The OpenOffice.org Community has announced that the public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now available. The most immediately visible change is the new “Start Centre”, new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. It will support the upcoming OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, and is capable of opening files created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.). Also, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X without X11.

Key features of OpenOffice 3.0 Beta include:

Download OpenOffice 3.0 Beta for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux

+ Mac OS X Support: With Version 3.0, OpenOffice.org is now able to run on Mac OS X without the need for X11.
+ ODF 1.2 Support: OpenOffice.org 3.0 already supports the features of the upcoming version 1.2 of the ISO standard OpenDocument Format (ODF)
+ Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters: In addition to read and write support for the Microsoft Office binary file formats (.doc; .xls, .ppt, etc.), OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now capable of opening files created with Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.).
+ Solver: OpenOffice.org now also has a solver component which allows solving optimization problems where the optimum value of a particular spreadsheet cell has to be calculated based on constraints provided in other cells.
+ Spreadsheet Collaboration Through Workbook Sharing: This new feature in OpenOffice.org 3.0 allows collaborating on spreadsheets with multiple users.
+ 1024 Columns Per Calc Sheet (Instead of 256): With support for 1024 columns; OpenOffice.org 3.0 can now handle significantly more data than before.
+ Display of Multiple Writer Pages While Editing: With the new zoom slider, it is now easily possible to change the zoom factor. Also, OpenOffice.org Writer can now display multiple pages at the same time.
+ Start Center: When you open the application; you are now welcomed by a Start Center that allow you to chose which module you would like to use, or if you would prefer to open a document.

A complete list of new features of OpenOffice 3.0 Beta can be viewed here. Click here to visit the download page from where you can download a version of OpenOffice 3.0 Beta for Windows, Mac OSX or Linux.