The OpenOffice.org 3.1 free office software released today contains a new features voted for by users, including much improved on-screen graphics and improvements to all its components.

The software is available as a free download via the OpenOffice.org website.

The biggest single change and the most visible is the major revamp of OpenOffice.org on-screen graphics. Techies call it anti-aliasing - users just appreciate how much crisper graphics are on screen. The improved look extends to other subtle changes, such as: how images display when they are being dragged, how selections of text are highlighted, and even adding the ability to overline text.

New core features include:

Writer (word processing)

- Improvements to comments: reply feature now supports 'conversations'
- Further grammar checker integration
- Outline levels within paragraphs for complex documentsCalc (spreadsheet)
- Hot hints for formulae, with new and improved formulae available
- Improved sorting
- More performance bottlenecks removed
- The zoom slider added to the status bar
- Rename sheets with a double-clickChart (graphics engine)
- Flexible positioning of axes for scientific and educational users
- Flexible handling of "missing" data pointsImpress (presentation)
- Font size buttonsBase (database)
- SQL syntax highlighting
- Easier deployment of macro applicationsInternationalization and Localization
- Improved support for bidirectional scripts
- New locale support

Behind the scenes, OpenOffice.org also now has a more capable file locking mechanism, enabling users to share files safely in a multi-user, multi-platform environment.

Download OpenOffice.org 3.1 for free