OpenOffice.org

for Mac OS X

OpenOffice.org splash screen


Home Page
Personal Data
Personal History
At Home
At Work
At Play
Other Things
Useful Links

"OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X

News | Introduction | Product Line | System Requirements | Download

Online Support | Online Documentation | Change History | Known Bugs

News

01 Sep 2003 : Yves de Champlain has provided an improved French translation (la tradution française par Yves de Champlain) of the "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b8 user interface.

31 Aug 2003 : Yves de Champlain has provided a French translation (la tradution française par Yves de Champlain) of the "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b8 user interface.

07 Jun 2003 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b8. Add support for creating new "OpenOffice.org" documents directly from "Start OpenOffice.org", even when "OpenOffice.org" is not running. Add support for converting font files dragged to "Start OpenOffice.org" application icon into "OpenOffice.org" font format. Add support for localized strings. Add support for multi-user launch script. Improved error reporting. Other bug fixes.

07 Mar 2003 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b7. Add support for configuring printers. Add support for multiple versions of "OpenOffice.org" in the "~/.sversionrc" file. Improved error reporting.

20 Jan 2003 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b6. Fix problems that occur if the "OpenOffice.org" installation path contains space characters.

15 Jan 2003 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b5. Supports the Beta version of "X11.app" from Apple Computer, Inc.

05 Jan 2003 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b4. Supports OroborOSX directly; supports "OpenOffice.org" v1.0.1 Final Beta.

21 Oct 2002 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org.x11app" v1.0b1 Launch Menu Item for "OroborOSX" [no longer required with "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b4].

13 Oct 2002 : Released "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b2. Supports Direct to PostScript Printing and "OpenOffice.org" v1.0.1 Beta. Added download link to my ".mac" Public Folder.

Introduction

"OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X is a port of the popular productivity suite of applications open source project, to Mac OS X.For more information on "OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X, visit the "OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X web site.

"Start OpenOffice.org" is an application for use with "OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X.

Product Line

Current products utilizing "OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X are :

  • "Start OpenOffice.org" is a double-clickable Mac OS X application that allows the user to easily open documents created by "OpenOffice.org". It also provides an easy way to just launch "OpenOffice.org".
  • Start OpenOffice.org" version française - Yves de Champlain has provided a French translation (la tradution française par Yves de Champlain) of the "Start OpenOffice.org" user interface, on this separate web page.

The following are the standard application and document icons provided with "Start OpenOffice.org" :

 

Standard OpenOffice.org icons

To be automatically notified of updates, I recommend using the mailing list subscription feature offered by

VersionTracker logo

System Requirements

Any Macintosh that supports Mac OS X.

Requirements for the X11 version of "OpenOffice.org" :

  • Mac OS X 10.1.2 or newer (tested with 10.1.5, 10.2.3, 10.2.6)
  • X11 X Window system (tested with "XFree86" v4.2.0, v4.2.1.1, v4.3.0)
  • X11 X Window server (tested with "XDarwin" v1.1, v1.1.1.1, v1.2; "OroborOSX" v0.8b2, v0.8.5; "X11.app" Beta v0.1, v0.2, v0.3)
  • X11 X Window window manager (tested with "windowmaker" v0.62.1X; "OroborOSX" v0.8b2, v0.8.5; "quartz-wm" Beta v0.1, v0.2, v0.3)
  • "dlcompat" compatibility library (tested with v10505X, v20020913-10.2)
  • "freetype" (optional - tested with v1.3.1X - libfreetype v6.2, v6.3)
  • "fondu" (optional - tested with v021223)
  • "ghostscript" (optional - tested with espghostscript-7.05.5)
  • "OpenOffice.org" (tested with v1.0.1 Alpha, v1.0.1 Beta, v1.0.1 Final Beta, v1.0.3)

Most of these items are available from 3rd party sources, and are part of the "OpenOffice.org" installation.

Download

Files are stored as StuffIt (.sit) binary files, or Apple Disk Copy device image (.dmg) files, or MacBinary (.bin) files, or BinHex (.hqx) files. You may require an appropriate FTP client and/or web browser settings.

The ".mac" (or iDisk Public Folder for user "teague") web site appears to have more reliable file transfers.

  • "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b8 (released 07 Jun 03).

    Due to difficulties with the GeoCities web site apparently corrupting large file transfers, this version has been split into two pieces for the GeoCities web site (only). One piece is the application only; the other piece is the documentation only. It is recommended you download both pieces.

    The ".mac" (or iDisk Public Folder for user "teague") web site appears to have more reliable file transfers, and it is recommended you download the entire "Start OpenOffice.org" from this site.

    [ iDisk | Application (HTTP) | Documentation (HTTP) | FTP]

Online Support

Visit the OpenOffice.org Testing Forums for support.

Support is also available via EMail or one of OpenOffice.org mailing lists.

Online Documentation

Documentation is not yet available online for "Start OpenOffice.org". The documentation is provided as part of the downloadable package.

Change History

07 Jun 03 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b8. Fix problem with the "Application.applescript" script being too long to edit with Script Editor - moved some handlers to separate "Utility.applescript".

Add support for creating new "OpenOffice.org" documents directly from "Start OpenOffice.org", even when "OpenOffice.org" is not running.

Fix problem with carriage returns in the "~/.sversionrc" file not being filtered out.

Add support for converting font files dragged to "Start OpenOffice.org" application icon into "OpenOffice.org" font format - no longer launch XServer until necessary. Report "fondu" errors.

Add support for localized strings.

Various tidy-ups.

Make sure documents to be opened are files, and not folders or disks.

More workarounds for Mac OS X 10.1.x.

Add support for multi-user launch script.

Add support for default module to launch.

Add more checking for launch failures.

Use an alternate setting for X11 DISPLAY environment variable.

Fix bug in first time use of X11.app.

07 Mar 03 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b7. Add support for configuring printers, and patch the "soffice" script, if necessary.

Add support for multiple versions of "OpenOffice.org" in the "~/.sversionrc" file.

Various tidy-ups. Check if running on valid system.

Display Alert if chosen "OpenOffice.org" application is missing, or can't be found because of a missing "~/.sversionrc" file.

Re-arranged code to avoid strange problems in Mac OS X 10.1.x. Added special case workaround for Mac OS X 10.1.x.

Display Alert if the XServer or "OpenOffice.org" can't be launched successfully. Redirect errors and output to a temporary file rather than /dev/null, and use this file to provide details when errors are reported.

20 Jan 03 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b6. Fix problems that occur if the "OpenOffice.org" installation path contains space characters.

15 Jan 03 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b5. Add support for Beta version of "X11.app" from Apple Computer, Inc.

05 Jan 03 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b4. Released for "OpenOffice.org" v1.0.1 Final Beta.

Add support for "OroborOSX".

Add Preferences panel to allow user to select defaults.

Fix problems with opening "OpenOffice.org" documents after "Start OpenOffice.org" is running.

Always launch the XServer, if only to just bring the process to the front (activate).

Various changes to better support Mac OS X 10.1.x.

Wait for "XDarwin" process to be running before executing "OpenOffice.org".

Let the default XServer be what is chosen at first launch of "Start OpenOffice.org".

21 Oct 02 :

"Start OpenOffice.org.x11app"

v1.0b1. Initial public release for "OroborOSX" v.08b2, "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b2, and "OpenOffice.org" v1.0.1 Beta.

13 Oct 02 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b2. Added support for Direct to PostScript Printing and "OpenOffice.org" v1.0.1 Beta.

07 Sep 02 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b1. First public release

Known bugs

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b8. There are still some problems with Mac OS X 10.1.x. There is a lack of some cleanups and reporting of font conversion failures with "fondu".

For a list of known bugs in "OpenOffice.org" for Mac OS X, visit the "OpenOffice.org" Issues web page.

News | Introduction | Product Line | System Requirements | Download

Online Support | Online Documentation | Change History | Known Bugs

Home Page| Personal Data | Personal History | At Home | At Work | At Play | Other Things | Useful Links

Copyright (c) 1995-2003 Terry Teague
abuse@mac.com
Date Last Modified: 9/1/2003
Replace "abuse" with "teague" in EMail address