OpenOffice.org Portable 2.0.3 Released

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on September 6, 2006 - 1:20pm

OpenOffice.org logoPortable OpenOffice.org is now OpenOffice.org Portable, and version 2.0.3 has been released. For the unfamiliar, OpenOffice.org Portable is the handy OpenOffice.org office suite packaged with a PortableApps.com Launcher as a portable app, so you can edit your documents and spreadsheets right on your iPod, USB flash drive or other portable device. This new release adds in several new features, including: the ability to run from a CD, in-place upgrades, unicode commandline support, WINE support, Windows 95 support, Java support and more, all in a 25% smaller download. Read on for all the details...

Portable OpenOffice.org becomes OpenOffice.org Portable

The first thing you'll notice is that the name has been changed from Portable OpenOffice.org to OpenOffice.org Portable. Why the name change? The new names are designed to put the base application names first. All of the apps here at PortableApps.com are being renamed (there's only one left now). This makes it easier to sort and use your apps, too.

What's New?

So, what's new? Quite a few things:

Live/CD Support - OpenOffice.org Portable now supports running from a CD or other read-only media, making it easy to carry with you and use. Just be sure to follow the instructions to get it properly setup. Full details are in the support topic on Running from a CD.

In-Place Upgrades - OpenOffice.org Portable now supports the ability to do what we're calling an "in-place upgrade". This means that you can extract it right over an existing installation of OpenOffice.org Portable without losing any of your logs and it'll Just Work. This will apply to future releases of OpenOffice.org Portable as you'll still need to manually update due to the directory changes.

Java Detection - OpenOffice.org Portable will now correctly detect and use a locally-installed Java Runtime Environment as you move between PCs. It will also let you know if none is available when you first try to access a function that requires Java.

Unicode Commandline Support - OpenOffice.org Portable will now allow you to pass in unicode commandline parameters, which is handy for passing in documents to open, etc.

WINE Support - OpenOffice.org Portable is now compatible with WINE running on your favorite UNIX/Linux distro. Though a rigorous test cycle has not been completed, all applications appear to be functioning as expected. The one exception is Java support. If you access any of the features that require Java (wizards, some database design features, etc), OpenOffice.org will crash.

25% Smaller Download - OpenOffice.org Portable is now distributed as a self-extracting installer, which results in a 25% smaller download and no need for an external Zip program to install it to your portable device.

Windows 95 Support - A patch has been posted that allows you to use OpenOffice.org (both the portable version and the regular one) on Windows 95 systems.

Get It

The new release of OpenOffice.org Portable is available for immediate download from the OpenOffice.org Portable homepage.

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Comments

geoslake

September 7, 2006 - 9:31am

great job, as usual, john
thanks a million

DougBaer

September 7, 2006 - 11:17am

Thank you, John -- Now I have an excuse to buy a bigger USB stick Smile

mjbdiver

September 17, 2006 - 6:22pm

I've been waiting for this. Awesome!

planetthoughtful

September 20, 2006 - 11:49pm

Hi,

This new version of OpenOfficePortable seems to 'break' the ability to open OOo files from the command line? I only ask / noticed this because I use SlickRun to launch an OOo spreadsheet each day that I use as my work timesheet, and if I point it at the version for 2.02 (back when it was still PortableOpenOffice) it works, but pointing it at version 2.03 (ie OpenOfficePortable) simply opens a black spreadsheet, ignoring the filename as an open parameter.

Also, from a DOS prompt, the following works "\PortableOpenOffice\PortableOpenOfficeCalc.exe timesheet.ods", but this doesn't: "\OpenOfficePortable\OpenOfficeCalcPortable.exe timesheet.ods" (ie, it opens a blank spreadsheet instead of timesheet.ods). By the way, in case it isn't obvious, I have the Portable version of OOo 2.02 in \PortableOpenOffice, and the Portable version of OOo 2.03 in \OpenOfficePortable.

Any suggestions or likelihood that this might be fixed?

Many thanks,

pt

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

September 21, 2006 - 1:41am

Please post a note in the support forum. Support isn't handle as comments on a news story (as stated in the very first comment on this page).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Ryan McCue's picture

Ryan McCue

October 13, 2006 - 2:48am

you can, but wait until John releases it. There are updates in the launcher.
----
R McCue
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