OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 released
A new version of Openoffice.org, the open source and free-as-in-beer office suite is out today… on the sixth anniversary of the project.
Release notes are here. Besides the usual bugfixes and incremental improvements, the most appealing changes (to me, at least) are:
- Encryption option for exported PDFs (128-bit RC4 only… needs Adobe Reader 5.0 or higher to open)
- Automatic update check: Now OOo will tell you when a new version is available
- Greater support for add-on extensions (including "non-code" extensions like template packages)
- Now can use KDE "system-wide" settings
One surprising addition is export to the LaTex typesetting language. Years ago in my technical writing days I did a huge amount of work using LaTeX. Every time a client forces me to write a huge document in MS Word I’m reminded of how less time and effort it would take using something actually designed for large technical documents, like LaTeX.