Chicago (IL) - After three long years in the making, OpenOffice.org has finally unveiled the new version of its free office productivity suite Open Office 3.0. The new release effectively solves document incompatibility problems with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 file format and Office 2007 OOXML import filters. It also delivers new collaborative options that allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time, in addition to improved drawing and charting tools. XML support and XSLT based filters are also updated, while the Mac version received a thorough code overhaul and now runs as a native OS X application.
OpenOffice 3 promises several enhancements across its word processing, presentation, spreadsheets, graphics, databases and other applications, along reliability and performance improvements. The new Start Centre sports new icons and a new zoom control in the status bar. The Chart application received many subtle interface, improvements; Draw and Impress come with improved crop features and Writer has a new notes feature and a built-in math solver component. The software can now display multiple pages during editing which is a response to growing screen sizes and comes in handy when working with complex document. Workbooks can now have up to 1024 columns in each spreadsheet while new sharing options enable multiple users to collaborate on a single workbook at the same time.
One of the most significant killer features in this release are out-of-the-box import filters for the latest Microsoft Office file formats, enabling OpenOffice 3.0 to read documents saved with Microsoft Office 2007 or 2008 in .docx, .xlsx, .pptx or other new formats. OpenOffice 3.0 can also read and write documents in standardized OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2.
The Mac version of the software introduces partial support for Visual Basic for Applications that enables Mac users to program macros and add custom functionality beyond the default feature set. OpenOffice 3.0 is now a native OS X application, unlike previous versions that relied on OS X's X11 graphical environment for UNIX applications that resulted in relatively slow performance and had a non-standard user interface.
With Aqua being integrated, Open Office 3.0 for Mac not only feels and behaves like a regular Mac application with all the usual bells and whistles, it also is nicely integrated with OS X's Accessibility API – which results in much better accessibility support than what is offered by most other Mac applications. The re-written code and a native execution environment deliver noticeable performance and reliability improvements.
OpenOffice.org’s website was down most of the morning due the countless download requests from users. When site is back up again you can
OpenOffice 3 promises several enhancements across its word processing, presentation, spreadsheets, graphics, databases and other applications, along reliability and performance improvements. The new Start Centre sports new icons and a new zoom control in the status bar. The Chart application received many subtle interface, improvements; Draw and Impress come with improved crop features and Writer has a new notes feature and a built-in math solver component. The software can now display multiple pages during editing which is a response to growing screen sizes and comes in handy when working with complex document. Workbooks can now have up to 1024 columns in each spreadsheet while new sharing options enable multiple users to collaborate on a single workbook at the same time.One of the most significant killer features in this release are out-of-the-box import filters for the latest Microsoft Office file formats, enabling OpenOffice 3.0 to read documents saved with Microsoft Office 2007 or 2008 in .docx, .xlsx, .pptx or other new formats. OpenOffice 3.0 can also read and write documents in standardized OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2.The Mac version of the software introduces partial support for Visual Basic for Applications that enables Mac users to program macros and add custom functionality beyond the default feature set. OpenOffice 3.0 is now a native OS X application, unlike previous versions that relied on OS X's X11 graphical environment for UNIX applications that resulted in relatively slow performance and had a non-standard user interface.With Aqua being integrated, Open Office 3.0 for Mac not only feels and behaves like a regular Mac application with all the usual bells and whistles, it also is nicely integrated with OS X's Accessibility API – which results in much better accessibility support than what is offered by most other Mac applications. The re-written code and a native execution environment deliver noticeable performance and reliability improvements.OpenOffice.org’s website was down most of the morning due the countless download requests from users. When site is back up again you can download the software here free of charge. Subscribe to the TG Daily Newsletter Email:
OpenOffice 3.0 comes with new features and performance enhancements.
Sun Microsystems released version 3.0 of its free and open source (FOSS) office suite Openoffice.org on Monday. It has been reported that the new version comes with a number of performance enhancements and new features. Openoffice.org 3.0 now claims to work out of the box in  Mac OS X as a native  Aqua application.

News sources report the official download servers of OpenOffice.org crashed soon after the release due to heavy downloads. Downloads are however available from a number of mirror sites.



Openoffice.org 3.0 suite includes  spreadsheet,  word processor,  equation editor,  presentation tool,  relational database and  vector drawing software. Full interoperability is available for  Microsoft Office 98/XP formats, but offers read only support for  OOXML file formats. This version supports the new  ODF 1.2 document format. The software is available for many platforms including  Linux,  Microsoft Windows and Mac, as well as in multiple languages.

Users report OpenOffice.org 3.0 has introduced a new graphical and text-based hybrid equation editor, a  mail merge wizard, improved label templates and better interface for outlining. Solver, a spreadsheet add-on for  combinatorial optimization problems is included in this version.

Other enhancements highlighted by enthusiasts include collaborative options that allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time and improved drawing and charting tools. OpenOffice.org 3.0 can now display multiple pages during editing and workbooks up to 1024 columns in each spreadsheet.

The download size of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is 163 MB for Mac and requires OS X Tiger or later and an Intel Mac. The installer for Windows is about 145 MB in size. 

"As government after government, enterprise after enterprise adopt the Open Document Format, they frequently adopt OpenOffice.org and love it. With 3.0, the application is more interoperable with MS Office, more capable, more extensible. It frees the desktop from vendor lock-in," claimed Louis Suárez-Potts, community manager of OpenOffice.org.