News 

The software was uploaded to several OpenOffice mirrors on Friday, such as this one at the University of Utah.

The latest version of the open-source office application is once again available in PC, Linux and Mac flavours, but for the first time runs as a native application under Mac OS X.

Support for ODF 1.2 has been added, in anticipation of the upcoming standard, along with Microsoft's OOXML document format. A selection of import filters are also provided to allow a range of Microsoft Office documents to be imported and edited seamlessly.

Another interesting feature is Solver, a solution engine for combinatorial optimisation problems that is a strong selling point for the commercial Excel package from Microsoft.

The updated office package represents the first major milestone release since version 2 was unveiled in October 2005.

Keep an eye out on the PC Pro site for a First Look at Open Office 3