NeoOffice

History

Versions of OpenOffice.org for Mac prior to 3.0 did not have a native OS X interface; they required either X11.app or XDarwin to be installed.

NeoOffice was the first OpenOffice.org fork to offer a native OS X experience, with easier installation, better integration into the OS X interface (pull-down menus at the top of the screen and familiar keyboard shortcuts, for example), use of OS X's fonts and printing services without additional configuration, and integration with the OS X clipboard and drag-and-drop functions. Subsequently, both LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice followed NeoOffice's lead and implemented similarly native OS X versions.

NeoOffice began as a project to investigate methods of creating a native port of OpenOffice.org to OS X. The project now called NeoOffice was originally dubbed "NeoOffice/J", reflecting its use of OS X's Java integration to enable a native application. A related project was NeoOffice/C, which was a simultaneous effort to develop a version using Apple's Cocoa APIs. But NeoOffice/C proved very difficult to implement and the application was highly unstable, so the project was set aside in favor of the more promising NeoOffice/J. The "/J" suffix was dropped with version 1.2, since there was no longer another variety of NeoOffice from which to distinguish it. Many of these releases were preceded by a version that only Early Access Members could download; these versions were released about a month before the official release date.

NeoOffice 3.1.1 and later is based on OpenOffice.org 3.1.1, though recent versions include stability fixes from LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice.

In 2013 NeoOffice moved to a commercial distribution model via the Mac App Store. As of 2016, the source code is still available for free, but the software package is only available with the purchase of a commercial license.

Supported file formats

Listed here, in the order of appearance in the Save As dialogue box, are the file formats supported for saving documents in NeoOffice 3.1.2. In cases where NeoOffice is used to edit a document originally in a Microsoft format, NeoOffice can save to that format without loss of formatting.

Word processor application

Spreadsheet application

Presentation application

Graphics application

Database application

Formula application

(*Pre-chosen save default format.)
By default, NeoOffice loads and saves files in the OpenDocument file format, although this can be changed by the user. The OpenDocument file format is an XML file format standardized by OASIS (Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).

Licensing

Sun first released OpenOffice.org under both the LGPL and SISSL, later under only the LGPL, with a requirement for copyright assignment for any contributions to the main code base, which allowed Sun to create proprietary versions of the software (notably StarOffice). NeoOffice chose not to assign its code to Sun, which prevented Sun from using NeoOffice code in official OpenOffice.org versions.

There were initially some attempts to resolve the licensing differences and foster more direct cooperation and code-sharing between the NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org developers. However, the NeoOffice developers said that they preferred to work separately from OpenOffice.org because "coordination requires a significant amount of time." The OpenOffice.org developers said that "a proposal to work together has been made, and NeoOffice developers refused". The NeoOffice developers subsequently expressed support for LibreOffice and the launch of The Document Foundation.

Though NeoOffice is sold commercially, the source code is still available for free under the terms of the GPL.