14 DAY TRIAL // NeoOffice users can now download the publicly available version 3.0 of the full featured office suite of apps for Mac OS X. According to a post over at the NeoOffice forums, NeoOffice 3.0 includes nearly all of the features in OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 and has many of the most commonly used features in Microsoft Office.
On the trinity.neooffice.org forum, one of the developers behind NeoOffice, using the screen name “pluby,” adds that the only OpenOffice.org feature that is missing from NeoOffice 3.0 is Mac OS X Universal Access support. “Unfortunately, we have not been able integrate OpenOffice.org's Universal Access code into NeoOffice so if you need Universal Access support, we recommend that you use OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office, or Apple iWork,” the developer explains. pluby adds that “since OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 has many changes to existing features and does not support Mac OS X 10.3.x, we [the team] will continue to provide NeoOffice 2.2.5 to all users.”
Based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 codebase, NeoOffice 3.0 adds a new Chart module, PDF import in Draw and Improved presentation tools. While the software now requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later, NeoOffice 3.0 should also adds support for the Mac OS X Services menu within NeoOffice (read-only), and official support for PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. The latest version of NeoOffice includes experimental support for developer seeds of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Overall performance has also been improved.
NeoOffice also includes some Mac OS X features requested by users that are not available with Sun's OpenOffice 3.0.1. Those are:
- Mac OS X Services support - Media Browser support - Native floating tool windows - Magnify and swipe trackpad gestures - Menus available when no documents are open - Import images from scanners and cameras - Command-clicking on window titlebar - Mac OS X Leopard grammar checking support (Mac OS X 10.5.x only).
Users should note that, since NeoOffice is tested by the NeoOffice user community, it may still have some undiscovered bugs that may cause the application to crash. Therefore, users are encouraged to post any bugs that they find using the NeoOffice Support forum, so the team can continue to improve the suite.