Release Notes for Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0
Translations: Dutch (nl) | German (de) | Language 3 | Language 4
Draft - OpenOffice 4.2.0 is not yet released
General Remarks
Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0 is a feature release incorporating new and improved features but also important bug fixes and security fixes. All users of Apache OpenOffice 4.1.9 or earlier are advised to upgrade. You can download Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0 at the usual place. Please review these Release Notes to learn what is new in this version as well as important remarks concerning known issues and their workarounds.
Only use the original website "https://www.openoffice.org/download/" to download. The installed software can be verified with the About box (see menu "Help - About OpenOffice) by comparing the numbers with the reference data on the download webpage (see the text in the light green box). For Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0 it has be to be "AOO420m? | Build ID ???? | SVN r???????".
Improvements/Enhancements
The following list items needs to be proofed with respective BZ issues:
All the fonts have been updated, also added the fonts "Caladea" and "Carlito" which are geometrically compatible to Microsoft Cambria and Calibre.
Python was updated to 2.7.15.
Hunspell was updated to 1.3.3.
- Fixed many issues detected by Coverity scan.
Cleanups for many, many typos everywhere.
- Bug Fixes
- Update for the English dictionaries
Bug Fixes
Highlighted Improvements/Enhancements
- List a few issues that are interesting for the most users
- <BZ issue> <Description>
- ...
For a complete overview of all resolved issues please see the list in Bugzilla.
Language Support
Updated translations
The following languages were updated and have 100 % translated UI:
| Dutch | German | Japanese | Lithuanian |
| Turkish | Language 6 | Language 7 | Language 8 |
Updated Dictionaries
| English (en-GB) | Language 2 | Language 3 | Language 4 |
For a complete list of available languages and language packs see the download webpage (click the language drop-down-box).
Platform Support
Binaries are still provided for the same platforms as for the previous OpenOffice 4.x releases:
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux 32-bit (RPM and DEB)
- Linux 64-bit (RPM and DEB)
Known Issues
For macOS users
- Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0 may be flagged by the Gatekeeper facility in macOS X. This is a feature to help guard against malware on Mac systems. The Apache OpenOffice disk images are signed by Apache as required by Apple, but Gatekeeper may still be triggered. If that happens, please follow the below steps.
- For OS X up to 10.11 "El Capitan": There is a procedure laid out at the following link to allow applications not installed from the Mac App store to run. See the Mac support article.
- For macOS 10.12 "Sierra": In Finder, Control-click or right click the icon of the app. Select Open from the top of contextual menu that appears. Click Open in the dialog box. If prompted, enter an administrator name and password. This is needed just the first time you launch Apache OpenOffice.
- Due to a known bug in Oracle Java installations of Apache OpenOffice on macOS that do not have the legacy Apple Java 6 installed will not be able to recognize Oracle Java 7 and 8. If not able to upgrade to Java 9 than install the legacy version of Apple Java from the following link: Legacy Apple Java 6. This will allow the portions of AOO that require Java to run properly.
For Windows Users
- Apache OpenOffice 4.2.0 supports Java 8, which is the recommended configuration; but (especially on 64-bit Windows) you might receive warnings about the Java version being defective. In that case, download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package.
For Developers
- The OpenOffice SDK won't build with Java 8. Either build with --disable-odk or see the dev list archives for possible solutions.
Installation Information
Installation instructions can be found at: https://www.openoffice.org/download/common/instructions.html
Stay informed about Apache OpenOffice
You are encouraged to subscribe to the Apache OpenOffice announcement mailing list to receive important notifications such as product updates and security patches. To subscribe you can send an email to: announce-subscribe@openoffice.apache.org.
You can also follow the project on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube