[CONF] Apache OpenOffice Community > AOO 4.0 Release Notes

[Rob Weir (Confluence)]

AOO 4.0 Release Notes Page edited by Rob Weir Changes (5) ... The Apache OpenOffice 4.0 is a *major* release with new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. h2. Platform Support The following platforms are available in official releases from Apache OpenOffice: Microsoft Windows, MacOS (Intel), Linux (32 bit) and Linux (64 bit). Additionally, a number of community members are working on ports for Solaris, FreeBSD, and OS/2 and live/portable versions. You can learn more from our Ports and Distributions page at: [http://www.openoffice.org/porting/|http://www.openoffice.org/porting/]. h2. Upgrading When installing Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 on a machine that already has OpenOffice 3.4.1 or 3.4.0 installed on it, the user will be prompted on whether they would like "personal data" from the previous version migrated over to the new version.&nbsp; This includes information like custom spell checking words, dictionaries, extensions, etc.&nbsp; By default this migration is enabled, but the user can disable it via the checkbox. In some cases, when the user first launches Apache OpenOffice 4.0 after an upgrade that included personal data migration, the user will see a dialog like this: !dictionary-upgrade.png|border=1! It is safe to click OK on this dialog. After an upgrade is completed, there may be some files related to the older version of OpenOffice still on your machine.&nbsp; These can be safely deleted: * The empty directory:&nbsp; C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\uno_packages\cache\uno_packages * Install files directories from previous versions, often on your Desktop, iwith names like: ** OpenOffice.org 3.4.1 (en-US) Installation Files ** OpenOffice.org 3.4 (en-US) Installation Files ** OpenOffice.org 3.3 (en-US) Installation Files h2. New Features ... h4. Module binfilter removed We no longer read or write the legacy StarOffice file formats (files with extensions .sdw, .sdc, .sdd, etc.). &nbsp;Removal of this code makes the OpenOffice codebase easier to maintain. &nbsp;The legacy formats have never been the default format in any version of OpenOffice. &nbsp;Users with legacy StarOffice documents are advised to re-save them into ODF format (*.odt, \*.ods, \*.odp, etc.) \*before upgrading* to Apache OpenOffice 4.0. This can be done using File - Wizards - Document Converter in OpenOffice 3.x.&nbsp; OpenOffice 1.x files (*.sxw, \*.sxc, \*.sxi) are still supported. h4. Support for system C+\+ STL The stlport4 template library was obsoleted with the TR1 report of the C+\+ standard and was deprecated and no longer maintained. Apache OpenOffice 4 switches to the system's native standard template library, so extensions written in C+\+ need to be recompiled with the Apache OpenOffice 4 SDK. h2. Bug Fixes ... h2. Known Issues * Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 will be flagged by the new Gatekeeper facility in OS X Mountain Lion. This is a new feature to help guard against malware on Mac systems. There is a procedure laid out at the following link to allow applications not installed from the Mac App store to run. See the article at Mac support at [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290]. * Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 supports Java 7, which is the recommended configuration; but (especially on 64-bit Windows) you might receive warnings about the Java version being defective. In that case, download and install the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package|http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/C/5BC5DBB3-652D-4DCE-B14A-475AB85EEF6E/vcredist_x86.exe]. If you still have problems, install [the most current JRE 6 version|http://www.java.com/java6download/]. Make sure you get the file "Windows x86 Offline (32-bit)". Then configure OpenOffice to use it at "Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - Java". See [this forum topic|http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=54974] for more information. h2. Stay informed about Apache OpenOffice ... Full Content General Remarks The Apache OpenOffice 4.0 is a major release with new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. Platform Support The following platforms are available in official releases from Apache OpenOffice: Microsoft Windows, MacOS (Intel), Linux (32 bit) and Linux (64 bit). Additionally, a number of community members are working on ports for Solaris, FreeBSD, and OS/2 and live/portable versions. You can learn more from our Ports and Distributions page at: http://www.openoffice.org/porting/. Upgrading When installing Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 on a machine that already has OpenOffice 3.4.1 or 3.4.0 installed on it, the user will be prompted on whether they would like "personal data" from the previous version migrated over to the new version.  This includes information like custom spell checking words, dictionaries, extensions, etc.  By default this migration is enabled, but the user can disable it via the checkbox. In some cases, when the user first launches Apache OpenOffice 4.0 after an upgrade that included personal data migration, the user will see a dialog like this: It is safe to click OK on this dialog. After an upgrade is completed, there may be some files related to the older version of OpenOffice still on your machine.  These can be safely deleted: The empty directory:  C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\uno_packages\cache\uno_packages Install files directories from previous versions, often on your Desktop, iwith names like: OpenOffice.org 3.4.1 (en-US) Installation Files OpenOffice.org 3.4 (en-US) Installation Files OpenOffice.org 3.3 (en-US) Installation Files New Features New Sidebar Feature Enhancements and Improvements Performance Improvements/Enhancements None at this time Draw and Impress Improvements/Enhancements Conversion from Metafiles to draw objects ('Break'): This useful conversion (e.g. also applicable to SVG objects) did not take Clip Regions into account, thus leading to bad looking results. This is greatly extended to use Clip Regions, so breaking inserted SVG or Metafile data to drawing objects is much more useful now. This can be used to further edit graphic data in Apache OpenOffice which was not editable before. Bitmap fill style supports transparency: When filling graphic objects with fill style bitmap it is now possible to use bitmaps with transparency. In former versions, transparency was not supported and the fill bitmap was forced to a white background. This works in all combinations, e.g. tiled bitmaps. Export to PNG supports transparency: When exporting selected drawing objects to PNG Apache OpenOffice now does this by default with transparent background. This allows now to further use graphics created in other applications or for further processing. Better conversion to Bitmap: When converting one or multiple selected drawing objects to bitmap, transparency is now taken into account whenever possible. No longer is a extra line added to the bottom and/or right side of the created graphic, thus making the result more usable for further processing. Connectors support rotation: Connectors do no longer disable rotation (and shear) tools when selected. While this is minor useful for single connectors, it is very useful when selecting a number of graphic objects and want to rotate them. This was requested in the OpenOffice Community Forum, a user wanted to rotate a drawing made of many draw objects and many connectors by 90 degrees. This is now possible without deselecting the connectors which is no fun when you have a lot of them selected. Corrected Hatch fill style visualization: When zooming out or in small visualizations (e.g. Page Previews) objects or pages using a hatch fill style were bad visualized since too many hatch lines had to be shown in too tight place. The Hatch Fill Style now uses a minimal line distance to make it look good for visualizations in Edit Views. This was already the case in older office versions, but was lost in the redesign of the visualization. Better Gradients Gradients in metafiles are rotated and sheared (slanted) together with the metafile and so behave similar to bitmap graphics. But notice, that some export formats (emf, wmf, svg e.g.) are not able to handle gradients in all cases. Start color and end color are included in gradients. This improvement becomes visible, if you use a small number of gradient steps. All gradients are now shown in presentation mode the same as they are shown in edit mode. Calc and Chart Improvements/Enhancements Support relative Pie Chart Height: For Pie charts imported from other formats, the Height attribute was not supported. This is added now and makes Pie Charts look more as the original. New Functions Calc now supports the functions AVERAGEIFS, COUNTIFS, and SUMIFS. In this functions you can combine several conditions. Calc now supports the function XOR. The function completes the already available set of boolean functions. Calc now supports the functions LEFTB, RIGHTB, LENB, and MIDB. These functions are special versions for DBCS (double byte character set ) languages. Extensions Improvements/Enhancements New Toolbar management Extensions now use a new Toolbar management, see https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=121577 ; at the moment, Extensions for 3.x that are using the deprecated mechanism will have to be updated to work with OpenOffice 4.0. Many popular extensions, including dictionaries, are not affected by the change. Unified menu API The Menu API has been unified, making it more clear and API-user-friendly. The following interfaces have been deprecated and replaced: css.awt.XMenuExtended, css.awt.XMenuExtended2, css.awt.XMenuBarExtended, css.awt.XPopupMenuExtended. See https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=121542#c2 for details. Additional Language Support New Translations Available in Apache OpenOffice 4.0 Include: Updated Translations Available in Apache OpenOffice 4.0 Include: None at this time For a complete list of available languages and language packs see: Languages|http://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html Additional Platform Support None at this time. Changes that Impact Backwards Compatibility Module binfilter removed We no longer read or write the legacy StarOffice file formats (files with extensions .sdw, .sdc, .sdd, etc.).  Removal of this code makes the OpenOffice codebase easier to maintain.  The legacy formats have never been the default format in any version of OpenOffice.  Users with legacy StarOffice documents are advised to re-save them into ODF format (.odt, *.ods, *.odp, etc.) *before upgrading to Apache OpenOffice 4.0. This can be done using File - Wizards - Document Converter in OpenOffice 3.x.  OpenOffice 1.x files (*.sxw, *.sxc, *.sxi) are still supported. Support for system C++ STL The stlport4 template library was obsoleted with the TR1 report of the C++ standard and was deprecated and no longer maintained. Apache OpenOffice 4 switches to the system's native standard template library, so extensions written in C++ need to be recompiled with the Apache OpenOffice 4 SDK. Bug Fixes As of <2013/07/12>, there were 453 verified issues that have been resolved. This list can be found at: FIXED You will need an OpenOffice Bugzilla login to view it. (An OpenOffice Bugzilla login will enable you to search for any bugs that may interest you.) Important bug fixes have been made in these areas: None at this time. The QE team has been tracking additional fixes as well. See their complete reports at: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/Report/WeeklyReport Known Issues Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 will be flagged by the new Gatekeeper facility in OS X Mountain Lion. This is a new feature to help guard against malware on Mac systems. There is a procedure laid out at the following link to allow applications not installed from the Mac App store to run. See the article at Mac support at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290. Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 supports Java 7, which is the recommended configuration; but (especially on 64-bit Windows) you might receive warnings about the Java version being defective. In that case, download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. If you still have problems, install the most current JRE 6 version. Make sure you get the file "Windows x86 Offline (32-bit)". Then configure OpenOffice to use it at "Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - Java". See this forum topic for more information. Stay informed about Apache OpenOffice You are encouraged to subscribe to the Apache OpenOffice announcement mailing list, to be receive important notifications such as product updates and security patches.  To subscribe you can send an email to:  announce-subscr...@openoffice.apache.org. You can also follow the project on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Stop watching space | Change email notification preferences View Online | View Changes | Add Comment