OpenOffice.

org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice,
is an open-source application suite whose main components
are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations,
graphics, and databases. It is available for a number of
different computer operating systems, is distributed as free
software and is written using its own GUI toolkit. It supports
the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) for data
interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft
Office formats among others. As of November 2009,
OpenOffice.org supports over 110 languages.

OpenOffice.org originated as StarOffice, an office suite

developed by StarDivision and acquired by Sun
Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite
was released in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the
dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a
free and open alternative; later versions of StarOffice are
based upon OpenOffice.org with additional proprietary
components. The OpenOffice.org project is primarily
sponsored by Oracle Corporation (having acquired Sun
Microsystems). Other major corporate contributors include
Novell, Red Hat, IBM, Google and others.

The project and software are commonly known as

OpenOffice, but this term is a trademark held by a company
in the Netherlands co-founded by Wouter Hanegraaff and is
also in use by Orange UK, requiring the project to adopt
OpenOffice.org as its formal name. Although branded as
OpenOffice.org, the office suite included in most Linux
distributions (including Ubuntu, openSUSE and Mandriva
Linux) is actually a fork or an unofficial branch called Go-
oo.

Originally the German company StarDivision developed the

application as the proprietary software suite StarOffice. In
1999 Sun Microsystems purchased the code. In August 1999
version 5.2 of StarOffice was made available free of charge.

OpenOffice.org 1

On July 19, 2000, Sun Microsystems announced that it

would make the source code of StarOffice available for
download under both the LGPL and the Sun Industry
Standards Source License (SISSL) with the intention of building an open-source development
community around the software. The new project was known as OpenOffice.org, and its website
went live on October 13, 2000. OpenOffice.org 1.0 was released on May 1, 2002 for MS
Windows, Linux and Solaris. OpenOffice.org 1.0 for MacOS X (X11) was released on June 23,
2003.

OpenOffice.org 1.1 introduced One-click Export to PDF and can Export presentations to Flash
(.SWF). It also added the 3rd Party Add-ons ability.

OpenOffice.org 2

Work on version 2.0 began in early 2003 with the following goals: better interoperability with
Microsoft Office; better performance, with improved speed and lower memory usage; greater
scripting capabilities; better integration, particularly with GNOME; an easier-to-find and use
database front-end for creating reports, forms and queries; digital signatures (only in ODF
format; this feature is not defined in ODF 1.1 specification); a new built-in SQL database; and
improved usability. Sun released a beta version on March 4, 2005.

On September 2, 2005 Sun announced that it was retiring the SISSL. As a consequence, the
OpenOffice.org Community Council announced that it would no longer dual-license the office
suite, and future versions would use only the LGPL.

On October 20, 2005, Sun Microsystems formally released OpenOffice.org 2.0 to the public.
Eight weeks after the release of Version 2.0, an update, OpenOffice.org 2.0.1, was released. It
fixed minor bugs and introduced new features.

As of the 2.0.3 release, OpenOffice.org changed its release cycle from 18 months to releasing
updates, feature enhancements and bug fixes every three months. As of 2010, new versions
(including new features) are released every six months (so-called "feature releases") alternating
with so-called "bug fix releases" which are being released between two feature releases (every
three months).

OpenOffice.org 3

The Sun Start Center for versions between 3.0 and 3.2.0
In October 2008, version 3.0 was released, featuring the ability to import, but not export, Office
Open XML documents, support for the new ODF 1.2 document format, improved support for
VBA macros, and a native port for Mac OS X. It also introduces the new Start Center.

Version 3.2 included support for PostScript-based OpenType fonts. In addition, the software will
now warn users when ODF 1.2 Extended features have been used. An improvement to the
document integrity check will determine if an ODF document conforms to the ODF specification
and offer a repair if necessary.The Calc and Writer components both have a reduced "cold start"
time by 46% compared to version 3.0

Future developments
OpenOffice.org 3.3

OpenOffice.org 3.3 Beta was released on August 10, 2010. In future versions, the user interface
will receive incremental improvements beginning with Impress, the presentation application.
New features in version 3.3 should include an updated print form, a FindBar in Writer and Base
being upgraded to hsqldb 2.0 from version 1.8.

Oracle Open Office

OpenOffice.org inherited many features from the original StarOffice upon which it was based,
including the OpenOffice.org XML file format which it retained until version 2, when the
ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) replaced it.

Sun subsidized the development of OpenOffice.org in order to use it as a base for its commercial
proprietary StarOffice application software. Releases of StarOffice from version 6.0 were based
on the OpenOffice.org source code, with some additional proprietary components, including the
following:

 additional bundled fonts (especially East Asian language fonts)

 Adabas D database. (The OpenOffice database module does not use Adabas)
 additional document templates
 clip art
 sorting functionality for Asian versions
 additional file filters
 migration assessment tool (Enterprise Edition)
 macro migration tool (Enterprise Edition)
 configuration management tool (Enterprise Edition)

Following the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, StarOffice and StarSuite became known as Oracle
Open Office. The Oracle ODF Plug-In for Microsoft Office, formerly free (and slightly
differently named) under Sun, now costs US$90 per user. A minimum purchase quantity of 100
now puts the minimum purchase price for the previously free plug-in at US$9000. (The plug-in
allows Microsoft Office 2007 (SP1 or Gold), 2003, XP (aka 2002) and 2000 to open ODF files
(specifically: files with .ODP, .ODS and .ODT extensions), and to provide Office 2007 with SP2
and 2010 "better ODF support than [either provide natively]". Office 2007 with SP2 and 2010
are both capable of opening and saving ODF files natively, though only to some degree of
formatting accuracy).

While continuing to support OpenOffice.org, Oracle Corporation has announced an intention to

market "Oracle Cloud Office" as a cloud-computing suite.

The Document Foundation and LibreOffice

Startcentre in LibreOffice beta.

On September 28, 2010, some members of the OpenOffice.org Project formed a new group
called The Document Foundation, and made available a rebranded fork of OpenOffice.org,
provisionally named LibreOffice. The Foundation stated that it will coordinate and oversee the
development of LibreOffice. Oracle was invited to become a member of the Document
Foundation, and asked to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project.

The Document Foundation received statements of support from members of the OpenOffice.org
community, including the companies Novell, RedHat, Canonical and Google. The goal is to
produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any copyright
assignment requirements.

Go-oo improvements are being merged in LibreOffice. Improvements done in other forks are
expected to be incorporated as well.

OpenOffice.org continues to function as an open source community and product despite the new
LibreOffice fork.
Features
OpenOffice.org 1.0 was launched under the following mission statement:

To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major
platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based
APIs and an XML-based file format.

OpenOffice.org 3 is promoted as being available in many languages, working on all common

computers, storing data in an international open standard format and being able to read and write
files from other common office software packages, as well as being available for download and
use completely free of charge for any purpose.

In particular, the publishers of the office suite stress that it is the result of over twenty years'
software engineering, it is easy to use, and it is free, released under the LGPL licence.

Platforms

Platforms supported by OO.o include Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, BSD, OpenVMS,
OS/2 and IRIX. The current primary development platforms are Microsoft Windows, Linux and
Solaris.

Support for Mac OS X exists for OS X's native Aqua user interface, as of version 3.0. Previous
versions required installing the X Window System component. NeoOffice is an independent fork
of OpenOffice, specially adapted for Mac OS X.

Operating system compatibility

 FreeBSD: v3.2.0  Mac OS X v10.4–v10.5 (Intel): v3.2

 Linux  Mac OS X v10.6: v3.2
 OpenBSD  Windows 95: up to v1.1.5
 NetBSD  Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 – up to v2.1
 Solaris: v3.2  Windows 98 – Windows ME: up to v2.4.3
 Mac OS X v10.2: up to v1.1.2  Windows 2000 – Windows 7: v3.2 (Tablet PC
 Mac OS X v10.3: up to v2.1 input is not supported)
 Mac OS X v10.4–v10.5  OS/2 and eComStation: up to v3.1.1
(PowerPC): up to v3.2[46]  IRIX (mips4): up to v1.0.3
Components

OpenOffice.org comprises a collection of applications that work together closely to provide the
features commonly included in modern office suites. Many of the components mirror those
available in Microsoft Office. The components available include:

Module Notes
A word processor similar to Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. It can export
Writer Portable Document Format (PDF) files, and can function as a basic WYSIWYG
editor for creating and editing web pages.
A spreadsheet similar to Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Calc can export
spreadsheets to the PDF format. (See ooWriter entry, above, for details of
Calc PDF). Calc provides a number of features not present in Excel, including a
system which automatically defines series for graphing, based on the layout of
the user’s data.
A presentation program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote.
Impress can export presentations to Adobe Flash (SWF) files, allowing them to
be played on any computer with a Flash player installed. It also includes the
Impress ability to create PDF files, and the ability to read Microsoft PowerPoint's .ppt
format. Impress lacks ready-made presentation designs. However, this can be
overcome by downloading the Sun_ODF_Template_Pack2_en-US from the
Openoffice.org Extensions website..
A database management program similar to Microsoft Access. Base allows the
creation and manipulation of databases, and the building of forms and reports to
provide easy access to data for end-users. As with MS Access, Base can
function as a front-end to a number of different database systems, including
Base Access databases (JET), ODBC data sources and MySQL/PostgreSQL. Base
became part of the suite starting with version 2.0. Native to the OpenOffice.org
suite is an adaptation of HSQL. While Base can be a front-end for any of the
databases listed, there is no need to install any of them. Raw SQL code can be
entered by those who prefer it, or graphical user interfaces can be used.
A vector graphics editor comparable in features to early versions of
CorelDRAW. It features versatile "connectors" between shapes, which are
available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as
Draw
flowcharts. It has similar features to desktop-publishing software such as
Scribus and Microsoft Publisher. Draw can also export its creations to the PDF
format. (See ooWriter entry, above, for details of PDF).
A tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae, similar to Microsoft
Equation Editor. OOo users can embed formulae inside other OpenOffice.org
Math
documents, such as those created by Writer. It supports multiple fonts and can
export to PDF.
  QuickStarter

A small program for Windows and Linux that runs when the computer starts for the first
time. It loads the core files and libraries for OpenOffice.org during computer startup and
allows the suite applications to start more quickly when selected later. The amount of
time it takes to open OpenOffice.org applications occasioned complaints at version 1.0 of
the suite. Substantial improvements were made in this area for version 2.2.

 The macro recorder

Can record user actions and replay them later to help with automating tasks, using
OpenOffice.org Basic (see below).

It is not possible to download these components individually for Microsoft Windows

environments, though they can be installed separately. Most Linux distributions break the
components into individual packages which may be downloaded and installed separately.

 Fonts

OpenOffice.org includes DejaVu fonts and OpenSymbol font in its installation packages.
Installation packages for different operating systems may also contain Liberation fonts
(starting with OpenOffice.org 2.4) or Gentium fonts (since OpenOffice.org 3.2). Older
versions of OpenOffice.org (up to versions 2.3.x) included Bitstream Vera fonts.
OpenOffice.org applications use the default fonts of the running operating system. For
example, as of 2010, recent versions of GNU/Linux distributions (Mandriva Linux,
Ubuntu and OpenSUSE) use the Liberation fonts or DejaVu fonts as default fonts for new
documents (when a new document is created).

OpenOffice.org Basic

Main article: StarOffice Basic

OpenOffice.org Basic is a programming language similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for

Applications (VBA) but based on StarOffice Basic. In addition to the macros, the Novell edition
of OpenOffice.org has Microsoft VBA macros support from version 2.0, a feature partly
incorporated into the mainstream version with version 3.0.

OpenOffice.org Basic is available in the Writer and Calc applications. It is written in functions
called subroutines or macros, with each macro performing a different task, such as counting the
words in a paragraph. OpenOffice.org Basic is especially useful in doing repetitive tasks that
have not been integrated in the program.

As the OpenOffice.org database, called "Base", uses documents created under the Writer
application for reports and forms, one could say that Base can also be programmed with
OpenOffice.org Basic.
Connectivity

OOo can interact with databases (local or remote) using:

 ODBC: Open Database Connectivity

 JDBC: Java Database Connectivity
 SDBC: StarOffice Database Connectivity

File formats
OpenOffice.org pioneered the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument file formats (ODF), which it
uses natively and by default. It also supports reading (and in some cases writing) many legacy
and current proprietary file formats (e.g.: WordPerfect through libwpd, StarOffice, Lotus
Software, MS Works through libwps, Rich Text Format, Hangul WP 97 format, etc.), most
notably including Microsoft Office formats. Since version 3.0 the default format of
OpenOffice.org is based on draft versions for OASIS ODF 1.2 (but this setting can be changed to
ODF 1.0/1.1 in application settings). Versions 2.0–2.3.0 of OpenOffice.org default to the ODF
1.0 file format; OpenOffice.org versions 2.3.1–2.4.3 default to ODF 1.1. The OpenDocument 1.0
specification was approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard under the name
ISO/IEC 26300:2006.

OpenOffice.org used the OpenOffice.org XML file format in its 1.x versions as its native and
default format for saving files. OpenOffice.org developers contributed the OpenOffice.org XML
File Format to OASIS. On the basis of that format OASIS developed the OpenDocument format,
which became the native file format of OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org XML file format is still
supported in all later versions of OpenOffice.org.

OpenOffice.org has also supported Unified Office Format since version 3, DocBook since
version 1.1, Data Interchange Format, TXT, Comma-separated values and many others.

Development
Governance

The OpenOffice.org project is governed by the Community Council, comprising members from
the OpenOffice.org community, which created the charter establishing the Community Council.
The Community Council suggests OpenOffice.org project goals, coordinate with Sun
Microsystems on StarOffice, with producers of other derivative commercial products and with
Open Source projects on long-term development planning issues, represents the project, gathers
and allocates funds, adjudicates conflicts, offers a forum for community members, etc..

The Council have no power over intellectual-property ownership of OpenOffice.org, licenses

under which OpenOffice.org is released, resources controlled by Sun Microsystems, sponsors or
the contributing individuals. The Council also may not sign contracts or enter into binding legal
agreements. The Council will not attempt to directly manage individual projects, except where
strictly necessary in pursuing other Council's duties.

Overview

The OpenOffice.org API is based on a component technology known as Universal Network

Objects (UNO). It consists of a wide range of interfaces defined in a CORBA-like interface
description language.

The document file format used is based on XML and several export and import filters.
OpenOffice.org converts all external formats which it reads - back and forth from an internal
XML representation. By using compression when saving XML to disk, files are generally
smaller than the equivalent binary Microsoft Office documents. The native file format for storing
documents in version 1.0 was used as the basis of the OASIS OpenDocument file format
standard, which became the default file format in version 2.0.

Development versions of the suite are released every few weeks on the developer zone of the
OpenOffice.org website. The releases are meant for those who wish to test new features or are
simply curious about forthcoming changes; they are not suitable for production use.

Native desktop integration

OpenOffice.org 1.0 was criticized for not having the look and feel of applications developed
natively for the platforms on which it runs. Starting with version 2.0, OpenOffice.org uses native
widget toolkit, icons, and font-rendering libraries across a variety of platforms, to better match
native applications and to provide a smoother experience for the user. Projects have started to
further improve this integration on both GNOME and KDE desktop environments.

This issue has been particularly pronounced on Mac OS X, whose standard user interface looks
noticeably different from either Windows or X11-based desktop environments and requires the
use of programming toolkits initially unfamiliar to most OpenOffice.org developers. Early
versions of OpenOffice.org required the installation of X11.app or XDarwin. Version 3.0 runs
natively using Apple's Aqua GUI.

Other projects

A number of products derive from OpenOffice.org. The more well-known ones include Sun
StarOffice, NeoOffice and IBM's Symphony. The OpenOffice.org site also lists a large variety of
complementary products, including groupware systems.

 OOo4Kids, An Open Office.org Education Project designed for 7-12 year-old age range
with specific adaptations to the world of education such as a simpler to learn interface,
less highly complex math, word-formatting and other functions such as standard
deviations, cosine functions... in spreadsheets disabled and group collaboration.
 NeoOffice, an independent port, offered a native OS X’s Aqua user interface even before
such integration was available in OpenOffice.org. Its releases lag behind the official
 releases, due to its small development team and the concurrent development of the
technology used to port the user interface.
 OpenGroupware.org is a set of extension programs to allow the sharing of
OpenOffice.org documents, calendars, address books, e-mails, instant messaging and
blackboards, and to provide access to other groupware applications.
 A set of Perl extensions (available through the CPAN) allows external programs to
process OpenOffice.org documents. These libraries do not use the OpenOffice.org API.
They directly read or write the OpenOffice.org files using Perl standard file
compression/decompression, XML access and UTF-8 encoding modules.
 PortableApps.com and LiberKey distribute versions of OpenOffice.org designed to run
the suite under Microsoft Windows from a USB flash drive. DownloadSupportOOo 2.2.1
 OxygenOffice Professional extends OpenOffice.org, adding the ability to run Visual
Basic for Application (VBA) macros in Calc (for testing), improved Calc HTML export,
enhanced Access support for Base, enhanced color-palette, enhanced help and
documentation, additional clip art, several templates and sample documents and over 90
fonts.

Extensions

Since version 2.0.4, OpenOffice.org has supported extensions, in a similar manner to Mozilla
Firefox, including the unique extension .oxt. Extensions make it easy to add new functionality to
an existing OpenOffice.org installation. As of September 2009 the OpenOffice.org Extension
Repository lists more than 390 extensions. Developers can easily build new extensions for
OpenOffice.org, for example by using the API Plugin for NetBeans.

Security

The OpenOffice.org project includes a security team, and as of June 2008 the security
organization Secunia reports no known unpatched security flaws for the software. Kaspersky Lab
has shown a proof of concept virus for OpenOffice.org. This shows OOo viruses are possible,
but there is no known virus "in the wild".

In a private meeting of the French Ministry of Defense, macro-related security issues were raised
OpenOffice.org developers have responded and noted that the supposed vulnerability had not
been announced through "well defined procedures" for disclosure and that the Ministry had
revealed nothing specific. However, the developers have had discussions with the researcher
concerning the supposed vulnerability.

Ownership
The project and software are informally referred to as OpenOffice, but report that this term is a
trademark held by another party, requiring them to adopt OpenOffice.org as its formal name.
Due to a similar trademark issue, the Brazilian Portuguese version of the suite is distributed
under the name BrOffice.org. Staff members of StarOffice manage the development of
OpenOffice.org. Some delay and difficulty in implementing external contributions to the core
codebase (even those from the project's corporate sponsors) has been noted. Another potential
turnoff is that third-party developers are required to sign an agreement (Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Contributor Agreement) that effectively transfers copyright of their code to Sun Microsystems
Inc.

As of 2010 several derived and/or proprietary works exist based on OOo, including:

 Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, with various complementary add-ons (Sun is now owned
by Oracle).
 IBM's Lotus Symphony, with a new interface based on Eclipse (based on OO.o 1.x).
 OpenOffice.org Novell edition, integrated with Evolution and with an OOXML filter.
 Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000's RedOffice, fully localized in Chinese characters and with
support for English.
 Planamesa's NeoOffice for Mac OS X with Aqua support via Java.
 Go-oo, a branch of OpenOffice.org.

On May 23, 2007, the OpenOffice.org community and Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co, Ltd.
announced a joint development effort focused on integrating the new features that have been
added in the RedOffice localization of OpenOffice.org, as well as quality assurance and work on
the core applications. Additionally, Redflag Chinese 2000 made public its commitment to the
global OO.o community stating it would "strengthen its support of the development of the
world's leading free and open source productivity suite", adding around 50 engineers (who have
been working on RedOffice since 2006) to the project.

In September 10, 2007, the OO.o community announced that IBM had joined to support the
development of OpenOffice.org. "IBM will be making initial code contributions that it has been
developing as part of its Lotus Notes product, including accessibility enhancements, and will be
making ongoing contributions to the feature richness and code quality of OpenOffice.org.
Besides working with the community on the free productivity suite's software, IBM will also
leverage OpenOffice.org technology in its products" as seen with Lotus Symphony. Sean
Poulley, the vice president of business and strategy in IBM's Lotus Software division, said that
IBM plans to take a leadership role in the OpenOffice.org community together with other
companies such as Sun Microsystems. IBM will work within the leadership structure that exists.

Go-oo

Main article: Go-oo

On October 2, 2007, Michael Meeks announced (and generated an answer by Sun's Simon
Phipps and Mathias Bauer) a derived OpenOffice.org work, under the wing of his employer
Novell, with the purpose of including new features and fixes that do not get easily integrated in
the OOo-build up-stream core. The work is called Go-oo, a name under which a set of patches
for OO.o software has been available for five years. The new features, shared with Novell's
edition of OOo, include:

 support for VBA macros

 faster start-up time
  improved GTK theme handling (especially dark-colored)
 "A linear optimization solver to optimize a cell value based on arbitrary constraints built
into Calc".
 multimedia content support in documents, using the gstreamer multimedia framework
 support for Microsoft Works formats, WordPerfect graphics (WPG format) and T602
files imports
 export for Office Open XML files such as docx, xlsx, pptx by using Novell OpenXML
Converter

According to the Document Foundation, the enhancements produced by the Go-oo team will be
merged into the newly created LibreOffice suite.

Retail
The free software license (under which Sun distributes OpenOffice.org) allows unlimited use of
the software for both home and business use, including unlimited redistribution of the software.
Several businesses sell the OpenOffice.org suite on auction websites such as eBay, offering
value-added services such as 24/7 technical support, download mirrors, and CD mailing. One
retail site, Open Office Anywhere, also offers the ability to run the suite using just a web
browser.