to the clipboard.
Select the part of the text to be copied,
right click on the selected text and select
'copy' on context
'Manual line break' change
input form controls, the property 'Manual line break' has been
removed from the property browser. Instead, the functionality is
now controlled by the 'Horizontal scrollbar' property.
'Scale' addition
property 'Scale', which was previously available for image
controls in the Basic dialog editor only, is now also available
for image controls and image buttons in forms.
semantics are the same: When set to 'Yes'
(the default), the image is scaled to fit the entire control,
when set to 'No', it's
centered in the control. There are no file format changes or
compatibility issues (it will even work if you export such
controls to StarOffice 5.2 format and open it in SO 5.x), as the
property was always present, but not offered on the previous UI.
form control embedding
scrollbar form control can be embedded in all OpenOffice.org
documents which support a form layer.
There is an
icon on the 'Form Functions' toolbar, denoting a scrollbar
control. The icon is positioned to the left of the 'Button' icon.
In the form navigator, the scrollbar controls are indicated with
the following icon:
Spin button
form control embedding
spin button form control can be embedded in all OpenOffice.org
documents which support a form layer.
which can be used to create a spin button is placed in the form
functions toolbar, in the first row, left of the 'Button' icon.
browser enhancements
property browser for modifying various aspects of form and dialog
controls, as well as logical forms is now easier to use. For
example, Horizontal scroll bar and Vertical scroll
bar will be merged into a Scrollbars property,
which is a list box containing all 4 combinations, namely None,
Horizontal, Vertical, Both (Applies to: Text
Properties
of navigation bar form control improved
properties of the navigation bar form control are displayed in
the property browser has been improved. Plus, a new icon has been
added to the form functions toolbar. It can be used to create
navigation bar form controls in an OpenOffice.org application
supporting a form layer.
The 'Navigation Bar' icon is on the right of the upper row of the
select / deselect all sheets capability
multiple sheets in a spreadsheet are selected, it is now possible
to deselect them using the keyboard.
multiple sheets with keyboard, use the shortcuts
CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE(UP/DOWN). The same shortcuts will deselect all
sheets,that are selected.
protection addition
Now you can
protect scenarios. Scenarios allow you to create a set of grouped
data which may change depending on what item or scenario you
choose from the drop-down list.
header/footer dialog
Choose from
a predefined set of headers and footers. This feature also
increases compatibility with Microsoft (R) Excel header and
footer handling.
To create a
header or footer, first choose OK on the Edit
Screen and then OK on the Header/Footer screen.
Page fields
in DataPilot enhancement
used as a page field in a DataPilot table can also be used as a
data item in the same table.
DataPilot dialog's 'Layout' section has a new orientation area
in addition to the existing 'Column', 'Row' and 'Data'
Additional
field options in DataPilot
To increase
flexibility and interoperability with Microsoft (R) Office, the
DataPilot has been extended to allow more settings for each
&&' button has been added in the Data Value dialog
allow for the selection, in each data field, of a type of
display from a drop down list.
Additional
table options in the DataPilot
options for DataPilot tables control the 'Filter' button cell,
and the interaction to show or hide details. The 'show details'
function is able to add fields to a DataPilot table (sometimes
known as 'drill down').
check boxes are accessible from the More
number recognition
new handling of reformatting when numbers are entered into cells
with a different number format. The behavior is more
understandable for Calc users as well as users migrating from
Excel or other spreadsheet applications.
only apply a new format type to an already formatted cell in case
the recognized input value's format type is incompatible with the
existing format type *and * the existing format
type is one of the default formats of category 'Number', 'Date',
'Time' or 'Boolean'.
entry 'Sheet from File' in Insert menu
easily insert a 'Sheet from file' from the Insert
Insert menu, choose 'Sheet from file.' The File
- Open dialog will appear. Choose a file. The Insert
- Sheet dialog will appear with the 'From file' radio
button preselected. The sheets of the selected file are already
shown in the list box. A dialog will open to let the user choose
the place where to insert the sheet in the previous spreadsheet
and which sheet to insert (which could be a new one).
The number
of spreadsheet rows has been increased to the same number of rows
Microsoft (R) Excel offers. The maximum number of rows in a
spreadsheet is now 65536.
creation of named cell ranges
dialog in Calc can be used to define new cell ranges by simply
typing a name. The immediate display of a tool tip tells the user
she is about to create a new named cell range.
selects a cell area. The user clicks into the text field of the
sheet area field. This activates the text control and the entire
content is selected. The user enters a name. The user hits
&RETURN& or &ENTER& key.
Enhancement
of conditional array calculations
formulas, such as the following, can now be used:
{=IF(A1:A3&0;&good&;&bad&)} .
Diagonal line in cells
Cells can contain diagonal lines now. This is
an extension of the 'outer border lines' attribute of a cell.
Choose Format & Cells - Borders.
Then under the Borders tab, select the diagonal you want
to add to the cell.
Cell formatting and deletion of cells /
contents leaves filtered-out cells untouched
cells are filtered (using AutoFilter, Standard
Filter or Advanced Filter), the following actions
now don't effect the filtered rows, acting as if there was a
multiple selection without those rows.
Deleting cell contents,
Deleting rows (deleting single cells is disabled),
- Changing cell formats, including styles.
This applies to any Filter mode used.
Positioning and resizing
cell notes
Cell notes can be an excellent tool for
enhancing the understanding of the contents of a spreadsheet. For
example, they can enhance the understanding of a formula. But,
when viewed, they should not prevent the user from seeing other
cell content or other cell notes . Thus the ability to reposition
and/or resize the note layout is a very understandable feature.
Right-click the cell containing the Note and
choose Show Note. You can then reposition the
Note, or resize it or change its formatting.
CustomShape
The Drawing
Toolbar has been reworked to provide a rich set of new commonly
used drawing shapes such as: Basic, Block Arrow, Symbol,
Flowchart and Stars & Banners . Furthermore the huge number
of different arrow types in our lines and connectors toolbox has
been reduced.
geometry of CustomShapes is editable by the user through modifier
handles. CustomShapes can be converted to 3-D through extrusion
and provide 3-D effects for Fontwork. They can be imported /
exported to commonly known formats without loss.
Presentation engine
'Run Macro' setting more intuitive
The default
'Run Macro' setting for document macros has been changed from
'According To Path List' to 'Never.'
open a document containing macros, a dialog will ask you if you
want to run the embedded macros .
Terminology
AutoPilot has been changed everywhere to Wizard.
This conforms to common office suite terminology and will help
make our wizards more recognizable for users.
Choose, for
example, File - Wizards.
Additional
locale data
New locale
data (and string in language list box if not already present):
#i15834# Malaysian, ms_MY #i16276# Bulgarian, bg_BG #i18069#
Interlingua, ia #i18659# Serbian Latin, sh_YU #i18659# Serbian
Cyrillic, sr_YU #i20613# Croatian, hr_HR #i27248# Bosnian, bs_BA
#i27677# Mongolian, mn_MN #i30508# Azerbaijani, az_AZ New entries
in language listbox: #i19321# Galician #i19333# Dhivehi #i19334#
Northern Sotho #i26025# Gaelic #i30446# Bengali (Bangladesh)
#i30448# Occitan #i30888# Khmer #i31143# North Korea: Korean
(DPRK) Changed: #i31143# South Korea: Korean - Korean (RoK)
#i14764# Lithuanian (Lithuania) - Lithuanian, and several more
New toolbar
concept and design
retain their context-sensitive behavior, but now the toolbars are
structured in a more usable fashion and displaying only carefully
selected default tools.
change the toolbars in Writer, Calc, Draw, etc. to suit your
needs. Moving, removing and duplicating a tool (icon) is fast and
Tools - Customize - Toolbars to see the new
tabbed page.
also click the arrow icon located at the end of each toolbar to
open a menu which provides the following options: Dock Toolbar,
Lock Toolbar Position, Dock All Toolbars, Visible Buttons,
Customize Toolbar.
are now also customizable using 'drag & drop'.
drop style creation additions
drop a text selection into the Styles and Formatting
window to create a new paragraph style or character style (soft
formatting).
In Writer:
part of your text and then drag the text to the Styles
and Formatting window. If the Paragraph Styles are
active (click icon to display list of styles) the paragraph's
style will be added to the list. If Character Styles are active
(click icon) the character's style will be added to the list.
selection to the Styles and Formatting window to
create cell styles.
Select and
drag drawing objects to the Styles and Formatting
window to create graphics styles.
Recently-used
file list extended to 10 items
menu gives access to recently used OpenOffice.org documents. This
list is extended to 10 items. It is also a sub menu in order to
improve the usability of the File menu.
Choose File
- Recent Documents.
customization tab page
usability of the Menu tab page of the Tools
- Customize dialog is being improved to make it easier
for users to create customized menus and menu items to suit their
Tools - Customize - Menus.
previous versions of OpenOffice.org, the menu tab is part of the
Customize dialog which is accessed from Tools
- Customize. The new Menu tab page is
divided into three main areas, an area for adding or modifying
an area for modifying t and an area
which displays a description of the selected menu entry.
The 'Menu'
area provides a drop down list box listing all of the Menus in
the current context. Sub menus are listed with the names of their
parent menus prepended, each menu name being separated by a '|'
character.
Within the
'Menu Content' area, users can modify the content of a custom or
module menu by adding items to the menu or rearranging items, for
example.The 'Save In' drop down box is used to switch between
editing menu configurations for the module or for particular
OpenOffice.org documents. When the Menu tab is created, the Save
In drop down is populated with one entry for the module (e.g.
OpenOffice.org Writer) and one entry for each open document of
that module (e.g. all open OpenOffice.org Writer documents).When
the tab is created, if the document for which the menu tab was
opened (ie. the document in which the user selected the
Tools/Customize menu) has its own menu configuration defined,
then that document will be selected in the Save In drop down
list. Otherwise the module will be selected in the drop down
description area displays the extended Tool Tip of an selected
menu entry.
Document as E-mail' configuration enhancement
- Document as E-mail,
OpenOffice.org offers functionality to open a new e-mail
composer window with the active document directly attached.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 will greatly simplify the task of configuring
the email client to be used for this feature.
- Options - OpenOffice.org - External Programs, pressing
the ellipsis ('. . .') button opens the default file selection
dialog with the initial directory set to the platforms default
directory for binaries (/usr/bin on Unix).
of the Events tab in the renamed Tools -
Configure dialog
usability of the Events tab of the Tools - Customize
(formerly Tools - Configure) dialog has been
improved to make it easier for users to create event bindings and
align this tab with usability changes in the other tabs.
previous versions of OpenOffice.org, the events tab is part of
the Customize dialog which is accessed from the
Tools - Customize menu item. The two Macros list
boxes have been removed from the dialog, and the Events
list box expanded to fill the available space.
should first select the location in which they which to save an
event binding. This is done using the 'Save In' list box. This
will contain the name of the current document (initially selected
on opening the tab page) and %PRODUCTNAME. The user then selects
the event to which they wish to bind a macro and presses the
'Assign Macro' button which will launch the Macro Selector (it
can also be launched by double-clicking the event name). The User
selects the desired macro and clicks OK. The main list box is
updated to show the URL of the selected macro.
bindings are saved when the User clicks the OK button. Clicking
the Cancel button will ignore all changes made since the dialog
was opened. Clicking the Reset button will clear all application
and document bindings.
Additional
file format conforming to the OASIS standard
documents with any other software that recognizes this standard
OpenOffice.org
2.0 and StarOffice 8 use the new OASIS (Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards) standard XML
(eXtensible Markup Language) file format as their default file
file names are the same regardless of the product vendor. You
will not only find this new file format used in StarOffice and
OpenOffice.org, but also in KOffice and a growing number of
products that support this new standard.
format names and extensions:
Writer:OpenDocument Text
[.odt]OpenDocument Text Template [.ott]OpenDocument
Master Document [.odm]
Writer Web:OpenDocument HTML Document
Template [.oth]
Calc:OpenDocument Spreadsheet
[.ods]OpenDocument Spreadsheet Template [.ots]
Draw:OpenDocument Drawing
[.odg]OpenDocument Drawing Template [.otg]
Impress:OpenDocument Presentation
[.odp]OpenDocument Presentation Template [.otp]
Math:OpenDocument Formula [.odf]
Chart:OpenDocument Chart [.odc]
Base:OpenDocument Database [.odb]
Redesigned
and improved toolbar content
have the toolbars been redesigned and reordered, but the number
of icons (tools) for each toolbar has been reduced to provide
better usability.
more toolbars than the ones visible by default under View
- Toolbars; mark the toolbars you want to see. Otherwise
the toolbars that appear will fit the document or work at hand.
information in window title bar
Instead of
showing the file name or the title (if available) and the
software name on the window title bar, now the file name plus the
office component name (e.g. Writer, Calc, Impress, etc.) will be
displayed.
is on the title bar at top of the document window, above the menu
signatures and encryption enhancement
signatures offer secure protection of document content. The new
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) encryption algorithm offers
additional security.
File - Digital Signatures to open the dialog.
If a signed
document is loaded, OpenOffice.org shows a little red seal icon
in the status bar at the bottom of the document window.
Right-click the icon on the status bar to open the context menu,
where you can also find the menu entry Digital
Signatures.
thumbnails for preview
plug-in for the file system explorer displays a thumbnail preview
of an OpenOffice.org file.
standard file system explorer on all three relevant desktops
Gnome (Nautilus), KDE (Konqueror), and Windows (Explorer) support
a thumbnail view mode in which a small preview of the respective
file system object will be displayed if available.
support for assigning paragraph styles
assign key combinations to paragraph styles to
allow you to
quickly apply those styles while typing in a document, without
mouse or dialog interaction. This is especially important for
accessibility.
Tools - Customize - Keyboard
predefined shortcuts for 'ParagraphStyles' is provided for
Interoperability with Microsoft Office and Other
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
positioning of floating toolbars
positioning of floating toolbars was adjusted so Writer documents
can be compatible to Microsoft (R) Word documents.
Tools - Option - Text Document - Compatibility.
If the new
option is OFF, the changed
positioning of floating screen objects will be applied. If the
new option is ON, the former
positioning of floating screen objects will be applied.
The default
value of the option for new documents will be OFF,
but when older Writer documents are detected, the value changes
resize of text frames
automatically resize the width of text frames, depending on the
width of the text within them.
feature is unique to OpenOffice.org.
Insert - Frame.
page and column breaks
(R) Word documents with tables can more easily be converted to
Writer documents and vice versa. A new option to allow for
splitting of all rows (or rows which are selected) at
page and column breaks has been added.
Table Properties) dialog, choose the Text
Flow tab page.
adjustment of text lines formatting
formatting of text lines with a given proportional line spacing
has been adjusted for better conversion from / to Writer
documents and Microsoft (R) Word documents.
Tools - Option - Text document - Compatibility.
- Use OpenOffice.org 1.1/StarOffice 6.0/7 line spacing.
new option is OFF, the
changed formatting of text lines with proportional line spacing
will be applied. If the new option is ON,
the former formatting of text lines with proportional line
spacing will be applied.
importing Microsoft (R) Word documents, the option automatically
be set to OFF.
Collapsible
table borders
Collapsing
table borders has been enabled.
Format - Table - Borders. A check box 'Merge
adjacent line styles' is found on the Property area.
WriterPerfect filter
The WordPerfect import filter is supported.
You can now open a WordPerfect document in
OpenOffice.org.
import and export of spin buttons and scrollbars
(old-fashioned) Microsoft (R) Office 95 and (new) Microsoft
& Office 97 OLE spin
buttons / scrollbars.
Export: All
spin buttons / scrollbars are exported as old-fashioned Microsoft
(R) Office 95 controls.
page scaling for printing
compatibility with Microsoft (R) Excel: You can specify the
number of horizontal and vertical pages.
Format - Page - Sheet. The new option 'Fit print
range(s) to width/height' has been added to this list
box.'Reduce/enlarge printout': A spin field specifying the
amount of reducing/enlarging follows at the same height as the
list box.'Fit print range(s) to width/height': Two spin
fields are shown. The upper spin field contains the width and is
described by the fixed text 'Width in pages.' The lower spin
field contains the height.
Reimplementation
of Excel export formula compiler
The formula
compiler in the Excel export filter has been reimplemented from
scratch. Overview -- Where does Excel use formulas? - Simple
formulas cells - Shared formula cells (a range of cells shares
one formula) - Array formulas (a.k.a. matrix formulas) -
Definition of defined names (a.k.a. named ranges) - Conditions of
conditional formatting - Conditions of data validation - Source
cell range in list validation - Print ranges, print title ranges
- Source ranges of auto and advanced filters - Source area of
charts - Linked cell of form controls - Source cell range of list
form controls (listbox, combobox).
Lotus 1-2-3
import supporting version 9.7
1-2-3 import now also loads files of Lotus versions up to 9.7,
the file type list box lists the .123 file name extension
additionally to the already known .wk1 and .wks extensions.
Opening a Lotus 1-2-3 file without selecting a filter type now
loads the file into Calc instead of Writer. The feature set
supported is similar to the old *.wk? versions, with the addition
of text attributes.
Support of Hyperlink() function
The URL parameter specifies the link target
while the CellText displays the formula result in the cell. If
the CellText is omitted, the URL will be used for both& the
URL and the cell result.
font-independent line spacing
To improve
the compatibility between Impress and Microsoft (R) PowerPoint,
line spacing in Impress now no longer depends on the font which
The import
filter for Power Point documents will now create text objects
having font independent line spacing enabled.
show subsystem
underlying model data representation for animation effects now
borrows from SMIL (see http://www.w3.org/TR/smil20/), and is able
to handle nearly all of the PPT effects.
You'll find
two new task panels, namely one for shape effect and one for
slide transitions.
password protected Microsoft (R) office documents
Writer and Calc
Password-protected
Microsoft (R) Office Word and Excel files can now be loaded when
the StarOffice / OpenOffice.org user knows the password that
protects the file in Microsoft (R) Office.
open a password-protected document and the Enter Password
dialog will appear.
Export XSLT filter for Microsoft Spreadsheetml and
The import
and export filter of Microsoft's XML formats Spreadsheetml
and Wordml are becoming part of the default installation
set. Earlier they belong to the optional 'XSLT Filter Samples'.
Tools - XML Filters Settings, a dialog box for
XML filters will open.
Installation and Configuration
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
workstation installations
longer need a user installation.
There is no more sversion.ini (sversionrc).There are no more
links in the user directory to the network installation.
There is a new dialog in the (network) setup,
in which the user is asked, whether the system integration has to
be done for:
0 user (only for
installations on a file server) (OPTIONAL)
all users of the computer
integration for all users would require root rights at the PC.
Instead of
the flags NETWORK, WORKSTATION and STANDALONE the new
installation mechanism provides an ALL_USER or a ONE_USER
installation type.
system theme integration (native widget rendering)
To enhance
integration of OpenOffice.org with the underlying operating
system, all user interface elements (such as buttons and
scrollbars) will have the same look as those used in most other
'native' applications for that platform. OpenOffice.org will
react on-the-fly to changes of the desktop theme, so when the
user changes the desktop colors or theme, OpenOffice.org will
adjust its own appearance to match.
system theme integration will be available for Gnome (version 2.4
or higher), Microsoft (R) Windows (including XP and future
versions), and KDE (version 3.2 and higher) desktop environments.
On Windows XP the 'Windows XP Style' must be chosen under
Settings - Control Panel - Display - Appearance
to achieve the correct look.
integration will be the default for desktop environments that
support it (listed above). Systems (for example, Windows
98/ME/2000, CDE) that do not support it will see no visual change
in OpenOffice.org. On supported systems OpenOffice.org will
always adopt the theme of the system and cannot choose not to do
and better Java configuration
determine which version of Java is used by OpenOffice.org. A
check box also allows you to specify that Java not be used.
Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - Java. You do
not have to select a version of Java manually as it will be done
automatically if necessary, but you can if you want.
There is a
list where each entry represents a Java installation found on the
system or on a mapped/mounted network drive. The process of
finding the Java locations is performed by the Java framework.
If the user
switches Java off, then all other related settings will be
disabled. The settings made before you unmark the 'Use Java'
check box remain intact and are saved when you click 'OK.'
native installing handling
document describes how installation-dependent configuration data
can be installed with native installers. The mechanism used
previously had certain conceptual problems and can't be readily
ported to non-native installers. The document also describes how
installation-dependent configuration data is defined for the new
schema. In the solution described, installation-dependent
configuration is defined together with its globally available
counterpart in module officecfg. During the build process this
master data is split into globally available common data,
locale-dependent data and installation-dependent data. During
installation, installation-dependent data is first installed into
a spool directory and then imported from that directory into the
active configuration tree, by using a UNO (Universal Network
Object) importer service during post-installation. In typical
native installers the importer service is executed by helper
CLI-program.
Configuration
module files are first copied into a spool directory. The
location of the (new) directory is
$(install)/share/registry/spool.
post-install step the content of the spool directory is merged
together into the actual configuration layer in use. This concept
is already realized today in pkgchk installation of per-package
configuration data. This merging is realized using the
configimport tool. This is a command-line tool that invokes the
same UNO service as used by pkgchk to merge the package
configuration layer.
package containing configuration data was installed or
uninstalled, the old merged configuration layer is discarded and
the layer is recreated from the spool directory. The location of
the (new) layer is $(install)/share/registry/modules.
handling of localized descriptions of registry schema items
*.properties files containing localized descriptions and labels
for configuration schema items are not installed (under
$(install)/share/registry/res) any more. There were no clients of
this data left. [Note: the internal 'ecomp' product is broken by
this, but is being removed currently and should not be tested any
more. Instead the schema item descriptions (only the default
language--in all known cases English) are now left inside the
installed schema files (under $(install)/share/registry/schema),
where they can be found by interested users (developers or system
administrators) much more easily.
Date/Time input
The number
formatter now recognizes input conforming to ISO 8601 as valid
date/time input, regardless of the locale being selected.
The number
formatter's input recognition is used by the spreadsheet
application for cell data input and by the text processor's table
input, for example.
Configuration
generates output via logging service
In order to
increase the robustness of the office application against
corrupted configuration data, the configuration database will
support automatic recovery from unusable data. Additionally,
diagnostic capabilities are provided that allow administrators or
support services to obtain log output to identify the cause of
configuration problems. As an added benefit the mechanisms put in
place can be used by any client of the UNO configuration API to
provide meaningful and context-sensitive error handling for
configuration failures.
AutoRecovery
of files and Work environment
OpenOffice.org Error Reporting Tool and the document recovery
features are combined into one work flow. When OpenOffice.org
crashes, the documents will be saved and users get informed about
the upcoming recovery process, followed by sending out an error
First Start
Due to the
change of the setup process in StarOffice 8, the migration of
user settings can no longer be done as part of the setup.
Furthermore, anyone wanting to migrate any settings had to do
this by writing a special setup plugin. The migration process
will now be done when the OpenOffice.org is started for the first
time. It should be easy to define items to be migrated.
first start-up, of the office, you'll be prompt for some
migration information if a previous release of OpenOffice.org
exists on your computer.
Changes to
resource handling
OpenOffice.org
2.0 will have the ability to add language packs to an already
installed version. This will eliminate the need to install a
complete office suite for each language in OpenOffice.org 1.x.
Module & formerly known as the Backing Window in OpenOffice
1.1 & becomes an optional module. A configuration setting
is used to disable the Start Module if required for a site
installation.
When in the
Start Module, choose
Tools - Customize.
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
database application
In this new
stand-alone database, you can create forms, reports, queries,
tables, views and relations. The forms, reports and queries are
stored in a single file format allowing you to handle your
database the same way you would other popular databases.
can start the database application by double-clicking an
OpenOffice.org Base file, through the File - Open
menu or via the File - New menu in every
OpenOffice.org application.
end-of-line interoperability
processing multi-line text on a computer, there have always been
two major approaches on how to indicate a line break in a text.
Depending on which approach is used for a particular data set,
applications working with this data need to take different
measures to properly deal with the data.
access is also affected by this. When storing multi line text in
a database table (field), the approach used is chosen by the
database designer.
To allow the user the most flexibility in
designing the database and to improve OpenOffice.org's
capabilities to interoperate with databases, the multi-line text
field in OpenOffice.org database forms will include a setting on
which approach to take.
property called Line end format is
introduced and available as a drop down list box.
on the setting of this property, the text (which can be obtained
from the control via API) will contain either DOS(carriage return
+ line feed) or Unix(line feed) line ends. As a result, when such
a field is bound to a database column, the text entered by the
user will be stored to this database column with the chosen line
end format.
The default
value for this property is Unix
for backwards compatibility reasons.
Additional
information in text columns
controls in forms allow insertion of text columns and will be
refit with the Multiline property
which is already known from normal text field controls.
normally only one line of text is visible in a table control, the
currently displayed line in such a multi line input field follows
the cursor. If the height of the rows in the table data view
permits displaying more than one line, then the visible line is
where the cursor is placed.
If a multi
line table cell (i.e. a cell in a column which has set the
property to 'Yes')
is not active, then the very first line of the contained text is
the first visible line in the cell area.
When set to
the input field for this column allows displaying and entering of
multi-line text.
authentication enhancement
You can now
connect OpenOffice.org to an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol) server using secure sockets layer.
Username, Password required and Use secure
connection in LDAP configuration page
of the DataSource Administrator Dialog.
Additional
dialogs to ADO
browse dialog allows the user to create and edit ADO (Microsoft
(R) ActiveX Data Object) connection strings from a graphical
interface.
Microsoft(R)
provides a standard OLE DB Data link configuration dialog in its
OLE DB runtime libraries. There is an ADO connection string which
shows the connection dialog. When users change anything and press
the OK button,the new ADO connection string is returned.
Linguistic
clarifications
'Character set' property for form controls has been renamed to
'Font' for linguistic consistency. In German, the text was
changed from 'Zeichensatz' to 'Schrift.' See issue
(irrelevant in an EN doc).
clarifications
In the data
source browser, the Undo
button has been changed from 'Undo: Data Input' to 'Undo:
Data Entry.'
Toggling of
alias names in SQL SELECT statements
working with SQL (Structured Query Language) select statements,
OpenOffice.org usually uses an alias name for tables such as
'SELECT * FROM &table& aliasname.' The 'aliasname' in this
statement is a so-called table alias. However, some databases do
not allow such aliases. The above statement would be replaced
with 'SELECT * FROM &table&.' Some databases reject
statements with aliases.
OpenOffice.org
features disabling or enabling of this behavior.
Additional
SQL functionality
OpenOffice.org
drivers are capable of executing the numeric, string and
datetime functions described in SQL92 for dBase, flatfile, and
spreadsheets.
'Filter' and 'Sort' criterion
opening the 'Filter' or 'Sort' dialog from within either the data
source browser or a database form, dialogs now will *not* append
a new filter resp. sort criterion according to the currently
focused control/column.
Corrective
outer join escape sequencing
working with drivers which do not fully support the JDBC (Java
Database Connectivity) or ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)
the escape sequences may not be fully supported.
Statement like the following won't work. 'SELECT * from {OJ
xx left join yy . . . }' The OpenOffice.org data source works
around the problem
by removing the {OJ} keywords from the SQL
statement.
Enable outer join sequence can be enabled on a per-data-source
basis. For this, the 'Info' property of a
should contain a name-value-pair with:'Name:
EnableOuterJoinEscapeValue: FALSE' .
value for connection pooling changed to false
every database driver, the connection pool is now disabled by
The options
can be changed in
Tools - Options &
OpenOffice.org. Base & Connections.
Formwizard
wizard panels extended the functionality to subforms.
OpenOffice.org Base, open the form wizard.
Tables can
be created manually in the database beamer. However,
for this purpose makes it easier--especially as it helps prevent
design defects.
The dialog
page gives the user an opportunity to choose all the fields he
wants in his table, divided into two categories: 'private' and
'business'.
database application needs an easy to use entry point to create a
new database file. These database files serve as an interface
between the user and the actual data source.
wizard using File - New menu.
Asian Language Features
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
Additional
translator for simplified to traditional Chinese
users are accustomed to having a built-in conversion between
Simplified and Traditional Chinese. This conversion allows them
to easily transfer between Chinese written text, Simplified
Chinese and Traditional Chinese characters.
This is very close
to the features of the Japanese 'Hiragana' and 'Katakana' and the
Korean 'Hangul / Hanja Conversion'
Tools - Language
available when CJK support under 'Tools - Options -
Language Settings - Languages' is turned on.
Otherwise the entry will remain hidden.
AutoFormat - Apply numbering
extended for Chinese simplified and Japanese
Automatic numbering is now able to detect
Chinese periods (0x3002); Chinese and Japanese brackets (0xff08
and 0xff09 ; and Japanese spaces (0x3000), numerals (0xff10 . . .
0xff19), and periods (0xff0e).
Support of 'Right-to-Left' sheets in Calc.
Support of 'Right-to-Left' sheets in Calc.
Right-click the sheet name and check or
uncheck the option marked 'RTL.'
Developer-Specific Features
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
Support for
the 'XDataSinkEncrSupport' interface
The package
component implements
'::com::sun::star::packages::XDataSinkEncrSupport' interface now.
This allows a raw representation of an encrypted stream to be
retrieved which contains a header with encryption information.
This allows the representation to store the stream to another
package without description.
CWS networker
now an interface between setup and first startup (Setup and SFX).
After a network installation, which is the new standard, the
office suite starts right away.
The user installation has been
abolished.
OpenOffice.org scripting framework
scripting framework allows OpenOffice.org users to write macros
in a number of languages for execution in OpenOffice.org. Users
can assign these macros to menu items, keyboard combinations,
application and document events, form controls within documents
and various objects within documents.
Scripting Framework can be configured by editing the file
&office-dir&/share/registry/data/org/openoffice/scripting.xcu
Alphabetical
index change
hard-coded index information has been moved from
'indexentrysupplier' to 'localedata,' which has created a new
section (LC_INDEX) in the 'localedata' xml files. This section
includes 3 parts: index key, script type and page words.
defines a letter list for an index algorithm like A, B, C, . . .
X, Y, Z for English Alphanumeric. It is possible to define more
than one algorithm for a language such as 'pinyin', 'stroke' and
'radical' for Simplified Chinese. If the letter list is blank,
then the individual UNO service for the algorithm should be
provided. Script type defines Unicode range for the language, it
is Unicode defined script type, like 0 for basic Latin, 10 for
Hebrew, for example, we need 0 (basic Latin) and 1 (Latin 1
Supplement) to cover German. See
offapi/com/sun/star/i18n/UnicodeScript.idl for the list of script
type. Page words contain two words, like p. and pp. for English,
f. and ff. for German. The words are used in the option 'Combine
identical entries with p. or pp.'
programmatic control of menu and toolbar items
party developers can adapt menu bar and toolbar layouts to their
needs. Menus and toolbars are accessible to UNO (Universal
Network Objects) developers and provide access at runtime to
interfaces allowing them to insert/remove/modify menu items,
pop-up menus and toolbar items.
locations of
.sversionrc and commands to find them
Third party
applications like the testtool can locate the office suite. The
setup still writes a file named sversion.ini (for Windows) or
.sversionrc (for Unix/Linux).
sversion.ini/ .sversionrc will be created by the setup program in
the folder defined by the variable PREDEFINED_CONFIGDIR. This
variable is define as follows:
single user install: folder for the current user.
all user install: folder for all users.
network install: folder for the current user.
UNIX / LINUX:
single user install: home folder of the current user.
all user install: /etc/ folder of the system.
network install: folder of the current user.
Testtool finds these directories using a new, internal command.
It works identically to the existing command 'String
GetApplicationPath' which delivers the path for the single user
and the network install. 'String GetCommonApplicationPath'
delivers the path for an 'all user installation.' In order to
find the place of an office installation, it would then be
necessary to check both locations for an appropriate file with
appropriate content.
Transparent
use of UNO components from C++
client code wants to use office suite UNO &(Universal
Network Objects) components, then the typical use case is that
the client code is first looking for an existing office
installation. If an installation is found, then
the office
process is verified to be running. If no office process is
running, then an office process is started. After which the
client code connects to the running office using remote UNO
mechanisms in order to get the remote component context of that
office. The client code can then use the remote component context
to access arbitrary office UNO components. From the perspective
of the client code, there is no difference between local and
remote components.
The intent
is to provide the component context in a more transparent way.
The location of an existing office installation and the detection
of a running office process should be hidden from the user.
client application which uses UNO is linked to the C++ UNO
libraries - found in the program directory of a UNO installation.
When running the client application, the C++ UNO libraries are
found only if the UNO program directory is included in the PATH
(for Windows) or LD_LIBRARY_PATH
(for Unix/Linux) environment variable.
keyboard shortcut changes
Basic IDE (Integrated Development Environment), the command
'BasicStop' shortcut was changed from Alt-F5 to Shift-F5. The
shortcut Shift-F5 formerly executed the
commands 'BasicStop' followed by 'RunBasic' .
complete list of shortcuts follows in the following format:
shortcut, command, action.
RunBasic This runs code starting from the first line, or
from the current breakpoint, if the program stopped there before.
- Shift-F5
BasicStop Stops execution of the code.
AddWatch Adds a watch for the variable at the cursor
BasicStepInto Single steps through each statement--
starting at either the first line or at the statement where the
program execution previously stopped .
- Shift-F8
BasicStepOver Single steps (as with F8) but a function
call is considered to be only one
execution step.
ToggleBreakPoint Sets or removes a breakpoint at the
current line or all breakpoints in the current selection.
- Shift-F9
ToggleBreakPointEnabled Enables / disables the
breakpoint at the current line or all breakpoints in the current
selection.
Basic IDE macro chooser and organizer
Scripting Framework allows the user to develop macros in
languages other than OpenOffice.org Basic. To allow the user to
manage their macros, this document describes the changes to the
Tools - Macros sub menus and the dialogs it
Users will
find access to the various dialogs for macro management via the
Tools sub-menu.
entry in the sub-menu is for recording Macros (in OpenOffice.org
Basic only). The second entry presents the Script Selector in a
mode that allows the user to select and run a macro. The third
menu entry, 'Organize . . . ' presents a sub menu containing one
entry for each language. As BeanShell and JavaScript will be part
of OpenOffice.org, at least the three languages are listed by
default. The fourth entry is 'Digital Signature.'The fifth
entry, 'Organize Dialogs,' presents the Macro Organizer with the
Dialog tab page selected.
Except for OpenOffice.org Basic, these
entries bring up the appropriate organizer dialog (the Scripting
Organizer for other languages). In case of OpenOffice.org Basic,
the macro-dialog presents the full functionality for Basic
Macros-- including opening the macro organizer.
new commands to min/max/restore windows
following methods for Document-Windows + .Close + BOOL .IsMax +
BOOL .IsMin + BOOL .IsRestore + .Minimize + .Maximize + .Restore.
read from windows registry
getRegistryValue (sPath as string, sKey as string) as string On
win32 systems return the Entry, otherwise, return
empty string. On Unix / Linux systems return always empty string
only the following schemata are allowed: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
read out destination of symbolic link
getLinkDestination (sLink as string) as string On Unix/Linux
systems: Return the destination for a given Link. It sLink is no
Link, return sLink. on win32 systems always return sLink.
locking enabled by default on Unix/Linux platforms
Better file
locking has been enabled by default on Unix/Linux platforms.
locking behavior still remains controllable via the environment
variable 'SAL_ENABLE_FILE_LOCKING' but, in contrast to earlier
OpenOffice.org versions, the environment variable must now be
explicitly cleared
if file locking on these platforms is not
javamaker now generates .class instead of .java files
javamaker tool (generating Java classes for UNOIDL entities) now
directly generates Java .class files instead of
source files.
Futhermore, all uses of the javamaker within the
OpenOffice.org code base have been adapted.
types are now always generated by cppumaker
header files in cppu/inc/com/sun/star/uno (Any.hxx,
Reference.hxx, Type.h) #include some generated .hdl/.hpp files,
those are now *always* generated by cppumaker:
com.sun.star.uno.RuntimeException, com.sun.star.uno.TypeClass,
com.sun.star.uno.XInterface (unless those types are only found in
a registry passed to cppumaker with the -X option). This implies
cppumaker always needs to find those types in some of the
registries passed to it.
Single-interface-based
services with no constructors
single-interface-based service written in UNOIDL as service
'SomeService: XSomeIfc {};' used to be interpreted as 'service
SomeService: XSomeI' Both the former and the latter were
considered to have a default constructor. This has been changed.
The former is now considered to have no constructors at all. This
is useful for services (like the
com.sun.star.uri.UriSchemeParser_XXX ) not intended to be
instantiated by clients, but accessed only by client code via the
'com.sun.star.uri.UriReferenceFactory' service.
PackageManager GUI
PackageManager GUI (Graphical User Interface) is the client front
end to import, export and remove packages.
such as UNO (Universal Network Object) components or scripts
(extensions with a single document), are extensions to the office
PackageManager can be accessed as a tool in the Tools menu. In
general, the dialog shows a tree listbox listing all available
packages, related to the context (user installation, office
installation layer, or open documents) in which they reside.
Additionally,
a context menu is available within the listbox at the treelistbox
bubble shows the description of each content in the listbox of
the Package Manager.
New unopkg
deployment tool
The unopkg
deployment tool deploys and undeploys UNO (Universal Network
Object) packages into the office suite installation.
Using:unopkg add &options&
package-path . . .
unopkg remove &options& package-name . .
unopkg list &options& package-name . . .
unopkg reinstall &options&
unopkg gui
unopkg -h .
assertions available via environment variable
Currently,
the binfilter 'STRIP001'
assertions can only be seen with a specially-built library. The
non-pro office can not be started with either the parameter
'-env:DBG_BF_ASSERT=true'
or with the environment variable DBG_BF_ASSERT set.
Xalan-J 2.6.0 added to the Office and build environment
2.6.0, together with the embedded Xerces-J 2.6.2 version, have
been added to the build environment. A new module ('xalan') has
been created containing the three mandatory JARs: 'xalan.jar',
'xercesImpl.jar' and 'xml-apis.jar.'
JARs will be delivered into the '/program/classes' directory.
Office components, which want to use them, should load the JARs
by their manifest.
Exception:
JDK/JRE1.4 users will still use the integrated Xalan.
objective is to create production quality JavaBeans for the major
OpenOffice.org components. A secondary objective is to offer a
smart API to access the main elements of office documents and to
process common tasks.
Web/Internet
New Feature
Modules Affected
How to Access
export to HTML to produce 'XHTML 1.0 Strict'
Writer/Web
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) now produces valid 'XHTML
[eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language] 1.0 Strict' output.
Choose File
export enabled for Calc, Draw and Impress
Writer/Web
You can now
install and use XSLT-based (eXtensible Stylesheet Language
Transformation) input/output filters.
Tools - XML Filter Settings.
Writer/Web
an international web forms standard. OpenOffice.org is able to
create and edit XForms-compatible forms.
Choose File
- New and XML Forms.