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NeoOffice :: View topic - M$ Office 2008 announcement is good news for NeoOffice
M$ Office 2008 announcement is good news for NeoOffice
 
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human
Pure-blooded Human


Joined: Jan 04, 2005
Posts: 36
Location: Planet Earth

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:47 am    Post subject: M$ Office 2008 announcement is good news for NeoOffice

I was reading an article about the announcement of M$ Office 2008, which is set to be released sometime this summer, and couldn't help noticing some important advantages NeoOffice 2.1 will have over it:

1. NeoOffice will come out several months ahead of Office 2008
2. NeoOffice will include support for M$ Office 2007 for Windows file formats, which M$ Office 2004 for Mac doesn't.
3. "Converters" to allow M$ Office 2004 to open Office 2007/2008 documents won't be released until two months AFTER Office 2008 comes out.
4. M$ Office 2008 WON'T support VBA macros.

What will they think of next?
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Samwise
Captain Naiobi


Joined: Apr 25, 2006
Posts: 2315
Location: Montpellier, France

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:02 pm    Post subject:

#3 Beta converters will be available before Office 2008 (Spring 2007).

Also, Novell's OpenXML filters aren't 100% complete yet, are they ?
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OPENSTEP
The One
The One


Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:28 pm    Post subject:

You are correct; the OSS filters are not yet complete. Filters will initially be available for the OpenXML formatted Word equivalents. For more details see:

http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/index.html

Ironically one of the people we thank is Microsoft Smile I wonder about some of the statements I read online that MacBU couldn't support the formats earlier because they were waiting for the formats to finalize from the Windows Office team. Weren't the schemas submitted and approved as a standard? I'd thnk if they were submitted they wouldn't be changing any longer...

Office 2008 won't support VBA macros. We're integrating the VBA support from ooo-build into Neo. Currently the VBA work is focused on Excel (probably the most critical area where macros are used). Coverage isn't 100% either, but it's definitely more than what 2008 will have Smile

ed
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OPENSTEP
The One
The One


Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:59 pm    Post subject:

But you do have to give the sneek peek at some of the new Word interface a good look. Interesting stuff. I think it's good that they're thinking of different interfaces. Not sure how it'll help me type specs faster, but hey I'm probably not their target audience Smile

For some reason I find the embedded daily schedule within Word humorous. Does the world really need yet another me-too way to display a schedule? I guess if you have all your stuff stuck in Entourage (which I don't).

ed
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human
Pure-blooded Human


Joined: Jan 04, 2005
Posts: 36
Location: Planet Earth

PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:25 am    Post subject:

I'll give them credit for thinking outside the (Windoze) box and finally waking up to the fact that Mac users are different from Windows users and have different needs. Whether they are actually capable of addressing those needs is another question altogether, but at least they're making the effort.

It'll be interesting to see how these new features "play in Peoria" when the final version is released later this year. Even more interesting will be how many of these features are adopted in the subsequent Windows version of the software.
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OPENSTEP
The One
The One


Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:33 am    Post subject:

Mac office has features that, IIRC, have never been incorporated into the Windows version. It's good that Mac BU thinks outside the box, I concur. Examples that I can think of are the "page layout" view in Excel where the spreadsheet splits across paper as if it's printed (but still is editable). Another is the notebook outline view in Word 2004. I don't think that's in Windows either.

On the flip side, however, the fact they do think outside the box has frustrated just as many Mac users. There still isn't any client that is as fully functional for Exchange servers as the old OS 9 only Microsoft Outlook. Why they dropped that and made a less-functional e-mail client is beyond me. There are a number of people who continued to use Outlook in classic and, after giving up, started going through the more horrid Outlook Web Access stuff that runs on the server. In some companies, Outlook and Exchange are king. Microsoft also dropped other tools that are part of Windows office, such as Project, and never made other tools available, such as Access or Visio. A lot of times running some of those apps is the reason why people who use Macs in corporate environments still need a Windows box (or VPC, or parallels, or crossover, ...)

ed
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sfyves
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:35 pm    Post subject: VBA in NeoOffice and Word Macros

Translators on the Mac platform have only one mainstream Translation Memory tool, or CAT tool, available to them, Wordfast, a complex Word macro. We are going to be left in the dust by the new version of MS Office.

Any idea when, if ever, VBA will also be available in NeoOffice Writer? And then, would all macros work in this setup?

Thanks!

Yves Avérous
TransMUG
http://transmug.com
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rays
The Anomaly
(earlier version)


Joined: Sep 23, 2004
Posts: 475
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 2:12 am    Post subject:

Bienvenue!

Related snnouncements here:

http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/earlyaccess.php

and here:

http://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=116

Sign-up for early release and join in the fun!

_________________
Ray Saunders
World Scout Bureau
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OPENSTEP
The One
The One


Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:48 am    Post subject: Re: VBA in NeoOffice and Word Macros

sfyves wrote:
Any idea when, if ever, VBA will also be available in NeoOffice Writer? And then, would all macros work in this setup?


The first go around of VBA support will be in Calc (emulating Excel) only as that is what ooo-build is focusing on. I don't know when we'll be getting around to doing the Word or PowerPoint equivalents. I suspect you'll have to stick with Office v.X/2004 for a while for Word macros. The only other solution I could think of would be to start investigating whether you can work to port your macros to either the upcoming AppleScript interfaces for Office 2008 or onto StarBasic/python/etc. that can work with OOo and Neo.

ed
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AnydHughes
Guest





PostPosted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:58 am    Post subject: Mainstream translation program for Mac

Hi, I read in an earlier post that there is 'only one' mainstream CAT program for the Mac platform. Please check out Heartsome's translation suite, which includes XLIFF Editor (www.heartsome.net). Heartsome's programs are Java applications so not only do they work on Mac, but also Linux and Windows. They are a superb set of tools for professional translators and I can thoroughly recommended them. They are also inexpensive Smile

Andy Hughes
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gasdoc
Blue Pill


Joined: Feb 16, 2007
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:57 pm    Post subject: Office 2007 /2008 - not impressed

I have been using Office 2007 on my macbook as a trial using parallels. Whilst the new toolbar/ribbon system is quite pretty it really takes up a lot of vertical space. You can't even turn off the lower label for each toolbar "cluster". This is not a great step forward as laptops in general seem to be moving towards the widescreen format. The use of pallettes is more sensible. I also noticed that the MS navigation pane is unchanged (in 2007 at least) and is nowhere near as good as the neooffice offering.

Like many users I have to decide between learning the interface of MS Office, NeoOffice or wait for iwork 07. So far I have chosed Neooffice and ditched my Office 2004 installation. I hope that the soon to be released 2.1 version includes the aqua (akua?) icons Very Happy
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OPENSTEP
The One
The One


Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:17 am    Post subject:

Yes, the forthcoming version will use the new icons by default. This has been nearly a year long effort by some really dedicated and talented individuals. For more information, see this forum topic for the ongoing development.

The icon designs that have come from some of these designers have been publicly awarded as top icons by Mac|Life (a.k.a. MacAddict) as some of the coolest icons on Mac OS X. It really is amazing to see the outcome. For as great as my talents may be in C++, I still am sent into crazy mad fits for days on end every time I try to draw bezier curves or try to figure out what in the heck a mask layer does in Photoshop.

ed
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Samwise
Captain Naiobi


Joined: Apr 25, 2006
Posts: 2315
Location: Montpellier, France

PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:38 am    Post subject:

OPENSTEP wrote:
The icon designs that have come from some of these designers have been publicly awarded as top icons by Mac|Life (a.k.a. MacAddict) as some of the coolest icons on Mac OS X.


Actually, it's the ship icon that was designated one of the coolest - the Akua icons are unlikely to have been noticed yet. Maybe in the next issue of Mac|Life Wink
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OPENSTEP
The One
The One


Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:14 pm    Post subject:

Yeah, it was the ship icon I had in mind too. The forthcoming application icons are pretty neat as well!

ed
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