From time to time I receive emails asking me when will OpenOffice.org have a desktop publishing (DTP) program. My reply is always the same: “Have you tried Writer”? Although we position Writer as a word processing package, in the hands of an expert user it can do so much more, well into the realms of what I would consider DTP. No doubt if we were selling OpenOffice.org, we’d split Writer into two products: Writer for word processing, and Publisher for DTP - but as OpenOffice.org is licensed as free software, we really don’t have a motive for doing that

However, I can’t really claim to be an expert in this area, and I make no claim whatsoever to having skills in graphics, layout, etc. That’s why I was pleased to read an article in Linuxworld from the folks behind GNUzilla magazine, who do know what they are talking about. As enthusiasts for free software, they have tried a number of different packages to produce their magazine, but have not found anything to tempt them away from Writer:

During the first year of GNUzilla’s existence, several
observations were made in sense of using some more professional tools like Scribus, or maybe Tex/LateX, but Writer followed the requirements very well. In the past three years OpenOffice.org became faster, Writer started to produce more and more optimized PDF’s, and remained everything GNUzilla needs right now.

Judge for yourself - have a look at their magazine (in Serbian), and think what OpenOffice.org Writer could do for you!

GCN reports on Juergen Schmidt’s talk about using OpenOffice.org Extensions as an alternative to conventional macro languages. Macros have introduced many people to ‘computer programming’ - sometimes with disastrous results, for example when the office ‘macro expert’ quits the company, leaving a mass of incomprehensible code behind. Maybe extensions could be a better solution?

Despite being down in England today, I managed to get the Call for Papers page live today on the OpenOffice.org website. There’s also the usual announcement on the home page and a little piece on the news page.

The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference (OOoCon 2008) site is now also online in outline. It will be expanded considerably over the next six months or so - and will get its own OOoCon logo real soon now! This is really going to be an OOoCon to remember.

Being on the move, once again the little eee PC proved its worth, alongside the 3com dongle for mobile internet access. There were a couple of curiosities - I had to kill my ssh session after every cvs commit to the website and restart before I could commit again (anyone seen anything similar?). Also my email to the announce mailing list has failed to appear - however I suspect a human failure among the moderators rather than a technical issue

The dongle does have technical limits - it’s completely useless on a moving train for example. It was a relief to get on this train with wifi from York to Edinburgh, and be able to blog - I can just about tolerate Frozen Bubble from Manchester to York, but after changing trains I was really feeling in need of something more mentally stimulating.

On the train, I had some problems getting the on-board WiFi to work (I suspect an overloaded onboard proxy server as the root cause). Again, the National Express helpdesk was wonderful. I expected the usual “oh we don’t support Linux” but instead found Dave, who was delighted to find someone using Linux and wanted to know all about the eee. He also solved the problem.

Maybe we need a special day when all the Linux lovers lying low in Microsoft enclaves are encouraged to come out of the closet (maybe the wiring closet ) and declare their genuine orientation. Or maybe we already have such a day?

The maintainers of PortableApps have now brought their version of OpenOffice.org right up to date with the release of OpenOffice.org Portable 2.4. This is a really brilliant idea - you can carry your favourite office suite on a USB stick and run it on any computer running MS-Windows. It’s configured to run entirely on the stick, so you don’t need any admin rights to install it on the computer. It stores your profile on the stick so you always have your own settings with you.

If you’re an OpenOffice.org fan, you need this application. It’s available in US English, German, French, and Italian; the Polish version has just appeared, and no doubt there will be more.

Announcing new releases of OpenOffice.org usually triggers some emails from happy customers. Here’s one just arrived:

Hey, John!

I just want to let you know I really love the OpenOffice suite. I’ve been using it now for a couple of years and always install the next upgrade. I have been telling others for quite awhile about OpenOffice, including Best Buy salespeople. What a wonderful thing to have on new computers instead of MS (doesn’t) WORKS and a 90 day supply of MSOFFICE which you have to pay big bucks to keep afterward. Being in the computer industry, I tell all my customers about OpenOffice. I encourage them if they find they like OpenOffice to contribute funds to the cause to encourage the OpenOffice team to continue developing this wonderful suite.

Thanks for all you and the OpenOffice team do!

If you’re reading this and you’re a member of the OpenOffice.org Community, this is for you. If you haven’t tried OpenOffice.org yet, I hope this encourages you to do so!

We made the formal announcement today that the recently released OpenOffice.org 2.4 included some security vulnerabily fixes. We normally release this information when the software is released. This time, Sun Microsystems had not completed the necessary US export classification process for StarOffice at the launch date, so we held back the announcement until StarOffice was able to ship.

As usual, we get emails from people asking whether they should update. Here’s my response:

On Thu, April 17, 2008 08:35, A concerned user wrote:
> i’m using openoffice portable 2.3.1.
> what would you suggest?
> tks

I suggest you contact the maintainer of the version you are using, and ask when 2.4 will be available.

We always advise people to upgrade when we release security fixes - this is best practice in the IT industry. However, you can always do your own risk assessment. Look at the security bulletin for what has been fixed. How do you use OpenOffice.org? e.g. if there is a vulnerability around opening Quattro Pro files, and you never open Quattro Pro files, then you might decide the risk of not upgrading is acceptable for you personally.

In fact, the message is simple: the vast majority of exploits require you to accept a file from someone else, or download a file from the internet. If you regularly click on links in emails from people you don’t know, or without checking they are genuine, then “be scared, be very scared…”

Those of you intending to go to the OpenOffice.org Conference (OOoCon 2008) in Beijing this year may have already pencilled in October 15-17th, based on the original proposal from the Beijing team. Unfortunately no-one thought to mention until recently that holiday dates in Germany (where many of the Sun engineers are based) clashed with this proposal. Putting OOoCon back a few weeks would mean a clash with the China-Africa Summit (Beijing is full), so after more deliberation OOoCon 2008 will be November 5th-7th.

One useful side effect of the delay is that air fares should be lower in November, which will help people who will have to pay for long haul. We’re working on a ‘bursary’ scheme to help ensure that anyone who should be at OOoCon, can be at OOoCon. However, it usually takes time for sponsors to tell us how generous they are prepared to be. Many thanks to IBM, who have already committed to a generous sum.

So, the OOoCon website is being prepared, and the Call for Papers is in draft. Expect both of these before the end of the month. The countdown has begun!