A new version of Open Office has been released for evaluation by the general public. The latest release, 3.0 supports the OpenDocument format as standard and will work with files from most relevant applications.
The beta release also has had a bit of a design refresh, offering a new 'start centre' and updated, "fresh looking" icons. Other improvements include better support for workbook sharing, and spreadsheet collaboration, and new features in the Draw and Impress applications.
OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X without X11, the firm added, stressing the importance of this move its release notes add, " In addition, OpenOffice.org integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications.
Finally, people like OpenOffice.org 3.0 for Mac OS X because of its very good stability and performance. Reportedly, some Mac users have switched to OpenOffice.org just because of its extremely good stability."
