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The Free and Open Productivity Suite
Released: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15
Specifications for All Modules

Specifications which affect all OpenOffice.org Modules

Specification

Description

Author

Status

Target

Date

Spellcheck Dialog

The usability of the current spellcheck dialog has been improved. The wording/terminology of the dialog is aligned to competing programs.

The new non-modal spelling dialog shows the spelled word in context of the complete sentence. This context helps the user to decide if a highlighted word is wrong or only unknown.

Furthermore the user has not go back to the document if she wants to undo changes made by the spelling dialog because she can use the new undo functionality within the spelling dialog.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0

05/03/04

Mac OS X SpellChecker

Mac OS X has a built in spell checking facility in many languages. Using this facility benefits the user because they can maintain a single word list across all applications. Also, the spelling of all words will be consistent across all applications. This project integrates the Mac OS X Spellcheck services into the existing OpenOffice.org user interface.

Mike Sicotte

Standard

2.4

09/06/07

Options Dialog

The Options dialog of OpenOffice.org 2.0 will feature context sensitive sections. Not all available sections are shown to the user – just those that make sense in the given context of an active module. The labels of the sections do also change to promote the names of OpenOffice.org's modules.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0

03/30/2004

PDF Export

enhanced PDF Export functionality, i.e. support of hyperlinks created PDF files.

Philipp Lohmann

Standard

2.0

06/15/2004

Outline Style Font Quality for PDF Export

Fonts can be styled as outline. If these text is exported to PDF the visual appearance is the same as on screen and paper.

Hasan Ilter

Preliminary

2.0

11/04/2003

Number of Undo Steps

In order to increase the robustness of the undo functionality the default number of undo steps is increased to 100. It is also possible to customize the number of possible steps to an even higher value.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0

04/05/2004

Drag and Drop of Selections to the Stylist

Drag and drop of selection of OOo Writer text documents into the Stylist window should create appropriate new styles depending on the currently selected style family. Those newly created styles should then copy the attributes from the selection.

Oliver Specht

Standard

2.0

12/11/2003

Windows Explorer Column Handler

The Microsoft® Windows® Explorer Details view normally displays several standard columns that list information, such as the file size or file type for every file in the current folder. By implementing and registering a column handler an application can make custom columns available.

Tino Rachui

Standard

2.0

6/15/2004

Windows Explorer Infotip Handler

Infotip handler are small tooltip windows that show essential information about a file. The Windows Explorer shows such infotips if the mouse hovers over a file for a few seconds. By registering a custom infotip handler the Windows Explorer is able to show OpenOffice.org specific file meta information.

Tino Rachui

Standard

2.0

05/28/2004

OOo File Thumbnails

The standard file system explorer on all three relevant desktops Gnome (Nautilus), KDE (Konqueror), and Windows (Explorer) support a thumbnail view mode in which a small preview of the respective file system object will be displayed if available. By providing a custom plugin for the particular file system explorer it is possible to display a thumbnail representation of an OpenOffice.org file.

Tino Rachui

Standard

2.0

05/28/2004

OOo File Search

The Windows Shell provides several search facilities that allow a user to locate files on the computer or a network. Unfortunately these search facilities are not able to search for information in OpenOffice.org file. On the other hand the Windows Shell makes it possible to register custom search handler and make them available to the user. This makes it possible to create a search handler that is able to look for specific information in OpenOffice.org files.

Tino Rachui

Preliminary

2.0

12/12/2003

Browser Detection on UNIX

OpenOffice.org 2.0 will have functionality build in to identify the users preferred web-browser from the desktop environment one is running. As a consequence, the now obsolete and UNIX only UI in OpenOffice.org 1.x for selecting a browser applications will get removed

Oliver Braun

Standard

2.0

04/20/2004

Send Document as Email

With "File - Send - Document" as E-mail OpenOffice.org offers functionality to open a new email composer window with the active document directly attached. OpenOffice.org 2.0 will greatly simplify the task of configuring the email client to be used for this feature

Oliver Braun

Standard

2.0

06/08/2004

Search within help pages

This document is a specification to define the search within help pages.

Hans-Peter Burow

Standard

2.0

12/15/2003

AutoRecovery

This document is a specification to define the new AutoRecovery feature in OO.org

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0

12/17/2003

Module name in caption bar

Instead of showing the filename or the title (if available) and the office name within the Window Title now the file name of the document plus the office components name will at display.

Falko Tesch

Standard

2.0

07/01/2003

Migration of the old binary filters to a filter module and their removal from the office application(s)

This document is a specification to define how the binfilter project will be executed

Armin Weiss

Preliminary

2.0

01/14/2004

GUI Specification for XForms Part 1

This document is part 1 of the GUI specification for the new XForms feature.

Frank Loehmann

Preliminary

2.0

2004-07-02

GUI Specification for XForms Part 2

This document is part 2 of the GUI specification for the XForms feature, and describes changes done to the form/control property browser.

Frank Schönheit

Standard
1.0.1

2.0

2005-06-08

Customize Menu

This document is the GUI specification for a renewed customize menus dialog.

Christian Jansen

Standard

2.0

04/30/2004

Format Paintbrush

OpenOffice.org 2.0 will get a new tool to ease copy and paste styles (formatting). It is called "Format Paintbrush" and will transfer all formatting from objects and text to new targets by simply using a new icon.

Falko Tesch

Standard, v.2

2.0

26.05.2004

New WebWizard

The old WebWizard did not offer a satisfying result in terms of design and functionality. It is not modern in any way. It was decided to focus on the transformation of Office documnets to a web capable format versus real web design. So the new WebWizard helps a user to transform his documents and to push them to a web server.

Ilko Höpping

Preliminary

2.0

02/06/2004

Error Report UI Spec for OO.o 2.0

The OpenOffice.org Error Reporting Tool and the document recovery features are combined into one work flow. When OpenOffice.org crashes the documents will be saved and users get informed abut the upcoming recovery process, followed by sending out an error report.

Christian Jansen

Standard

2.0

03/23/2004

Start Module

The Start Module -- formerly know as the Backing Window in OpenOffice 1.1 -- becomes an optional module. A configuration setting is used to disable the Start Module if required for a site installation.
This specification describes the behavior of OpenOffice.org on startup and after the user has closed the last document; thus it is a successor of the File Close Behavior specification for OOo1.1.

Andreas Schluens

Preliminary

2.0

01/21/04

Options Dialog/Java Panel

A new panel in the options dialog will be introduced allowing to determine what Java shall be used by OpenOffice.org. A set off additional arguments which are passed to the selected Java VM during its creation can be specified by the user.

Joachim Lingner

Standard

2.0

04/16/2004

Open Document Behavior

OOo 2.0 Writer and Impress documents open on the first page or slide, regardless of the last editing position when the document was saved the last time. OOo Calc documents open at the editing view that was present when the document was saved.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0

06/1/2004

Open Password Protected Microsoft Word and Excel Documents

OOo 2.0 allows to open password protected Microsoft Word and Excel documents, if the ARCFOUR (default method) or XOR encryption method was used to encrypt the document.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0

05/10/2004

Borders and Shadow for Bitmaps in Draw/Impress

These new features improves the interoperability with PowerPoint documents. Furthermore the border of objects does not overlay the text in the object anymore.

Frank Loehmann

Preliminary

2.0

05/11/2004

Digital Signature and Security Specification

Digital signature allows to sign documents and/or document macros. Furthermore some security related features are new in OO.org 2.0

Frank Loehmann

Preliminary

2.0

05/11/2004

Configuration Error Handling and Recovery

In order to increase the robustness of the office application against corrupted configuration data, the configuration database will support automatic recovery from unusable data. Additionally diagnostic capabilities are provided that allow administrators or support services to obtain log output to identify the cause of configuration problems.

Jörg Barfurth

Standard

2.0

07/06/2004

Desktop Menu Integration

In modern graphical user interface there are several standard mechanisms for a user to launch an application, such as menu items in the Start/Launch menu or a (double) click on a document specific to that application. OpenOffice.org 2.0 provides these mechanisms as well.

Oliver Braun

Standard

2.0

06/23/05

Package Manager Graphical User Interface

The PackageManager GUI is the client frontend to import, export and remove packages, i.e. extensions to an Office installation, e.g. UNO components or extensions coming with a single document, e.g. scripts.

Daniel Boelzle

Standard

2.0

07/06/04

unopkg Deployment Tool Specification

The unopkg deployment tool is used to deploy/undeploy UNO packages into an Office installation, e.g. UNO components.

Daniel Boelzle

Standard

2.0

07/05/04

XML Filter Configuration

OOo 2.0 supports - additionally to the XHTML output filter of OOo 1.1 - also XHTML output filters for Calc, Draw, and Impress. Furthermore, output filters "Microsoft Word 2003 XML (Writer export)" and "Microsoft Excel 2003 XML (Calc export)" are part of the installation.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Preliminary

2.0

05/25/04

Customize Events Specification

Specification for redesign of Events tab in Tools/Configure dialog

Duncan Foster

Standard

2.0

07/05/04

Menu Structure

This document is a collection of links to specifications related to the new menu structure of OpenOffice.org 2.0.

Matthias Müller-Prove


2.0

07/22/04

File Menu

The File menu gives access to recently used OOo documents. This list is extended to 10 items. It is also a submenu in order to improve the usability of the File menu.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0

06/30/04

View Menu

The View menus of all OOo 2.0 modules are restructured. The first segment contains the different viewing modes, the second segment contains the toolbars and layout aids like rulers and guide, while the last section contains full screen mode and zooming functions. Module specific options are placed above the last group. The terminology is also updated to better match the terms used by competing applications.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0

07/08/04

Help Menu

The Help menu makes is easier to access the Help by using better terms and moving the toggle menu items for the Help Agent and the Help Tips to the General options panel. It is no longer possible to entirely switch off tool tips.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0

6/16/2004

OpenOffice.org Miozilla Plug-in

A specification that defines a new plug-in for Mozilla, allowing to display OpenOfffice.org files within Mozilla-based browsers.

Robert Chen

Standard

2.0

09/07/2004

Media Player

A specification that defines the integration of a media files into OpenOffice.org

Kai Ahrens

Preliminary

2.0

07/23/04

First Start-Up and User Data Migration

Technical and user interface specification for the user data migration process. This first start up wizard now contains an additional page for the online update.

Lars Oppermann ;

Christian Jansen

Preliminary

2.0

09/28/06

Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Styles

Specification: Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Styles

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0

07.09.2004

File Format Names for Open Office XML Format

Specification: File Format Names for New OASIS Open Office XML Format

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0

09.09.2004

Window States

This specification describes the default window states of each OpenOffice.org module

Christian Jansen

Standard

2.0

16/03/2005

Data Loss Warning for none Default File Formats

This specification describes the data loss warning in Tools-Options

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0

16/03/2005

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.1

Impress Clipboard

The default paste format is changed from OLE to MetaFile in order to ease the transition of data to OOo Impress.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0.1

15 Sep 2005

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.2

Optional Hardware Acceleration

OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 supports a hardware acceleration for rendering of presentations in Impress. An additional component is needed to enable the platform specific acceleration. Furthermore, graphic card drivers are 3rd-party products, which OpenOffice.org does not have any influence on. Additionally, there is a potential for bugs in those drivers, which can be unveiled by using OpenOffice.org. Since such problems can make OpenOffice.org presentations potentially unusable, we introduce an option which allows the user to disable the hardware acceleration support.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Standard

2.0.2

13 Dec 2005

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.3

PDF Export Dialog

The PDF Export dialog gets a bunch of additional options to control how the generated PDF document opens in Adobe Reader. They are layout and magnifications options, as well as options that control the user interface of Adobe Reader itself.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Preliminary

2.0.3

10 Mar 2006

Send Document as E-Mail - Support MS file format

This document specifies how the "Send Document as E-Mail" feature can be extended to support users who have to send their documents using a Microsoft® file format.

Carsten Driesner

Standard

2.0.3

21 Mar
2006

Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths

Several paths are critical to OpenOffice.org. If a user is not absolutely sure what she does in Options-Paths then OOo can refuse to launch the next time. Therefore, all but 5 paths are removed from the Options panel. The experienced user can still change the other paths by editing the configuration file.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Preliminary

2.0.3

29 Mar 2006

Online Update

To support people to retrieve the latest version of OpenOffice.org easily, we
will add a new menu item called "Check for Updates..." into the help menu. The mechanism to check for updates will only be activated in the regular OpenOffice.org builds created by Hamburg release engineering by default.

Carsten Driesner

Final

2.0.3

07 Apr 2006

Toolbar Content

This specification covers the content OpenOffice.org 2.03 toolbars.

Christian Jansen

Standard

2.0.3

March 31, 2006

Naming Single Drawing Objects

Single drawing objects and text boxes, contrary to grouped drawing objects, could not be named in Writer and Calc. It is an accessibility requirement to be able to do so.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.0.3

March 16, 2006

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.4

System Settings

OpenOffice.org reads and honors user settings from the operating system / desktop environment where possible. Currently supported desktop environments are Windows, GNOME and (new) KDE

Oliver Braun

Standard

2.0.4

04 May 2006

PDF Export Dialog

TBD

Competitive Analysis

Matthias Müller-Prove

Minimal Support for Extension Dependencies

Starting with OOo 2.0.4, extensions (also known as “packages” or “UNO packages”) can specify dependencies on their installation environment. If at least one of those dependencies is not met, the application refuses to install the extension.

Stephan Bergmann

Standard

2.0.4

Jul 6, 2006

Simple License for Extensions

It shall be possible that extensions (aka UNO Package Bundles) bring a license text, which is to be displayed during installation and later at will. During installation, the user must agree or decline the license. The latter will abort the installation. Using this license mechanism shall be possible without including code in the extensions. Hence it will be very easy to implement for developers of extensions.

Joachim Linger

Standard

2.0.4

Jul 13, 2006

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.1

Micro Typography

New OpenOffice.org documents will have kerning enabled by default. Existing documents are not affected.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Extension Version Handling

Extensions are often improved over time. That is, publishers want to ship new versions of the same extension with added functionality and/or bug fixes. Adding a version field to .oxt extensions allows publishers to ship new versions, and allows OpenOffice.org to detect and handle the case that an extension installed by the user is an update of an existing extension.

Stephan Bergmann

Standard

2.1

Sep 27, 2006

Package Manager Renaming

The terms UNO package or package bundle are rarely used. Instead the expression extension is used most of the times. Therefore we will replace these terms with extension.

Joachim Lingner

Standard

2.1

Sep 29, 2006

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.2

System integration for extensions

Extensions shall be recognized on desktops by using particular icons. It shall also be possible to install an extension by double clicking on the respective file.

Joachim Lingner

Standard

2.2

Dec 01, 2006

Preview Document in Web Browser

Make the current document previewed by browser as web page, in order to see the effect of display before release. Added a new menu item in the File menu which named 'Preview in Web Browser'. This menu item can make the current document browsed in web page. text, picture and media that can be edited in the document are all can be browsed successful. It is just browse,so some files can not edit or have their original function but are recognized as a picture. Every application include Text document, Spreadsheet and presentation can use this function.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.2

April, 2007

Online update for extensions

A mechanism for obtaining updates for extensions online and installing them.

Joachim Lingner

Standard

2.2

Dec 01, 2006

Alternative texts for Drawing objects

Set optional 'Title' and 'Description' texts at Drawing objects within a dedicated dialog

Kai Ahrens

Preliminary

2.2

Dec 12, 2006

Extension Identifiers

Extensions can now contain an identifier element in their description.xml, giving the extension a unique identifier. This removes the current restriction that no two extensions can have the same file name.

Stephan Bergmann

Standard

2.2

Jan 10, 2007

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.3

Link to extensions.openoffice.org

The Extension Manager dialog contains a link control, that opens a web browser with the openoffice extension web-site.

Joachim Lingner

Standard

2.3

June 18, 2007

Smart Tags

A smart tag scans the text of a document thru an API (i.e. for stock symbols like "SUNW") and could offer functionality for such a recognized text via a context menu. Smart tags can be provided by extensions. This first version will support Writer text documents only and is only visible in the product if at least one Smart Tag has been installed.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 5, 2007

Options Dialog for Extensions

Configuring extensions within an options dialog.

Joachim Lingner

Preliminary

2.3

Apr 17, 2007

Image Map Dialog

Dialog to edit image maps.

Christian Lippka

Preliminary

2.3

May 29, 2007

Export Single Dialog from Library

Currently dialogs are always embedded into a basic library. Especially for OOo extensions it would be helpful to have access to single dialogs. Therefore the dialog IDE gets a possibility to export the current dialog via a new button in the tool bar.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 05, 2007

Translation Inside Dialog IDE

Localization of software products is very important for a higher acceptance of the software. Therefore the OpenOffice.org (OOo) Dialog IDE will be extended to handle translation of GUIs build with the internal dialog IDE. New languages for a dialog can be created and switched on the fly by using the new Translation toolbar.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 05, 2007

Load Printer Settings with the Document Option

OOo stores and restores printer settings with a document by default. In an enterprise environment with always available printers (i.e. around the world) this could result in printing a document on the other side of the world. Therefore a new option is added to suppress loading document printer settings on loading a document.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 04, 2007

AutoCorrect

AutoCorrect feature is available in Writer, Calc, Draw and Impress. The following specification documents changes being made to the already present implementation.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 05, 2007

New Tree Control in IDE

The OOo Dialog Editor gets support for a new tree control which hasn't been available before.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 05, 2007

Automatic Language Guessing Component

The following component allows to determine the langue of a (selected) text. This feature works without using wordbooks, so the language could be determined without having a special wordbook installed for that language. This project is sponsored by Intel.

Frank Loehmann

Standard

2.3

July 05, 2007

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.4

Set Language Attribute for Text

Changing the language attribute of text is a much too complicated task in OOo 2.2 today. Therefore a new control in the status bar of Writer will be introduced to show the language at the current cursor position/selection. Furthermore the entire document language can be changed.

Frank Loehmann

Preliminary

2.3

July 05, 2007

Online Update Notification Extensions

In OpenOffice.org the user is notified about available updates for his installed extensions by bubble notification.
The user does not need to proactively open the appropriate dialog to check for extension updates. After a mouse click on the notofication icon the extension updates will be visible in the 'Extension Update' dialog.

Bettina Haberer

Standard

2.4

11/07/2007

PDF Export Dialog

As of 2.4 OOo contains new methods to export PDF/A and linked documents

Philipp Lohmann

Standard

2.4

12/03/2007

Extensible Help

Support help content inside OpenOffice.org extensions

Andreas Bregas

Standard

2.4

12/03/2007

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.0

Links Dialog

This document is a specification for an improved Links-dialog. The Links-Dialog lets users edit the properties of each link in the current document, including the path to the source file.

Christian Jansen

Standard

OfficeLater

07/31/2003

Drag and Drop and Clipboard

This document is a specification to define drag and drop behavior in OO.org 2.0

Frank Loehmann

Preliminary

OfficeLater

09/23/2003

Undo for Macros

If the user executes a macro start and end point are listed in the undo history.

Henning Brinkmann

Preliminary

OfficeLater

11/28/2003 TR VALIGN=TOP>

State name of Office module in Window Title

Instead of showing the filename or the title and the Office name within the window title now the file name of the document plus the office suite components name will at display.

Frank Loehmann

Preliminary

OfficeLater

09/25/2006

Better Distinguish Between Document and Application Settings

A specification that allows the user to better distinguish between document and application settings.

Falko Tesch

Preliminary

OfficeLater

04/30/2004

Undo of Macros

If the user executes a macro start and end point are listed in the undo history.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Preliminary

OfficeLater

08/09/2005

Gallery

The Gallery in OpenOffice.org is a repository for clip art and sound snippets. It is available in nearly all modules of OOo. The content of the Gallery is grouped in several themes and can be extended by the user. For OOo 3 the currently selected theme will be persistent, e.g. if the user closes and opens the gallery, or the user changes the view mode in OOo Impress, the Gallery will keep the theme rather than changing it back to the first in the list.

Matthias Müller-Prove

Preliminary

3.0

11/29/04




Extension_Manager_UI_Change

This is a draft about a UI change of the Extension Manager

Bettina Haberer

Standard

3.0

02/13/2008








Touchpoints_to_more_dictionaris

Easing the access to further dictionaries from within the OpenOffice.org applications

Bettina Haberer

Standard

3.0

05/27/2008

Touchppoints_to_new_templates

Easing the access to further templates from within the OpenOffice.org applications

Bettina Haberer

Standard

3.0

05/27/2008

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.1

PDF Export Dialog

As of 3.1 the handling of encrypted PDF was changed

Philipp Lohmann

Standard

3.1

07/11/08

CTL: Text Numerals Context Mode

Implements a new "Context" mode for text numerals

Frank Meies

Standard

3.1

2008-09-29

Custom Document Properties

Implements a new document properties page for custom properties

Frank Loehmann

Standard

3.1

2008-11-14

Solid Dragging:

Adapt Tools/Options/View dialog settings concerning 3D, AntiAliasing and DrawObject Interactions

Armin Le Grand

Preliminary

3.1

2008-12-04

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.2

Search Toolbar:

Introducing a generic search toolbar

Robert Zhou Carsten Driesner

Draft

3.2

2009-04-20

Allow to create Password Protected Microsoft Word Documents

OOo 3.2 allows to create password protected Microsoft Word documents with Microsoft Office standard RC4 algorithm.

Steve Yin

Preliminary

3.2

2009-07-27

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.3

PDF Export Dialog

PDF export now optionally allows duplicate form field names. An option to embed the 14 standard PDF fonts in non-PDF/A case was added.

Philipp Lohmann

Standard

3.3

09/23/09

Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.4

PDF Export Dialog

Simplify the PDF export security tab page.

Philipp Lohmann

Standard

3.4

09/02/10


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