NeoOffice

NeoOffice

Developer(s)	Planamesa Software
Stable release	3.2.1  (August 30, 2011; 2 months ago (2011-08-30)) [+/−]
Operating system	Mac OS X 10.4 +
Type	Office suite
License	GPL
Website	www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

NeoOffice is an office suite for Mac OS X. It is a fork of the free/open source OpenOffice.org that implements nearly all of the features of the corresponding OpenOffice.org version, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and graphics program. It is ported by Planamesa Software, and uses Java technology to integrate OpenOffice.org — originally developed for Solaris and Linux — with the Aqua interface of Mac OS X.

Characteristics and development

NeoOffice is one of a number of OpenOffice.org-based titles for Mac OS X:

• Go-OO — requires Intel hardware
• IBM® Lotus® Symphony™ 3 — requires Intel hardware
• LibreOffice
• NeoOffice
• OpenOffice.org 2.x — requires X11
• OpenOffice.org 3.x
• Oracle Open Office — requires Intel hardware.^[1]

NeoOffice is based on OpenOffice.org and Go-OO.

NeoOffice 3.1.2 for Intel and NeoOffice 3.1.2 for PowerPC are based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.1^[2] and on Go-OO 3.1.1.1 code modifications.^[3]

Comparisons

NeoOffice 2.x and OpenOffice.org 2.x

OpenOffice.org 2.x for Mac OS X (X11) is an older version of OpenOffice.org developed and distributed by the OpenOffice.org team; it runs in an X11 environment and requires either X11.app or XDarwin to be installed.

NeoOffice is more "Mac-like", with easier installation, better integration into the OS X interface (pull-down menus at the top of the screen and familiar keyboard shortcuts, for example), use of Mac OS X's fonts and printing services without additional configuration, and integration with the Mac OS X clipboard and drag-and-drop functions.

However, it requires more memory than the X11 version to perform well, some functions are allegedly slower,^{[citation needed]} and the additional code it adds to the main OpenOffice.org code base is not as fully tested.^{[citation needed]} Because NeoOffice is based on releases of OpenOffice.org, there is a delay between those releases and corresponding versions of NeoOffice. NeoOffice's small development team has been concurrently developing the technology for its user interface, so these delays have often been several months in length.^{[citation needed]}

NeoOffice 3.x and OpenOffice.org 3.x

NeoOffice 3.0, released on March 31, 2009, used the same underlying code as OpenOffice.org 3.0.1.^[4] Compared to OpenOffice.org 3.0, NeoOffice 3.0 opens documents faster but is slower at printing and print preview.^[5]

The most recent versions of OpenOffice.org can load, but not save, the Microsoft Office Open XML document formats with the extensions docx, xlsx, and pptx.^[6] NeoOffice 3.1.1 offers limited support for saving .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx based on contributions to the Go-OO code base.^[7]

NeoOffice 3.x and IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 beta 2

Symphony lacks support for databases and drawings.

Levels of support

Go-OO: users are referred to the OpenOffice.org area.^[8]

IBM Lotus Symphony: forums.^[9]

NeoOffice: subject to donation.^[10]

OpenOffice.org: volunteer efforts are well staffed.

Oracle Open Office: free installation support during the first 60 days after the date of purchase. Oracle offers a broad range of support and services for Oracle Open Office, including Oracle Premier Support.^[11]

Version history

NeoOffice began as a project to investigate methods of creating a native port of OpenOffice.org to Mac OS X. The project now called NeoOffice was originally dubbed "NeoOffice/J", reflecting its use of OS X's Java integration to enable a native application. A related project was NeoOffice/C, which was a simultaneous effort to develop a version using Apple's Cocoa APIs. But NeoOffice/C proved very difficult to implement and the application was highly unstable, so the project was set aside in favor of the more promising NeoOffice/J. The "/J" suffix was dropped with version 1.2, since there was no longer another variety of NeoOffice from which to distinguish it.

The most recent release is NeoOffice 3.1.2, based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.1. Because support for Mac OS X 10.3 was dropped in version 3.0.1, the developers are continuing to make version 2.2.6 available.^[12]

OOo version	Version	Release date	Release Notes
1.0.3.1	NeoOffice/C 0.0.1	June 22, 2003	Incendiary Goblin build
1.1.2	NeoOffice/J 1.1 Alpha 2	September, 2004
1.1.3	NeoOffice/J 1.1 Beta	December, 2004
1.1.4	NeoOffice/J 1.1 RC	March, 2005
	NeoOffice/J 1.1	June 22, 2005
2.0	NeoOffice 1.2 Alpha	November, 2005
2.0.1	NeoOffice 1.2 Beta	January 2, 2006
	NeoOffice 1.2	February 1, 2006
2.0.2	NeoOffice 1.2.2	March 30, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha PowerPC	April 25, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 2 PowerPC	May 9, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 3 PowerPC	May 23, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha Intel	June 5, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 2 Intel	June 19, 2006
2.0.3	NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4	July 1, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta	August 1, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta 2	August 15, 2006
	NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta 3	August 29, 2006
2.1.0	NeoOffice 2.1	March 26, 2007	Introduced an icon set with designs that more closely resemble typical Mac OS X icons than those of OpenOffice.org.
2.2.1	NeoOffice 2.2.1	August 27, 2007
	NeoOffice 2.2.2	October 9, 2007	bug fixes [13]
	NeoOffice 2.2.3	March 17, 2008	QuickTime video support, Menus available when no documents are open, Import images from scanners and cameras [14]
	NeoOffice 2.2.4	June 16, 2008	media browser support, native floating tool windows, support for newer trackpad gestures, support for horizontal scrolling,[15][16]
	NeoOffice 2.2.5	September 15, 2008	bug fixes, speed improvements, apple remote support in Impress, last version to support Mac OS X 10.3.[17][18]
	NeoOffice 2.2.6	October 27, 2009
3.0.1	NeoOffice 3.0	March 31, 2009	Introduced access to the Mac OS X spellchecker, grammar checker, address book and media browser; users of languages not supported by the Mac OS X spellchecker can use the Hunspell system originally used. It also improved support for Microsoft Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 documents, and for spreadsheets with Visual Basic for Applications macros that made their debut in version 2.1.[19] Speed improvements, command clicking on window titlebar, Mac OS X 10.5 grammar checker. Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or above.[20]
	NeoOffice 3.0.1	October 27, 2009
	NeoOffice 3.0.2	February 1, 2010	Added native Mac OS X text highlighting, smoother text kerning and more.[21]
3.1.1	NeoOffice 3.1.1	May 10, 2010[22]	Added support for "Look Up in Dictionary" context menu item in Writer to look up a word's definition, if it exists, in Mac OS X's Dictionary application. Also, users can view 10 versions of each NeoOffice Mobile file, The NeoOffice Mobile window is collapsible, and the NeoOffice Mobile menu uses less space in NeoOffice's menubar.
	NeoOffice 3.1.2	September 7, 2010	Temporary files are encrypted when FileVault is enabled. Fix for bugs that cause embedded images to be lost after saving Writer or Impress documents

Notes

Most of these releases were preceded by a version that only Early Access Members could download; these versions were released about a month before the official release date.

Parts of the table above are incorrect.^[23]

With version 3.2, the software is being distributed as a pay version for US$10. This is allowed for under the terms of the GNU license.

Supported file formats

Current file formats supported for saving documents as of NeoOffice 3.1.2, listed in order they appear in Save As dialogue box. (Other formats can be opened and re-saved, but usually with a loss of formatting, so they are not listed here.):

Word processor program

• OpenDocument Text (.odt) *
• OpenDocument Text Template (.ott)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Text Document (.sxw)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Text Document Template (.stw)
• Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)
• Microsoft Word 95 (.doc)
• Microsoft Word 6.0 (.doc)
• Rich Text Format (.rtf)
• StarWriter 5.0 (.sdw)
• StarWriter 5.0 Template (.vor)
• StarWriter 4.0 (.sdw)
• StarWriter 4.0 Template (.vor)
• StarWriter 3.0 (.sdw)
• StarWriter 3.0 Template (.vor)
• Text (.txt)
• Text Encoded (.txt)
• HTML Document (NeoOffice Writer) (.html)
• AportisDoc (Palm) (.pdb)
• DocBook (.xml)
• Microsoft Word 2007 XML (.docx)
• Microsoft Word 2003 XML (.xml)
• OpenDocument Text (Flat XML) (.fodt)
• Pocket Word (.psw)
• Unified Office Format text (.uot)

Spreadsheet program

• OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods) *
• OpenDocument Spreadsheet Template (.ots)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Spreadsheet (.sxc)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Spreadsheet Template (.stc)
• Data Interchange Format (.dif)
• dBase (.dbf)
• Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP (.xls)
• Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP Template (.xlt)
• Microsoft Excel 95 (.xls)
• Microsoft Excel 95 Template (.xlt)
• Microsoft Excel 5.0 (.xls)
• Microsoft Excel 5.0 Template (.xlt)
• StarCalc 5.0 (sdc)
• StarCalc 5.0 Template (.vor)
• StarCalc 4.0 (.sdc)
• StarCalc 4.0 Template (.vor)
• StarCalc 3.0 (.sdc)
• StarCalc 3.0 Template (.vor)
• SYLK (.slk)
• Text CSV (.csv)
• HTML Document (NeoOffice Calc) (.html)
• Microsoft Excel 2007 XML (.xlsx)
• Microsoft Excel 2003 XML (.xml)
• OpenDocument Spreadsheet (Flat XML) (.fods)
• Pocket Excel (.pxl)
• Unified Office Format spreadsheet (.uos)

Presentation program

• OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) *
• OpenDocument Presentation Template (.otp)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Presentation (.sxi)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Presentation Template (.sti)
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP (.ppt)
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP Template (.pot)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Drawing (NeoOffice Impress) (.sxd)
• StarDraw 5.0 (NeoOffice Impress) (.sda)
• StarDraw 5.0 (NeoOffice Impress) (.sdd)
• StarImpress 5.0 (.sdd)
• StarImpress 5.0 Template (.vor)
• StarImpress 4.0 (.sdd)
• StarImpress 4.0 Template (.vor)
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 XML (.pptx)
• OpenDocument Presentation (Flat XML) (.fodp)
• Unified Office Format presentation (.uop)
• OpenDocument Drawing (Impress) (.odg)

Graphics program

• OpenDocument Drawing (.odg) *
• OpenDocument Drawing Template (.otg)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Drawing (.sxd)
• NeoOffice 1.0 Drawing Template (.std)
• StarDraw 5.0 (.sda)
• StarDraw 5.0 Template (.vor)
• StarDraw 3.0 (.sdd)
• StarDraw 3.0 Template (.vor)
• OpenDocument Drawing (Flat XML) (.fodg)

Database program

• OpenDocument Database (.odb) *

Formula program

• OpenDocument Formula (.odf) *
• NeoOffice 1.0 Formula (.sxm)
• StarMath 5.0 (.smf)
• MathML 1.01 (mml)

(* pre-chosen save default format.)
By default, NeoOffice loads and saves files in the OpenDocument file format, although this can be changed by the user. The OpenDocument file format is an XML file format standardized by OASIS (Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).

Licensing

OpenOffice.org was originally released by Sun under both the LGPL and SISSL; it is now released solely under the LGPL. However, OpenOffice.org requires a copyright assignment for contributions to the main code base; this allows Sun to create proprietary versions of the software (notably StarOffice). NeoOffice chooses not to assign its code to Sun; this prevents NeoOffice code from being used in official OpenOffice.org versions. Instead, NeoOffice is released only under the GPL (this is allowed by the LGPL), which ensures that any software based on it remains free.

There were initially some attempts to resolve the licensing differences and foster more direct cooperation and code-sharing between the NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org developers. However, the NeoOffice developers have stated that they prefer to work separately from OpenOffice.org because "coordination requires a significant amount of time";^[24] on the other side, the OpenOffice.org developers state: "A proposal to work together has been made, and NeoOffice developers refused".^[25]

See also

Free software portal

• List of word processors
• Comparison of word processors
• Office suite
• Comparison of office suites

References

1. ^ Oracle Open Office: Technical Specifications
2. ^ NeoOffice 3.1.1 Release Notes
3. ^ NeoOffice New Feature Requests
4. ^ "NeoOffice 3.0 Released" (Press release). NeoOffice.org. 2009-03-31. https://trinity.neooffice.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=134&mode=&order=0&thold=0. Retrieved 2009-04-27. 
5. ^ "NeoOffice Performance Comparison". NeoOffice wiki. NeoOffice.org. 2009-01-09. http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/NeoOffice_Performance_Comparison. Retrieved 2009-04-27. 
6. ^ OpenOffice.org 3.2.0: Help: About Converting Microsoft Office Documents
7. ^ Upgrade to OpenOffice 3.1.1 code
8. ^ Comparing NeoOffice with Go-OO, IBM® Lotus® Symphony™ etc.
9. ^ IBM Lotus Symphony — support forums
10. ^ NeoOffice Support
11. ^ Oracle Open Office 3 data sheet
12. ^ NeoOffice 3.0 Forum Release Announcement
13. ^ 2.2.2 Release Notes
14. ^ 2.2.3 Release Notes
15. ^ NeoOffice 2.2.4 Announcement
16. ^ 2.2.4 Release Notes
17. ^ NeoOffice 2.2.5 Announcement
18. ^ 2.2.5 Release Notes
19. ^ NeoOffice 2.1 release announcement
20. ^ NeoOffice 3.0 Announcement
21. ^ New Features of 3.0.2
22. ^ NeoOffice 3.1.1 released
23. ^ NeoOffice on Wikipedia: updates and outstanding tasks
24. ^ NeoOffice FAQ's
25. ^ FAQ Openoffice.org and NeoOffice from the OOo wiki

External links

• NeoOffice
• NeoWiki