Will the OpenOffice 4.1.4 version of Writer offer OpenType f

[Jack Hannold]

In most ways, Writer is just as good as Microsoft Word. But the lack of the ability to access OpenType features, which has been part of Word since Word 2010, is sometimes a serious disadvantage.

Some otherwise useful fonts make Old Style figures (sometimes called “text figures”) the default choice, with lining figures available only in OpenType aware programs. Fonts that make proportional figures, rather than tabular figures, the default ones can also be a problem in documents with tables.

And then there are small caps and, perhaps most important to some users, automatic ligatures. And let’s not forget stylistic sets and contextual alternates.

Writer 4.1.3 still doesn’t have OpenType capabilities, so I can’t see any reason to update from 4.1.1.

Will OpenOffice 4.1.4 add OpenType controls to Writer? If so, when will it be available?

[Zizi64]

Try the LibreOffice.

http://typedrawers.com/discussion/1966/ ... re-support

[CannedMan]

Does this mark the end of OpenOffice? When the (TtBoMK) most active OOo/AOO forum encourages moving to LO? As the OP, I have exactly the same issues with OOo, but still keep using it. I wrote my master’s thesis in OOo, but ended up doing later professional work in MSO, simply because of the lack of professional typographic features, even though I still find OOo to be far more user friendly (for us advanced users, at least).

[RusselB]

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and is quite frequently suggested as an alternative when there's a feature that is available through it but not on OpenOffice.
As to the end of OpenOffice, that debate has been going on for a while.

[Zizi64]

It is not the End, but the slow developmnet causes some compatibility problems on the faster developed operating systems. And even the Windows was developed faster than the AOO.

[CannedMan]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I’ll get (somewhat) back on topic. Are there any ways to access advanced OpenType features in LOO? I have just installed the latest version, and happily notice that there is automatic ligature support. However, I cannot find any ways to acces advanced options, such as choosing numbering style, historical ligatures, swashes, true small-caps (as it happens to be, EB Garamond has a separate font for that, but truly, it should not be necessary to switch fonts for that), true sub- and superscripts, and so on. I was considering installing the typography toolbar, but notice that it is very outdated, stating support for LOO 3.5 and 4.0, being released way back in 2013. (I know, this makes me sound like I’m generation Z (which I’m not), but in tech, five years without an update is a looong time.)

So those are my tw… to øre.

[Lupp]

@CannedMan: I surely am not the right one to help you with this topic. I would fail with using any related terminology, but...

-1- There are a few contributors to the https://ask.libreoffice.org/en (or /de) site who seem to know much more.
-2- Generally OpenType was announced to be supported in LibO V5.3 and higher: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Rel ... 2F_General
-3- There was this rather optimistic thread: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question ... mentation/
-4- You may find an overview bout issues here: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question ... :OpenType/
-5- If you are interested also in technical details, and feel competent to discuss them, you may join the development mailing list for LibO. See https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Dev ... iling_List

[CannedMan]

@CannedMan: I surely am not the right one to help you with this topic. I would fail with using any related terminology, but...
[…]

Knowing when not to answer is worth ten times not knowing not to answer. And as expected from this brilliant forum, you demonstrate this perfectly by pointing me in the direction of where to find these answers. When considering my LO download, I did a quick googling, coming up with this announcement (which basically says what you linked to), which provided all the information I needed to make my decision. I will look into those links you provided for further answers to my questions. Thanks a million!

[CannedMan]

This is a mostly a repost of my answer viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7983&p=459670#p459670. Given that more and more people have an interest in quality typography, I thought it worthwhile double-posting – if for nothing else, then for the sake of Google.

I do not know whether this applies to AOO; I switched to LO for the very reason that they announced finally giving full OpenType support. With this, getting true superscript numbering, not fakes (resized regular numbers) is finally possible. Edit the character style for footnote anchors. Next to the font name, add ‘:sups=1’, e.g. ‘EB Garamond:sups=1’. (Strictly speaking, ‘=1’ is probably not necessary, but I like to keep everything formatted the same way.) To test whether you have gotten true superscripts, next to a footnote, type Alt+251, 253 or 252 and compare them; they should be exactly the same. Additional features are added by separating them with an ampersand, e.g. ‘EB Garamond:liga=1&calt=1&onum=1&pnum=1&swsh=1’ (enabling regular ligatures, contextual alternatives, old style numbering and making these proportionally sized, and swashes. For a more or less complete overview of all the features and how to implement them, go to Adobe’s overview.

You can view the full launch info at LibreOffice’s site. It is not flawless, but it is very good. With both AOO and LO’s powerful stylesheets-like design, it is incredibly easy to work with, particularly when enabled via shortcut keys (via the Tools menu’s second to last selection (‘Tilpass’ in Norwegian, so ‘Adjust’, ‘Modify’, ‘Personalise’ or something similar)), then Keyboard → Category → Styles.