The Download Blog

Sun Microsystems has released the first beta for OpenOffice.org 3 for Windows and Mac. The new version of OpenOffice, which is a popular open-source competitor to Microsoft Office, looks to offer users improvements on every component from interface to features to behavior.

OpenOffice.org 3 Start Center

(Credit: CNET Networks)

OpenOffice now natively supports OS X, so Mac users won't have to install the X11 module before running the suite. Full Vista support is also included in the beta, and didn't cause any problems during light testing. Notably, OpenOffice 3 includes filters for the new Microsoft Office document formats such as DOCX and XLSX as well as continuing support for standard Microsoft formats. Support for Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac has been lacking until now.

The user interface doesn't look to have undergone many changes, besides getting a slightly snazzier gradated background and slightly larger icons. However, the new features more than make up for this. Enhancements include support for OpenDocument Format 1.2, a Solver feature, spreadsheet sharing to facilitate collaboration, improved PDF creation and importation, and improvements to the Notes feature in Writer.

The new Start Center should appeal to users who like having a landing page or only want to have one link on their desktop. It opens up a window that highlights all of the OpenOffice tools with big icons. Another of the more exciting OpenOffice extensions also being released is a Wiki Publisher tool that should make uploading wiki information from the program to a MediaWiki server a snap.

In-depth details of the changes planned for OpenOffice 3 can be found at the OpenOffice.org feature list and release notes.

Faster is almost always better, at least when it comes to computers. So what's the fastest way to open a word processor?

You can create a keyboard shortcut to open Notepad, WordPad, Word, or any other word processor on your PC by right-clicking the program's shortcut on the Start menu, choosing Properties > Shortcut > Shortcut key, entering your keystroke combination of choice (be sure not to overwrite one that's already in use), and pressing Enter. I described how to get fast access to all your keyboard shortcuts in a post from last week.

Now press the keystroke combination to open the program, and start typing (or navigate to an existing file you want to open). When you're done working in the file, press Ctrl-S, give the file a name (if it doesn't have one already), choose a location to store it (or accept the program's default storage folder), and press Enter. What could be simpler?

Well, skipping the file-naming and storage location-choosing steps, for one thing. And having access to the notes from any Internet-connected computer, for another.

Web word processors auto-save files
You can create a keyboard shortcut that opens Google Docs or any other Web word processor. Start by opening a new document in the service. Select the URL in the Address bar, and type Ctrl-C to copy it to the clipboard. Now open Windows Explorer to the Desktop or any other folder, right-click anywhere in the folder, choose New > Shortcut, paste the URL of the service into the location field, press Enter, give the shortcut a name, and press Enter again.

Next, right-click the shortcut you just created, click Properties > Shortcut > Shortcut key, type your preferred keystroke combination for opening the service, and press Enter. Now you can open the service ready to create a new file by pressing that keyboard shortcut.

Unfortunately, if you're not already logged in, you'll have to enter your username and password before you can open the blank file. You can avoid the login step by creating the shortcut to the Writer online word processor that mimics the look of old DOS-based text editors running on a green-phosphor display. (The service's bare-bones look is itself modeled after the free Dark Room word processor, which, in turn, is the Windows version of the WriteRoom word processor for Mac OS X.)

Since Writer doesn't require you to log in--or even to create an account--you need not give your files a name. Just stick with the default, and when you want to reopen the file, select it from your list of documents, which appears just below the text window.

Use the Writer online word processor for instant--and universal-access to your notes.

(Credit: John Watson/BigHugeLabs.com)

Writer remembers your files by leaving a cookie with the identifying information. If you delete the cookie, you lose access to the files, unless you sign up for a free account. The account has the added benefit of providing access to your files from any Internet-connected PC.

Should you find Writer to your liking, be sure to make a donation to its creator to help keep the great services coming.

Monday: get more use out of Windows' taskbar.

This free, open-source word-processor strikes us as a worthy alternative to pricey, big-name products. AbiWord has a quick learning curve, since the interface is very similar to other word processors. You'll find just about all the features you need, including the ability to cut and paste, to highlight, as well a bevy of common formatting tools.

Although we did miss a grammar-checking utility, AbiWord can check your spelling in many languages--you'll need to choose the appropriate foreign language dictionaries during installation. A huge plus is the ability to open and save Microsoft Word documents, though the program also has its own proprietary file format. You can download plug-ins at the publisher's site to import and export a wide variety of other formats, including OpenDocument. AbiWord should appeal to a wide range of users who seek a functional word-processing app but lack a large bank account.

Safe and dependable software old-timers WordPerfect and WinZip have been bestowed with some upgrades. WordPerfect gets a major overhaul with Version X4, while WinZip's 11.2 adds some new features to the program, the first update in a year.

WordPerfect X4 gives users a choice of interfaces and defaults at startup.

(Credit: Corel)

You can read the full CNET Reviews analysis of WordPerfect X4 here, but in short, it's a good, solid improvement on what has gone before in the suite even if it is cost-prohibitive and not quite as spiffy as one would hope. It's able to gracefully handle more than 60 document formats, including the nascent Open Document Format, a stark contrast to Microsoft Office's decision to create its own "open format" instead.

It's also useful that WordPerfect displays different interfaces for different purposes, with a different look for the main interface, for WordPerfect 5.1, for MS Word, and for Legal mode. The WordPerfect suite includes spreadsheet-creating Quattro Pro and PowerPoint analogue Presentations, both of which have improved with the times--but not dramatically so.

The two new apps in the suite are Lightning and Mail. Mail is an e-mail client comparable with Outlook, but lacks built-in configurations for handling Gmail, Yahoo, and other Web-based e-mail systems as Mozilla Thunderbird does. Lightning was somewhat disappointing for Corel's answer to Web 2.0. Online services provide 200MB of storage for free, a file navigator indexes your hard drive, and a lightweight viewer and text editor round out the package. While it offers a lot, the workflow isn't always intuitive.

Besides the price, though, other problems included difficulty managing multiple documents opened simultaneously in WordPerfect, and a lack of refinement to many of the newer features. Users who are turned off by Microsoft's changes in Office 2007 might find X4 to be a suite worth investing in. Personally, I used WordPerfect for nearly 20 years, but gave it up last year to jump to OpenOffice.org.

WinZip now supports a second interface that looks more like Explorer.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

WinZip's changes are far less extensive, but should please people who are still loyal to the program. Native LHA support has been added, so that WinZip can create and manage LHA files, and unicode support has been extended to sharing files that have names with international characters. ARC and ARJ support has been removed.

I was actually surprised, though, by some of the newer features I hadn't picked up on when versions 11 and 11.1 came out. Most interestingly, there's now a new spreadsheet-style interface that I found to be easier to use and far more pleasant to look at than the old open interface that is also still available. RAR and BZ2 extraction support was added, too, both long-overdue compatibility issues.

It's great to see both WordPerfect and WinZip still kicking around after all these years, but if news of open-source software's rising dominance is to be believed, these programs will have an even shorter lifespan than I'd thought unless they make some drastic changes.

Power Downloader knows one of the most difficult things about studying and writing papers is staying focused. When he received a stressed out e-mail from Kitty Kilobyte recently saying she was trying to write a paper for school, but kept getting distracted, Power knew all too well what she was talking about. Even when Power Downloader needs to get to work, he will sometimes find himself surfing the Web or checking e-mail, so he knows how easy it is to get distracted. Over time, Power is sure Kitty will develop the skills necessary to focus on her work, but for now he decided would try to find her the perfect tool to stay focused.

Dark Room only gives users the essentials so they can focus on writing

(Credit: CNET Networks)

After some searching at Download.com, Power Downloader came upon a little textpad application called Dark Room. While the program is not particularly strong on features, it does one thing very well: it eliminates distraction. With Dark Room on her computer, Kitty would be able to write her paper without the usual distractions of her computer's desktop. Dark Room would let Kitty write in full screen with a black background so all the chat notifications, e-mail alerts, and other distractions are conveniently hidden out of view. If she didn't like the default black background, she could switch the background color, the text color, and the font, all in the Dark Room options. Playing with some of the options, Power couldn't help but think this application would be extremely useful for writers as well if they knew all the hot keys. A helpful readme file comes with the download and Power Downloader made sure to point out in his e-mail to Kitty she should read it for all of Dark Room's features and hot keys before she gets started.

After sending the e-mail with a link to Dark Room to Kitty, Power Downloader decides some of his old criminal case summaries could use a little work. With Dark Room, Power Downloader won't have to worry about being distracted while he remembers past pursuits of Internet bad guys.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Power Downloader has been around long enough to know that young people tend to go through phases in their lives. Particularly in college, when young people are trying to figure out what path they want to take and what kind of individual they want to be, a certain degree of experimentation is expected. When Power's niece, Kitty Kilobyte, recently stated in an e-mail that she would no longer use any software from a huge corporation, Power smiled knowingly to himself and continued to read on. Kitty said one of the programs she needed was a full-featured word processor for her next year at school, but it had to be unique like she is--a program unlike what everybody uses at school.

In Power Downloader's many trips through the Download.com software library, he's found plenty of unique software apps; from the strange and wonderful to the just plain weird. But it wasn't enough to just grab the weirdest word processor available for Kitty; he had to find one that was both unique and useful.... Read more