NeoOffice QuickLook sneak peek

[OPENSTEP]

Just a quick little look for all'y'all on what Patrick's work allows. QuickLook was discussed in the Keynote on Monday, so I think that now this is disclosable under the ADC NDA rules



A QuickLook of a Writer document containing an embedded chart and formula. Works similarly for the other doc types as well.

ed

[Guest]

Nice work!

Out of curiosity, in the keynote it was stated that a plugin could be made for any file type (in theory). Would such a plugin display the same information and allow you to scroll though the pages of the document (as the pdf is only of the first page of the document, IIRC). Or will complex objects like formulas and tables be displayed incorrectly, or not at all, though the use of a plugin?

[doctype]

[ovvldc]

I noticed Versiontracker picked up on patch 6 but failed to list what's new. Perhaps Quicklook compatibility and enhanced speed in text layout and animations should be mentioned.

I think this is Smokey's domain (not deliberately putting more work your way).

Best wishes,
Oscar

[Guest]

[doctype]

[OPENSTEP]

I don't know the specifics, but during the keynote they did quicklook on a spreadsheet. I think I remembered seeing the office icons in the applications folder on the machine.

Whether or not QuickLook plugins require the full application to be installed depends on how they're implemented. The neopeek plugin does not require NeoOffice, for example. It merely illustrates how we can take advantage of our enhancements to the file format to provide a better Leopard experience.

Being independent, it does not render the full document. For now that means high-quality of the first page only, enough to get nice thumbnails and a good insight into what something is (like a title page or something). Patrick and I may play around in the future with adding some more pages, but we totally aren't intending to provide QL access for the entire document. We'll play with it, but the first page is a start.

Patch 6 does not include the QL functionality, so it's not any feature that should be listed. What it does do, however, is extend the file format. Any documents created with anything after 2.1 Patch 6 will have the enhanced file format and be ready to look pretty for Leopard

Since Finder coverflow was also in the keynote I think this is fair game as well:



The front one is a copy of the 2002 OS X Con presentation where NeoOffice first saw the light of day Immediately to its left is a draw document with some stars in it, and to the right a spreadsheet that's showing a bit of a chart. We still need to clean up the plugin and tweak the file format, but at least that should give folks a general gist of where things are going.

ed

[OPENSTEP]

Oh, for context, the working name I'm using for the QL plugin is "NeoPeek", so if that comes up at least you know what the code word means

ed

[doctype]

Pretty awesome. I love Finder Cover Flow and NeoPeek already.

[OPENSTEP]

I just finished modifying the plugin to use our enhanced format for generating thumbnails as well. The result is that CoverFlow looks much nicer and the reflections are processed appropriately:



Again, same as before. Draw on the left has changed slightly, but notice the spreadsheet to the right of the preso now displays the chart appropriately.

I also added in an explicit white rectangular background for printed documents since it really improves the utility of CoverFlow. Presently, the white rectangular background is added in for Writer, Impress, and Calc documents. The white rectangular background is omitted for Draw, revealing only the shapes. It makes sense to use transparency for vector graphics, but all others are rendered either as they appear on the printed page (Calc and Writer) or would appear on the screen (Impress).

Eventually we could get jiggy with it and do some type of alpha blending of the contents to appear as being contained within a variant of the existing community document icons. The important thing is we have vector contents and QuickLook is happy and snappy, even on an old TiBook

ed

[OPENSTEP]

Oh, yeah, and the Writer document behind that spreadsheet shows up now as well. That's the document that was used for the full preview at the start of the thread (the one with the table, chart, and formula).

ed

[OPENSTEP]

For an update, the QuickLook plugin is now complete and is being integrated directly into 2.1 Patch 7.

ed

[jakeOSX]

perhaps a ODT plugin dl? which would include neolight and this (quickneo?) together?

[pluby]

[jakeOSX]

oh, i meant stand alone, like perhaps integrating quickneo into neolight so that any ODT user can have their greatness...