Open Source E-Learning Development 6: NeoOffice for Mac OS X
For those unable (or unwilling) to acquire the excellent Apple iWork productivity suite, there 
are two alternative open source packages available which should meet your needs: first is OpenOffice.org (which I discuss here), and secondly, the subject for today’s post, NeoOffice.
NeoOffice is a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs) for Mac OS X.
According to the team that ported Neo Office:
We have created an office suite that is adapted to the unique needs of Mac users by taking the features in Sun Microsystems’ OpenOffice.org office suite and adding improvements such as:
- Extremely stable Mac OS X code that has been in daily use by hundreds of thousands of NeoOffice users since 2003
- Significant speed improvements to the OpenOffice.org code
First released in 2003, NeoOffice has been described as the leading open source office software created and supported by Mac users specifically for Mac OS X. It is used by over half a million people worldwide.
The current version of the suite is based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, and is available for both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macintoshes (see Figure 1). There are eight ‘components’ in the suite:
- NeoOffice Writer – Word Processor
- NeoOffice Calc – Spreadsheet
- NeoOffice Impress – Presentations
- NeoOffice Draw – Vector Graphics Drawing Application
- NeoOffice Base – Database Application
- NeoOffice Math – Integrated formulæ creation and mathematical symbols insertion application
- NeoOffice File Formats – File formats supported by each component
- NeoOffice Error Messages – Error message generation
The current release also improves support for Microsoft Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 documents, as well as for spreadsheets with Visual Basic for Applications macros.
NeoOffice in Mac OS X ‘Tiger’
[Click to Enlarge]
In addition to incorporating the source application’s new features, it is based directly on the source code for the Linux and Solaris versions rather than the earlier Mac-specific releases of the suite, with a redesigned interface using Apple’s Aqua design elements. This aligns the suite’s look and feel with that of other Mac OS X software. Similarly, a new icon set introduced in version 2.1 uses designs that more closely resemble typical Mac OS X icons.
NeoOffice 3.0 has access to the Mac OS X kernel tools including the spellchecker, grammar checker, address book, and media browser; users of languages not supported by the OS X spellchecker can use the originally-used open source Hunspell system.
NeoOffice is available by clicking here.
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October 15 2009 04:00 pm | e-learning
2 Responses to “Open Source E-Learning Development 6: NeoOffice for Mac OS X”
Sturla Rolfsen on 29 Oct 2009 at 4:25 pm #
Thanks for your information. I have been looking for e-learning programs for Mac, so I will try this one.
Best regards
Sturla
A Toolkit to Develop E-Learning in an Open (XML) Environment | E-Learning Curve Blog on 01 Dec 2009 at 10:44 am #
[...] NeoOffice [...]