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OpenOffice.org Portable 2.0.3 Pre-Release - Testers Needed

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August 28, 2006 - 1:12am
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John T. Haller
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OpenOffice.org Portable 2.0.3 Pre-Release - Testers Needed

I've just posted a pre-release of OpenOffice.org Portable 2.0.3 and need some folks to test it out... especially if you use Windows 2000 and had the old issue of it not being able to open or save files before I included a default set of settings. For the unfamiliar, OpenOffice.org is a complete office suite (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, etc). This new release is the result of quite a bit of research and experimentation, allowing me to add some of the new features:

Live CD Support - OpenOffice.org Portable now supports runnings from a CD. Just install it to a local drive and run it once, making any settings changes you like within OpenOffice.org. Then exit out and copy the OpenOfficePortable.ini file from OpenOfficePortable\Other\OpenOfficePortableSource to the OpenOfficePortable directory. Edit it and change the RunDataLocally parameter to true. Then, run it again from your local drive so that the launcher can pre-configure OpenOffice.org to run from a read-only media. Finally, you can burn the OpenOfficePortable directory to a read-only drive. The OpenOffice.org files will run directly from the read-only media. The settings files will be copied to the local machine within the My Documents directory (specifically to a directory called OpenOfficePortableTemp within there). When complete, this directory will be deleted.

In-Place Upgrades - OpenOffice.org Portable supports the ability to do what I'm 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 existing preferences and it'll Just Work (tm).

Java Autodetection - OpenOffice.org Portable will now correctly detect and utilize a locally installed Java Runtime Environment, and will continue to do so as you move PCs. If there is none installed, OpenOffice.org will let you know of this when you first attempt to use a feature that requires a JRE (like the Wizards).

Long Paths Fix - When used in the default directory layouts, OpenOffice.org Portable should be much more forgiving of long paths and paths with special characters. For this reason, no default set of settings is included and OpenOffice.org will generate its own on first launch. It should not have the problems that some users encountered on some Windows 2000 systems where OO could not open or save files. Any users with access to a Windows 2000 system are *highly* encouraged to test this. After a first run, if you delete the OpenOfficePortable\Data\settings\user directory, it will be the same as a first launch.

Unicode Commandline Fix - OpenOffice.org Portable should correctly accept unicode paths if you pass them in (so you can drag a document with a unicode file name right onto the launcher, for instance).

WINE Support - OpenOffice.org Portable supports running within WINE on your favorite Linux/UNIX distro. You can install, configure and use it as you would in Windows. Just be sure not to use any functions that require a Java Runtime Environment (like wizards, etc) as it will cause OpenOffice.org to crash within WINE.

Grab the self-extractor here: OpenOffice.org Portable 2.0.3 Pre-Release (64.8MB download)

Thanks,
John

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August 28, 2006 - 2:48am
Ryan McCue
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For once

I can actually get it! We just had our limit upgraded to 5GB/month.
Where are you?
BTW, you should actually trademark "It Just Works™" Wink
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R McCue
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And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my
hands aren't even in the same time zone...

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

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August 28, 2006 - 10:27am
(Reply to #2)
John T. Haller
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Arizona

I'm in Tucson, AZ for my grandfather's 90th birthday. I had a choice between definitely finishing the Suite and releasing this week. And coming out for a birthday weekend for my grandfather at a guest ranch near his house. I chose the latter.

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

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August 28, 2006 - 10:01am
ace_dent
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Worth waiting?

Hi John.

You're probably aware, but 2.0.4 will be out in just a few weeks. The release schedule is here: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Product_Release

Cheers,
Andrew

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August 28, 2006 - 10:29am
(Reply to #4)
John T. Haller
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Yeah, I know

But I'd like to get the suite out sooner rather than later. I'll be posting a test release based on the release candidate when it's out (like I'm doing with Firefox and Thunderbird now), so I can do the actual release right after the official 2.0.4 comes out.

I'd planned on keeping up with all the apps, but the renaming and updating of the launchers has taken much longer than expected. Especailly for OpenOffice.org Portable. It was the biggest project to get it as full-featured as the others... particularly running from CD.

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

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August 28, 2006 - 6:21pm
Jonathan
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Does that mean we can get

Does that mean we can get Firefox Portable to detect local Java correctly, since you got OpenOffice.org to do it? I can't play Yahoo! Games because it uses Java even though I know I have Java installed locally.

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August 29, 2006 - 1:34am
(Reply to #6)
John T. Haller
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No

They use different methods. So, essentially, the two are totally unrelated. Me getting OO to do it gets us no closer to FF doing it.

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

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August 29, 2006 - 8:08am
(Reply to #7)
pfeerick
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Off topic, but what happens in yahoo games

I know this is off topic, but when happens when firefox portable goes onto yahoo games when a local install of java. I tried yahoo games for the first time today, and got a error about an older version of the game or something in the cache, and was told to restart the browser. This was stupid, as I've got the cache set to 0, but I restarted firefox, clicked the empty cache button, and tried yahoo again, but it came up with the same stupid error. Is this what you get?

Odd: just went to www.broadbandreports.com to run their java applet speedtest, and It worked with portable firefox when I have a locally installed version of firefox and the jre (home machine now, other machine was a uni lab computer).

regards,
Peter

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August 29, 2006 - 10:01am
(Reply to #8)
Jonathan
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This is the last post I'll

This is the last post I'll make on this topic in this thread as John needs to have the Beta Testing done. If we want to make further posts, I'll make a new topic but hopefully we won't need to.

When I go to Yahoo! Games in Firefox Portable, my Firefox just hangs as the Java is trying to load but fails.

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August 30, 2006 - 8:46am
xdriftdoll
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I made a zh-TW version...

Annoucement (Trad. Chinese, of course)
http://blog.webs-tv.net/xdriftdoll/article/3199741

Download here: (The Trad. Chinese OO.o version is 2.0.3 RC-7)
http://www.sharebig.com/d/souuwixjv/08XLNkk44F3782803/OpenOffice-2.0.3.z...
If somebody needs Trad. Chinese interface, they can try with it.

Sorry for my bad connection and I can't always upload to sf.net completely.

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August 30, 2006 - 11:54am
Jonathan
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Btw, it works fine for me.

Btw, it works fine for me. Start up is pretty fast on a portable Hard Drive.

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August 30, 2006 - 7:37pm
melendz
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O.K.

I tried it in my WinXP system. It works fine running from my hard drive and my 2 GB USB drive.

Thanks. Great job!

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August 30, 2006 - 8:40pm
Ryan McCue
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Works for me

This is the first app going on my new USB drive (1GB SanDisk™ Cruzer Micro)
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R McCue
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And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my
hands aren't even in the same time zone...

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

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August 31, 2006 - 7:45am
twnty3svn
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Working fine....

new to OOo and have been customising for hours now, seems very stable on XP sp2, running from Sandisk Titanium 2gb.

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September 5, 2006 - 11:57am
Loui5
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Double click does not open a documentetc.

I don't know how to explain this, but double clicking on a sheet or text document does not open it with version 2.0.3 Prerelease. It used to work with version 2.0.2. The setting on the host PC to remember the application with which to run open the sheet or document is not sticky.

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September 5, 2006 - 12:00pm
(Reply to #15)
John T. Haller
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Unsupported

Setting it as the default document opener within Windows isn't supported (that isn't very portable, is it?).

But if you were so inclined, you can right-click on a document and select Open With - Choose Program.... Click Browse... to find OpenOfficePortable.exe. Check of Always use and click ok. If this doesn't work, it's something with Windows and you'll need to manually open up file types (Tools - Options - File Types from within Windows Explorer) and delete the old and try again. It's Windows that controls all this, so it has nothing to do with OpenOffice.org Portable, really.

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

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September 5, 2006 - 12:43pm
(Reply to #16)
Loui5
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Thank you John for the

Thank you John for the information. It could be that my previous installation i.e. Portable Openoffice 2.0.2 (with a slightly different naming convention of the executable files, if I recall correctly), is ingrained in the Windows that I use. This could explain why it worked for me.

As you suggest, I should now go ahead and adjust the application association manually.

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September 6, 2006 - 3:43am
(Reply to #17)
ChrisN
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File Extention change - my contrib

I run OOP from a second hard drive and am therefore free to permanently set the file extensions. I have also found a change from 2.0.2. Previously to set the file ext you would tell Windows to open an existing file with the correct launcher for that file type, for example, OpenOfficeWriterPortable.exe for a .odt file and OpenOfficeCalcPortable.exe for a .ods file etc,. This no longer works, now when set like up this, a new document of the selected type is created instead of opening the file for editing.

The answer as you suggest is to set all Open Office files to open with the OpenOfficePortable.exe, this however changes all the file icons to be the same, which can be a might confusing. I agree that its Windoze that controls whether on double click an existing file will be opened or a new file created but I have run both 2.0.2 and 2.0.3 side by side and there is definately a difference in behaviour. Since Windoze has not altered the way it reacts to the *open* file command, could it be a change in OpenOffice itself?

Hope this is helpful
c

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September 6, 2006 - 8:06am
(Reply to #18)
John T. Haller
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Probably OpenOffice

It's probably a change within OpenOffice itself. You can manually change your icons within the File Types dialog in Explorer. I think it's in the Advanced section.

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

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September 6, 2006 - 2:18pm
(Reply to #19)
Loui5
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I'll have to live with it

I'll have to live with it because the PC I'm running Portable Openoffice on has a lot of restrictions in place set by the Administrator and I cannot change the file association using Windows Explorer. The application association points to the 2.0.2 executable files. If I rename the current (2.0.3) application names to the ones in 2.0.2 would I break anything?

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September 8, 2006 - 4:51am
(Reply to #20)
ChrisN
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For info

If you replace the files from OpenOffice 2.0.2 (*only* those contained in the \openoffice folder of the old launcher) with OpenOffice 2.0.3 files copied from the \App\openoffice folder of the new OpenOfficePortable 2.0.3 launcher, the reported problems with the file associations do not occur i.e double clicking an existing text file will cause PortableOpenOfficeWriter.exe (as it was then) to open the file for editing rather than begining a new file.

This suggests that the recent change in behaviour actually depends on something within the new 2.0.3 launcher itself rather than in OpenOffice 2.0.3 or the OpenOffice files included with the new OpenOfficePortable 2.0.3. Since people running OOP from a hard drive, and who therefore might choose to set the file the asscociations, are less likely to be short of space and will be getting hard drive type launch speeds anyway maybe combining the 2.0.2 launcher with the files from OpenOffice 2.0.3 is a realistic solution although you obviouly lose the new features that John has built into the new launchers.
Best
c

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