OO 4 - New Features / Enhancements

[pauline]

OpenOffice 4.0 works fine and I´m grateful and very impressed by the new possibilities !

There are only two things that I miss a lot since I said good-bye MS Office ... some 5 years ago:

1) Document preview in the Windows Explorer preview pane, "not available" for any OO-format

2) Fontwork stile: a rainbow-gradient similar to this MS Office WordArt-option :

image.png (1.47 KiB) Viewed 12737 times

Any chance to add these features / enhancements ?

[RoryOF]

1) is via a system utility, as far as I know.

[floris v]

1) There is a Windows Explorer extension that comes with the downloaded file and does just that. Try a new install and select Custom, then enable that extension, it's a bit of a search, but you'll find it.

[pauline]

Thanks for quick replies !

RoryOF:
Times ago I searched already for a solution in the internet and on OO-, Windows- and MS-Forums.
Seems, it´s only a "system utility" if MS Office is installed.
This is not my case anymore.
MS Office was pre-einstalled on my latest laptops but I didn´t purchase it after I got used to OO.
So: No preview.

floris v
That´s some really good news to me
and worth to be mentioned in the AOO 4.0 Release Notes !

[ … that comes with the downloaded file ] Which one ?
The OpenOffice 4 installation files ?
So, should I uninstall OO and reinstall it, selecting Custom-install ?
Or should I rather try the OO-uninstall-repair-option ?

[floris v]

I'm not sure that the repair install will allow you to add items, if it does, it should do. Yes, the extension is part of the install files.
See also this thread.

[pauline]

Thanks, floris v
I´ll check it out and will be back with the outcome.

[acknak]

... a rainbow-gradient similar to this ...

Sorry, OO doesn't support such gradients at all; you can only have a simple blend between two colors.

[pauline]

acknak, that´s too bad ... for me at least.
I have a client who uses this gradient in his logo and business text.
Since I don´t have MS Office installed, I have to copy old WordArt-images into the text …
what sucks and isn´t a solution for certain exigences.
Maybe a future release will provide this Fontwork stile ?

[acknak]

... Maybe a future release will provide this Fontwork stile ?

I wouldn't hold my breath for it

It seems like a pretty basic limitation in that OO doesn't even support that type of gradient.

I expect it would be possible to manually construct such a gradient from several two-color gradients but that seems like it would be really tedious to get a good, smooth result.

You might want to look into using some other tool (Inkscape, maybe?) to make a graphic that could be inserted into an OO document, or maybe there is some way to export it from MS Office as a graphic of some kind rather than a fontwork object.

[pauline]

ref: Document preview

floris v, “Repair” provides no option to customize the installation.
I un- and re-installed AOO. To find the extension was no problem.
Now, I suppose, “Windows Explorer-extension enabled “ is the default setting
So, there´s nothing to do here, unless de-selecting by marking it with a red cross.
What I didn´t do … neither during the first nor the re-install of AOO 4.0.
Fact is: Nothing has changed. “No Preview available” … as usual.

Just in case: I do not refer to “Extended tiles” in the “View”-menu
displaying a thumbnail rather than an icon of a file in the file list or the status bar.
This works fine with AOO-files.
I mean this tab in “Folder Options“: Show preview handlers in preview pane check box
and this buttom to the right of the toolbar:

I get image- and PDF-previews in the Windows Explorer-preview pane, but not of any document.
As mentioned before: I do not have MS Office installed ! Do you ?
Might make sense (or not) that MS Office-files (.doc or .xls) can´t be previewed without MS Office.
But .odt- or .ods-files ???
I fear AOO is handicapped – as OOo before – due to the dominant, merciless Windows Explorer when it comes to preview … and this will never change.
However: There´s almost no complaint on the part of (even long term) OO-users about this issue.
A fact that makes me wonder since MS Office doesn´t come for free with the purchase of a standard-computer.
Being able to take a look at a text without opening the file is a great advantage, isn´t it ?
Specially since Windows 7 is known to show symptoms of senile decay very early,
tending to hang and freeze when overcharged with the difficult task to open a program ...

[pauline]

ref. Fontwork

acknak, looking at the latest "Release Notes" and the big list of improvements
one should think some quite usual fontwork would not be an issue "to hold the breath for" !

I actually do have a graphic exported from MS Office
but once in a OO-Writer-document the gradient is gone, the letters are of a solid color.
I´ll check this again …. and also this "Inkscape".
So, thank you for the hint !

[acknak]

It occurred to me that the rainbow gradient can be made from an image, and you can combine a curve and an an image to mask out a shape. The end result is not quite like you get with wordart, but it's not bad:

Here's the post that explains how to do it:
viewtopic.php?p=118219#p118219

[pauline]

ref. Fontwork

OMG, combined Bézier curve and images to mask out a shape …
I had no idea of such an advanced technique, or better state of art.
And I´ld never searched on the subject "ellipse or circle from an image" for a fontwork-solution.
acknak, this is AWESOME !!! I´ll check it out immediately.
PS: Do you have a master degree in mnemotechnic ? Who would remember a post from 4 years ago ?

[Bill]

I fear AOO is handicapped – as OOo before – due to the dominant, merciless Windows Explorer when it comes to preview … and this will never change.

That's up to AOO. AOO can implement this feature but hasn't given it a high priority:

Bug 107602 - framework: Implement ODF document preview for Windows Explorer

[acknak]

Sorry, I must be missing something important: how is the preview feature so useful?

OO already includes a simple document thumbnail image in each document file and the file manager I use will display them. With the thumbnail preview extension in the file browser, here's what you get--at best:

thumbnail.png (7.24 KiB) Viewed 12537 times

That's it, full size. I've never found it useful for much of anything. Beyond that, it's always the first page which in my documents is often junk, not meaningful content.

A preview that could actually render the document and flip pages would be useful but now you're talking about orders of magnitude more code.

[Bill]

A preview that could actually render the document and flip pages would be useful...

The preview is displayed in a pane similar to the navigation pane found in file managers and is much larger than a thumbnail. A preview does render the document and can be scrolled to view all pages. Since they are rendered close to full size, they are readable.

[acknak]

... A preview does render the document and can be scrolled to view all pages. ...

Thanks for explaining!

It would definitely be nice to have a fast preview like that.

[pauline]

ref: Document preview

Thanks, Bill, that´s what I´m talking of.
To check the content of a document or to look up a certain phrase …
You can read it in full size, scroll it and even select and copy (!) ... without opening the file itself.
The text-preview fills the whole pane, exactly like an image or a PDF.
Yes, acknak, it IS nice and useful.

Now, as for priority, importance, voting and Bugzilla:
Just yesterday I read this thread: Is OpenOffice dying ? viewtopic.php?f=49&t=61425
Here just some statements:
Bugs are tackled depending on the manpower and also on the good will of the developers (or the fun they find in working on them).
Developers see AOO as a way to have fun by contributing code that will increase their status (that's just human).
Most devs are more interested in implementing new features (their code is hence more "visible" to the community).
Fixing bugs has less impact (personal marketing point of view), even if that's what most users are waiting for.
There have been some discussion on the dev mailing list about bugs already.
But don't bother asking, you'll get the standard reply: "You want a fix? Then just code it".

So, there seems to be little general need for this fix, there are only few votes.
I admit: I´m too lazy to register in Bugzilla just to place one more vote
which might be ignored anyway due to the lack of fun or good will.

[raindeer]

Thanks for the info....
one thing...
how to disable the advertise which comes on the status bar of the open office pdf reader....

[RusselB]

Open Office does not have a built in PDF Reader.
There is an extension that is supposed to support the importation of PDF's, however many people have reported little to no luck in using it,
The extension is located at http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/oracle-pdf-import-extension-openoffice-3x
Please note that the last update was in July 2013 (over two years ago). There are lots of comments regarding the lack of compatibility, but no responses (that I could see) from the author.

[thomasjk]

Thanks for the info....
one thing...
how to disable the advertise which comes on the status bar of the open office pdf reader....

Openoffice does not have a PDF reader and does not produce advertisements. It sounds like you downloaded from a Scam/Spam site. Only download from http://www.openoffice.org/download/. I suggest you uninstall what you have and install the correct version. Check your machine for malware and/or spyware.