OpenOffice.org Newsletter

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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER

Volume 05 - Issue 17 - 11/2008

Please send news clippings to:
dev@marketing.openoffice.org

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Contents
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1. Announcements
================
* OpenOffice.org Achieves Ten Million Downloads at the End of its 
Beijing Conference.


2. Success Stories
==================
* A breakthrough in curriculum change for 201 m students

3. Featured News
================
* The Register: Sun pimps out OpenOffice as Microsoft 'clarifies' Office 
for web
* FACIL: 2008 Elections - The Free Software Pledge
* Norway Pledges Funds for Government Open Source Usage
* Adam Turner:  OpenOffice 3.0 a fresh blow for Microsft
* Jack Wallen: What's new in OpenOffice.org 3.0
* GullFOSS: Some Calc features for 3.1 from RedFlag 2000
* GullFOSS: One step forward, the next step back

4. Tips & Tricks
================
* Solveig Haugland: Simple labels in OpenOffice Writer 2.0 or 3.0: Just 
typing or pasting the content
* Solveig Haugland: Pasting from HTML or Word into OpenOffice Writer: 
use Paste Special > Unformatted Text
* Solveig Haugland: The most straightforward wizardless way to create an 
envelope in OpenOffice.org Writer


5. ODF News
===========
* OASIS Forms ODF Interop Committee
* IBM, Sun Microsystems Launch ODF Toolkit Union to Grow Adoption, 
Community and Software Innovation
* Nisus Writer Pro update includes new file importer
* Bruce Perens: A Vertical Market Seeks Open Standards
* IBM to Support ODF Long-Term


6. Solution of the month
========================
CalcLink - A bi-directional link between Mathematica and Calc


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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!

http://contributing.openoffice.org/index.html
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/To-Dos/index.html
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Announcements
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OpenOffice.org Achieves Ten Million Downloads at the End of its Beijing 
Conference.
================================
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&...


OpenOffice.org Users' Community Forum celebrates first anniversary with 
launch of its newest site, "Foro oficial de la comunidad"
===============================
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&...


Success Stories
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A breakthrough in curriculum change for 201 m students and adoption of 
Open Source Technologies in schools
=================================================================
...finally had a major breakthrough with NCERT, the body responsible for 
setting curriculum for 201 m school students in India. In the last 30 
years, this is the first time that they have come out with a syllabus 
that has no reference to Microsoft or Oracle products. This impacts more 
than 201 m students in India.
The details of the syllabus can be found at

http://www.ncert.nic.in/html/syllabus.htm


Featured News
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The Register: Sun pimps out OpenOffice as Microsoft 'clarifies' Office 
for web
=========================================
Jonathan Schwartz has posted 
<http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/the_value_of_distribu...> 
that an "auction's afoot...to see who we'll be partnering with us to 
integrate their business and brands into our binary product 
distribution" of OpenOffice.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/14/sun_pimpin_openof...


FACIL: 2008 Elections - The Free Software Pledge
=================================================================
FACIL, a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of Free 
Software, is issuing a call to all candidates regarding the use of free 
software in Quebec public administration.

http://facil.qc.ca/en/FreeSoftwarePledge


Norway Pledges Funds for Government Open Source Usage
=======================================
Norway has become the the latest country to pledge funds for public 
sector use of open source software. Minister of Government Adminstration 
and Reform Heidi Grande Roeys is granting 2 million kroner ($285,000) to 
the national center for free software

http://ostatic.com/177021-blog/norway-pledges-funds-for-g...


Adam Turner:  OpenOffice 3.0 a fresh blow for Microsft
====================================
Microsoft's cash cow Microsoft Office is under further threat with the 
release of OpenOffice 3.0.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-life/articles/openoffi...


Jack Wallen: What's new in OpenOffice.org 3.0
==============================
One of the most helpful new features of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the 
support for more third-party extensions 
<http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/>, which are available 
online. A quick perusal finds that there are extensions to provide a 
mortgage payment calculator, various dictionaries and spell-checkers for 
other languages, PDF import support, template packages, and more.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=301


GullFOSS: Some Calc features for 3.1 from RedFlag 2000
=========================================

It was a great pleasure to meet RedFlag 2000's Calc developers at OOoCon 
in Beijing. Of course the successful collaboration continues, resulting 
in some cool new features:

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/some_calc_features_for_3


GullFOSS: One step forward, the next step back
==================================

... As things usually go I was distracted by other things for a while 
(like e.g. getting an OOo 3.0 out of the door or some serious issues 
into 3.0.1). Recently however I got back to these plans and begin to see 
something. See here the new print dialog with preview.

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/one_step_forward_the_...

Tips & Tricks
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Solveig Haugland: Simple labels in OpenOffice Writer 2.0 or 3.0: Just 
typing or pasting the content
=====================================================================

I follow this procedure when I ship out books. Let's say I've got five 
people who've ordered books directly from me through PayPal or Amazon. 
I've got five emails in my inbox, with five addresses. So I need to make 
five labels.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2008/11/simple-lab...


Solveig Haugland: Pasting from HTML or Word into OpenOffice Writer: use 
Paste Special > Unformatted Text
===============================================================================

You might not do it today or tomorrow, but you'll do it someday. You'll 
need to paste some content from a Web page, or a Word document, or 
something else that's got some goofiness embedded in it, into your 
Writer document.
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2008/11/pasting-fr...


Solveig Haugland: The most straightforward wizardless way to create an 
envelope in OpenOffice.org Writer
============================================================================

Envelopes can be problematic. Yes. This is primarily because envelopes 
are not Letter or Legal. Each printer has its own approach to printing, 
and you'll need to do a little experimenting.

But you can do it. The Envelopes category and the Mail Merge category of 
my blog each has various approaches.



http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2008/11/notes-in-o...


ODF News
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OASIS Forms ODF Interop Committee
========================
"OASIS has formed a new committee to foster interoperability and 
conformance with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard"

http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=10353


IBM, Sun Microsystems Launch ODF Toolkit Union to Grow Adoption, 
Community and Software Innovation
=====================================================================
" IBM and Sun Microsystems today announced the launch of the 
OpenDocument Format (ODF) Toolkit Union, a new open-source software 
community project organized to make document software more innovative, 
versatile and useful for business. "

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/IBM-Sun-Microsystem...{39DC24F7-9368-4437-92A5-E49FFFDE6AEF} 



Nisus Writer Pro update includes new file importer
=================================
Alternative word processor, Nisus Writer Pro, has been updated to 
version 1.2, adding several new features including an improved file 
importer. The file importer improves file translations, especially for 
Microsoft's Word documents, the company said. An option to export as 
Word (.doc) and the Open Document (.odt) format has also been added to 
the new version.

http://www.macworld.com/article/136641/2008/11/nisus.html...


Bruce Perens: A Vertical Market Seeks Open Standards
====================================
An Open Standard is more than just a specification. The principles 
behind the standard, and the practice of offering and operating the 
standard, are what make the standard Open.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3778376...


IBM to Support ODF Long-Term
====================
IBM announced a long-term commitment to the OpenDocument Format (ODF) by 
unveiling a roadmap for the expansion of the free Lotus Symphony office 
application suite to MacIntosh, Ubuntu Linux, OpenOffice 3.0, and 
Microsoft Office customers.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/201...



OpenOffice.org solution of the month
====================================
CalcLink - A bi-directional link between Mathematica and Calc

CalcLink brings the computational and diagnostic visualization power of 
Mathematica to OpenOffice Calc, while bringing the familiarity and 
convenience of Calc to Mathematica. The entire breadth of all 
Mathematica functions (3000+ symbols) becomes easily accessible from 
Calc, enhancing it with symbolic computation, optimization methods, 
modern statistical functions, data-mining, lightning-fast giga-numerics, 
and linear algebra functions! Spreadsheet data can be visualized from 
Calc in new and insightful ways, making it easy to reduce a deluge of 
data to the essential information!

www.lauschkeconsulting.com/calclink.html


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This new section introduces a single solution which provides a OO.o 
integration or based on OO.o technology. The idea behind it is to 
support vendors who have an OO.o integration. The full list of solutions 
is available here :
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_S...

Drop me an email, if you want to have your solution listed.
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