OpenOffice.org 3.0 has reached beta stage and the developers have decided to make the beta available to everyone (although only in English). Version 3.0 brings numerous new features to all applications in the suite (found below), both visible and beneath the shell. The most obvious update is the new neat-looking Start Center where you pick which of the modules you want to work in, or just open an existing document.
Calc:
- New solver component
- Support for spreadsheet collaboration through workbook sharing
- Up to 1024 columns per sheet
- Support for displaying custom error bars and regression equations. In addition, it is possible to display regression equations as well as correlation coefficients.
Draw
- Improved cropping of images
Impress
- Improved cropping of images
Writer
- Improved notes feature
- Better displays of multiple pages while editing
Beneath the surface:
- Support the upcoming for OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2
- Capable of opening files created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx,
.xlsx, .pptx, etc.)
- Run on Mac OS X without X11, with the look and feel of any other Aqua application
- It introduces partial VBA support for Mac. In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications
- New, fresh-looking icons
These are just some of the many fixes and features added to OpenOffice.org 3.0. You can download OpenOffice.org for Linux, Windows or OS X over at the OpenOffice.org website.
