So from their list, the new features that are in NeoOffice 3.0 Early Access that were not in NeoOffice 2.2.5 are listed below:
1. All of the features listed in that link's New Core Features section minus the folllowing features:
- Item 1.1 Mac OS X support - This is not new for us as we have had native Mac OS X support for over 5 years.
- Item 1.4 Solver - This is not new for us as we have been using Novell's Solver code since NeoOffice 2.2.1.
- Item 1.11 New, fresh looking icons - We do not use OOo 3.0's icon and, instead, use the Akua icon set that was used in NeoOffice 2.2.5 as our default icon set.
- Item 1.12 Start Center - We purposely did not include this new feature as it seems to punish the majority of our users who use Writer as their primary document type to save a few seconds for the minority who use Calc or Impress as their primary document type.
2. Only the New Chart Component feature list in that link's Core Features Introduced With Minor Releases Since OpenOffice.org 2.0 section is new in NeoOffice 3.0 Early Access. All of the others were already in OpenOffice 2.2.1 or were in Novell's code that we included in NeoOffice 2.2.5.
3. In that link's Features Released as Extensions and Complimentary Tools section, the following extensions are bundled with NeoOffice 3.0 Early Access:
3. In that link's Features Released as Extensions and Complimentary Tools section, the following extensions are bundled with NeoOffice 3.0 Early Access:
Just got home from a trip and downloaded the EAP 3.0 Excellent. Much faster loading, much faster response for usual tasks, etc.
Also, a critical factor for me: NeoOffice continues to correctly handle RTL Hebrew spacing and layout as it did in 2.2.5. That has not been corrected in OO.org 3.0 for Macs; it works correctly on Windows and Linux.
Joined: Jun 21, 2003 Posts: 173 Location: Selmer, Tennessee
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:15 am Post subject:
One place NO3.0 shines is in Calc. I have a spreadsheet that I built by reducing column widths to 2.5mm, and merging cells to get the form that I wanted. This works fine on both systems. The rub in 2.x came when you wanted to move columns (actually, several columns containing merged cells) to another spot on the form. You select the visual columns, cut, and when you went to paste, the program would tell you that you couldn't replace merged cells, they were already merged. So you had to un-merge the target range, then paste, then delete the cut range.
I tried this in NO3.0EA, and the program simply hung up. Had to force-quit. It was no biggie, since I do this sort of operation only infrequently. But this morning I noticed that Patrick had a bug fix already posted. I installed it, and now you can select the several merged columns (one visual column) and option-drag it to its new location. Release the mouse, and the new column goes into its new position, slick as a whistle. No screen lag, either. It just works. (Patrick, FYI that was bug 3384.)
Calc's charts now update rapidly, and the interface is much smoother.
Another improvement was my post about not being able to drag data fields into the IF and ELSE blocks of conditional text. That works well now in NO 3.0 EA, too.
So there are a lot of non-obvious changes that just make Neo work better. Good work, guys. _________________ Jim Plante
MacOS X 10.6.34, MacBook 2GHz C2Duo, 2gb, Neo 3.1.1 p 1
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:59 pm Post subject:
shades wrote:
Also, a critical factor for me: NeoOffice continues to correctly handle RTL Hebrew spacing and layout as it did in 2.2.5. That has not been corrected in OO.org 3.0 for Macs; it works correctly on Windows and Linux.
That is one big reason we feel very strongly in continuing to use our code...I remember all the years Patrick spent fixing layout bugs in Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, and other multi-byte and RTL languages. It makes no sense to throw out all of that work and something that has already been proven just to use some fun new APIs from Apple
Thanks for the kind words...I know EAP can be a very stressful time for Patrick, and we really put a lot of pressure on ourselves to keep all of our supporters happy and fix any problems they find. The positive response is very appreciated!
Yes, the Hebrew is so important for me (as well as the overall Mac feel of NeoOffice) and it is so stable that this morning I changed all auto-opening of MS Office files from OO.org 3.0 to NeoOffice 3.0.
Yes, the Hebrew is so important for me (as well as the overall Mac feel of NeoOffice) and it is so stable that this morning I changed all auto-opening of MS Office files from OO.org 3.0 to NeoOffice 3.0.
Can't thank you enough for this work.
Although I cannot speak, read, or write any Hebrew, I always test the several examples in past Bugzilla bug reports to make sure that our code has not broken before every big release.
By testing Hebrew and other non-Western European language bugs that we fixed (Arabic, Japanese, and Devanagari were the most common), I found several issues in input, full width justification, vertical layout, and PDF export when we moved our code to use OpenOffice.org 3.0. Fortunately, our code only needed minor fixing to work, but working with these languages remind me of why I like working exclusively on Mac OS X software.
The rub in 2.x came when you wanted to move columns (actually, several columns containing merged cells) to another spot on the form. You select the visual columns, cut, and when you went to paste, the program would tell you that you couldn't replace merged cells, they were already merged. So you had to un-merge the target range, then paste, then delete the cut range.
I hated that, too
Jim wrote:
I tried this in NO3.0EA, and the program simply hung up. Had to force-quit. It was no biggie, since I do this sort of operation only infrequently.
We probably ought to get a sample and file that as a bug, anyway.
Jim wrote:
Calc's charts now update rapidly, and the interface is much smoother.
I have a few "large" (couple-hundred rows and couple-dozen columns) spreadsheets where Calc in 2.x was almost literally unusable unless I repeatedly turned off auto-calculate (what fun, in a spreadsheet), as it would take 5s or so after every entry until it returned control; I was so pleased to find that Calc 3.0 is actually usable!
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
I tried this in NO3.0EA, and the program simply hung up. Had to force-quit. It was no biggie, since I do this sort of operation only infrequently.
We probably ought to get a sample and file that as a bug, anyway.
I am not sure about this, but I believe that this was caused by a bug in OpenOffice.org 3.0 that Sun fixed in OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 Release Candidate 2. I went through the changes between Release Candidate 1 and 2 earlier on Wednesday and found that they had fixed this bug:
Joined: Jun 21, 2003 Posts: 173 Location: Selmer, Tennessee
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject:
If it should happen again, I'll send you the file and particulars. But I tested that operation this morning after installing the test patch. Woke up my wife and scared the cat when it worked like it was supposed to. _________________ Jim Plante
MacOS X 10.6.34, MacBook 2GHz C2Duo, 2gb, Neo 3.1.1 p 1
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