AOO 3.4.1 (build 1372282) Release Notes
Translations: Chinese (simplified) | Hungarian | Italian | Spanish
General Remarks
The Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 is a maintenance release, intended to fix critical issues and improve the overall quality of the application.
General areas of improvement include: additional language support, bug fixes, performance improvements and Windows 8 compatibility enhancements. Further details on each of these areas are below.
For a more comprehensive overview of the changes from the 3.3.X OpenOffice.org releases and earlier; please see the Release Notes for Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0
Additional Language Support
New translations available in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 include:
- Finnish
- British English
- Khmer
- Slovak
- Slovenian
Updated translations available in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 include:
- Dutch
- Spanish
- Italian
- Hungarian
For a complete list of available languages and language packs see: http://www.openoffice.org/download/other-341.html
Platforms Supported
The following platforms continue to be available as official releases from Apache OpenOffice: Microsoft Windows, MacOS (Intel), Linux (32 bit), Linux (64 bit).
Additionally, a number of community members are working on ports for Solaris, FreeBSD, and OS/2 and live/portable versions. You can learn more from our Ports and Distributions page at: http://www.openoffice.org/porting/ .
Bug Fixes
As of 2012/08/16, there were 69 verified issues that have been resolved.
This list can be found at: http://s.apache.org/Huv
You will need an OpenOffice Bugzilla login to view it.
(An OpenOffice Bugzilla login will enable you to search for any bugs that may interest you.)
Important bug fixes have been made in these areas:
- "quickstarter" problems
- extension cleanup
- auto update check now re-enabled by default
- "undo" issues in Calc
- "redo" issues in Calc
- "freeze" problem with Calc and Writer when LanguageTool is installed
- non-detection of java. "Oracle" as a java provider was added to aid in JVM identification. Previously, the vendor was Sun.
The QA team has been tracking additional fixes as well. See their complete reports at:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/Report/WeeklyReport
Additionally, starting with version 3.4.1, Apache OpenOffice now has the benefit of static analysis provided by Coverity to detect software defects before the code is even released. Special thanks to Coverity for providing access to their award winning tool!
Performance Improvements/Enhancements
- Cleanup of temporary areas used by extensions installations. This will reduce the per-user disk footprint for multi-user installations.
- Keeping only one English dictionary for US-en installations instead of 5. This will save user space. Users will be able to add other English dictionaries (Canadian, Australian, New Zealand) as desired
- Hunspell library upgraded to version 1.3.2 from 1.2.9. This version contains several improvements especially for Dutch, German and other Germanic languages with extended compound word usage.
Microsoft Windows 8 Compatibility
With this release we have tested with Windows 8. So far it looks good. We are in the process of going through the official Windows 8 Certification checklist and some minor issues still remain. See the wiki document below.
Note: the improvements made in Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 to better support Windows 8 will also benefit Windows 7 users.
Known Issues
- Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 manage the user profile differently than previous versions. The old user profile is automatically converted so that users can keep their extensions and settings. In a minority of cases, especially with highly customized profiles (many extensions or customizations) the conversion doesn't succeed. Common symptoms are: frequent application crashes, problems with dictionaries or thesaurus, OpenOffice starting and crashing after a few seconds. To solve this, just reset/rename your user profile as explained in the official OpenOffice forum. http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12426
- Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 will be flagged by the new Gatekeeper facility in OS X Mountain Lion. This is a new feature to help guard against malware on Mac systems. There is a procedure laid out at the following link to allow applications not installed from the Mac App store to run. See the article at Mac support at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290.
- Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 support Java 7, which is the recommended configuration; but (especially on 64-bit Windows) you might receive warnings about the Java version being defective. In that case, download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. If you still have problems, install the most current JRE 6 version. Make sure you get the file "Windows x86 Offline (32-bit)". Then configure OpenOffice to use it at "Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - Java". See this forum topic for more information.
- The Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 installation package for Windows will expand the installation files and immediately start the installation wizard. In rare circumstances, probably because of incompatibilities with other installed software, the installation wizard might not start automatically. In that case, just locate the "OpenOffice Installation Files" folder on your Desktop, open it and double-click on the file named "setup.exe" to start the installation procedure.
- On recent versions of Mac OS X it might happen, especially after a "Force quit", that the following error message appears: "Restore Windows - The application OpenOffice.org was forced to quit while trying to restore its windows. Do you want to try to restore its windows again?". If you cannot get rid of it: Option-click the "Go" menu; choose "Library" from the menu to open the folder in the Finder; click on the folder "Saved Application State"; delete the file "org.openoffice.script.savedState". See bug 119006 for more information.
Stay informed about Apache OpenOffice
You are encouraged to subscribe to the Apache OpenOffice announcement mailing list, to be receive important notifications such as product updates and security patches. To subscribe you can send an email to: announce-subscribe@openoffice.apache.org.
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