PCR's notepad » OpenOffice

OpenOffice 3.2.1 portable

David Dernoncourt — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:13:08 +0000

If you’re in a hurry, the download link is at the very end of this post.

As you can guess from my previous posts, I’m a heavy user of portable applications. This allows for use of much more up-to-date software than our understaffed IT team can provide. I like using portableapps.com as my source of portable applications, but the only problem with them is that they usually take ages to release updated versions. I understand that this is because they take great care to release perfectly tested and stable things, but come on, waiting a few weeks after a major release to get the portable version is just… very frustrating. So, I usually “do some stuff” with the current portableapps.com launcher and an updated install I make at home or the program auto-updater (particularly for Firefox and Minefield).

This time I tried with OpenOffice, because the 3.2.1 version launches so much faster than the 3.1.1 I currently use at work (I heard there was some serious bugs with 3.2 so I didn’t test it much, but it seems as slow as 3.1.1). What I did was I took the portable installation of OpenOffice 3.2 from PortableApps, grabbed an installation of OpenOffice 3.2.1 and used it to write over the files of OpenOffice 3.2 portable. Finally, while I was at it I also packed in Java 1.6.0_20. That’s the first time ever I try to include Java in a portable install of OpenOffice, so just, you know, beware

I then tested this on a Windows XP installation without OpenOffice installed but with Java installed. And it seemed to work fine on this particular setting. So, before I finally give you the download link, remember:

this is not AT ALL a tested and stable release (I’ll test it tomorrow at work, I really need an updated OpenOffice there!)
this is not AT ALL a PortableApps release (but I did use their OpenOffice 3.2 launcher, which is NOT supposed to be appropriate for OOo 3.2.1, exactly as is)

All clear? Well, here’s the link (7-Zip archive, 105 MiB): OpenOffice 3.2.1 portable.
Edit: ok, I just tested it at work, and it doesn’t work. My best guess is that my Java version there is too outdated (1.4.2 update 9, FFS…) so I’m leaving the download link available, but know that it probably won’t work for you either.
Edit 2: if you try it, please leave a comment saying if it works or not (and in both case, what version, if any, of Java you had installed on the PC where you tested the app).

OpenOffice 2.0.4 released

David Dernoncourt — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:01:00 +0000

OpenOffice 2.0.4 was released 2 days ago.
New features, bugfixes, and improvements include:
* Enhanced PDF management
* Direct export to LaTex
* New functionality in Calc and Impress
* Mac OS X (X11) now uses system fonts
* And more…

Official website

Microsoft to release an open-only OpenDocument Format filter for Word

David Dernoncourt — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:33:00 +0000

Microsoft soon plans to release a converter that will let Word users open documents saved in the OpenDocument format. The Word plug-in is the 1st installment of MS’s plan to add support for the OpenDocument, or ODF, standard which has gained interest from government customers. This is the same format that MS fought in Mass. earlier this year.

OpenOffice.org, extension-based office suite ?

David Dernoncourt — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:01:00 +0000

Following in Firefox’s footsteps, the next version of OpenOffice.org will support plug-in extensions to attract developers to the open-source productivity suite.
The current OpenOffice software can accept some extensions, but the upcoming 2.0.4 version will have new extension format, OXT. That format can accommodate extensions written in a variety of programming languages.

Original article