Real World Computing
Suspicious symphony
IBM has released version 1 of its Lotus Symphony product, which fixes many bugs in previous beta versions and adds a long list of enhancements to performance, functionality and compatibility with Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite and OpenOffice documents. Usability enhancements include a new page thumbnails feature in the presentation module, improved numbering and bullet options and the ability to open PowerPoint .pps files (presentations that open directly in slideshow mode instead of edit mode). The spreadsheet module lets you do rudimentary data validation using lists, and you can merge cells more easily, which is useful for headings. For word processing, the Table of Contents feature is improved and paragraph properties copy correctly when pasting text. And there's now a software development kit with samples and an updated developers' guide and tutorial.
There's still a long list of bugs and limitations, and document conversion to and from other formats isn't as good as it should be. I still find the Symphony user interface confusing and annoying, with too many modal dialogs for setting properties and toolbars that often hide vital tools. If you're looking for a free office productivity suite it's a contender, but OpenOffice is more powerful and is also free.
You can try out Symphony via www.pcpro.co.uk/links/169advoff1, but be prepared to be treated as a criminal suspect, because IBM won't let you download the installation kit until you've been vetted. Hand over your name, country and email address and you get this message: "This product is subject to strict US export control laws. Prior to providing access, we must validate whether you are eligible to receive it under an available US export authorization. Your request is being reviewed. Upon completion of this review, you will be contacted if we are able to give access. We apologize for any inconvenience." Duh, it's a word processor, not the blueprint for a nuclear device (which is much easier to obtain, by the way). A day later you get an email entitled "IBM Lotus Symphony 1 failure": "Your business with IBM Lotus Symphony 1 is very important to us. We are sorry that your previous transaction with us did not go through. We have fixed this error in your account. Please return to the IBM Lotus Symphony 1 website to resubmit your transaction. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience."
What failure? What error? What account? They include a URL to get you back to the downloads page, where you have to give your name, email address and country again...
Talking of OpenOffice, a more stable and functional beta version of the next offering (version 3 Beta 2) has been released, which will support ODF 1.2 files including standardised formulas for the spreadsheet module. It also adds support for Office 2007 (OOXML) documents and new margin notes. The team is slowly working though the long list of changes needed for version 3 but there's still some way to go before release. View the latest state of play at http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta. The target release date was the end of 2008, but whether it will make that deadline isn't certain.
Microsoft Office 14
The next version of Microsoft Office, version 14, was expected in beta by the middle of 2008 but it seems the wait is set to continue for a while yet. The latest word from Microsoft is: "At this point in time it is too early to disclose timing for the next release of the Microsoft Office system. While it is typical for the Office team to deliver a new version every 24-36 months, we have no concrete dates with regards to timings of the general availability or the availability of a beta version at this stage."
