DON'T EDIT: This was a draft, now replaced by http://www.openoffice.org/development/releases/3.4.1.html which will become the final version.

General Remarks

The Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 is a maintenance release, intended to fix critical issues and improve the overall quality of the application.

General areas of improvement include:  additional language support, bug fixes, performance improvements and Windows 8 compatibility enhancements.  Further details on each of these areas are below.

For a more comprehensive overview of the changes from the 3.3.X OpenOffice.org releases and earlier; please see the Release Notes for Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 at: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/AOO+3.4+Release+Notes

Additional Language Support

New translations available in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 include:

  • Finnish
  • British English
  • Khmer
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian

Updated translations available in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 include:

  • Dutch
  • Spanish
  • Italian
  • Hungarian

For a complete list of available languages and language packs see: http://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html

Additional Platform Support

None at this time.

Bug Fixes

As of 2012/08/16, there were 69 verified issues that have been resolved.

This list can be found at: http://s.apache.org/Huv

You will need an OpenOffice Bugzilla login to view it.

(An OpenOffice Bugzilla login will enable you to search for any bugs that may interest you.)

Important bug fixes have been made in these areas:

  • "quickstarter" problems
  • extension cleanup
  • auto update check now re-enabled by default
  • "undo" issues in Calc
  • "redo" issues in Calc
  • "freeze" problem with Calc when languagetools are installed
  • non-detection of java. "Oracle" as a java provider was added to aid in JVM identification. Previously, the vendor was Sun.

The QE team has been tracking additional fixes as well. See their complete reports at:

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/Report/WeeklyReport

Additionally, starting with version 3.4.1, Apache OpenOffice now has the benefit of static analysis provided
by Coverity to detect software defects before the code is even released. Special thanks
to Coverity for providing access to their award winning tool!

Performance Improvements/Enhancements

  • Cleanup of temporary areas used by extensions installations.  This will reduce the per-user disk footprint for multi-user installations.
  • Keeping only one English dictionary for US-en installations instead of 5. This will save user space.
    Users will be able to add other English dictionaries (Canadian, Australian, New Zealand) as desired
  • Hunspell library upgraded to version 1.3.2 from 1.2.9. This version contains several improvements especially
    for Dutch, German and other Germanic languages with extended compound word usage.

Microsoft Windows 8 Compatibility

With this release we have tested with Windows 8.  So far it looks good.  We are in the process of going through the official Windows 8 Certification checklist and some minor issues still remain.  See the wiki document below.

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/Windows_App_Certification_Kit_-_Test_Results_for_Apache_OpenOffice_3.4

Note: the improvements made in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 to better support Windows 8 will also benefit Windows 7 users.

Known Issues

  • Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 manage the user profile differently than previous versions. The old user profile is automatically converted so that users can keep their extensions and settings. In a minority of cases, especially with highly customized profiles (many extensions or customizations) the conversion doesn't succeed. Common symptoms are: frequent application crashes, problems with dictionaries or thesaurus, OpenOffice starting and crashing after a few seconds. To solve this, just reset/rename your user profile as explained in the official OpenOffice forum: http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12426
  • Apache OpenOfice 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 will be flagged by the new Gatewatcher facility in OS X Mountain Lion. This is a new feature to help guard against malware on Mac systems. There is a procedure laid out at the following link to allow applications not installed from the Mac app store to run. See the article at Mac support at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290.
  • The Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 installation package for Windows will expand the installation files and immediately start the installation wizard. In rare circumstances, probably because of incompatibilities with other installed software, the installation wizard might not start automatically. In that case, just locate the "OpenOffice Installation Files" folder on your Desktop, open it and double-click on the file named "setup.exe" to start the installation procedure.

Stay informed about Apache OpenOffice

You are encouraged to subscribe to the Apache OpenOffice announcement mailing list, to be receive important notifications such as product updates and security patches.  To subscribe you can send an email to:  ooo-announce-subscribe@incubator.apache.org.

You can also follow the project on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

  • No labels

1 Comment

  1. RGB.ES

    Added ES translation