OpenOffice.org 3.2 New Features
General ImprovementsFaster start up times
ODF SupportOpen Document Format (ODF) standards, as promulgated by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), set international compatibility criteria for the electronic/digital storage of documents. These standards recognize the importance of interoperability and intelligent information exchange and seek, for example, to ensure that office documents created today on any given computer system will be readable by other computer systems everywhere, including the technology of tomorrow. OpenOffice.org 3.2 has made further strides in compliance with ODF 1.2, including closer conformance to OASIS ODFF/OpenFormula specifications.
Proprietary File SupportOpenOffice.org 3.2 provides improved support for other common office document types.
Support for Postscript based OpenType fontsThere are many high quality commercial and free OpenType fonts that are based on Postscript outlines. They are now supported for formatting, printing, PDF-export and display. WriterMediawiki support moved to an ExtensionTo avoid conflicts, the MediaWiki filter is no longer part of the OpenOffice.org installation. Instead it will be supplied as a part of Wiki Publisher extension, which will permit updates for the filter without having to wait for the next OpenOffice.org release. CalcCell borders now support multiple selection
Autofill now handles additional casesIf the starting cell for AutoFill contains a number at the start and the end, and there's no space after the first number, the number at the end is now incremented. This allows easier creation of things like lists of IP addresses (10.0.0.1 is followed by 10.0.0.2). Improvements to sort
When a cell range is sorted using the "Sort Ascending" or "Sort Descending" toolbar button, cell formats are now sorted with the cells. Better handling of merged cellsMerged cells can now be pasted from the clipboard onto other merged cells. Instead of an error message, the old cells are unmerged. Inserting or deleting cells, columns or rows into/from the middle of merged cells, which previously caused an error message, is now possible. The merged cell range is enlarged/reduced. Complex copy and pasteThis feature extends Calc's current copy and paste functionality, to allow copying of a set of multiple non-contiguous ranges. When pasted, all copied data get consolidated into a single range either horizontally or vertically. There are some restrictions when ranges are being copied, in order to ensure that the pasted range become a rectangular range. Enhancements to statistical functions
Preservation of newline characters in formulaeNewline characters created with Control+Enter in multiline text cells are now preserved in spreadsheet formulas. Previously the newline character was replaced by a space character. The newline character can be searched for using the SEARCH or [HV]LOOKUP or MATCH functions with the \n regular expression. Numeric conversion in stringsWhile interpreting a formula expression, string content is now converted to numeric values if conversion is unambiguous, or a #VALUE! error is set if no unambiguous conversion is possible. Leading and trailing blanks are ignored. Note: conversion on the fly naturally is significantly slower than calculating with numeric values. Users may be prefer the Convert Text to Number (CTN) extension to interactively convert textual numbers to permanent numeric values. Additional functionality in filters
Improved reference togglingThe Shift-F4 shortcut to toggle between relative and absolute references in formulas can now be used for a selection of cells, and handles all the formula cells in the selection. Many new factors in CONVERT_ADD
New UNICODE and UNICHAR functionsThe new UNICODE and UNICHAR spreadsheet functions are implemented as defined in the OASIS ODFF/OpenFormula specification.
DrawNew style commentsDraw now supports comments to support collaboration. Page Count added to DrawDraw now supports the text field "Page Count". ImpressNew style comments
Page Count added to ImpressImpress now supports the text field "Page Count". MathChange to Math menusThe menu entry "View / Selection" in Math is now labeled "View / Formula Elements". BaseCustomising the Create Database WizardOpenOffice.org 3.2 introduces a configuration option to control the availability of the "Create new database" option in the "Create Database" wizard. A new configuration option controls whether the "Create Database" wizard (started via File/New/Database) exposes the "Create a new database" option. Simpler copying of queries between database documentsWhen copying queries between database documents, Base will no longer prompt for a target name, unless the copy operation would overwrite an existing table name. Database forms can be zoomedDatabase forms can now be zoomed just like other documents. The current <Ctrl+Scroll Wheel> functionality is supplemented by a View/Zoom menu item, and the zoom slider in the status bar. More intelligent import into Base
For further details of Base new features, please see the wiki. ChartNew Chart types
Usability improvements in ChartThe Chart user interface has been given a makeover to improve aspects of usability. Users will note the generic Object Properties tag has been replaced by more specific terms such as Format Legend.... Menus are more context aware, ensuring the tools they need are only a mouse click away. For full details, please see the GullFOSS blog posting. Enhancements to data labelsThe options for data labels have been extended. It is possible now to rotate data labels. This is useful especially for column charts to avoid overlap between the different labels. Asian typography page for chart elementsA new tab page Asian Typography is now available for Title, Legend, Axes and Data Series. It contains an option to enable or disable the spacing between the different types of text. Internationalization and LocalizationsNew Locale supportOpenOffice.org 3.2 adds locale data for Oromo_Ethiopia [om-ET], Uyghur_China [ug-CN], Ancient Greek [grc-GR], Somali_Somalia [so-SO], Sorbian, Lower [dsb-DE] and Upper [hsb-DE, Asturian_Spain [ast-ES], Yiddish_Israel [yi-IL], Arabic (Oman) [ar-OM], Sardinian_Italy [sc-IT, and Quechua (Ecuador) [qu-EC]. Typically, the locale is selectable for character attribution and spell-checking, as default locale and default document language, and is available for number formats and outline numbering - see the Release Notes for details. Japanese Name OrderIn a Japanese Locale the order of the FirstName / LastName fields in the user data tabpage is reversed. This feature is not bound to the UI language, but to the selected Locale. Support for Graphite font technologyOpenOffice.org now supports Graphite font technology for better support of scripts and variants used by minorities. Using htis technology, the support for new minority scripts becomes manageable. Just one font needs to developed for the specific needs of that minority. |
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OpenOffice.org 3.2 Calc and Writer have both reduced
'cold start' time by 46% since version 3.0 was released just over a year
ago, according to 
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