NeoOffice 3 [ MacOS ]

We had a lot of mail from users eager to let us know that the NeoOffice 3.0 is now available. NeoOffice is a Mac OS X native open-source office suite originally crafted from the code used for OpenOffice, and its developers are boasting about the following features not found in the current release of OpenOffice for Mac:

• OS X Services support
• Media Browser support
• Native floating tool windows
• Magnify and swipe trackpad gestures
• Menus available when no documents are open
• Import images from scanners and cameras
• Command-clicking on window titlebar
• Mac OS X Leopard grammar checking support

A more in-depth look at these features can be found here. The suite is a fantastic alternative to paying full price for Microsoft Office and has come a long way in the past few years.

NeoOffice 3.0 is a universal binary offers separate Intel and PPC packages, and it requires OS X 10.4 or higher, 512 MB of RAM and 400 MB of free disk space. Please note that Universal Access support from OpenOffice is not available on NeoOffice at this time, so using OpenOffice, Microsoft Office, or iWork is suggested to access that feature. A token donation is requested of all downloaders to help support the project.

iPhone app roundup: Quickoffice, Otto Matic, Evernote 2

In the hustle and madness of yesterday's wayback machine activity, there were a couple of App Store introductions (and a notable upgrade) that might have slipped through...

First up: The long-awaited version of Quickoffice for iPhone that allows editing of Word and Excel files hit the store today and was demoed at CTIA. [Looks like the new Quicksheet is available now, but the full bundle and the Quickword standalone app aren't on sale yet as of Thursday morning.] While QO has had a 'mobile files' tool on the iPhone for a while now, this is the first build of the venerable portable office suite (which has been a favorite on Palm handhelds for years) that can do editing in both formats.

Quickoffice for iPhone can do font formatting and cut, copy and paste within Word documents -- presumably to be tied in with system-wide C/P in the OS 3.0 world-to-come. Both the Excel and Word tools will support landscape mode for extra editing area.

Files on the iPhone can be transferred off the device using WiFi to a local Mac, or straight to a MobileMe account. Quickoffice for iPhone is shipping now for an "introductory price" of $19.99, but if you just want the Excel spreadsheet editor (formerly MobileFiles Pro) you can have it for $12.99; the Word document editor is also $12.99. Quickoffice Files (previously known as MobileFiles 2.0) is $3.99 and offers similar file transfer capability to Readdle and other file managers. We're getting a review copy for a more thorough walkthrough later this week. It's worth noting that a Microsoft exec hinted at a version of Office itself for the iPhone that may be coming sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Second... who doesn't love a good robot game? For $4.99, you can now dive into Pangea's classic Otto Matic series with the company's new title for iPhone, Otto Matic: Alien Invasion. The B-movie style game pits Otto against the attacking Brain Aliens from Planet X; his job is to save as many humans as possible. Otto Matic: Alien Invasion features 10 levels and 25 different enemies, multiple weapons and activities, and quite a bit of fun.

Lastly, the TUAW top pick Evernote has been updated with a nifty landscape mode, thumbnail viewing, improved performance, favorites sorting, and an embedded web browser to reduce the tap a link --> Safari --> back to home screen --> scroll around --> relaunch Evernote loop-the-loop annoyances. Evernote 2.0 for iPhone remains a free download, and the basic Evernote service is also free; a year of pro-level service costs $45.

Microsoft Office 2008 updated to version 12.1.2

Earlier today, Microsoft released the 12.1.2 update to Microsoft Office 2008, downloadable via MS Software Update and from the MS website. The 160 MB update requires Office 12.1.1 and, in addition to security fixes, resolves several bugs. The hit list includes two of my personal annoyances: Word's sluggish launch speed and Entourage's insistence on truncating URLs after the ampersand character. The full list of changes is in the continuation of this post.

Improvements for all Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac applications
• Security is improved.
This update fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2008 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. For more information, see the security bulletin that is listed earlier in this document.
• AppleScript reliability is improved.
This update fixes an issue that prevents Office 2008 applications from running AppleScript scripts from the Script menu until after you restart the Office 2008 application.

Improvements for Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac
• Word opens more quickly.
This update fixes an issue that causes Word to open slowly.
• Display of text in tables is improved.
This update fixes an issue that causes some text in tables to appear bold, even when a bold style is not applied to the text.
• Reliability is improved when you use headers and footers.
This update fixes the following issues:
• Typed text does not appear in the footers. This issue occurs when you insert a section break in the document.
• The Close button does not appear in Header and Footer view.
• Display of form fields is improved.
This update fixes an issue that causes Word to draw a border around form fields.

Improvements for Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac
• Security is improved.
To improve security and stability, Excel 2008 for Mac and Excel 2007 for Windows do not open files that are saved in the Excel chart (.xlc) file format.
• Files that have invalid characters in the sheet name open correctly.
This update fixes an issue that prevents Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (SP1) and later versions to open a workbook when some of the sheet names contain invalid characters such as the forward slash (/).
• Reliability is improved for formulas when the international format preference is set to New Zealand.
This update fixes an issue that causes formula errors when you use comma separators. The formula errors occur only when you select New Zealand as the geographic region in System Preferences to specify the date format, the time format, and the number format on your computer.
• Number formatting for some international languages is improved.
This update fixes an issue that causes number formatting errors when regional settings are set to some non-US regions.
• Reliability is improved.
This update fixes an issue that prevents Excel from opening workbooks that contain a range that spans more than one row and is sorted left-to-right. This issue occurs only when the workbook is saved in the Excel workbook (.xslx) format.
• Calculation performance is improved.
This update improves the overall performance of calculations in Excel 2008, especially when you work with large data sets and complex formulas.
• Stability is improved when you save workbooks that contain PivotTable reports.
This update fixes an issue that prevents Excel from saving a workbook in the Excel workbook (.xlsx) format after you copy a PivotTable report into the workbook. When this issue occurs, the following message appears:
Document not saved

Improvements for Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac
• Stability is improved when you use Microsoft Sync Services.
This update fixes the following issues:
• Events and other items in Entourage or in iCal are duplicated.
• All contacts in Entourage or in the Apple Address Book are deleted and re-created when you use Microsoft Sync Services.
• Reliability is improved for recurring calendar events.
This update fixes an issue with Entourage 2008 in which a canceled instance of a recurring meeting is re-added to the organizer's calendar when the organizer receives a response from an attendee.
• Reliability is improved.
This update fixes an issue that causes the following behavior in Entourage 2008:
• Embedded graphics or images are not displayed correctly in messages when you read or view the messages.
• HTML e-mail messages appear as blank messages.
• In Entourage 2008 SP1, some characters that follow the ampersand (&) in a hyperlink are truncated.
• The Japanese postal code dictionary is updated.
The Japanese postal dictionary is updated with information as of May 2008.
• Time zone information is updated.
This update provides updated time zone information.
• Reliability is improved when Entourage establishes a encrypted channel.
This update fixes an issue in Entourage 2008 SP1 that causes Entourage to establish SSL connections to invalid hosts. When an invalid connection is established, you receive the following error message:
Unable to establish a secure connection to hostname because the server name of IP address does not match the name or IP address on the server's certificate. If you continue, the information you view and send will be encrypted, but will not be secure.
• The junk mail filter is updated.
This update includes a new Junk E-mail Protection definition file.