OpenOffice 4.0

http://www.openoffice.org/download/

 

I haven't checked it out yet but I will bet that a British English version isn't available.

EDIT: I dunno ... looks like I am in luck!

 

Caveat for anyone installing this upgrade, uninstall your older/previous version first. I found that I had to do this. It seems fine so far though. There are some slight GUI changes, mainly a sidebar. Although I believe it can be undocked.

 

The Open Office installer will automatically uninstall the previous Open Office version for you - if you keep the box in the installer that says, "remove all previous versions" checked. Apache is the open source foundation that took over the OO project from Oracle. It seems to have a found a new lease on life

 

It wouldn't do it on my notebook. I'm pretty sure I checked the box. It has some new architecture though it seems. So maybe a clean install is a good idea.

 

Im glad to see Open Office being developed. I would like to see the IBM version of it as well.

 

I've been using OpenOffice for over five years. I haven't needed to buy or use Microsoft Office (except for at work) in all that time. For what I use it for OO is fine. I really can't grumble at the price either!

 

Does anyone know how this compares to LibreOffice in terms of functionality nowadays? I've not used OpenOffice for a few years and am interested how it's progressed.

 

It's good to see the continuing development. I wish they would add an email/calendar/contact app to cover Outlook. I use Outlook more than any of the other MS Office apps and there's nothing "open source" like it AFAICT.

 

No, there's nothing much like Outlook. I wish they'd add something like that too. For now, I'm using OO 4 with an older version of Live Mail (2009) which seems to be less buggy than the new stuff. But Outlook has pretty much always been my favorite too...

 

Due to licensing, LibreOffice can incorporate code from OpenOffice, but not directly the other way around. That has already happened.

 

actually liking this new version. i also like libre but this seems much faster and even almost smoother to use now. i have both installed on a test machine currently and i liked libre and really liking this maybe even more. i really wish they would allow a custom skin or something other then the stupid firefox thing libre did since it really does not do much since you cant see much of the firfox theme anyway.

and i agree this needs a email component then MANY would eliminate ms office unless they had a direct need for it.

 

Portable package:

http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php?view.1341

 

I actually use Windows Live Mail as my primary email app, but I need Outlook to properly synchronize calendars with my android phone. I couldn't make it work properly with WLM. Outlook 2003 with Google Calendar Sync works perfectly. I guess if I had a Windows 8 phone I could use WLM along with Hotmail/Outlook.com calendaring, but the Windows Phone OS does not inspire me. An open source Outlook clone would be useful to many people I think. Maybe the AOO people could get on it?

 

Downloaded it thanks.

 

Apache developers also work on the Libre Office project and BOTH open source office systems benefit hugely from their efforts. LO is basically a fork of OO developed at a time when OO's future was unclear when Oracle was no longer interested in carrying on with the project. So if for some reason, work on one doesn't go forward, there will always be another viable open source office suite around to take up the slack!

 

Ugh, why does it require Java?

 

OO and LO require Java run time to run. If you hate Java, then don't run an open source office suite!

 

I believe that you can run many of the applications without Java. I have a feeling that it is only used for macros & more complicated mathematical functions. I'm not Java paranoid so it doesn't really bother me.

 

I'm running LO without Java.

 

same here LO without java it never asked me to install it either?

 

Regarding java, this should explain it:

http://www.openoffice.org/download/common/java.html

 

Your doubts cleared

http://www.openoffice.org/download/common/java.html

As for LibreOffice, it's about the same:
http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/696/what-features-absolutely-require-java/
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Java

P.S. Kerodo beat it to me by 1 min.

 

I have good news I never installed Java for OpenOffice with the previous version and it still worked!

 

Will try the new OO. LO is very problematic. Despite the compatibility issue, there are many bugs that have existed for a long long time. The developers rush to new features while ignoring the bugs behind. That is terrible attitude. Recently I have totally been converted to MS office, I don't like MS at all though. As I do heavy editing, MS 2010 is far more superior than LO for the moment.

Will install OO on my linux machine and test it out ! I am not looking for complete satisfaction but I hope it does a fine job.