I've been waiting for this feature since first showed up. It won't significantly improve your writing, but it will save you from some of the more idiotic grammar errors.

For example, Writer's existing grammar checker framework can now be augmented with extensions like LanguageTool.

What's cool about it?, like the Firefox Web browser, can use extensions to increase its functionality. The file-locking mechanism preserved the document from my best attempts to make a complete mess of it.

I tried to mangle a shared document (that existed on a Windows Server 2008 file server) by editing it from my Linux desktop and also from my XP desktop. Now Jack in marketing, who uses a Mac, can't overwrite a change that was just made by Jill in the (Windows-based) comptroller's office. It's almost like running on a brand new machine.Īnother good feature, if you're considering for office use, is that it now has its own OS-independent file-locking system. I saw similar performance boosts when running the various other applications. It used to take about 12 seconds to launch Writer now it takes just over 6 seconds.

This was especially clear on when I ran it on a Windows XP system. What really caught my attention after a few minutes of using the various apps was how much faster this version is than version 3.0. I tested the suite on a Windows XP system and one running MEPIS 8, a Debian-based Linux distribution.

Open office free download for windows