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06 Jul 2004 : A new version of "Start OpenOffice.org" will be coming soon, to fix a couple of problems, and to add additional localizations. In the meantime you can download the additional localizations separately.

15 May 2004 : "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b9 released. Many bug fixes and improvements. See the Change History for details.

Previous news

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.

It is localized for US English and French (la tradution française par Yves de Champlain). Additional localizations (German - Deutsch, Dutch - Nederlands) are available for download separately.

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".

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

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

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, 10.2.3, 10.2.6, 10.3, 10.3.3)
• BSD Subsystem (command line utilities - installed by default with Mac OS X)
• X11 X Window system (tested with "XFree86" v4.2.0, v4.2.1.1, v4.3.0, v4.4.0)
• X11 X Window server (tested with "XDarwin" v1.1, v1.1.1.1, v1.2, v1.3; "OroborOSX" v0.8b2, v0.8.5, v0.90; "X11" Beta v0.1, v0.2, v0.3; v1.0)
• X11 X Window window manager (tested with "windowmaker" v0.62.1X; "OroborOSX" v0.8b2, v0.8.5, v0.90; "quartz-wm" Beta v0.1, v0.2, v0.3; v1.0)
• "dlcompat" compatibility library (optional for Mac OS X 10.3.x or OpenOffice.org v1.1.1rc3 and later - tested with v10505X, v20020913-10.2, v20030629)
• "freetype" (optional - tested with v1.3.1X - libfreetype v6.2, v6.3)
• "fondu" (optional - tested with v021223, v040324)
• "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, v1.1rc5, v1.1.1rc3, v1.1.2rc)
• "Start OpenOffice.org"

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.

There is not a direct download link to the file on the iDisk - look in the "1. Start OpenOffice.org" folder. The additional localizations for download are in the "Extras/Localizations" sub-folder.

• "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b9 (released 15 May 04).

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

  The FTP site is temporarily unavailable using FTP, but can be accessed via the AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) - i.e. AppleShare.

  [ iDisk | HTTP | AFP]

• German (Deutsch) localization for "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b9 by Christian Brecheis (released 06 Jul 04).

  [ iDisk | HTTP]

• Alternate German (Deutsch) localization for "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b9 by Christian Tennie (released 06 Jul 04).

  [ iDisk | HTTP]

• Dutch (Nederlands) localization for "Start OpenOffice.org" v1.0b9 by Johan Henselmans (released 06 Jul 04).

  [ iDisk | HTTP]

Online Support

Visit the OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X Testing Forums and OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X web site 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

15 May 04 :

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b9. Fix problem with the "Application.applescript" and "Utility.applescript" scripts being too long to edit with Script Editor - moved some handlers around, removed unused code etc, and created new "ChangeHistory.applescript" file.

Add support for Mac OS X 10.3.x Fast User Switching feature - each user has a different X11 DISPLAY. Original patches provided by Randolph Brown and others; support added to handle the actual X11 DISPLAY being used at runtime.

Add Preferences dialog field for the preferred X11 DISPLAY.

No longer need Direct to PostScript option.

Add support for handling files with special shell characters and Unicode characters in their filenames. Based on idea by Roger Jolly.

Add support for checking for updates, using MacPAD.

Add support for localized MacPAD messages.

Conditionally support the MacPAD "barber-pole" progress bar at runtime for different versions of Mac OS X.

Add additional User Defaults, including default "OpenOffice.org" module name.

No longer set DYLD_LIBRARIES_PATH.

Check if BSD tools are installed.

Default "OpenOffice.org" version to "OpenOffice.org" v1.1.x.

Add support for special handling of "-net" installs and "-net" workstation installs.

Launch "OpenOffice.org" document (if any), separately, after launching "OpenOffice.org" itself, to work around weird problems when documents have special shell chars in their name.

Major changes for handling paths and URLs.

Tidy-up debugging.

Fix bug with handling fonts dragged to "Start OpenOffice.org" after launch, if "soffice" has never been run (perhaps because of a X Window Server launch error).

Change Mac OS X 10.1.x hack to be an AppleScript Studio hack for older Mac OS X (< 10.2.3).

Increase wait time from 5-10 secs to 30 secs and improve checking for "OpenOffice.org" launch, as "OpenOffice.org" v1.1.x "pagein" process can take a long time on a slow machine before the "soffice" process is running.

Put up "Please Wait..." floating window before time consuming operations; automatically hide the window when choosing a X Window Server or when an error Alert is up.

Make "isProcessRunning" handler only look at processes for this user; and ignore "zombies".

Merge French localization resources from Yves de Champlain.

Previous change history

Known Problems

"Start OpenOffice.org"

v1.0b9.

• If the BSD subsystem is missing, and you are using a localized version of "Start OpenOffice.org", the error message will always be given in English.
• An AppleScript error will be reported and "Start OpenOffice.org" will quit, if you try to open a document with a filename containing non-US ASCII characters, such as Japanese, and the Mac OS X preferred language is set to Japanese - there is no problem if the Mac OS X preferred language is set to English.
• If you used the released "ooo112_osx_final.dmg" Installer, and installed OpenOffice.org onto a UNIX File System (UFS) formatted volume, "Start OpenOffice.org" will have a generic application icon in Finder, and will silently quit when launched (error messages will be written to the "console.log") - you need to use Finder to copy a fresh copy of "Start OpenOffice.org" from the "Start OpenOffice.org" disk image provided in the "Third-Party Software" folder on the "ooo112_osx_final.dmg" Installer disk image, to the OpenOffice.org installation folder on the UFS formatted volume, or elsewhere.
• An AppleScript error will be reported and "Start OpenOffice.org" will quit, if you try to open a document from a user's home directory that is protected by the FileVault feature in Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther). Either turn off FileVault, or save and open documents outside the home directory, or open the documents directly in OpenOffice.org. This is a known problem with AppleScript Studio and FileVault.
• All other known problems are listed in the "Start OpenOffice.org" documentation.

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