Specifications for All Modules

Specifications which affect all OpenOffice.org Modules

Specification	Description	Author	Status	Target	Date
Spellcheck Dialog	The usability of the current spellcheck dialog has been improved. The wording/terminology of the dialog is aligned to competing programs. The new non-modal spelling dialog shows the spelled word in context of the complete sentence. This context helps the user to decide if a highlighted word is wrong or only unknown. Furthermore the user has not go back to the document if she wants to undo changes made by the spelling dialog because she can use the new undo functionality within the spelling dialog.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0	05/03/04
Mac OS X SpellChecker	Mac OS X has a built in spell checking facility in many languages. Using this facility benefits the user because they can maintain a single word list across all applications. Also, the spelling of all words will be consistent across all applications. This project integrates the Mac OS X Spellcheck services into the existing OpenOffice.org user interface.	Mike Sicotte	Standard	2.4	09/06/07
Options Dialog	The Options dialog of OpenOffice.org 2.0 will feature context sensitive sections. Not all available sections are shown to the user – just those that make sense in the given context of an active module. The labels of the sections do also change to promote the names of OpenOffice.org's modules.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0	03/30/2004
PDF Export	enhanced PDF Export functionality, i.e. support of hyperlinks created PDF files.	Philipp Lohmann	Standard	2.0	06/15/2004
Outline Style Font Quality for PDF Export	Fonts can be styled as outline. If these text is exported to PDF the visual appearance is the same as on screen and paper.	Hasan Ilter	Preliminary	2.0	11/04/2003
Number of Undo Steps	In order to increase the robustness of the undo functionality the default number of undo steps is increased to 100. It is also possible to customize the number of possible steps to an even higher value.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0	04/05/2004
Drag and Drop of Selections to the Stylist	Drag and drop of selection of OOo Writer text documents into the Stylist window should create appropriate new styles depending on the currently selected style family. Those newly created styles should then copy the attributes from the selection.	Oliver Specht	Standard	2.0	12/11/2003
Windows Explorer Column Handler	The Microsoft® Windows® Explorer Details view normally displays several standard columns that list information, such as the file size or file type for every file in the current folder. By implementing and registering a column handler an application can make custom columns available.	Tino Rachui	Standard	2.0	6/15/2004
Windows Explorer Infotip Handler	Infotip handler are small tooltip windows that show essential information about a file. The Windows Explorer shows such infotips if the mouse hovers over a file for a few seconds. By registering a custom infotip handler the Windows Explorer is able to show OpenOffice.org specific file meta information.	Tino Rachui	Standard	2.0	05/28/2004
OOo File Thumbnails	The standard file system explorer on all three relevant desktops Gnome (Nautilus), KDE (Konqueror), and Windows (Explorer) support a thumbnail view mode in which a small preview of the respective file system object will be displayed if available. By providing a custom plugin for the particular file system explorer it is possible to display a thumbnail representation of an OpenOffice.org file.	Tino Rachui	Standard	2.0	05/28/2004
OOo File Search	The Windows Shell provides several search facilities that allow a user to locate files on the computer or a network. Unfortunately these search facilities are not able to search for information in OpenOffice.org file. On the other hand the Windows Shell makes it possible to register custom search handler and make them available to the user. This makes it possible to create a search handler that is able to look for specific information in OpenOffice.org files.	Tino Rachui	Preliminary	2.0	12/12/2003
Browser Detection on UNIX	OpenOffice.org 2.0 will have functionality build in to identify the users preferred web-browser from the desktop environment one is running. As a consequence, the now obsolete and UNIX only UI in OpenOffice.org 1.x for selecting a browser applications will get removed	Oliver Braun	Standard	2.0	04/20/2004
Send Document as Email	With "File - Send - Document" as E-mail OpenOffice.org offers functionality to open a new email composer window with the active document directly attached. OpenOffice.org 2.0 will greatly simplify the task of configuring the email client to be used for this feature	Oliver Braun	Standard	2.0	06/08/2004
Search within help pages	This document is a specification to define the search within help pages.	Hans-Peter Burow	Standard	2.0	12/15/2003
AutoRecovery	This document is a specification to define the new AutoRecovery feature in OO.org	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0	12/17/2003
Module name in caption bar	Instead of showing the filename or the title (if available) and the office name within the Window Title now the file name of the document plus the office components name will at display.	Falko Tesch	Standard	2.0	07/01/2003
Migration of the old binary filters to a filter module and their removal from the office application(s)	This document is a specification to define how the binfilter project will be executed	Armin Weiss	Preliminary	2.0	01/14/2004
GUI Specification for XForms Part 1	This document is part 1 of the GUI specification for the new XForms feature.	Frank Loehmann	Preliminary	2.0	2004-07-02
GUI Specification for XForms Part 2	This document is part 2 of the GUI specification for the XForms feature, and describes changes done to the form/control property browser.	Frank Schönheit	Standard 1.0.1	2.0	2005-06-08
Customize Menu	This document is the GUI specification for a renewed customize menus dialog.	Christian Jansen	Standard	2.0	04/30/2004
Format Paintbrush	OpenOffice.org 2.0 will get a new tool to ease copy and paste styles (formatting). It is called "Format Paintbrush" and will transfer all formatting from objects and text to new targets by simply using a new icon.	Falko Tesch	Standard, v.2	2.0	26.05.2004
New WebWizard	The old WebWizard did not offer a satisfying result in terms of design and functionality. It is not modern in any way. It was decided to focus on the transformation of Office documnets to a web capable format versus real web design. So the new WebWizard helps a user to transform his documents and to push them to a web server.	Ilko Höpping	Preliminary	2.0	02/06/2004
Error Report UI Spec for OO.o 2.0	The OpenOffice.org Error Reporting Tool and the document recovery features are combined into one work flow. When OpenOffice.org crashes the documents will be saved and users get informed abut the upcoming recovery process, followed by sending out an error report.	Christian Jansen	Standard	2.0	03/23/2004
Start Module	The Start Module -- formerly know as the Backing Window in OpenOffice 1.1 -- becomes an optional module. A configuration setting is used to disable the Start Module if required for a site installation. This specification describes the behavior of OpenOffice.org on startup and after the user has closed the last document; thus it is a successor of the File Close Behavior specification for OOo1.1.	Andreas Schluens	Preliminary	2.0	01/21/04
Options Dialog/Java Panel	A new panel in the options dialog will be introduced allowing to determine what Java shall be used by OpenOffice.org. A set off additional arguments which are passed to the selected Java VM during its creation can be specified by the user.	Joachim Lingner	Standard	2.0	04/16/2004
Open Document Behavior	OOo 2.0 Writer and Impress documents open on the first page or slide, regardless of the last editing position when the document was saved the last time. OOo Calc documents open at the editing view that was present when the document was saved.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0	06/1/2004
Open Password Protected Microsoft Word and Excel Documents	OOo 2.0 allows to open password protected Microsoft Word and Excel documents, if the ARCFOUR (default method) or XOR encryption method was used to encrypt the document.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0	05/10/2004
Borders and Shadow for Bitmaps in Draw/Impress	These new features improves the interoperability with PowerPoint documents. Furthermore the border of objects does not overlay the text in the object anymore.	Frank Loehmann	Preliminary	2.0	05/11/2004
Digital Signature and Security Specification	Digital signature allows to sign documents and/or document macros. Furthermore some security related features are new in OO.org 2.0	Frank Loehmann	Preliminary	2.0	05/11/2004
Configuration Error Handling and Recovery	In order to increase the robustness of the office application against corrupted configuration data, the configuration database will support automatic recovery from unusable data. Additionally diagnostic capabilities are provided that allow administrators or support services to obtain log output to identify the cause of configuration problems.	Jörg Barfurth	Standard	2.0	07/06/2004
Desktop Menu Integration	In modern graphical user interface there are several standard mechanisms for a user to launch an application, such as menu items in the Start/Launch menu or a (double) click on a document specific to that application. OpenOffice.org 2.0 provides these mechanisms as well.	Oliver Braun	Standard	2.0	06/23/05
Package Manager Graphical User Interface	The PackageManager GUI is the client frontend to import, export and remove packages, i.e. extensions to an Office installation, e.g. UNO components or extensions coming with a single document, e.g. scripts.	Daniel Boelzle	Standard	2.0	07/06/04
unopkg Deployment Tool Specification	The unopkg deployment tool is used to deploy/undeploy UNO packages into an Office installation, e.g. UNO components.	Daniel Boelzle	Standard	2.0	07/05/04
XML Filter Configuration	OOo 2.0 supports - additionally to the XHTML output filter of OOo 1.1 - also XHTML output filters for Calc, Draw, and Impress. Furthermore, output filters "Microsoft Word 2003 XML (Writer export)" and "Microsoft Excel 2003 XML (Calc export)" are part of the installation.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Preliminary	2.0	05/25/04
Customize Events Specification	Specification for redesign of Events tab in Tools/Configure dialog	Duncan Foster	Standard	2.0	07/05/04
Menu Structure	This document is a collection of links to specifications related to the new menu structure of OpenOffice.org 2.0.	Matthias Müller-Prove		2.0	07/22/04
File Menu	The File menu gives access to recently used OOo documents. This list is extended to 10 items. It is also a submenu in order to improve the usability of the File menu.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0	06/30/04
View Menu	The View menus of all OOo 2.0 modules are restructured. The first segment contains the different viewing modes, the second segment contains the toolbars and layout aids like rulers and guide, while the last section contains full screen mode and zooming functions. Module specific options are placed above the last group. The terminology is also updated to better match the terms used by competing applications.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0	07/08/04
Help Menu	The Help menu makes is easier to access the Help by using better terms and moving the toggle menu items for the Help Agent and the Help Tips to the General options panel. It is no longer possible to entirely switch off tool tips.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0	6/16/2004
OpenOffice.org Miozilla Plug-in	A specification that defines a new plug-in for Mozilla, allowing to display OpenOfffice.org files within Mozilla-based browsers.	Robert Chen	Standard	2.0	09/07/2004
Media Player	A specification that defines the integration of a media files into OpenOffice.org	Kai Ahrens	Preliminary	2.0	07/23/04
First Start-Up and User Data Migration	Technical and user interface specification for the user data migration process. This first start up wizard now contains an additional page for the online update.	Lars Oppermann ; Christian Jansen	Preliminary	2.0	09/28/06
Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Styles	Specification: Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Styles	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0	07.09.2004
File Format Names for Open Office XML Format	Specification: File Format Names for New OASIS Open Office XML Format	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0	09.09.2004
Window States	This specification describes the default window states of each OpenOffice.org module	Christian Jansen	Standard	2.0	16/03/2005
Data Loss Warning for none Default File Formats	This specification describes the data loss warning in Tools-Options	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0	16/03/2005
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.1
Impress Clipboard	The default paste format is changed from OLE to MetaFile in order to ease the transition of data to OOo Impress.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0.1	15 Sep 2005
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.2
Optional Hardware Acceleration	OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 supports a hardware acceleration for rendering of presentations in Impress. An additional component is needed to enable the platform specific acceleration. Furthermore, graphic card drivers are 3rd-party products, which OpenOffice.org does not have any influence on. Additionally, there is a potential for bugs in those drivers, which can be unveiled by using OpenOffice.org. Since such problems can make OpenOffice.org presentations potentially unusable, we introduce an option which allows the user to disable the hardware acceleration support.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Standard	2.0.2	13 Dec 2005
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.3
PDF Export Dialog	The PDF Export dialog gets a bunch of additional options to control how the generated PDF document opens in Adobe Reader. They are layout and magnifications options, as well as options that control the user interface of Adobe Reader itself.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Preliminary	2.0.3	10 Mar 2006
Send Document as E-Mail - Support MS file format	This document specifies how the "Send Document as E-Mail" feature can be extended to support users who have to send their documents using a Microsoft® file format.	Carsten Driesner	Standard	2.0.3	21 Mar 2006
Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths	Several paths are critical to OpenOffice.org. If a user is not absolutely sure what she does in Options-Paths then OOo can refuse to launch the next time. Therefore, all but 5 paths are removed from the Options panel. The experienced user can still change the other paths by editing the configuration file.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Preliminary	2.0.3	29 Mar 2006
Online Update	To support people to retrieve the latest version of OpenOffice.org easily, we will add a new menu item called "Check for Updates..." into the help menu. The mechanism to check for updates will only be activated in the regular OpenOffice.org builds created by Hamburg release engineering by default.	Carsten Driesner	Final	2.0.3	07 Apr 2006
Toolbar Content	This specification covers the content OpenOffice.org 2.03 toolbars.	Christian Jansen	Standard	2.0.3	March 31, 2006
Naming Single Drawing Objects	Single drawing objects and text boxes, contrary to grouped drawing objects, could not be named in Writer and Calc. It is an accessibility requirement to be able to do so.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.0.3	March 16, 2006
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.0.4
System Settings	OpenOffice.org reads and honors user settings from the operating system / desktop environment where possible. Currently supported desktop environments are Windows, GNOME and (new) KDE	Oliver Braun	Standard	2.0.4	04 May 2006
PDF Export Dialog	TBD Competitive Analysis Acrobat7-Security.odg	Matthias Müller-Prove
Minimal Support for Extension Dependencies	Starting with OOo 2.0.4, extensions (also known as “packages” or “UNO packages”) can specify dependencies on their installation environment. If at least one of those dependencies is not met, the application refuses to install the extension.	Stephan Bergmann	Standard	2.0.4	Jul 6, 2006
Simple License for Extensions	It shall be possible that extensions (aka UNO Package Bundles) bring a license text, which is to be displayed during installation and later at will. During installation, the user must agree or decline the license. The latter will abort the installation. Using this license mechanism shall be possible without including code in the extensions. Hence it will be very easy to implement for developers of extensions.	Joachim Linger	Standard	2.0.4	Jul 13, 2006
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.1
Micro Typography	New OpenOffice.org documents will have kerning enabled by default. Existing documents are not affected.	Matthias Müller-Prove
Extension Version Handling	Extensions are often improved over time. That is, publishers want to ship new versions of the same extension with added functionality and/or bug fixes. Adding a version field to .oxt extensions allows publishers to ship new versions, and allows OpenOffice.org to detect and handle the case that an extension installed by the user is an update of an existing extension.	Stephan Bergmann	Standard	2.1	Sep 27, 2006
Package Manager Renaming	The terms UNO package or package bundle are rarely used. Instead the expression extension is used most of the times. Therefore we will replace these terms with extension.	Joachim Lingner	Standard	2.1	Sep 29, 2006
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.2
System integration for extensions	Extensions shall be recognized on desktops by using particular icons. It shall also be possible to install an extension by double clicking on the respective file.	Joachim Lingner	Standard	2.2	Dec 01, 2006
Preview Document in Web Browser	Make the current document previewed by browser as web page, in order to see the effect of display before release. Added a new menu item in the File menu which named 'Preview in Web Browser'. This menu item can make the current document browsed in web page. text, picture and media that can be edited in the document are all can be browsed successful. It is just browse,so some files can not edit or have their original function but are recognized as a picture. Every application include Text document, Spreadsheet and presentation can use this function.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.2	April, 2007
Online update for extensions	A mechanism for obtaining updates for extensions online and installing them.	Joachim Lingner	Standard	2.2	Dec 01, 2006
Alternative texts for Drawing objects	Set optional 'Title' and 'Description' texts at Drawing objects within a dedicated dialog	Kai Ahrens	Preliminary	2.2	Dec 12, 2006
Extension Identifiers	Extensions can now contain an `identifier` element in their `description.xml`, giving the extension a unique identifier. This removes the current restriction that no two extensions can have the same file name.	Stephan Bergmann	Standard	2.2	Jan 10, 2007
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.3
Link to extensions.openoffice.org	The Extension Manager dialog contains a link control, that opens a web browser with the openoffice extension web-site.	Joachim Lingner	Standard	2.3	June 18, 2007
Smart Tags	A smart tag scans the text of a document thru an API (i.e. for stock symbols like "SUNW") and could offer functionality for such a recognized text via a context menu. Smart tags can be provided by extensions. This first version will support Writer text documents only and is only visible in the product if at least one Smart Tag has been installed.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 5, 2007
Options Dialog for Extensions	Configuring extensions within an options dialog.	Joachim Lingner	Preliminary	2.3	Apr 17, 2007
Image Map Dialog	Dialog to edit image maps.	Christian Lippka	Preliminary	2.3	May 29, 2007
Export Single Dialog from Library	Currently dialogs are always embedded into a basic library. Especially for OOo extensions it would be helpful to have access to single dialogs. Therefore the dialog IDE gets a possibility to export the current dialog via a new button in the tool bar.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 05, 2007
Translation Inside Dialog IDE	Localization of software products is very important for a higher acceptance of the software. Therefore the OpenOffice.org (OOo) Dialog IDE will be extended to handle translation of GUIs build with the internal dialog IDE. New languages for a dialog can be created and switched on the fly by using the new Translation toolbar.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 05, 2007
Load Printer Settings with the Document Option	OOo stores and restores printer settings with a document by default. In an enterprise environment with always available printers (i.e. around the world) this could result in printing a document on the other side of the world. Therefore a new option is added to suppress loading document printer settings on loading a document.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 04, 2007
AutoCorrect	AutoCorrect feature is available in Writer, Calc, Draw and Impress. The following specification documents changes being made to the already present implementation.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 05, 2007
New Tree Control in IDE	The OOo Dialog Editor gets support for a new tree control which hasn't been available before.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 05, 2007
Automatic Language Guessing Component	The following component allows to determine the langue of a (selected) text. This feature works without using wordbooks, so the language could be determined without having a special wordbook installed for that language. This project is sponsored by Intel.	Frank Loehmann	Standard	2.3	July 05, 2007
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 2.4
Set Language Attribute for Text	Changing the language attribute of text is a much too complicated task in OOo 2.2 today. Therefore a new control in the status bar of Writer will be introduced to show the language at the current cursor position/selection. Furthermore the entire document language can be changed.	Frank Loehmann	Preliminary	2.3	July 05, 2007
Online Update Notification Extensions	In OpenOffice.org the user is notified about available updates for his installed extensions by bubble notification. The user does not need to proactively open the appropriate dialog to check for extension updates. After a mouse click on the notofication icon the extension updates will be visible in the 'Extension Update' dialog.	Bettina Haberer	Standard	2.4	11/07/2007
PDF Export Dialog	As of 2.4 OOo contains new methods to export PDF/A and linked documents	Philipp Lohmann	Standard	2.4	12/03/2007
Extensible Help	Support help content inside OpenOffice.org extensions	Andreas Bregas	Standard	2.4	12/03/2007
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.0
Links Dialog	This document is a specification for an improved Links-dialog. The Links-Dialog lets users edit the properties of each link in the current document, including the path to the source file.	Christian Jansen	Standard	OfficeLater	07/31/2003
Drag and Drop and Clipboard	This document is a specification to define drag and drop behavior in OO.org 2.0	Frank Loehmann	Preliminary	OfficeLater	09/23/2003
Undo for Macros	If the user executes a macro start and end point are listed in the undo history.	Henning Brinkmann	Preliminary	OfficeLater	11/28/2003 TR VALIGN=TOP>
State name of Office module in Window Title	Instead of showing the filename or the title and the Office name within the window title now the file name of the document plus the office suite components name will at display.	Frank Loehmann	Preliminary	OfficeLater	09/25/2006
Better Distinguish Between Document and Application Settings	A specification that allows the user to better distinguish between document and application settings.	Falko Tesch	Preliminary	OfficeLater	04/30/2004
Undo of Macros	If the user executes a macro start and end point are listed in the undo history.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Preliminary	OfficeLater	08/09/2005
Gallery	The Gallery in OpenOffice.org is a repository for clip art and sound snippets. It is available in nearly all modules of OOo. The content of the Gallery is grouped in several themes and can be extended by the user. For OOo 3 the currently selected theme will be persistent, e.g. if the user closes and opens the gallery, or the user changes the view mode in OOo Impress, the Gallery will keep the theme rather than changing it back to the first in the list.	Matthias Müller-Prove	Preliminary	3.0	11/29/04
Extension_Manager_UI_Change	This is a draft about a UI change of the Extension Manager	Bettina Haberer	Standard	3.0	02/13/2008
Touchpoints_to_more_dictionaris	Easing the access to further dictionaries from within the OpenOffice.org applications	Bettina Haberer	Standard	3.0	05/27/2008
Touchppoints_to_new_templates	Easing the access to further templates from within the OpenOffice.org applications	Bettina Haberer	Standard	3.0	05/27/2008
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.1
PDF Export Dialog	As of 3.1 the handling of encrypted PDF was changed	Philipp Lohmann	Standard	3.1	07/11/08
CTL: Text Numerals Context Mode	Implements a new "Context" mode for text numerals	Frank Meies	Standard	3.1	2008-09-29
Custom Document Properties	Implements a new document properties page for custom properties	Frank Loehmann	Standard	3.1	2008-11-14
Solid Dragging:	Adapt Tools/Options/View dialog settings concerning 3D, AntiAliasing and DrawObject Interactions	Armin Le Grand	Preliminary	3.1	2008-12-04
Specifications for OpenOffice.org 3.2
Search Toolbar:	Introducing a generic search toolbar	Robert Zhou Carsten Driesner	Draft	3.2	2009-04-20
Allow to create Password Protected Microsoft Word Documents	OOo 3.2 allows to create password protected Microsoft Word documents with Microsoft Office standard RC4 algorithm.	Steve Yin	Preliminary	3.2	2009-07-27