Official release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4

Apache OpenOffice 3.4 - the first release of OpenOffice running the Apache Software Foundation. After the transfer of the package to Oracle, the fundThe ASF project was in the incubator, but on May 8, 2012 the official release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4: the first release released by ASF for free use under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license. Representatives of more than 20 companies that provided the necessary resources for the development of the project under the auspices of the Apache foundation took part in its development.

OpenOffice still remains one of the most famous application packages among open source projects. More than 100 million users worldwide use it at home, in commercial, governmental and research organizations, in educational institutions. There are 15 localizations of the program, including Russian.

So far, the program has not undergone significant changes, since when developing Apache OpenOffice 3.4, the focus was on integrating the project into the Apache infrastructure and auditing the licensed code in connection with the transition to the Apache license. As a result, many subsystems had to be replaced and rewritten, and there was no way to re-license it under the Apache license.

The main features and enhancements to Apache OpenOffice 3.4 include:

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  the usual composition of the office package: word processor, table processor, presentation preparation program, connection mechanism to external DBMS and embedded DBMS, vector graphics editor and formula editor;
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  Support for Windows, Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) and Mac OS X;
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  support of 15 languages: English, Arabic, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Galician, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Brazilian version of Portuguese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese;
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  improved support for the ODF format (OpenDocument Format), including new options for encryption ODF 1.2;
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  new functions of the program for working with spreadsheets;
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  Extended support for PivotTables in Calc (for example, the ability to add an unlimited number of fields to the table);
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  Advanced graphics capabilities, including support for vector format SVG in Draw and integration of SVG objects in other applications;
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  new options for optimizing default parameters in Impress / Draw;
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  improved performance and stability of the work, in particular, the launch time of the application has decreased noticeably.

A full list of new features and enhancements is availablein the release notes. In addition to the code base of the Apache package, other components of the infrastructure were transferred (in particular, the catalogs of extensions and templates). So users of Apache OpenOffice 3.4 are also available more than 2300 templates and 800 extensions, provided by third-party developers.

In the future ASF plans further expansionApache OpenOffice Project. In particular, it is planned to support even more languages, increase the availability of the application for people with disabilities, and integration of new functions, improvements and developments from the IBM Lotus Symphony code base.

We remind you that in June 2011 a free set of office applications Lotus Symphony from IBM, as well as OpenOffice.org, was transferred to the fund ASF. IBM ceased work on Lotus Symphony in favor of the Apache OpenOffice project.

Apache OpenOffice 3.4 can be downloaded for free from the developer's site. Available versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Additional extensions are available for download, allowing to expand the functionality of the application, as well as ready-made templates.