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New Mouse from OpenOffice Packs 18 Buttons and a Joystick

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:51:34 -0600

A company called WarMouse has joined forces with OpenOffice to develop a rodent that will come in handy for anyone who hates memorizing keyboard shortcuts. You'll just have to remember what each button does instead, and there are a lot of them. Eighteen to be exact, each one programmable, and each one able to function in three different button modes: Key, Keypress, and Macro.

"You can do far more with this [device] than most people are likely to realize at first," explained mouse designer Theodore Beale. "You can launch applications from the desktop, and in your browser you can fire up a specific Internet site with one button, then close it with a double-click on the same button."

In addition to 18 buttons and support for 52 key commands, the OpenOfficeMouse (OOMouse) comes with an analog Xbox 360-style joystick with optional 4, 8, and 16-key command modes, a clickable scroll wheel, 512K of onboard flash memory, 63 on-mouse application profiles, support for 1024-character macros, and other tricks.

And yes folks, the designers also had gaming in mind when developing the OOMouse.

"In games like World of Warcraft -- even without taking the joystick into account -- you've got 16 commands within one click, 40 within two, and all 72 icons on the six action pages within just two double-clicks or less," Beale added.

Image Credit: WarDrive/OpenOffice via TGDaily

New OpenOffice Update (3.1) Adds Several New Features

Paul Lilly — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:11:51 -0500

OpenOffice.org has made available version 3.1 of its OpenOffice software suite, marking the first major release in the 3.0 series. Several new features have been added to just about every aspect of the open-source office program, making this a must-have update if you roll free with your productivity apps.

As a whole, the 3.1 update sports an improved screen appearance, as it now uses anti-aliasing to smooth out any rough edges. Dragging is made easier by trading in the dotted outline for a shadow of the object you're trying to move. Other non program-specific enhancements include improved file locking to prevent others from overwriting a file, and support for overlining text.

Just a handful of the many program-specific changes:

Carry out a conversation through Comments by selecting 'Reply' (Writer)
Better grammar checker integration (Writer)
Rename sheets with a double-click (Calc)
Significant performance improvements (Calc)
Font size buttons (Impress)

You can view a full list of changes here and download the 3.1 update here.

Image Credit: OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice 3.0 Revealed: All the Features You Don't Want to Miss!

David Murphy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:45:37 -0500

A new version of OpenOffice is upon us and it’s worth your while to check it out. We’ve long recommended this suite of programs as one of the must-have open-source applications on your PC. Simply put, it’s as close to Microsoft’s Office suite as you’re going to get without plunking down a small fortune. It doesn’t contain any unpleasantries in design and functionality that the idea of a “free office suite” might conjure up. And its newest 3.0 incarnation—all of .6 somethings greater than the last full OpenOffice release—adds even more versatility to the suite.

We figured now’s as good a time as any to introduce you to some of our favorite new features of OpenOffice. This isn’t a Microsoft Office 2007-style reinvention of the application. You can expect to see the same general user interface and layout as before—no scary launch button, we promise. A number of the tweaks and additions occur under the suite’s surface. But they’re every bit as important, adding bits of functionality that we sorely missed in OpenOffice 2.4.1. Come with us as we take a walk through the newest bits of OpenOffice 3.0!

Office 2007

Try to open up a .docx file in OpenOffice 2.4.1 and you get this: an ugly conversion screen, with none of the options ever able to open your poor document.

One of the biggest changes to OpenOffice isn’t so much a change as it is an addition. OpenOffice now supports the import of documents created in Microsoft Office 2007 for both the PC and Mac. Previously, you had no recourse: you had to convert .docx files back to .doc before you could pull them up in OpenOffice. But those days are no more. The software suite can handle documents, charts, and presentations that contain that finicky “x” in the extension, no worries.

Launch Window

It's a little gimmicky, but at least OpenOffice's launch window serves as a constant reminder to check for new template and OpenOffice extensions. We still wish the application would better integrate these options into the respective programs, a la Firefox's extension support.

The change is more aesthetic than practical, but you can now start up a base OpenOffice window and be treated to a prompt that asks you where you want to go next. It’s a helpful little launching screen for all six of OpenOffice’s native applications. More than that, the screen also lets you open files directly, load templates, and search for new OpenOffice extensions and templates. You can also click up to the File menu and launch any of the suite’s helpful batch of wizards, including simple Web page design and currency conversions.

Multi-page view

Microsoft Office 2007 still squeaks out the win for having more viewing options for documents than OpenOffice. It sure took the latter long enough to incorporate the common multi-page viewing standard.

Borrowing a page from Microsoft Office 2007—literally—OpenOffice 3.0 now supports the viewing of multiple pages at once. Previously, you were stuck to a one-page-only design regardless of how large your viewing area was. But those days are now gone. You can now view pages side-by-side either sequentially or organized in an even-odd fashion. OpenOffice 3.0 also comes with a sliding zoom bar that makes it easy to adjust the screens’ overall sizes. That noise you hear in the distance is the sound of 30-inch display owners cheering with delight.

Since we’re talking aesthetics, we should also mention that the OpenOffice icons have been tweaked ever-so slightly. These new designs freshen up the look of the entire program but keep the original icon themes pretty intact. We are pleased by this, as the last thing users want to do is mouse-hover their way across the functions of a new-looking toolbar.

Calc Collaboration

OpenOffice's collaborative functionality is limited to Calc only. This isn't Google Docs, after all.

Google users have enjoyed this for some time now, but OpenOffice now integrates spreadsheet sharing into its Calc application. Letting other users into your spreadsheet is as easy as clicking on the Tools menu, then Share Document. From that point forward, anyone on your network can access your spreadsheet and make changes to its elements. Only formatting attributes and drawn objects remain unavailable for editing. The program protects against simultaneous editing of the same cell by throwing up a friendly conflict window. If you edit the same cell as someone else, you’re given the option to keep either your edits or your friend’s—or for the true overlord, the option to keep all (or remove all) of either person’s edits entirely.

Crappy Crop

Nobody likes using a ruler to make digital crops -- not unless it's a digital ruler, we suppose. Either way, dragging to a desired crop window is the much preferred technique for image manipulation.

This one’s a small change, but anyone who has used the basic photo manipulation tools in either OpenOffice Draw or Impress knows just how archaic the programs’ cropping functionality used to be. If not, here’s a quick peek. Unlike your common graphic editing tool, OpenOffice came with no real-time cropping function. You couldn’t just drag a window’s dimensions to whatever you wanted. You actually had to get elbow-deep in a measurement window and specify, exactly, what you wanted the dimensions of the new photograph to be, including how far away from the image’s borders you wanted the pictured snipped. Yuck.

OpenOffice’s cropping feature now joins the 21st century by allowing you to dynamically adjust the size of the crop yourself. You can still type in the numbers if you really want to, but we much prefer the ability to just drag out the image size that we want. It’d be even nicer if we could drag the photo around inside of the newly cropped dimensions. OpenOffice 4.0, perhaps?

More, More, More

It's a spreadsheet. If nothing else, spreadsheets should be able to support super-massive quantities of data, right? With OpenOffice 3.0, that wooden puppet has finally become a boy.

Finally, hardcore data enthusiasts will appreciate how OpenOffice 3.0 now supports 1024 columns in a spreadsheet instead of its previous (and paltry) 256. For the math nerds, that’s a difference of 16,777,216 cells to 67,108,864—just enough room to plot star clusters, track your card collection, or… do whatever it is one would do with just over 67 million data inputs. Yikes.

The list of updates doesn’t stop there, however! We could fill a book with all of OpenOffice 3.0’s new functionality. Check the list out for yourself while you’re waiting for this 142MB update to finish downloading.

Open Office 3.0 Nearing Launch – Beta Available For Download

Justin Kerr — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:13:26 -0500

Open Office has been around in one form or another for over nine years now. But the once little known productivity suite known back then as StarOffice has evolved considerably over the years. Today the Sun Microsystems freebee is admittedly a fairly full featured alternative to Microsoft Office. Open Office in fact has become so useful that Maximum PC Editor and Chief Will Smith has admitted its open source charm (and free price tag) has finally won over his home PC for casual word processing. Fans of the platform have another reason to get excited these days with the impending launch of version 3.0. The new version will further improve compatibility when working with Microsoft Office files and will include additional support for the open file format OpenDocument which is to be integrated into Office 2007. For those looking to give version 3 a try, a public beta is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. But for corporate users looking to implement Open Office you should follow the links instead to the version named StarOffice. The retail version will cost you about $69.95, but it includes technical support and intellectual property indemnification. For those keeping track Open Office 2 launched on October 20th 2005 and the latest stable version is 2.4.1 which was released in June.

So are you ready to abandon Microsoft Office?

What's Next, Opus Office?

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0500

I ran across a site that’s selling something called Opal Office. The site, OfficeBestDeal.com, says the suite is compatible with Microsoft Office, but in reality it’s just OpenOffice! You can find that out when you open the program and it says on the first line of text, “OpenOffice.” Apparently, they’re charging $11.95 for it. Is this even legal?

— Marion Randall

The Dog contacted OfficeBestDeal to see if the app was truly different from the free OpenOffice suite and, if so, request a copy of the source code, which the GPL license requires. A spokesman for the company named Russ responded: “According to the GPL license, we can sell OpenOffice and call it whatever name we want. We have all agreements with the OpenOffice community management team. You can find the source code at www.openoffice.org.”

At least they’re being honest about it. In other words, Opal Office is no different than OpenOffice, but you pay for the download. This sounded pretty hinky, so the Dog spoke with Andrew Jensen, who runs one of the user communities for OpenOffice.org. Jensen said this situation is not unheard of. Many companies take OpenOffice and sell it.

Opal Office is just OpenOffice with a slightly different name.

“Legally, they have the right to do it, but it bothers many people in the user community,” Jensen said. Still, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Jensen said some companies that sell the product on CD actually provide a valuable resource for people who are still operating on dialup or without Internet access (provided the price is reasonable). Other vendors offer support for OpenOffice, which has some value. But many, Jensen said, simply provide a link to the OpenOffice servers and point customers to the community forums for troubleshooting.

It’s not clear what level of support OfficeBestDeal offers on the download version, but it does make a CD version available for $16.90—which sounds terribly overpriced given the cost of a CD today. The Dog looked online and found the same version of OpenOffice on disc for as low as $2.95 on eBay.

So, Marion, what OfficeBestDeal is doing is legal but probably not honorable, if you ask the Dog. If the idea is simply to provide users with a copy of OpenOffice, why change the name?

EMAIL THE WATCHDOG If you feel you’ve gotten a raw deal and need assistance setting a vendor straight, email the Dog at watchdog@maximumpc.com. Please include a detailed explanation of your problem as well as any correspondence you have sent concerning the issue.

Daily News Brief: Netflix Survivors Given Partial Refund

One4yu2c — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:35:04 -0500

Netflix Gives 5 Percent Refund

The world as we know it came to a screeching halt on Monday, as Netflix customers were forced to cope with an unexpected downtime from 7am to 6pm. Shipments of DVDs were delayed, and streaming movies suddenly stopped streaming, forcing victims to find alternative means of entertainment for nearly an entire day. Recognizing the severity of the situation, Netflix is issuing a 5 percent refund to survivors, which comes out to 25 cents for those on the $4.99/month plan.

Update - It appears as though some subscribers are receiving 10 percent discounts for their troubles, most likely those on the higher tiered subscription plans.

Researchers Discover Earliest Voice Recording

Move over Thomas Edison, and make room for Édouard-Léon Scott. A Parisian typesetter and tinkerer, Scott invented the phonautograph, a device capable of recording sounds visually, but not playing them back. For the latter task, it took a team of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to convert the squiggles on paper to sound, which they did to a phonautogram recorded on April 9, 1860, or nearly two decades before Edison's phonograph. The 148-year-old phonautogram contains a 10-second recording of a singer sing Au Clair de la Lune. Listen here, then compare to a 1931 recording of the same song here.

PlayStation Network Hacked

Sony issued a notice yesterday alerting PlayStation owners that a small percentage of accounts may have been compromised when hackers managed to gain "unauthorized access to personal information on the PLAYSTATION®Store through PCs." The breach gave intruders access to passwords and users' online 'wallets' at the store, but not much else, as accounts do not display entire credit card numbers. It's unclear how the breach occurred, though Sony did say they "have taken immediate measures to rectify the issue and system security is restored." Game on.

Pwn to Own Contest

It took two minutes for a team of security researchers to seize control of a MacBook Air and walk away with $10,000 in prize money for doing so. The annual Pwn to Own contest pitted the MacBook Air against Windows Vista and Ubuntu machines, and all three made it through the first day when hacks were limited to over-the-network techniques. But on day two, Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel quickly gained control of the MacBook using a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability in Safari. Read more here.

WoW Bot Maker Sued

World of War~~crack~~craft developer Blizzard has filed suit against Michael Donnelly, the creator of MMO Glider. Donnelly's tool gives players the ability to automate many of the tasks performed in WoW, making it possible to leave the game unattended and still gain experience and loot. According to the website where Glider can be downloaded, "it grinds, it loots, it skins, it heals, it even farms sould shards...without you." Blizzard says it also infringes on WoW's EULA, and for that, Vivendi Universal sent a private investigator and lawyer to Donnelly's home. Donnelly plans to fight the lawsuit.

OpenOffice Update

A new version of the free open-source productivity suite is now available. In addition to the obligatory bug fixes and performance improvements, OpenOffice 2.4 brings a handful of new features to the table, which you can read about in the release notes.