Apache OpenOffice Changelog

What's new in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15

Dec 23, 2023

Improvements/Enhancements:
Writer: Set firstline auto indent to 2 charaters for Chinese language
Bug Fixes:
Basic: Fixed error in help text for function "len"
Writer: Dialog "Bullets & Numbering: The tooltip for the first numbering type is shown as "Number %NUMBERINGSAMPLE"
Writer: MS Word import - CJK numbering ordered list fallback to Arabic numerals
Calc: Function wizard - Spelling error for function "PROB"
Calc: Cannot save document as ODS (AOO builds using non-Latin alphabets, due to changes of transliteration rules at runtime)
Calc: Displacement problem with related formulas when moving cells
Math: Do not remove outer braces
Math: Existing command text is repeated when formula is inserted
General: Some glyphs are not replaced by GSUB table from OpenType font
Basic: Image control - Wrong picture in Help
Code: Possible access to unintended variable in "openoffice/main/sfx2/source/doc/sfxbasemodel.cxx" line 940
Code: Remove extra files from source package (clog, config.out)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14 (Feb 27, 2023)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.13 (Jul 25, 2022)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.12 (May 5, 2022)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.11 (Oct 7, 2021)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.10 (Apr 30, 2021)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.9 (Jan 26, 2021)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.8 (Nov 11, 2020)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.7 (Sep 23, 2019)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.6 (Nov 19, 2018)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.5 (Dec 23, 2017)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.4 (Oct 5, 2017)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.3 (Oct 10, 2016)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.2 (Oct 28, 2015)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1 (Aug 22, 2014)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.0 (Apr 29, 2014)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.0 Beta (Mar 7, 2014)

NEW FEATURES:
Comments/Annotations on text ranges:
In Writer comments/annotations are now possible on text ranges instead of only on text positions.
This feature had been introduced in the OpenDocument file format (ODF) in version 1.2 and improves among other things the interoperability with the OOXML file format, but until now had not been implemented in OpenOffice. The OSBA OOXML improvement project includes the implementation of this feature. Accordingly, the implementation based on the integration of the work done by SUSE for this OSBA project - corresponding patches had been provided under ALv2.
Details on the feature:
comment/annotation on a text range inside a paragraph (part of OSBA project)
comment/annotation on arbitrary text ranges
comments/annotations on overlapping text ranges
highlight of commented/annotated text range (part of OSBA project plus needed improvements)
ODF import/export
basic import/export functionality (part of OSBA project plus needed fixes)
support for author initials (part of OSBA project plus needed ODF conformance fix)
OOXML import
basic import functionality (part of OSBA project)
import of author initials (part of OSBA project plus needed fix)
import of author and creation date
IMPROVEMENTS/ENHANCEMENTS:
In Writer the user experience for editing Input Fields has been improved.
The user can now modify the content of an Input Field directly in the document's text area - no additional dialog is needed. When traveling with the cursor into an Input Field the users gets feedback about Entering and Leaving the Input Field. A bounding rectangle is drawn around the Input Field when the cursor is inside the Input Field - see following illustration.
When the cursor is inside an Input Field the user can navigate to the next or the previous Input Field using the TAB-key respectively the SHIFT-TAB-Key - similar to the navigation from one cell to another cell inside a table. To insert a TAB-character into an Input Field CTRL-TAB-key has to be used.
In read-only text documents the user can still edit the existing Input Fields and navigate from one Input Field to the other. Also the field shadings are visible for Input Fields in read-only text documents.
Input Fields can only contain text without formatting. Accordingly, the corresponding edit and insert actions for Input Fields are restricted and character formattings are applied to the complete Input Field. This means no change compared to former OpenOffice versions.
Interactive Crop Feature:
The Interactive Crop feature for selected Graphic Objects in Draw/Impress allows intuitive cropping of Graphic Object content. However, it only worked flawlessly when the object was not transformed except being translated and scaled. For AOO 4.0 a preview of the cropped part was already added, for AOO 4.1 the interactive cropping will work in combination with all possible Graphic Object transformations; if your Graphic Object is rotated, sheared, mirrored in X and/or Y, it can now be interactively cropped flawlessly. Also the cropped result will be correct now in all combinations of transformations and all possible graphic contents (pixel graphics, metafiles, SVG, ...) in all exports (Print, PDF Export, ...)
Import Picture from File and Drag&Drop of Graphic Data:
Importing Picture/Graphic Data from File and Drag&Drop of that data has been enhanced and unified for all situations and all Applications of AOO 4.1. The main goal was to make the re-usage of existing documents or copy/pasting of single Pages easier by allowing simpler replacement of the content of existing Graphic Objects. You can now for example copy/paste Slides and easily replace the Graphic content of Graphic Objects without changing their Position or Orientation. This is also possible for Writer Graphic Objects, so e.g. copy/paste Pages in Writer containing Graphic Objects or copying Pages from another Document and then replace the Pictures
The following actions work the same in all AOO 4.1 Applications
For using the Import Picture from File Dialog
If no Graphic Object is selected, a new one will be inserted at Cursor position (as usual)
If a Graphic Object is selected, it's content will be replaced without changing the Position or Orientation
If a Draw Object is selected, the new Graphic content will be used as Graphic FillStyle for that Object
Selecting the 'Link' feature in the Dialog will create a linked Graphic Object in the first two cases
For Drag&Drop
If there is no Graphic Object at the drop position, a new one will be inserted there (as usual)
If there is a Graphic Object at the drop position, it's content will be replaced without changing the Position or Orientation
If there is a Draw Object at the drop position, the new Graphic content will be used as Graphic FillStyle for that Object
Pressing CTRL+SHIFT will create a linked Graphic Object in the first two cases
This was an enhancement request to make re-usage of existing Graphic Objects easier - the problem was that the user had to insert a new Graphic Object, note the Position and Size of the old one and apply this to the new one to cleanly replace the old Graphic Object.
Load/Import of 3D Charts improved:
There was a performance problem when Documents with big 3D charts were Loaded (own Formats) or Imported (external Formats). That issue was located in the creation of a huge amount of 3D Objects for Chart visualization. This has been improved. For example; an example document (External with a huge Chart containing 100x100x5 vertical 3D Data Boxes) could not be imported at all.
Improved Graphic Modifications/Filters for Vector Graphics:
When applying Modifications and/or Filters to Graphic Objects the change was often applied by internally changing the Vector Graphic (SVG or Metafile) to a Pixel-Based variant. This makes the advantages of Vector Graphics vanish and often results in bad output quality for Print and PDF export. Also the handling of Graphic Objects varied between Writer and other AOO Applications in this aspect. This has been internally unified so that all usages of Vector Data in Graphic Objects are equally improved for this aspect and in the future.
It is not possible to enhance all modifications AOO offers to GraphicObjects to Vector Graphics in this way, but many were improved. Vector Graphics will stay enhanced when applying the following modifications:
Gray scale
Black/White
Watermark
Transparency (additional, 0% to 100%)
Red/Green/Blue modification (-100% to 100%)
Brightness (-100% to 100%)
Contrast (-100% to 100%)
Gamma Correction (0.10 to 10)
This also works for all combinations of the above modifications. This enhancement is already visible in the Edit Views, but it's main goal is to increase Print and PDF export quality (and other exports that can keep Vector Data) when working with Vector Graphic content accordingly. Here is an example from the Edit Views (Left: AOO 4.0.1, Right: AOO 4.1). It's the same SVG graphic modified to Grayscale
Keep original Graphic Data when ever possible:
Previous versions of AOO eventually modified the type of inserted Graphic Data, for example inserted JPEG files were in some scenarios saved as PNG in the created ODF files. These scenarios were different for the different AOO Applications since it was not handled the same internally. This has been improved so that AOO 4.1 handles this equal in all Applications and tries to always keep your inserted original Graphic Data when possible. This gives advantages for the file size of the created ODF Files, but also for the Image quality. There were scenarios in which JPEG files were recoded to JPEG which will in no case improve the image quality but has the potential to lower it
This works for BMP, JPEG, PNG and GIF for pixel-oriented graphics. It is also in place for Vector-based Graphics like SVG and Metafiles
Clipboard enhancements for Graphic Content:
The Clipboard support for exchange of PNG is further improved, so that Pixel-based Graphic modification cycles (e.g. copying graphic content to an external Application, modifying it and copying it back to AOO 4.1) will work better with more external Image Editors of your choice. Broader support for PNG means that transparency in Pixel-based graphics will be preserved in more places. Did you know that you can copy any Graphic Object from AOO 4.1 to the clipboard and paste it to any external Image editor of your choice to modify them and copy them back?
Other Improvements/Enhancements:
Seamonkey replaced by NSS ("Network Security Services"):
Outdated code from Mozilla that was used to include cryptography services and address book access has been replaced with the more modern and more secure NSS libraries. This grwatly simplifies the build process and source code maintenance and is transparent to end users in general.
End users are affected only in the following ways:
Under Windows XP, trying to add the Windows Address Book as an OpenOffice database; this has always been the case on any newer Windows versions (Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8).
Thunderbird users will not see direct Thunderbird address book support in OpenOffice's address book wizard, but the OpenOffice support for CSV can replace it for now. Users can use Thunderbird's Tools->Export->AsCsv functionality to get their address book as comma separated text.
Authenticated LDAP access is now unsupported (the non-authenticated access was already unsupported).
Additional Language Support:
New translations available in Apache OpenOffice 4.1 include:
Bulgarian
Kazakh
Danish
Norwegian Bokmal
Hindi
Thai
Updated translations available in Apache OpenOffice 4.1 include:
Basque
Dutch
German
Lithuanian
Portuguese
Serbian
Spanish
Turkish
New Dictionaries:
Lithuanian
Updated Dictionaries:
English

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 (Sep 27, 2013)

IMPROVEMENTS/ENHANCEMENTS:
Performance Improvements/Enhancements compared to OpenOffice 4.0.0:
The performance for saving XLS files was boosted by more than 230%.
Improvements/Enhancements missing in the OpenOffice 4.0.0 release notes:
OpenOffice 4.0 integrated the very popular extensions "Presenter Screen" and "Presentation Minimizer" into the core product.
BUG FIXES:
Crash when switching sidebar panes
Crash with certain extensions
Crash on Microsoft Windows with text in complex scripts
Crash when deleting footnotes
Loading *.123 files
Rendering of charts with many data points
Image rendering on Mac OS X
Python compatibility has been improved
Fixes to make C# extensions work
Error on user profile migration regarding updating bundled extensions
Error on opening Microsoft Office documents created in Apple iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
HTML export losing paragraph formatting
Crashes on PDF export in Writer's Page Preview
Crashes in Writer when deleting content which had been copied to the clipboard
Error/Crashes on importing Microsoft Word documents
No possible keyboard text selection in Writer's text frames
Lost database connection in text documents on save - related to Mail Merge
Errors in Calc's filter functions
Calculation error in IMABS() function
Formatting error of boolean values in Calc
Repaint errors in Calc which showed double lines and white stripes
Various fixes/improvements for SVG files
Fixed and improved visualization of transformed bitmap graphics for Linux
Fix to exporting a bitmap graphic with a given pixel size
Fixed Copy/Paste clipboard handling for transporting bitmap images (e.g. drag & drop or copy/paste from browser)
Fixed Microsoft Windows-specific performance task with very large bitmaps, enhanced buffering for all systems
Repaired some modes of text editing for graphic objects where the text was not always readable
Fix to import of user-defined connector changes
Corrected line width for anchor visualization in Writer
Fixed EMF/WMF reader for some critical cases to enhance the import quality
ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT:
New translations available in Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 include:
Basque (eu), Khmer (km), Lithuanian (lt), Polish (pl), Serbian Cyrillic (sr), Swedish (sv), Chinese (zh-TW), Turkish (tr), Vietnamese (vi)
Updated translations available in Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 include:
Asturian (ast), Czech (cs), Dutch (nl), English (en_GB), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Galician (gl), German (de), Greek (el), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Portuguese (pt), Portuguese (pt-BR), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Spanish (es), Tamil (ta)

New in Apache OpenOffice 4.0.0 (Jul 23, 2013)

GENERAL REMARKS:
OpenOffice 4.0 features an innovative new Sidebar user interface, additional language support for 22 languages (including 3 new languages), 500 bug fixes, improvements in Microsoft Office interoperability, enhancements to drawing/graphics, performance improvements, etc. You can read the details of these later in these Release Notes.
NEW FEATURES AND ENHANCEMENTS:
New Sidebar:
The Sidebar makes better use of today's widescreen displays than traditional toolbars. The 'Properties' deck is context-sensitive and shows panels with the document properties that are most frequently used for the current editing task.
Interoperability Improvements:
Fidelity and interoperability improvement is an ongoing goal for Apache OpenOffice. And there are many improvements going in to the new version.
DRAWOBJECT IMPROVEMENTS/ENHANCEMENTS:
New Color Palette:
The Color Palette is enhanced and extended with a selection of more useful colors, arranged in a new scheme to make finding colors simpler. The new Palette is a mix of the Lotus Symphony Palette combined with the most useful original colors.
New Gradients:
The Gradients are enhanced and extended with new, more useful ones, mainly taken from Lotus Symphony. The old ones are kept, but moved to the end of the list (not in the picture). These Gradients create much nicer fills for uses such as Slide Backgrounds.
NEW GALLERY THEMES AND GALLERY ENHANCEMENTS:
Refined the Selection Handles User Interface:
Selection Handles were reworked to be more distinguishable.
Transparency was added to give a slight 'clue' when the Handles cover something, but only for the Handle's fill (not their outlines) to not make them harder to view as necessary.
The design was slightly rounded.
Colors were tweaked a little bit for better identification (mainly when Handles are selected).
When Keyboard-travelling over handles (CTRL-TAB) yellow handles used for CustomShapes now blink as the other handles to visualize the active handle correctly.
Refined Selection Visualization:
For many occasions the selection of objects or multiple objects got enhanced using the selection color from the system.
Usage and fetching of that system-wide SelectionColor was unified to guarantee it for all selections on all Systems.
A slight blinking was added to identify objects where text can be added by starting to type or pressing return.
Better Print Preview:
The PrintPreview in the Print dialog is now fully AntiAlialised. The previous version was not, thus thin lines could vanish or produce missing parts.
Enhanced conversion to Bitmap Graphics:
The conversion to Bitmap graphics is greatly enhanced for all kinds of draw objects, including chart OLEs and others. This is not only useful for internally converting objects to bitmaps, but also used for exports where bitmaps are needed, and the system clipboard. It works with single objects as well as multiple selections. Transparencies of the object and AntiAliasing on its edges are perfect now.
Enhanced FillType 'Bitmap':
All DrawingObjects which can have a Bitmap filling can now profit from the new, greatly enhanced Bitmap FillType.
Enhanced Copy/Paste:
All applications now support transparent and anti-aliased versions of, for example, DrawObjects in the selection to be exchanged with external applications. This is a result of the enhanced conversion to Bitmap and adding the PNG graphic format to the supported clipboard formats. Non-Graphic objects are converted on-demand, and graphic objects are copied with full transparency and AntiAliasing support. It is now possible to Copy/Paste any object to an external PixelGraphic application, modify it as needed, and copy it back to any OpenOffice Application without quality loss. This allows everyone easy and complete image manipulation outside the Office with the tool of his choice and the capabilities he needs.
Enhanced Drag&Drop:
Drag&Drop has been enhanced by an 'internal' mode. It is now possible to Drag&Drop anything 'onto' an existing DrawObject to change it's graphic or fill style when holding CTRL+SHIFT (Ctrl+Cmd on Mac) during Drag&Drop.
Adapt LineStart/End to LineWidth:
It is practical when you change the LineWidth of an Object which has ArrowHeads defined at its start/end when the ArrowHeads used get adapted to your LineWidth change; else you have to adapt these by your own. This was already done for Draw and Impress. This is now unified and centralized and works in all OpenOffice applications.
SVG Export enhancements:
Some enhancements for SVG export were added to avoid some quality losses. More improvements are planned in this area for future releases.
SVG/Metafile Break improvements:
If an imported SVG/metafile is manipulated, it needs to be broken up into DrawObjects. This code was improved in this release. More improvements are planned in this area for future releases.
SVG Import improvements:
Enhancements and bug fixes were made in the SVG Import code . Thanks to all Users who were reporting issues and providing test documents for SVG. If you have a SVG file which looks different than it should, do not hesitate to attach it to an issue in the Apache OpenOffice Bugzilla.
Picture Crop mode offers preview:
When working on a GraphicObject it is allowed to set a Crop region for it. When using the interactive mode for that, the new version shows the non-visible part of the Graphic content (the croppped part) as transparent and surrounds it with a light border. This way you no longer have to guess where or how big the cropped data is.
Unified visualization of ColorPalette popups:
All places where a ColorPalette popup is shown (the form where the colors are organized in a raster) are overhauled and made to use the same sizes and width. The width (12 columns) was adapted to the new designed ColorPalette. For a picture see 'New Color Palette'
Transparency support for pixel formats (PNG):
When exporting selected drawing objects to formats that support transparency, e.g., PNG, OpenOffice now uses a transparent background by default. This allows to further use graphics created in other applications or for further processing.
Connectors support rotation:
Connectors no longer disable rotation or shear tools when selected. While this is a small benefit with single connectors, it is very useful when selecting a number of graphic objects and wanting to rotate them. This was requested in the OpenOffice Community Forum, where a user wanted to rotate a drawing made of many draw objects and many connectors by 90 degrees. This is now possible without the inconvenience of deselecting all of the connectors.
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 poorly visualized since too many hatch lines were shown in a small area. 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 gradient support in metafiles:
Gradients in metafiles are rotated and sheared (slanted) together with the metafile and so behave similar to bitmap graphics. Start color and end color are included in those gradients now. 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 like the original.
New Functions:
Calc now supports the spreadsheet functions: AVERAGEIFS, COUNTIFS, and SUMIFS. These functions allow you to 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.
Calc's RAND function was reimplemented to use the Mersenne-Twister algorithm.
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.
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS/ENHANCEMENTS:
Many resource leaks were fixed:
Many resource leaks were fixed, reducing memory requirements and improving application stability.
Speedup of Graphic Rendering:
Bitmaps with transparency are painted directly
Bitmaps which are transformed (rotated/sheared/mirrored) are painted directly
Lines with LineWidth and/or transparence are painted directly
Geometry and Pixel data is buffered in system-dependent formats
For example, this allows even animated GIFs to be used as object fill style for any object and to transform these in real time (when supported on the system). It also greatly enhances visualization geometry during editing (in the EditViews) when supported.
ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT:
For a complete list of available languages and language packs see the detailed download page. Several other language translations are in-progress and will be released when available.
IMPROVED QUALITY MANAGEMENT TOOLS:
New Automated Testing Framework:
Apache OpenOffice 4.0 has a new automated testing framework based on JUNIT that tests in the areas
BVT (Basic Verification Tests)
FVT (Functional Verification Tests)
PVT (Performance Verification Tests)
SVT (System Verifcation Tests)
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.
Python support updated:
PyUNO is now compatible with the latest C-Python 3.x but in order to reduce the impact for existing applications, support for C-Python 2.x has been preserved and remains the default. The internal Python, used by default in the Windows and MacOS-X ports, has now been upgraded with version 2.7.5 which fixes hundreds of bugs and has important performance improvements but is still compatible with previous versions. Existing scripts may require minor adjustments but will normally just continue working as before.
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 July 17th 2013 there were 498 verified issues that have been resolved.
Important bug fixes have been made in these areas:
Support for Java 7, and the Java Access Bridge v2.0.3 implemented in JRE 1.7u6 and later has been restored. Windows OS users requiring Accessibility support for Assistive Technology tools can now use current Oracle releases of the Java SE 7 Runtime Environment and the Java Accessibility API on Windows.

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 (Sep 3, 2012)

General Remarks:
The Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 is a maintenance release, intended to fix critical issues and improve the overall quality of the application.
General areas of improvement include: additional language support, bug fixes, performance improvements and Windows 8 compatibility enhancements. Further details on each of these areas are below.
For a more comprehensive overview of the changes from the 3.3.X OpenOffice.org releases and earlier; please see the Release Notes for Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0
Additional Language Support:
New translations available in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 include: Finnish, British English, Khmer, Slovak, Slovenian
Updated translations available in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 include: Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian
Bug Fixes:
As of 2012/08/16, there were 69 verified issues that have been resolved.
This list can be found at: http://s.apache.org/Huv
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:
"quickstarter" problems
extension cleanup
auto update check now re-enabled by default
"undo" issues in Calc
"redo" issues in Calc
"freeze" problem with Calc and Writer when LanguageTool is installed
non-detection of java. "Oracle" as a java provider was added to aid in JVM identification. Previously, the vendor was Sun.
The QA team has been tracking additional fixes as well. See their complete reports at:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/Report/WeeklyReport
Additionally, starting with version 3.4.1, Apache OpenOffice now has the benefit of static analysis provided by Coverity to detect software defects before the code is even released. Special thanks to Coverity for providing access to their award winning tool!
Performance Improvements/Enhancements:
Cleanup of temporary areas used by extensions installations. This will reduce the per-user disk footprint for multi-user installations.
Keeping only one English dictionary for US-en installations instead of 5. This will save user space. Users will be able to add other English dictionaries (Canadian, Australian, New Zealand) as desired
Hunspell library upgraded to version 1.3.2 from 1.2.9. This version contains several improvements especially for Dutch, German and other Germanic languages with extended compound word usage.

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 (May 9, 2012)

License Change:
The License has changed to our simpler, non-restrictive, Apache License 2. The Apache License will make adoption, distribution and modification of the software easier for all users and developers. Of course the software remains free, and the source code with its updates will continue to be available through the Apache Software Foundation servers.
Misc. Updates:
In accordance to the new license all the software components have been updated to use licenses that are in line with ASF guidelines. No critical functionality was lost, and we did update many libraries that will work better on most situations. Many internal libraries and headers were updated with modern versions that provide the same or superior functionality. On selected platforms the "Liberation" fonts were replaced with the improved Google Chrome fonts.
Calc: Faster LP solver:
The previous Linear Programming solver has been replaced with the faster and better designed CoinMP from the Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research (COIN-OR) project.
Apache Tomcat updated:
The Apache Tomcat servlet was updated from the older version 5.0.30 to version 5.5.35 which brings in years of performance and security improvements without changing the API. We plan to continue updating components without causing any regression on the current code.
Support for Line Cap Property:
Now you can add a cap to the end of a line. Such caps are not only known in the ODF1 .2 standard but in HTML5 and SVG too. Also other Office Suites provide caps in different styles to be added to thick lines.
Support for shear transformations for GraphicObjects:
GraphicObjects which get created when inserting graphics in Draw/Impress and Spreadsheet support now not only rotation but also shear, slant and distort. The visualization during interactions was improved, also the break for vector-based GraphicObjects to draw objects was improved. Writer has its own GraphicObjects; the ones from the other applications can be copied to it as workaround.
Support for attributes and transformations for OLEObjects:
OLEObjects (OLE is for Object Linking and Embedding) in Draw/Impress and Spreadsheet support now all draw attributes and geometrical transformations. They can have line style, fill style, shadow and text. They support all transformations, e.g. rotations and shear. This is handy for e.g. having a mathematical formula shown rotated by 90 degrees or adding a border to a chart. Break to draw objects is also enhanced.
Enhanced crop support for GraphicalObjects:
Crop for GraphicObjects now works correctly together with horizontal and/or vertical mirroring in all applications.
Support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG):
SVG is now supported as content for GraphicObjects in all applications. The new implemented generic SVG interpreter supports SVG format 1.1. The geometric content is internally processed as vector data in all usages, e.g. PDF export and printing, which guarantees good visualization quality. SVG graphics can be broken to draw objects and be processed further.
Support for MultiImage in ODF:
For SVG support it was necessary to allow multiple image representations for one GraphicObject to be present in the ODF file format, e.g. a pixel graphic and the original SVG is written in case of a GraphicObject with SVG content. This allows it to stay compatible with other and older ODF supporting applications.
Enhanced chart visualization:
The visualization quality of charts has been enhanced by using a new mechanism for more direct visualization. This increases speed, reduces memory usage and enhances chart visualization in all visualizations, including PDF export and printing.
Writer: Asian Language Word Count:
The word count of Asian languages is now correct. Previous releases were counting terms instead of words when counting words of Asian language text. Notice that file word count will not be automatically updated for existing text documents. You need to make a change to the document in order to force an update of the file word count.
New regular expressions (regexp) engine:
The existing regular expression engine has been replaced by the ICU engine. This solves several bugs in "Find and Replace" with the old implementation and speeds up the search.
The new engine also offers better standards compliance especially regarding Unicode, which also means that some non-standard syntax extensions like \< and \> for word boundary matching are now deprecated. For the convenience of a smooth upgrade experience they get emulated by the \b operator though.
New Color Picker dialog:
The old color picker which is used in the office code for over a decade has been replaced by a new, more intuitive one which offers a wide variety of color selection possibilities. This feature was developed by Christian Lippka; kudos to him for offering it under Apache License. A picture says more than words.

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.3.0 (Jan 26, 2011)

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.1.1 RC1 (Aug 10, 2009)

Ctrl+F11 puts the focus into the style ListBox - The key combination Ctrl+F11 doesn't call the Style Catalog anymore. Now it puts the focus into the style ListBox in the toolbox of text, frames, OLE-objects and pictures. It makes it easier to apply a paragraph or frame style without using a mouse.
Extended UNO AWT menu API
Locale data for Maltese (Malta) [mt-MT]
Locale data for Myanmar (Myanmar) [my-MM]
Locale data for Shuswap (Canada) [shs-CA].
Arabic entries in language list box
Arabic entry in language list
Languages classified as RTL
Locale data for Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) [tpi-PG]
Classified some languages as CTL
Positioning of axes and axis labels
new: "Text direction" property for form controls
Function Autopilot from inside the SRB
Automatic binding of first table when opening a new Report
Report output format now also available in the property browser
Add Field dialog supports sorting and insert toolbar
Allow anti-aliasing of drawing objects
Unify DrawObject modification with full attributes
Support images in extension help
File locking implementation changes.
Allow usage of default master password.
Remove unused 3D options
Make slideshow media controllable via effects
Sorting has been improved: - Sorting preserves the original order of entries with equal sort keys. - If there are no previous sort settings, the sort dialog defaults to the column of the cursor position. The toolbar buttons always use the cursor position. - The toolbar buttons use the same logic as the sort dialog to determine if a range has column headers.
INDIRECT now supports the '!' sheet separator
Rename sheet with double-click
Repeat vectors if used in 2D array
Formula syntax in tip help
Zoom slider in Calc status bar
Scaling factor in toolbar for page preview
Scroll wheel switches pages in page preview
BETADIST with optional parameter for cumulative/density
Storage of data pulled in by external references changed
Added EUROCONVERT function
New GAMMA, CHISQDIST, CHISQINV, changed GAMMADIST.
DATEVALUE and TIMEVALUE now return date or time only
Base parameter of LOG now optional
Cumulative parameter of POISSON now optional
New "Context" mode for numerals setting
Introduction of an overline font effect
Accept/Reject Change in context menu
changes to format menu
Introduction of an outline level attribute for paragraphs and paragraph styles
More hyperlink related entries in the context menu
search inside notes
Serbian Cyrillic Numbering Provider
Inconsistent terms: Autoformat - Autocorrect
New look for selection: transparency
"Navigator" added to the view menu
Grammar checking
reply to existing notes
changes to Tools-AutoCorrect
Footnotes... renamed to Footnotes/Endnotes...
bi-directional writing for chart elements
image controls: support for document-embedded images
Relative path for file based databases
SQL syntax highlighting
New short cuts for Sun Report Builder
views opened for editing are automatically put into "Run SQL Directly" mode
"Empty string is NULL" behavior refined
image controls: can be bound to text database columns, interpreting their content as relative link to the image
form controls: new property "Input Required"
image controls: scaling the image by keeping the ratio
check box grid columns have the "Tristate" property
Let OOo use own file locking mechanics to lock alien formats as well.

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.1.0 (May 7, 2009)

General Improvements:
Improved screen appearance:
OpenOffice.org now uses a technique called anti-aliasing to improve the way it draws on screen (lines, circles, etc). You will notice an immediate improvement in the clarity of graphics - particularly charts - wherever they appear throughout OpenOffice.org.This also has improved 'graphic geometry' - e.g. when you overlay one shape on another to create a combined shape.
Making 'dragging' easier with graphics:
When you drag an object in a drawing across the screen, OpenOffice.org now shows you a 'shadow' of the object, rather than just a dotted outline. This makes it much easier to place images accurately in complicated drawings.
Improved file locking:
If you are working on a network where several people may have access to the same document, file locking prevents people accidentally overwriting other people's changes. As OpenOffice.org works on different operating systems, it cannot rely on the operating system alone to tell users when a document is in use. OpenOffice.org now has its own mechanism, which allows it to have a reliable locking when the locking from the operating systems fails. It also allows OpenOffice.org to see who has already opened the document.
Overlining:
OpenOffice.org now supports overlining for text as well as underlining, with the same range of options as underlining (type of line, colour).
Writer:
Subtle highlights:
Highlighted text is now displayed with a subtle background colour, rather than reverse video. Easier on the eye, easier to use.
Improvements to Comments:
It's now possible for a series of editors to carry out a structured conversation through Comments, by right-clicking on a Comment and selecting 'Reply'. As a further enhancement, the Search facility now also searches the text of Comments.
Further grammar checker integration:
With OpenOffice.org 3.1, the grammar checker framework has been extended so that Extensions like LanguageTool can now be accessed from the Tools -> Spelling and Grammar menu command. Note that OpenOffice.org has a grammar checking framework, but does not come with a grammar checker. This can be installed as an Extension.
Outline levels within paragraphs:
Writers of documents with complex ordering formats can now specify a new paragraph and paragraph style attribute "outline level". This transforms a normal paragraph into a heading, independent of any list style or paragraph style.
Calc:
Rename sheets with a double-click:
Double-clicking on a tab in a Calc sheet now pops up the Rename dialog box. In previous versions, you had to right click on the tab and then select the Rename option from a pop-up box. This change makes it easier to carry out this frequently-used function.
Zoom slider in the Status bar:
The new zoom slider control in the Status bar was a popular addition to Writer in OpenOffice.org 3.0. With 3.1, it's available in Calc too, giving quick and accurate control over the level of zoom of the display on the screen.
Formula hot hints:
Calc now keeps the syntax of a formula displayed right next to the cell as you type as a handy aide-memoire for how to use a formula.
Improved sorting:
There are a number of changes to make sorting more logical, consistent, and powerful. The first time you use sort (or if you use the toolbar button to sort), Calc will assume you want to sort by the column where the cursor is located. The toolbar buttons now use the same logic as the sort dialog to determine if a range has column headers. Finally, when you sort, Calc now preserves the original order of entries with equal sort keys.
Formulae changes:
A new EUROCONVERT spreadsheet function to convert between former currencies of the Eurozone, including import from and export (binary) to MS-Excel file formats.
New GAMMA, CHISQDIST, and CHISQINV spreadsheet functions, and changes to GAMMADIST, CHIDIST, and CHIINV spreadsheet functions for statistical analysis.
The BETADIST spreadsheet function now has an additional optional 'cumulative' parameter to specify whether to calculate the probability density function or the cumulative distribution function, defaulting to TRUE for compatibility.
Performance improvements:
Performance bottlenecks in Calc have been removed, resulting in dramatic performance improvements in the two test cases: from 24 seconds to 1.2 seconds in the first case; and from one hour to approx 12 minutes in the second case. This is part of a continous improvement activity to squeeze performance improvements from Calc.
Chart:
Flexible positioning of axes:
OpenOffice.org charts now offer a range of options for the placement of axes. This feature has been in great demand, particularly from educational users.
Handling missing data:
You may now also choose how OpenOffice.org charts handle missing data points - leave a gap, assume zero, or continue the line through the missing value.
Impress:
Font size buttons;
Impress now has convenient toolbar buttons to increase or decrease the font size of text quickly and easily. Make your text fit perfectly in seconds!
Base:
SQL Syntax highlighting:
When you edit SQL, Base now uses colours to highlight SQL syntax. It will also 'flash' to indicate matching parentheses (). This makes it easier to spot spelling mistakes, errors in your SQL syntax, etc.
You can create your own colour schemes using Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice.org -> Appearance -> SQL Syntax Highlighting, and choose your own font from Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice.org -> Fonts.
Macro applications in Base:
With OpenOffice.org 3.1, it is possible to build a complete 'database application' by including macros and scripts within a Base document (.odb). This feature already exists in other document types.
This means macros can now be run from either the document itself, or any of its sub components: forms, reports, table design, query design, relation design, table data view. This is an important enhancement for people wishing to create complete 'packaged applications' in Base.
Note: developers creating Base applications are advised to read the wiki article (see below) for important information about other developer features, and backwards compatibility issues.
Internationalization and Localizations:
Improved support for bidirectional scripts:
Complex Text Layout and BiDirectional Text have improved considerably especially for justified text and for vocalized text.
Control forms and Charts now support BiDi layouts.
New Locale support:
OpenOffice.org 3.1 adds locale data for Maltese (Malta) [mt-MT], Myanmar (Myanmar) [my-MM], Shuswap (Canada) [shs-CA], and Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) [tpi-PG]. The locale is selectable for character attribution and spell-checking, as default local, default document language and available for number formats and outline numbering.
It also adds new Arabic locales to the language list box, selectable for character attribution and spell-checking: Arabic (Chad) [ar-TD]; Arabic (Comoros) [ar-KM]; Arabic (Djibouti) [ar-DJ]; Arabic (Eritrea) [ar-ER]; Arabic (Israel) [ar-IL]; Arabic (Mauritania) [ar-MR]; Arabic (Palestine) [ar-PS]; Arabic (Somalia) [ar-SO]; Arabic (Sudan) [ar-SD]. The language table and list box now also have an "Arabic" entry (without region/country) which doesn't correspond to a locale. It doesn't provide language attribution etc, but is selectable if an Arabic language pack is installed, instead of the previous "Arabic (Egypt)"

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.0.1 RC1 (Jan 7, 2009)

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.0 RC2 (Sep 22, 2008)

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.0 Beta Build BEA300_m2 (May 8, 2008)

Behavior of cut/paste/fill/drag on filtered rows.
Language selection through Windows language bar extended to Western languages
Support of digit grouping as used in India
Tetun (Indonesia) [tet-ID] and Tetun (Timor-Leste) [tet-TL] language listbox entries.
Sami, Kildin (Russia) [sjd-RU] in language listbox
Locale data for Paraguayan Guaran� (gug-PY)
Language listbox entries for Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santali
Locale data for Turkmen_Turkmenistan (tk-TM)
Error Bars can be selected from cell ranges
Additional Error Bar Style "Standard Error"
Database / Insert Menu, new menu item
Database / Edit Menu / Delete Record
"Address Book Data Source Wizard" uses a roadmap
Support of native tables in impress and draw
Extensible help: Adding content to the Contents tree
remove pkgchk
new start center dialog
Tools - Options - Load/Save - General: ODF default version
Printer Settings dialog gets an "Options" button
Tools - Options - Load/Save - General: ODF default version
Now the registration page (First StartUp Wizard) has different text for OOo and SO
SPAdmin: added UI option for external dialogs
new commandline tool cwsattach
Three-Layer Installations
Reference to empty cell not forced to type
Infix Operator Reference Concatenation ("~") (aka Union)
MIN/MAX/MINA/MAXA return 0 if no value at all
Infix Operator Reference Range (":")
ISERROR(undefinedname) results in TRUE
SUMIF geometry of 3rd parameter adapts to 1st parameter
Calc Collaboration
Multiple Pages per View and Zoom Control in Statusbar
Direct cross-references to headings and numbered paragraphs in text documents
Enhance Chapter Number Capability on Writer Indexes
title for secondary axes
customizeable starting angle for pie charts
clockwise direction for pie charts
Ease handling of Trendlines in Charts
XSelectionSupplier now being supported by the database application controller
delays for quick help change
1024 columns per sheet instead of 256
Adjustable margins and column widths in page preview
Transparent cell selection and changed column/row headers
Optimization Solver in Calc
notes in the margin

New in Apache OpenOffice 2.4.0 (May 5, 2008)

Connect to WebDAV servers via HTTPS
Custom icons for toolbars are imported
Control password-storing with a master password
Warning if document is from a newer ODF
PDF documents: relative links, document references, PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1) supported, and cross-document link behavior options
Mac OS X: Quicktime support for movies and sound / use the built in spell checker
Print dialog improvements in usability
Edit boxes: warning at limit of characters
DejaVu font is now default instead of BitStream Vera
Localisation: Entries for 10 languages added
Base / DBA: Improved rendering of numeric(n) data from JDBC and Oracle
Base / DBA: Easier choice of table name in "Copy table"
Base / DBA: Editing of views in HSQLDB
Base / DBA: Query designer for all properties which allow SQL command
Base / DBA: Query designer in SQL view
Base / DBA: Relation design accessible for MySQL databases
Base / DBA: Setting to check for required fields on forms
Base / DBA: Support for Access 2007 (.accdb files)
Calc: Convert text to columns: with this feature CSV data inside cells can be transformed into columns directly
Calc: Columns and rows in spreadsheet can be moved with drag and drop
Calc: Enter key returns to the column where the input started, one row below
Calc: Formula input: " " and "-" can also be used to start
Calc: Individual zoom level per sheet
Calc: AutoFilter: choices clearer grouped and based on result of filtering in other columns
Calc: DataPilot: Manual Sorting / Double-click in DataPilot cell provides calculation data of that cell
Calc: Performance improvement with functions VLOOKUP and MATCH
Calc: Print dialog for Calc easier to use
Calc: PageUp and PageDown keys work in print preview
Calc: Sheet names in cell-hyperlinks: renamed properly
Chart: Regression curves: show equations and R�? value
Chart: Reverse axes possible
Chart: Bars on different axes displayed next to each other
Chart: Data labels: Number format
Chart: Data point label: display both value and percentage
Chart: Data label: display each part in a separate line
Chart: Data labels: more flexible placement of labels
Chart: Labels on pie segments: avoiding overlapping
Chart: Data point label: can be removed with delete key
Draw: Navigation (tab) order of page objects
Draw: PDF export: page names as bookmark
Draw: Reduce complexity: no longer necessary display options removed
Impress: Navigation (tab) order of page objects
Impress: Thrilling 3D effects in slide transitions
Impress: Export slide names as PDF bookmarks
Impress: Easier to insert background picture
Writer: Selecting rectangular region of text
Writer: Find and Replace: backward references in regular expressions
Writer: Spell checking: easier selecting of the language
Writer: Insert&Insert Object toolbar redesign - Writer
Writer: Printing of hidden text can be turned on
Writer: Printing text place holders can be turned off
Writer: Shortcuts added for paragraph style Heading 4, Heading 5 and Textbody
Writer: Ctrl-click behaviour for hyperlinks can be changed
Writer: Custom document properties: Text fields and UI support
Extensible Help System for extensions
Extensions can have a separate display name
Extensions: support of web based update
Extensions: additional information about the publisher and release notes
Extensions: check for updates
Dialogs can have a wallpaper set
Transparent background for controls
Remote control presentations via API
API: get selected table(s) or query(s) in the main Base window

New in Apache OpenOffice 3.0 M7 (Apr 19, 2008)

Language selection through Windows language bar extended to Western languages
Support of digit grouping as used in India
Tetun (Indonesia) [tet-ID] and Tetun (Timor-Leste) [tet-TL] language listbox entries.
Sami, Kildin (Russia) [sjd-RU] in language listbox
Locale data for Paraguayan Guaran� (gug-PY)
Locale data for Paraguayan Guaran� (gug-PY)
Locale data for Turkmen_Turkmenistan (tk-TM)
Error Bars can be selected from cell ranges
Additional Error Bar Style "Standard Error"
Database / Insert Menu, new menu item
Database / Edit Menu / Delete Record
"Address Book Data Source Wizard" uses a roadmap
Support of native tables in impress and draw
Extensible help: Adding content to the Contents tree
Remove pkgchk
New start center dialog
Tools - Options - Load/Save - General: ODF default version
Printer Settings dialog gets an "Options" button
Tools - Options - Load/Save - General: ODF default version
Now the registration page (First StartUp Wizard) has different text for OOo and SO
SPAdmin: added UI option for external dialogs
New commandline tool cwsattach
Three-Layer Installations
Reference to empty cell not forced to type
Infix Operator Reference Concatenation ("~") (aka Union)
MIN/MAX/MINA/MAXA return 0 if no value at all
Infix Operator Reference Range (":")
ISERROR(undefinedname) results in TRUE
SUMIF geometry of 3rd parameter adapts to 1st parameter
Calc Collaboration
Multiple Pages per View and Zoom Control in Statusbar
Direct cross-references to headings and numbered paragraphs in text documents
Enhance Chapter Number Capability on Writer Indexes
Title for secondary axes
Customizeable starting angle for pie charts
Clockwise direction for pie charts
Ease handling of Trendlines in Charts
XSelectionSupplier now being supported by the database Application controller
Delays for quick help change
1024 columns per sheet instead of 256
Adjustable margins and column widths in page preview
Transparent cell selection and changed column/row headers
Optimization Solver in Calc
Notes in the margin