The new beta also provides for a database front end. The features page for the beta suggests that OO.org always had a db tool, but only now have they begun work making it more visible and public. But more related to the thread is their WordPerfect filter. A good description here: http://wp.openoffice.org/filter.html
Basically, they say right now it can import most WP documents but they don't have an export filter yet. Seeing as how I don't own WP I can't very easily test that feature for accuracy, but the mailing list (the parts that work anyways) seem to imply that it isn't perfect yet, but then this is a beta, after all.
Justin Dugger
Whats interesting is that the Linux version of Adabas was released along with StarOffice 5.1 and 5.2, so if you put up with the StarOffice desktop you could have a database application as part of the suite for free. I don't know if OpenOffice.org has added a database app yet. I doubt it, the assumption seems to be that MySQL is easier to learn than it is. :(
On Sun, April 17, 2005 1:17 pm, Justin Dugger said:
The new beta also provides for a database front end. The features page for the beta suggests that OO.org always had a db tool,
Well, for a couple of releases at least. Supposed to work pretty well as a front end for MySQL.
Basically, they say right now it can import most WP documents but they don't have an export filter yet.
Which, since the documents have to be submitted to the courts in WP format, is a deal-breaker.
A recent article in one of the print mags I get - LJ, LM, or SysAdmin - noted the horrible results of opening a vanilla MS Word doc in OO, saving the "changes", then re-opening it in Word. Formatting disaster would be polite.
File import is great for us hackers, but falls far short of compatibility or inter-operability. Compatible _output_ is pretty minimal, and to destroy a document you haven't actually changed, only read, is pretty inexcusable.
OO is off on the usual OSS trip of "maybe if we put in enough new "features" that look just like Microsoft, people will overlook the fact that basic functions just don't work".
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Jonathan Hutchins -
Justin Dugger