OpenOffice 3.2: more stability, more speed

The OpenOffice team have made version 3.2 of the open source office suite for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Solaris available to download. It offers numerous enhancements over its predecessor which offer both stability and speed benefits. Writer and Calc, for example, should now start twice as fast as in version 3.1.1.

Improved Microsoft Office filters now make it possible to open protected Word, Excel and PowerPoint files (after entering the correct password). The project tem has also improved compatibility with the OpenDocument standard.

Most of the changes are to be found in Calc, the calculator program, which includes more than a dozen new functions. Calc is now able to read pivot tables, OLE objects and form control elements from Excel 2007. In particular the development team has improved the spreadsheet chart function, which is also usable in other OpenOffice components, and has added bubble charts. In addition, the revamped user interface makes diagrams easier to use. Version 3.2 also fixes potential security vulnerabilities. The team will provide details in a forthcoming security bulletin.

More details about the release can be found on the OpenOffice.org 3.2 New Features page and in the release notes. OpenOffice is released under version 3 of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPLv3).

Almost simultaneously, IBM has released a second beta version of Lotus Symphony version 3. Version 2 has been skipped, because IBM's heavily modified and extended package is now based on OpenOffice 3.x code. The still current version 1.3 is based on OpenOffice 1.3 code.

See also:

• OpenOffice adoption: Germany leads while UK and US lag, a report from The H.
• Study: > 21% of German PCs run OpenOffice, a report from The H.

(crve)