Features

New features planned for OpenOffice.org

feedback

Intro

This page is a roadmap for the features planned in future OpenOffice.org releases.

For older releases, see the archives.

Caution:
The items listed here are under continuous development and the dates are therefore subject to change!

Project-Specific Wiki-Pages

Calc

See also the Calc Usability Activities page on this wiki.

Current Release

Features for the 2.4 Release (March 2008)

For a comprehensive list, see the New Features in OOo 2.4 page.

Writer

• Block selection
• Support for backward references in Find & Replace
• New ways to change language for spell check

Calc

• Separate zoom per sheet
• Convert text to columns
• Move, copy, and link cells using drag and drop

Impress

• Thrilling 3D slide transitions using OpenGL

Chart

• Display Trendline equations (GullFOSS article, OOoNinja article)
• Scale and Intervals in Chart
  • Reverse direction of axis
  • Logarithmic scale
  • Axis at
  • Number Format for Data Labels
  • Display both, the Value and the Percentage
  • Flexible Placement of Data Labels
  • Best Fit Data Label Positioning for Pie Charts
• Options for Bar Charts
  • Show Bars Attached to Different Axes Side-by-side (GullFOSS article, OOoNinja article)
  • Spacing (gap width)
  • Overlap
• Article: Chart2 features in 2.4 (this wiki)
• Article: New Chart features in OpenOffice.org 2.4 (GullFOSS)

Base

• views in HSQLDB database can be edited
• property browser: query designer now also available for list box content
• property browser: query designer also available for "native" SQL commands
• Base now supports also MS Access 2007 files (*.accdb)

General

• Relative links now available in PDF export filter, plus other features added.
• PDF/A export
• Create relative links in PDFs
• Convert document references in PDF targets

Planned Features for 3.0 Release (September 2008)

General

• OpenDocument:
  • ODF 1.2 Specification
  • ODF formula specification
  • ODF Toolkit: installation set, aka ODF_Toolkit/Efforts/Packaging_Modularization
  • ODF Toolkit: Java tools for odf
• Bibliographic
  • Basic API & UNO support for bibliographic enhancements
  • New field type to support formatted text
  • Bibliographic enhancements Stage 2

Performance Improvements

• Drawing Engine

Writer

• new Notes2 module for displaying notes in the margins
• Office 12 (.docx) import filter
• ODF documents' metadata editor
• Preview of hyperlinks inside the document

Calc

• Office 12 (.xlsx) Import Filter
• Compliance with ODF formula specification
• GETPIVOTDATA function
• Live sharing of Calc workbooks

Impress

• Office 12 (.pptx) Import Filter
• Table support in Impress
• Interactive cropping of images

Extensions

For end users

• MediaWiki Extension, available at Extension Site
• PDF Import, available at Extension Site
• Presenter Screen, available at Extension Site

For developers

• API enhancements
• GUI enhancements - The GUI should be redesigned to get a more modern look. A good guideline is the new IBM Lotus Symphony that uses dynamic panels. This is better than MS Office's "ribbon", at least for documents, because it saves space on the top (normally documents are vertical).
• Option page

Various

• Better VBA? [1]

• MacOSX Aqua Port

• Windows_Vista Enhancements:
  • new File Dialog
  • visualization of Meta data in Explorer

• Web services
  • Web Services wizard?

• OpenOffice.org Repackaging
  • Repackaging step one [2]

• Articles
  • New Features in OpenOffice.org 3.0 (March 18, 2008)

Planned Features for 3.1 Release (March 2009)

• Arabic

• High Document Fidelity (AntiAliasing of Drawing Object and optimized graphic primitives)

• Zoomslider for Draw and Impress

• new template dialog and template repository

• improved packaging, package pools

• MySQL integration

Impress

• Apple Remote support (Mac OS X only)

• OpenGL transitions in Impress ( Mac OS X )

Planned Features for 3.x Release

• XForms Enhancements