100,000,000 downloads

On October 28th. 2009, the one hundred millionth person clicked on the Download OpenOffice.org button since version 3.0 of the software was announced just over one year ago.

www.openoffice.org

Export to Freemind Part II

I have been working to improve the export to Freemind over the last few days.

Here are the new features:

Freemind structure is changed, so that top level is from document properties. I am using Title and Subject if available. Otherwise I just use the filename.

If one or more levels are missing, I will substitute with dummy levels that will be colored red in Freemind. That is to keep the strict structure.

Help content added.

Launching the file with Freemind if possible (For Windows and Linux only). That is if I can find the Freemind program.

Added status in statusbar

Fixed bugs:
Correct encoding of filename with spaces.
Problem with "" and & in headers
Pushing the Cancel button in Save file dialog results in an error.

You can download the extension here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/Freemind

Sorry ......I'we been busy

Sorry, it's been some time since I'we blogged. The reason is that I'we been busy QA'ing, releasing and talking about OpenOffice.org 3.0.

Four (okay three and a half) release candidates through QA and the finally coordinate the final release. From distance this time. I was on vacation in Berlin, Germany at the time of release. So I might have sounded a little confused when a journalist called me and asked, what I had to say about the website was unreachable. Okay, thats what happens!

The worst is, that the download is still s...l...o...w. I think we need to think about mirroring in the future and how to ballance the trafic. To me it seems that the balancing (bouncer) is the problem. If you try to reach one of the servers directly, you will actually get the software. Problem no two is, that the statistics runs on the bouncer network, not on the mirror. So direct downloads are not messured. On the other hand; attempts through bouncer that fails, are actually counted as downloads.

If you ask me, the statistics are useless at this moment.

Java update adverts OpenOffice.org

For some time there has been an advert for OpenOffice.org showing on the screen as the regular Java Update downloads and installs. I'm very happy about Sun advertizing for OpenOffice.org like this and its a good way to spread the message to millions and millions of computers and users all over the world.

A few days ago I got a call from a journalist (http://www.computerworld.dk/art/45636) asking me about this. He also asked me about the small icon that appears on my desktop: Get OpenOffice.org. A click on it leads me to a Sun Jave page with link to downloading.

The icon is not a shortcut to the URL but a sjortcut to a small exe-file on my computer: ..\Sun\OpenOffice.org Installer 1.0\ooostub.exe. My first reaction was, that this will lead a lot of new users to the download site. I think its important that we (and Sun) uses this opportunity to spread the word, but I'm actually not happy that Sun is installing executables on my computer without my knowledge.

On the other hand... We know that our competitors are using much more tricky and much less honest marketing methods. One of the most frequent asked questions is this:

I bought a new computer with Microsoft Office 2007 preinstalled. Now 30 (or 60) days later, it doesn't work anymore. Hos can I edit my documents?

If we want to keep up with this, we must learn to be more agressive in marketing. But I don't think its a good thing to install executable code on computers without the users permission.

24.335 downloads

The Danish version of OpenOffice.org 2.4 has been downloaded 24.335 times from http://da.openoffice.org. This is the first time we have some kind of statistics, so it has been very exciting to follow the numbers.

This is the day-by-day numbers.

OpenOffice.org 2.4 is released

The Danish version will be released in just a few days.

The OpenOffice.org Community is pleased to announce the release of OpenOffice.org 2.4, the latest version of the leading open source office productivity suite. OpenOffice.org 2.4 includes new features, enhancements, and bug fixes to all its core components. OpenOffice.org 2.4 is available for immediate download from http://download.openoffice.org.

New features:

Users will appreciate changes such as usability improvements in printing, and further enhancements to PDF handling (OpenOffice.org creates PDF files 'out of the box' to ISO standard). The default font is now DejaVu, which supports more languages/localisations than the previous BitStream Vera -part of a raft of localisation improvements covering languages from Hiligaynon to Quechua. Mac OS X users will appreciate the use of the native Quicktime player and spell-checker.

Writer, OpenOffice.org's word processor, now has easier selection of the language for spellchecking; users can set options for printing hidden and place holder text and for following hyperlinks; text selection and 'find and replace' have been improved; and 'power users' will appreciate new extra keyboard shortcuts for paragraph styles.

Regular users of Calc, OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet, will appreciate the streamlining of data and formulae entry. Other new features include a 'smart move and copy' for blocks of cells; the ability to transform data into columns; and improvements to printing, data filtering, and the Data Pilot.

Usability improvements have been made to Draw, the drawing and diagramming module, and Impress, OpenOffice.org's application for creating presentations. Both applications have enhanced PDF export capabilities. In addition, Impress now has a new range of thrilling 3D transition effects supported through an extension.

The Chart module, used throughout OpenOffice.org, continues to evolve rapidly. Novice users benefit from more intelligent default choices from the graphics engine; advanced users have more options allowing them to fine tune a chart exactly the way they want it.

OpenOffice.org's database application, Base, now supports MS-Access 2007 (accdb files on MS-Windows), and has enhanced capabilities for MySQL, Oracle/jdbc, and native (HSQL) databases. The Query Designer is also improved.

OpenOffice.org 2.4 is the eleventh release in the 2.x series (launched in October 2005) and demonstrates the Community's commitment to continuous and regular improvement of its software. The next major release - 3.0 - is planned for the autumn/fall this year. If you would like to help us, please visit http://contributing.openoffice.org.

The OpenOffice.org Community

http://www.openoffice.org/news/index.html
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