The Apache Foundation has released one of the biggest updates in a long time

Jul 23, 2013 09:46 GMT  ·  By

The Apache OpenOffice, the original open source office productivity suite, designed for professional and consumer use, is now at version 4.0.

After being adopted into the Apache Foundation and after picking a new name, the Apache OpenOffice, the project hasn't been evolving as fast as everyone expected it.

Even so, Apache OpenOffice 4.0 is a major release and it incorporates a huge number of new features and changes, which turns it again into a powerful competitor in the open-source community.

“Building upon the great success of the OpenOffice 3.4 release, which has seen over 57 million downloads, this major update brings exciting new features, enhancements and bug fixes.”

“OpenOffice 4.0 features an innovative new Sidebar user interface, additional language support for 22 languages (including 3 new languages), 500 bug fixes, improvements in Microsoft Office interoperability, enhancements to drawing/graphics, performance improvements, etc.” reads the official announcement.

Highlights of Apache OpenOffice 4.0:

• The Sidebar has been added as a major new feature of the user interface, and it's available in all of the OpenOffice applications; • Eleven property panels have been migrated from IBM Lotus Symphony: Alignment, Area, Cell Appearance, Graphic, Line, Number Format, Page, Paragraph, Position and Size, Text and Wrap; • Major fidelity improvements have been implemented; • DOCX outline level is now fully supported; • Table background color from table style is now supported for DOCX files; • The Color Palette has been enhanced and it has been extended with a selection of more useful colors, arranged in a new scheme to make finding colors simpler; • The Gradients have been improved and have been extended with new, more useful ones; • New Gallery Themes and Gallery enhancements have been implemented; • The “Selection Handles User Interface” has been refined.

Check the official announcement for a complete list of changes, new features and improvements.

Download Apache OpenOffice 4.0 right now from Softpedia.