04.25.07
New Features for NeoOffice
If you’ve ever been tired of hearing “Unfortunately, the current scope of the NeoOffice project is limited by resources to keeping a native version of OpenOffice.org running on Mac OS X” (goodness knows I’ve been tired of saying it, and I imagine Patrick, Ed, and the other members of the NeoOffice community have as well), today is an exciting day.
Patrick has just announced the NeoOffice New Features Program, wherein users can donate funds towards implementing a specific new feature. If you want a feature implemented, donate, and if enough of your fellow users also want this feature and donate, Patrick and Ed will implement the feature.
Right now there are two features available for donations—they’re feature requests that have been fairly common and would improve the level of Mac OS X integration in NeoOffice—use of the native spellchecker (where available) and integration of the Mac OS X Address Book as a native data source (right now if you want to use data from Address Book, this less-than-ideal process is required). Patrick and Ed have analyzed and scoped these features and have determined an approximate cost of implementing each feature; if the amount of money required is raised before the deadline (all funds collected for features that don’t meet the required amount will be refunded; PayPal sets a deadline on refunds), the feature will be implemented.
If the costs of the features seem prohibitive, please remember that 1) Patrick and Ed live in California, a place that has a ridiculously high cost of living, and 2) Ed has a full-time job, and Patrick must balance NeoOffice work with consulting work to keep his family fed and housed. Developing software, especially software as popular as NeoOffice, is not cheap. Historically, a number of major feature additions, like drag-and-drop support, have been funded by significant donations; for the first time, the average user has a chance to fund a feature even if he or she doesn’t have deep pockets.
What if your favorite feature isn’t on the list? Don’t despair; other features will be added for funding in the future, once Patrick and Ed have had time to scope them out and estimate the cost. A popular request since Patrick first announced his intent to begin this program is support for video (e.g., whatever QuickTime can decode), especially in Impress, and some interest has been expressed in supporting PDF as an embeddable image format (e.g., not editable, but similar to how EPS files are currently handled). If you have another idea you’d like to propose for future consideration, please start a new thread in the New Features Program forum (if no one else has started a thread on the subject already); one idea per thread, please.
If you have other questions about the New Features Program (not answered on the New Features Program page), please check out the thread on trinity explaining the program.
Update 2007-05-21: Showing some additional menus even when all windows are closed is also on the list now, another improvement to take more of Windows out of NeoOffice. 