14 September, 2008 @ 7:47 pm by Lioncourt
OpenOffice.org has released the release candidate for version 3.0 of the popular, powerful, multi-platform, free, and open source suite of office productivity programs. Yes, that’s a mouthful, but the suite has earned every one of those superlatives, and now it has another to add to its resume: Accessible.
The team of developers at OpenOffice.org has been working hard to make the suite run natively on the Mac OS X operating system, as well as give VoiceOver users a rewarding experience. That work has paid off.
In just a few short months, over the course of multiple beta releases, we’ve seen OpenOffice.org grow from a wholly inaccessible application on the Mac, to a product that can rival the access of Microsoft Office under Windows for visually impaired users. Word processing and spreadsheets work exceptionally well, and a great deal of accessibility work has been done on all the applications in the suite.
You can try out the release candidate, (which is not necessarily the final version that will be released), by downloading it from the OpenOffice.org download page. Alternatively, you can wait until the final version is let loose in the wild.
We’d like to commend the developers of OpenOffice.org 3.0 for the tremendous job they’ve done with the accessibility of this product on the Macintosh platform. Thanks to the tools that Apple provides third-party developers, even large and complex projects like this can be made accessible within reasonable periods of time. Its a true testament to the integrity of the OpenOffice.org team, that their dedication and determination, accomplished what Microsoft, with all their millions, chose not to in their commercial offering.
Posted in Apple Inc., Commentary, Mac OS X, Third-Party Products, VoiceOver | 1 Comment »
