Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 6:28 am Post subject: NeoOffice Feature Comparison
I'm pushing NeoOffice a lot at mac italian sites .
Today I answer a request about cut&paste in OOo/X11 not compleately working redirecting people at our wiki page...
Looking at that page I see that it needs some changes to respond to the new upcoming 2.1 version. Who's in charge for this? Not me... I'm not so skilled to do this
I've changed Localized user interface (number of languages) to Localized user interface and help files (number of languages) and International spelling checkers and localized help to International spelling checkers since (IIRC) help files are part of language packs, not dictionaries.
Also, under "Reads and writes files on AFP and SMB volumes and iDisks", I've changed the OOo/X11 column from No to ??? : I think version 2.1 can read/write to AFP volumes (is that what AFS support is ?) ...
Sorry, I've been swamped Samwise is the person who has done the most work on that page recently, so we can call him in charge
Stuff I think we should add (in both the Neo-MSO and Neo-OOo sections):
* (experimental) support for Word 2007 (docx) files; Neo has, Office/Mac is expected to get translators later this year iirc
* (experimental) support for Excel VBA marcos; Excel obviously has this natively, and we have experimental, and OOo has nothing
* Solver; Excel has one, and now so do we
and perhaps
* (experimental) support for MS Works word processing documents
We might also want to bump our "Aqua" to "Good" from partial (leave Office at "Full" and OOo at None)?
If someone can make this changes, that'd be great; I'm not sure how much time I'll have this weekend
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
I translated the page into French (not yet Smokey's suggestions) and I checked out the support of Mouse wheel scrolling in OOo2.1: it's Yes. I changed ??? for Y.
Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 2315 Location: Montpellier, France
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:35 am Post subject:
jgd wrote:
I checked out the support of Mouse wheel scrolling in OOo2.1: it's Yes. I changed ??? for Y.
What about AFP/AFS support ? I would tend to think that they are related, but I'm not sure; does anyone know if AFS support means AFP read/write support ?
sardisson wrote:
Stuff I think we should add (in both the Neo-MSO and Neo-OOo sections)
So are we just going to add the same lines to both sections ? It's the easiest way, but not the most elegant.
I've been thinking about another solution : merging the two sections. On my 17" 4:3 display (with my web browser using the entire screen width), there is enough space for a third column in both sections; moreover, since the page only compares office suites for the Mac, we could simply remove "for Mac" from the MSO and OOo columns, which would help make the page more readable on smaller screens. What do you think about this ?
There are still lots of Macs out there with small screens and/or people running with larger font sizes (and I, for one, don't like to keep my browser full-screen, as it negates the ability to drag-drop and have multiple visible windows that are such huge benefits of the larger screen size).
I think it's actually to see the differences between Neo and the other app in the individual sections; there would be a lot more "extra" items if we merged the three, and some of the items that we use when comparing Neo to OOo would sound downright silly in the MS Office column ("duh, of course Office does that; all Mac apps do...").
For the moment, I think it's best to keep the existing structure, and if we want to try to rework it at some point after the 2.1 release has died down, that would be appropriate.
(I also think we might want to consider adding something about "Mac-like icon set" to the Neo vs OOo section.)
My 2¢
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
What about AFP/AFS support ? I would tend to think that they are related, but I'm not sure; does anyone know if AFS support means AFP read/write support ?
What's that AFP, SMB volumes?
Quote:
I've been thinking about another solution : merging the two sections. On my 17" 4:3 display (with my web browser using the entire screen width), there is enough space for a third column in both sections; moreover, since the page only compares office suites for the Mac, we could simply remove "for Mac" from the MSO and OOo columns, which would help make the page more readable on smaller screens. What do you think about this ?
It's a good idea. In the "Still to do" section, there are already three columns and it's perfectly readable, even on my Pb 15".
Joined: Nov 21, 2005 Posts: 1285 Location: Witless Protection Program
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:40 pm Post subject:
sardisson wrote:
1. There are still lots of Macs out there with small screens and/or people running with larger font sizes (and I, for one, don't like to keep my browser full-screen, as it negates the ability to drag-drop and have multiple visible windows that are such huge benefits of the larger screen size).
2. I think it's actually to see the differences between Neo and the other app in the individual sections; there would be a lot more "extra" items if we merged the three, and some of the items that we use when comparing Neo to OOo would sound downright silly in the MS Office column ("duh, of course Office does that; all Mac apps do...").
3. For the moment, I think it's best to keep the existing structure, and if we want to try to rework it at some point after the 2.1 release has died down, that would be appropriate.
4. (I also think we might want to consider adding something about "Mac-like icon set" to the Neo vs OOo section.)
My 2¢
Smokey
I vote with Smokey on items #1, #2, #3, #4 above.
Just because you can display something full screen on a 17' monitor, does not mean that everyone else wants to.
1. Many folks do not display their browser full screen width,
2. It's easier to scroll up-and-down than sideways.
I avoid pages that I have to scroll sideways....
3. The current format makes it easier to "print" out the pages and pass on to others.
4. Some (many?) of us have ... more mature eyes
sardisson wrote:
Stuff I think we should add (in both the Neo-MSO and Neo-OOo sections):
* (experimental) support for Word 2007 (docx) files; Neo has, Office/Mac is expected to get translators later this year iirc
* (experimental) support for Excel VBA marcos; Excel obviously has this natively, and we have experimental, and OOo has nothing
* Solver; Excel has one, and now so do we
and perhaps
* (experimental) support for MS Works word processing documents
* We might also want to bump our "Aqua" to "Good" from partial (leave Office at "Full" and OOo at None)?
Another BIG +1
We should let the world know that the (experimental) support is being worked on. I see LOTS of requests for these items online! NeoOffice Rocks!
I woul suggest one more item for the Mac vs MS Office
<edit> * Impress output to Flash format. I see this has been included - Thanks! How about :
Writer (word processing)
* Ability to export to .PDF
I understand that "all" Mac applictions can "print" to .PDF - but users from other systems may not be aware of this.
</edit>
It costs extra to do this in other Office Suites and it's a good comparison point!
I have seen it listed in several other Office Suite comparisons. YMMV
Wow, It looks like NeoOffice 2.1 is working hard to provide solutions to users request! I'm Excited!
Philip ( so many features, so little time to learn them ... ALL! )
I went ahead and made the changes I suggested to the Feature Comparison, and I moved the page to the stable location (NeoOffice Feature Comparison, no version number).
I also tidied up a few more things there (broken urls, etc). Hopefully it's in pretty good shape now and won't be too much new translation work
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Thanks for all the work, everyone. It looks good. As for columns: I am on a 12" iBook, so I guess you can all figure out what my opinion will be..
-Oscar
(just back from a week in Milan, Conegliano and Venice) _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Those items were originally added by Oscar, so I'm not sure what the criteria was for "switching keyboards." Do cmd-space and cmd-opt-space now work in OOo?
Edit: The answer to my question is still no.
For the PDF creation, though, I do know that Patrick had (just recently, when that was written for 1.1) significantly optimized the "in-OOo" PDF creation code. I'm unsure whether that code is still in use in the 2.x series.
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Since we want the Feature Comparison page to remain stable for the next several weeks, and since OOo just released 2.2, I subbed out the oooversion template for the actual numbers "2.1" in the en/fr/it versions of that page.
After a while (a month or so), we can look at updating the page to compare OOo 2.2, since it now is the current version, and all the changes it brings (only runs on 10.4 with Java 1.5!? ).
Along those lines, I added a new LastUpdated template that we can use on the Press Kit and Feature Comparison pages (please copy and add Template:Fr:LastUpdated and so forth), so that we can clearly indicate to non-wiki adepts when we last made substantive changes to these semi-stable documents (e.g., the Press Kit might add new testimonials, and the Feature Comparison for 2.1 might start comparing OOo 2.2 in a few months).
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
After a while (a month or so), we can look at updating the page to compare OOo 2.2, since it now is the current version, and all the changes it brings (only runs on 10.4 with Java 1.5!? ).
Currently it doesn't run on Panther but here is an excerpt from an e.b's post on a Fr mailing list
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
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Samwise is the person who has done the most work on that page recently, so we can call him in charge 
