Movie and scanner support test patch now available

pluby · Last edited by pluby on Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:14 pm; edited 2 times in total

It took me a longer than expected, but the first major new feature - QuickTime movie support - announced in our plans for 2008 is now available for testing. Now you can use the Insert :: Movies and Sound menu to insert and play any movie or sound file that Apple's QuickTime Player application will play.

In addition, Ed has implemented a new extension that allows you to directly import into NeoOffice images from any devices (such as digital cameras or scanners) that Apple's Image Capture application supports. without needed to use the Image Capture application. This new extension can be accessed by selecting the new Tools :: Add-ons :: Paste Image from Camera or Scanner menu item. After selecting this menu and stepping through the native dialogs, your device's imported image will be in the system clipboard and you can then use the Edit :: Paste menu to paste the imported image into your document.

You can test these new features by installing the following test patch:

PowerPC:
http://jane.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-2.2.2-Patch-10-Test-1-PowerPC.dmg

Intel:
http://jane.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-2.2.2-Patch-10-Test-1-Intel.dmg

Edit: replaced original Patch 8 links with Patch 9 links.

This test patch should work on 10.3.9 or higher. Note also that the new Tools :: Add-on menu is not well worded. Since menu copies, not pastes, images to clipboard, the wording will be changed in the next test patch to "Copy Image from Camera or Scanner to Clipboard". If anyone would like to translate this text, please post your translations and we will add them in the next test patch.

For those that are curious, the QuickTime movie support is entirely written by ourselves. We looked at using the OOo code but it appeared to be of limited use. Not only missing functionality that OOo expects to be implemented (cursor setting, native mouse event handling, etc.), but also none of their code implements any the thread awareness that is required by Cocoa (all GUI Cocoa code must be executed on the main thread only) nor does it take into account the fussiness in Apple's QTMovie code during live resizing of a window that I found while implementing this code.

Patrick

OPENSTEP · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:02 pm Post subject:

Congratulations Patrick on the QuickTime support! I know it's been a lot of work to get it up and running correctly, so I hope that our testers will be pleasantly surprised at its stability Smile

One slight correction for the image capture; using the menu item from Add-ons will actually paste the image into the open document if it doesn't cancel. As a side-effect it will also be left on the clipboard. I've tested pasting into Writer, Impress, and Draw. The image capture is left active for all components since, although rarer, I could see how one might want to place an image in a spreadsheet or a base field (though I didn't test those).

ed

pluby · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:04 pm Post subject:

One minor clarification: Ed informed me that the Tools :: Add-ons :: Paste Image from Camera or Scanner will not only put the imported image in the system clipboard, but it will also paste the imported image into the current document.

Since "Paste Image from Camera or Scanner" actually reflects the functionality of this menu, we will not change the text in the next test patch and any translators should translate "Paste Image from Camera or Scanner".

Patrick

rob_06 · Captain Joined: Oct 26, 2006 Posts: 74

Downloaded and installed the Patch 8 Test 1

So far my Canon Pixma MP180 is working great within Neo Office it opens Image Capture does the scan and the image shows normally thus far in Neo Office drawing and writer.

I am going to do some testing of the QT/sound part now.

Some minor problems found

1. Not able to insert mp3 files (this maybe hard to do)

2. when trying to insert an MPEG audio file I continually get the format is not support.

Now for a quick question which of the audio formats would be the best to use as it would be nice to be able to use one that makes the file size reasonably small.

I don't normally insert movie file but will do some testing here just to see how it goes as it may as sometime be handy to use.

Looking great thus far.

Cool

Samwise · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject:

Congratulations!

Unfortunately, I don't think my printer/scanner works with Image Capture Sad

rob_06: What do you mean by MPEG audio files? Are they MPEG-1? QuickTime doesn't support MPEG-1 very well…

rob_06 · Captain Joined: Oct 26, 2006 Posts: 74

I tried MPEG 4 audio files and MP3 which neither worked. I have since tried OGG which are fine.

I don't currently have any smallish movie files to try one of them but will soon.

What brand and model is your printer/scanner?

Mine had issues under leopard until I found new drivers which have fixed all the leopard related issues I had.

Cool

Samwise · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject:

rob_06 · Captain Joined: Oct 26, 2006 Posts: 74

It should if the software that comes with it is installed normally installs plugins required for image capture to see the scanner side of it.

I used to have a HP Scanjet 2400 scanner and without the software being installed image capture wouldn't see or be able to use it.

Samwise · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:34 pm Post subject:

I installed the software & drivers from the web, but it never worked with Image Capture. It works with HP Scan Pro though (which, BTW, is listed by Image Capture as a TWAIN device - just noticed).

Anyway, it's not really my printer so whether it works with Image Capture doesn't matter as long as it's not connected Wink

rob_06 · Captain Joined: Oct 26, 2006 Posts: 74

I have found from experience the HP software is hard to use and not that great. If it is listed in Image capture it may just need setting in the image capture preferences. As it is seen and in fact should work.

Samwise · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject:

rob_06 · Captain Joined: Oct 26, 2006 Posts: 74

I will do some checking it should be able to work. I am getting curious and it may down the line help others if some info on how to make it work can be found.

SteveRead · Operator Joined: Jan 14, 2007 Posts: 46

I did some playing around with both a little and here are my observations so far:
1) I can insert some movies into both Writer and Impress. However, there are many movies that Quicktime can play that I cannot insert. Some just are greyed out in the selection box, even though they are playable by Quicktime, whereas others are .mov files and are available in the selection box. But when I try to insert them, I get an alert box that tells me that "The format of the selected file is not supported."

2) Of the movies I can insert into both Writer and Impress, once I insert a movie into Writer, I can't delete it. That is I can click on it and select it, but I cannot delete. But I have no problem deleting it from Impress.

3) I have tried the scanner software with a Brother MFC 9600. So far it seems a little flaky. I can get it to scan (sometimes), but it doesn't seem to put the picture on the clipboard and it is not automatically pasting the picture into the open Writer document.

Using a dual powerpc G5 with Mac OS 10.4.11

Glenner · Oracle Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 241 Location: Scotland

Ed, thanks for your work on the scanner support! It seems to work flawlessly and means a significant improvement to the work flow. My one observation about it is that in the settings it always reverts back to Colour/8 bit/150dpi. Is it possible to make the choice stick somehow? I always insert Text/1bit/350dpi for example.

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