Page History

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We wish to give a special "hello" to our upgrading users.  We hope you like the new features, especially the Sidebar UI which was developed in conjunction with .  This feature was based on code contributed by IBM, from their Lotus Symphony product.  We adapted that code, and based on several rounds of feedback from users like you, improved it and integrated it into OpenOffice.

And for new users, welcome to the community!  We hope you enjoy using Apache OpenOffice, the leading free and open office productivity suite.

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You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

New Features and Enhancements

New Sidebar

The Sidebar is a major new feature of the user interface in all of the OpenOffice applications.

The Sidebar makes better use of today's widescreen displays than traditional toolbars. The 'Properties' deck is context-sensitive and shows panels with the document properties that are most frequently used for the current editing task.

Click on these images for a more detailed view:

Screenshots of Writer with contexts for text, bitmap, and shapes (from left to right). The new OpenOffice logo has been pasted as bitmap (center) and editable outlines (right).

If you discover find that you don't use a particular panel very often, just click on its title and it is collapsed will collapse to a single line of text. A small + or - at the left side of the panel title indicates whether the panels is collapsed or expanded.

Different panels expanded or collapsed

• Eleven

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• property panels have been migrated from IBM Lotus Symphony: Alignment, Area, Cell Appearance, Graphic, Line, Number Format, Page, Paragraph, Position and Size, Text and Wrap.
• Seven

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• panels come from the old Impress tool panel: Available for Use, Custom Animation, Layouts, Recently Used, Slide Transition, Table Design, Used in This Presentation.
• Four

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• are non-modal (ie non locking) dialogs: Functions, Gallery, Navigator, Syles and Formatting.
• One

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• is new: Insert.

Panels from Symphony, the old Impress task pane, OpenOffice dialogs (from left to right).

The width of the sidebar Sidebar can be adjusted. The controls adapt their size accordingly. If you need more space then it can be undocked — and possibly moved to a second display — or it can be reduced to a thin tab bar. A single click on one of the icons and the sidebar is back.

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Of course, not all of OpenOffice's functionality can be represented by a couple of controls in the sidebarSidebar. If you need an advanced function then just click on the "more options" button in the title bar of a panel to open a dialog with many more options and properties.

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More information can be found in the OpenOffice wiki.

Enhancements and Improvements

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DrawObject Improvements/Enhancements

Many resource leaks were fixed.

Speedup of Graphic Rendering

More Rendering speedups are used (on systems supporting it, system-dependent)

• Bitmaps with transparency are painted directly
• Bitmaps which are transformed (rotated/sheared/mirrored) are painted directly
• Lines with LineWidth and/or transparence are painted directly
• Geometry and Pixel data is buffered in system-dependent formats

For example, this allows to use even animated GIFs as object fill style for any object and transform these in real time (when supported on the system).
It also greatly enhances visualization geometry during editing (in the EditViews) when supported.

DrawObject Improvements/Enhancements

New Color Palette

The Color Palette is enhanced and extended with a selection of more useful colors, arranged in a new scheme to make finding colors more simple.
The new Palette is a mix of the Symphony Palette combined with the most useful original colors.

Image Removed

New Gradients

The Gradients are enhanced and extended with new, more useful ones, mainly taken from Symphony.
The old ones are kept, but moved to the end of the list (not in the picture).
These Gradients create much nicer fills for uses such as Slide Backgrounds.

Image Removed

New Gallery Themes and Gallery enhancements

Gallery themes added from Symphony.

• Arrows
• Bullets (extended)
• Computers
• Diagrams
• Environment
• Finance
• People
• School & University
• Symbols
• Textshapes
• Transport

Enhancements to existing Gallery

• Old themes are kept and sometimes extended
• Gallery now able to hold and offer SVG graphics
• Many new graphics are in SVG format
  • Saves space on your computer
  • Offers high quality vector format
• Ability to add your own SVG and Metafile format graphics
• Can now be oriented horizontally or vertically and will adapt it's layout automatically
• Now also available anytime in the new Sidebar

Image Removed

Reworked Selection Handles

• Selection Handles were reworked to be better distinguishable.
• Transparency was added to give a slight 'clue' when the Handles cover something, but only for the Handle's fill to not make them hard to view.
• The design was slightly rounded.
• Colors were tweaked a little bit for better identification.
• When Keyboard-travelling over handles (CTRL-TAB) yellow handles used for CustomShapes now blink as the other handles to visualize the active handle correctly.

Image Removed

Reworked Selection Visualization

• For many occasions the selection of objects or multiple objects got enhanced using the selection color from the system.
• Usage and fetching of that system-wide SelectionColor was unified to guarantee it for all selections on all Systems.
• A slight blinking was added to identify objects where text can be added by starting to type or pressing return.

This is used in various places such as; Objects with TextEdit mode, hilight of objects as Drag&Drop target or object manipulation (dashed black/white lines were used before).

Image Removed

Better Print Preview

The PrintPreview in the Print dialog is now fully AntiAlialized. The previous version was not, thus thin lines could vanish or produce missing parts.

Image Removed

Enhanced conversion to Bitmap Graphics

The conversion to Bitmap graphics is greatly enhanced for all kinds of draw objects, including chart OLEs and others. This is not only useful for internally converting objects to bitmaps, but also used for exports where bitmaps are needed, and the system clipboard. It works with single objects as well as multiple selections. Transparencies of the object and AntiAliasing on
it's edges are perfect now. Try it out!

Image Removed

Enhanced FillType 'Bitmap'

All DrawingObjects which can have a Bitmap filling can now profit from the new, greatly enhanced Bitmap FillType:

• The new Bitmap FillType preserves Transparency, the old version was not capable of this and added a white background.
• It allows the use of vector graphics which stay vector graphic when processed.
• It supports SVG and Metafile as FillData, no longer restricted to BitmapData.
• Tiling, AutoFit, Size, Position and Offset settings are fully supported (in Area dialog).
• Animated GIF's are now allowed as FillTypes.

Examples of this include:

1. Self-create a scaling-independent fill by drawing anything anytime using DRawObjects
   1. converting it to Metafile
   2. create a FillStyle based on it
2. Use an SVG or import a vector format (WMF) to define a new FillStyle.
3. Think about the possibilities for filling the Backgrounds of Pages, Chart bars or other items.
   1. This will be used as vector data when printing or at PDF export.

Image Removed

Enhanced Copy/Paste

All applications now support transparent and anti-aliased versions of, for example, DrawObjects in the selection to be exchanged with external Applications. This is a result of the enhanced conversion to Bitmap and adding the PNG graphic format to the supported clipboard formats.

Non-Graphic objects are converted on-demand, and graphic objects are copied with full transparency and AntiAliasing support.

It is now possible to Copy/Paste any object to an external PixelGraphic application, modify it as needed, and copy it back to any OpenOffice Application without quality loss. This allows everyone easy and complete image manipulation outside the Office.

Image Removed

Enhanced Drag&Drop

Drag&Drop has been enhanced by an 'internal' mode. It is now possible to Drag&Drop anything 'onto' an existing DrawObject to change it's graphic or fill style when holding CTRL+SHIFT during Drag&Drop.
As visual control, the traget object for the Drag&Drop is visualized using the new Selection Visualization and a unique MouseCursor.

• Drag&Drop from external: ChangeFillStyle to Bitmap (including transparence), SVG or metafile
• Drag&Drop internal (klick on the source object(s), wait a second until MousePointer changes)

1. source is a DrawObject: GraphicAttributes are copied
2. source is a GraphicObject: Styles are copied (LineStyle, FillStyle, etc.)

Here is an example:
(a) Draw an object, e.g. a rounded rectangle with an outline, Draw an arrow object, choose fill and line style.
(b) If you Drag&Drop onto the target object, it copies FillStyle and LineStyle.
(c) If you convert the arrow to metafile (e.g. using context menu), Drag&Drop onto the target object, it gets filled with the arrow's vector data.

This comes in very handy if you need to quickly define object FillStyles or want to copy the GraphicStyles of one object to others.
Also very useful:

• You can use the Gallery as in-betwen space for DrawObjects used for that purpose.
• You can directly Drag&Drop from there onto DrawObjects.
• You can Drag&Drop from external sources onto DrawObjects.

Image Removed

Adapt LineStart/End to LineWidth

It is practical when you change the LineWidth of an Object which has ArrowHeads defined at it's start/end when the ArrowHeads used get adapted to
your LineWidth change; else you have to adapt these by your own. This was already done for Draw and Impress. This is now unified and centralized and works in all Applications.

SVG Export enhancements

Some enhancements for SVG export were added to avoid some quality losses.
It still needs some work and internal changes, but some progress was achieved.

SVG/metafile Break improvements

If an imported SVG/metafile has to be manipulated, it needs to be broken up into DrawObjects.
This process got quite some enhancements to make the achieved result more usable. Still needs some work, though.

SVG Import improvements

SVG Import got some tasks fixed and some improvements, too. Thanks to all People who were filing tasks here and added test documents for SVG.
If you have a SVG file which looks different than it should, do not hesitate to file a task at the Apache OpenOffice Bugzilla

Picture Crop mode offers preview

When working on a GraphicObject it is allowed to set a Crop region for it.
When using the interactive mode for that, the new version shows the non-visible part of the Graphic content (the croppped part) transparent and surrounded with a light border.
This way you no longer have to 'guess' where or how big the cropped data is. By the way: The eyample shows croppinmg a SVG graphic.

Image Removed

Unified visualization of ColorPalette popups

New Color Palette

The Color Palette is enhanced and extended with a selection of more useful colors, arranged in a new scheme to make finding colors simpler.

The new Palette is a mix of the Lotus Symphony Palette combined with the most useful original colors.

Image Added

New Gradients

The Gradients are enhanced and extended with new, more useful ones, mainly taken from Lotus Symphony. The old ones are kept, but moved to the end of the list (not in the picture). These Gradients create much nicer fills for uses such as Slide Backgrounds.

Image Added

New Gallery Themes and Gallery enhancements

Gallery themes added from Symphony.

• Arrows
• Bullets (extended)
• Computers
• Diagrams
• Environment
• Finance
• People
• School & University
• Symbols
• Textshapes
• Transport

Enhancements to existing Gallery

• Old themes are kept and sometimes extended
• Gallery is now able to store and use SVG graphics
• Many new graphics are now in SVG format, which saves space on your computer and gives the user the highest quality vector format
• Ability to add your own SVG and Metafile format graphics
• Can now be oriented horizontally or vertically and will adapt it's layout automatically
• Now also available anytime in the new Sidebar

Image Added

Refined the Selection Handles User Interface

• Selection Handles were reworked to be more distinguishable.
• Transparency was added to give a slight 'clue' when the Handles cover something, but only for the Handle's fill to not make them hard to view.
• The design was slightly rounded.
• Colors were tweaked a little bit for better identification.
• When Keyboard-travelling over handles (CTRL-TAB) yellow handles used for CustomShapes now blink as the other handles to visualize the active handle correctly.

Image Added

Refined Selection Visualization

• For many occasions the selection of objects or multiple objects got enhanced using the selection color from the system.
• Usage and fetching of that system-wide SelectionColor was unified to guarantee it for all selections on all Systems.
• A slight blinking was added to identify objects where text can be added by starting to type or pressing return.

This is used in various places such as; Objects with TextEdit mode, hilight of objects as Drag&Drop target or object manipulation (dashed black/white lines were used before).

Image Added

Better Print Preview

The PrintPreview in the Print dialog is now fully AntiAlialized. The previous version was not, thus thin lines could vanish or produce missing parts.

Image Added

Enhanced conversion to Bitmap Graphics

The conversion to Bitmap graphics is greatly enhanced for all kinds of draw objects, including chart OLEs and others. This is not only useful for internally converting objects to bitmaps, but also used for exports where bitmaps are needed, and the system clipboard. It works with single objects as well as multiple selections. Transparencies of the object and AntiAliasing on its edges are perfect now.

Image Added

Enhanced FillType 'Bitmap'

All DrawingObjects which can have a Bitmap filling can now profit from the new, greatly enhanced Bitmap FillType:

• The new Bitmap FillType preserves Transparency, the old version was not capable of this and added a white background.
• It allows the use of vector graphics which stay vector graphic when processed.
• It supports SVG and Metafile as FillData, no longer restricted to BitmapData.
• Tiling, AutoFit, Size, Position and Offset settings are fully supported (in Area dialog).
• Animated GIF's are now allowed as FillTypes.

Examples of this include:

1. Self-create a scaling-independent fill by drawing anything anytime using DeawObjects
   1. converting it to Metafile
   2. create a FillStyle based on it
2. Use an SVG or import a vector format (WMF) to define a new FillStyle.
3. Think about the possibilities for filling the Backgrounds of Pages, Chart bars or other items.
   1. This will be used as vector data when printing or at PDF export.

Image Added

Enhanced Copy/Paste

All applications now support transparent and anti-aliased versions of, for example, DrawObjects in the selection to be exchanged with external applications. This is a result of the enhanced conversion to Bitmap and adding the PNG graphic format to the supported clipboard formats.

Non-Graphic objects are converted on-demand, and graphic objects are copied with full transparency and AntiAliasing support.

It is now possible to Copy/Paste any object to an external PixelGraphic application, modify it as needed, and copy it back to any OpenOffice Application without quality loss. This allows everyone easy and complete image manipulation outside the Office.

Image Added

Enhanced Drag&Drop

Drag&Drop has been enhanced by an 'internal' mode. It is now possible to Drag&Drop anything 'onto' an existing DrawObject to change it's graphic or fill style when holding CTRL+SHIFT during Drag&Drop.
As visual control, the traget object for the Drag&Drop is visualized using the new Selection Visualization and a unique MouseCursor.

• Drag&Drop from external: ChangeFillStyle to Bitmap (including transparence), SVG or metafile
• Drag&Drop internal (klick on the source object(s), wait a second until MousePointer changes)

• source is a DrawObject: GraphicAttributes are copied
• source is a GraphicObject: Styles are copied (LineStyle, FillStyle, etc.)

Here is an example:

(a) Draw an object, e.g. a rounded rectangle with an outline, Draw an arrow object, choose fill and line style.
(b) If you Drag&Drop onto the target object, it copies FillStyle and LineStyle.
(c) If you convert the arrow to metafile (e.g. using context menu), Drag&Drop onto the target object, it gets filled with the arrow's vector data.

This comes in very handy if you need to quickly define object FillStyles or want to copy the GraphicStyles of one object to others.

Also very useful:

• You can use the Gallery as in-betwen space for DrawObjects used for that purpose.
• You can directly Drag&Drop from there onto DrawObjects.
• You can Drag&Drop from external sources onto DrawObjects.

Image Added

Adapt LineStart/End to LineWidth

It is practical when you change the LineWidth of an Object which has ArrowHeads defined at its start/end when the ArrowHeads used get adapted to your LineWidth change; else you have to adapt these by your own. This was already done for Draw and Impress. This is now unified and centralized and works in all OpenOffice applications.

SVG Export enhancements

Some enhancements for SVG export were added to avoid some quality losses.  More improvements are planned in this area for future releases.

SVG/Metafile Break improvements

If an imported SVG/metafile  is manipulated, it needs to be broken up into DrawObjects.   This code was improved in this release.  More improvements are planned in this area for future releases.

SVG Import improvements

Enhancements and bug fixes were made in the SVG Import code . Thanks to all Users  who were reporting issues and providing test documents for SVG.  If you have a SVG file which looks different than it should, do not hesitate to attach it to an issue the Apache OpenOffice Bugzilla.

Picture Crop mode offers preview

When working on a GraphicObject it is allowed to set a Crop region for it.  When using the interactive mode for that, the new version shows the non-visible part of the Graphic content (the croppped part) as transparent and surrounds it with a light border.  This way you no longer have to guess where or how big the cropped data is.

This example shows cropping in an SVG graphic:

Image Added

Unified visualization of ColorPalette popups

All places where a ColorPalette popup is shown (the form where the colors are organized in a raster) are overhauled and made to use the same sizes and width.  The width (12 columns) was adapted to the new designed ColorPalette. For a picture see 'All places where a ColorPalette popup is shown (the form where the colors are organized in a raster) are overhauled and layouted to use the same sizes and width.
The width (12 columns) was adapted to the new designed ColorPalette. For a picture see 'New Color Palette'

Transparency support for pixel formats

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(PNG)

When exporting selected drawing objects to formats that support transparency, e.g. to , PNG Apache , OpenOffice now does this uses a transparent background by default with transparent background. This allows now to further use graphics created in other applications or for further processing.

Connectors support rotation

Connectors do no longer disable rotation (and or shear ) tools when selected. While this is minor useful for a small benefit with single connectors, it is very useful when selecting a number of graphic objects and want wanting to rotate them. This was requested in the OpenOffice Community Forum, where a user wanted to rotate a drawing made of many draw objects and many connectors by 90 degrees. This is now possible without the inconvenience of deselecting the all of the connectors which is no fun when you have a lot of them selected.

Corrected Hatch fill style visualization

When zooming out or in small visualizations (e.g. Page Previews) objects or pages using a hatch fill style were bad poorly visualized since too many hatch lines had to be were shown in too tight placea small area. The Hatch Fill Style now uses a minimal line distance to make it look good for visualizations in Edit Views. This was already the case in older office versions, but was lost in the redesign of the visualization.

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Gradients in metafiles are rotated and sheared (slanted) together with the metafile and so behave similar to bitmap graphics.
Start color and end color are included in those gradients now.
This improvement becomes visible if you use a small number of gradient steps.
All gradients are now shown in presentation mode the same as they are shown in edit mode.

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For Pie charts imported from other formats, the Height attribute was not supported. This is added now and makes Pie Charts look more as like the original.

New Functions

Calc now supports the spreadsheet functions:  AVERAGEIFS, COUNTIFS, and SUMIFS.
In this   These functions allow you can to combine several conditions.

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The Menu API has been unified, making it more clear and API-user-friendly. The following interfaces have been deprecated and replaced: css.awt.XMenuExtended, css.awt.XMenuExtended2, css.awt.XMenuBarExtended, css.awt.XPopupMenuExtended. See https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=121542#c2 for details//issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=121542#c2 for details.

Note: extension authors who require more information on the above changes are encouraged to post their questions to our API mailing list.

Performance Improvements/Enhancements

Many resource leaks were fixed.

Many resource leaks were fixed, reducing memory requirements and improving application stability.

Speedup of Graphic Rendering

More Rendering speedups are used (on systems supporting it, system-dependent)

• Bitmaps with transparency are painted directly
• Bitmaps which are transformed (rotated/sheared/mirrored) are painted directly
• Lines with LineWidth and/or transparence are painted directly
• Geometry and Pixel data is buffered in system-dependent formats

For example, this allows even animated GIFs to be used as object fill style for any object and to transform these in real time (when supported on the system).   It also greatly enhances visualization geometry during editing (in the EditViews) when supported.

Additional Language Support

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• BVT (Basic Verification Tests)
• FVT (Functional Verification Tests)
• PVT (Performance Verification Tests)
• SVT (System Verifcation Tests)

Additional Platform Support

• None at this time.

Changes that Impact Backwards Compatibility

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