User Info

Have you seen the new Ask LibreOffice support page already? http://ask.libreoffice.org

Berlin, February 14, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5, the third major release of “the best free office suite ever”, which shows to end users the improvements derived from the development strategy adopted since September 2010. LibreOffice 3.5 derives from the combined effort of full time hackers – the largest group of experienced OOo code developers – and volunteer hackers, coordinated by the Engineering Steering Committee.

During 16 months, an average of 80 developers each month have provided a total of over thirty thousand code commits, introducing new and interesting features:

Writer

- a new built-in Grammar checker for English and several other languages
- improved typographical features, for professional looking documents
- an interactive word count window, which updates in real time
- a new header, footer and page break user interface

Impress / Draw

- an improved importer of custom shapes and Smart Art from PPT/PPTX
- a feature for embedding multimedia/colour palettes into ODF documents
- a new display switch for the presenter’s console
- new line ends for improved diagrams
- Microsoft Visio import filter

Calc

- support for up to 10,000 sheets
- a new multi-line input area
- new Calc functions conforming to the ODF OpenFormula specifications
- better performances when importing files from other office suites
- multiple selections in autofilter
- unlimited number of rules for conditional formatting

Base

- a new integrated PostgreSQL native driver

In addition, for the first time in the history of LibreOffice, we will be enabling the online update checker, which informs users when a new version of the suite is available.
“We inherited a 15 years old code base, where features were not implemented and bugs were not solved in order to avoid creating problems, and this – with time – was the origin of a large technical debt,” says Caolán McNamara, a senior RedHat developer who is one of the founders and directors of TDF. “We had two options: a conservative strategy, which would immediately please all users, leaving the code basically unchanged, and our more aggressive feature development and code renovation path, which has created some stability problems in the short term but is rapidly leading to a completely new and substantially improved free office suite: LibreOffice 3.5, the best free office suite ever.”

“In sixteen months, we have achieved incredible results – comments Michael Meeks, a SUSE Distinguished Engineer, who is also a founder and director at TDF – with nearly three hundred entirely new developers to the project, attracted by the copyleft license, the lack of copyright assignment and a welcoming environment. In addition to the visible features, they’ve translated tens of thousands of German comments, removed thousands of unused or obsolete methods – sometimes whole libraries – and grown a suite of automated tests. Although we still have a long way to go, users – who have sometimes complained for the stability of the software, as they were not aware of the technical debt we were fighting with – can now benefit from a substantially cleaner, leaner and more feature rich LibreOffice 3.5.”

LibreOffice 3.5 is the first release where the contribution of local communities and associations, such as ALTA in Brazil, has been acknowledged. In addition, TDF tried to recognize those volunteers – where we could easily identify them – who put so much into the 3.5 release, with a “hacking” or “bug hunting” hero badge presented the same day of the announcement. TDF is encouraging the development of a global, open and diverse ecosystem where companies, associations, local communities and volunteers share the common objective of developing the best free office suite ever.

The Document Foundation invites power users to install LibreOffice 3.5, and more conservative users to stick with LibreOffice 3.4 branch. Corporate users are strongly advised to deploy LibreOffice with the backing of professional support, from a company able to assist with migration, end user training, support and maintenance. The Document Foundation will soon provide a list of certified organizations providing these professional services.

LibreOffice 3.5 is available from: http://www.libreoffice.org/download. The new features and the improvements are described in the infographic which can be downloaded from: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/116590/lo35-infofinal.pdf.

LinuxQuestions members have awarded LibreOffice the title of Office Suite of the Year 2011, with over 80% of the 537 votes. LibreOffice is the winner with the highest percentage. Looking at the poll, it looks like LibreOffice users are quite enthusiastic about the software.

After closing down the poll, counting carefully and checking back with our kind venue sponsor, the next LibreOffice HackFest is now scheduled for the weekend April 14-15 in Hamburg, Germany.

Please find more (but still incomplete) information in our wiki:

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Hackfest/Hamburg2012

Looking forward to see many of you there!

Shared a post "My TDF infrastructure presentation from FOSDEM is now online: http://www.slideshare.net/floeff/the-infrastructure-behind-tdf-fosdem-brussels-february-4th-2012" https://plus.google.com/116265564718884370181/posts/MTJDKg3PhEE

well decided to stay tuned in for one more talk
http://fosdem.org/2012/schedule/event/freedom_ootb

Some shared puppet+vagrant configurations... nice http://vagrantbox.es

staying in this room, and likely the last one for the day
http://fosdem.org/2012/schedule/event/dev_to_devops

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (f0ebe302-572b-4b44-9a9a-f3916b15f829 – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

FOSDEM is the biggest free and non-commercial event organized by and for the community. Its goal is to provide Free and Open Source developers a place to meet. Brussels, Belgium

Question is in the title - and no smilies...ascii still works.. ,---. ,.'-. \ ( ( ,'"""""-. `,X `. /` ` `._ ( , ,_\ | ,---.,'o `. | / o \ ) \ ,. ( .____, \| \ \____,' \ '`'\ \ _,____,' \ ,-- ,-' \ ( C ,' \ `--' .' | | | .O | __| \ ,-'_ / `L `._ _,' ' `. / `--.._ `',. _\ ` `-. /\ | `. ( ,\ \ _/ `-._ / \ |--' ( \ ' `-. `' \/\`. `. ) \ -hrr- \ `. | | lol - maybe there should be a rule against that... Anyway - it looks good - didn't try searching yet..or other languages then English...but even if that isn't working - how about taking this live?

The Document Foundation was announced on September 28, 2010. So far, it has been an umbelievable ride, especially under the development point of view. Our core development team has managed to attract close to 400 new developers, and has achieved a large number of the ambitious goals set on that date. We still have quite a long way to go, but LibreOffice 3.5 – due next week – will be the very first release showing TDF “development directions” not only to geeks but also to end users: a leaner and cleaner office suite, packed with new features. If you happen to be in Brussels for FOSDEM, you are warmly invited to join our DevRoom in Building H or walk by our booth on the first level of Building K.

The following infographic offers a preview of the data we will be announcing and commenting during our workshop.

You can download a PDF or a JPG of the infographic, for printing or publishing on your website or blog. From now on, we will update it on a monthly basis, adding more numbers as soon as they will be available.

Openness, meritocracy and transparency anchored in cornerstones of an enduring entity
Successful vendor-neutral development model to provide the best free office suite

Berlin, February 1st, 2012 – The Document Foundation (TDF) today announces that it will base its community-driven entity in Berlin, in the legal form of a German Stiftung. This kind of structure is recognized worldwide as a legally stable, safe and long term entity, providing the ideal cornerstone for the long term growth of the community and its software.

“For the first time in 12 years, the development of the free office suite finally takes place within an entity that not only perfectly fits the values and ideals of the worldwide community, but also has this very same community driving it. The future home of the best free office suite is built and shaped by everyone who decides to participate and join. And the best is: Everyone can contribute and is invited to do so, to further strenghten the free office ecosystem”, says Florian Effenberger, Chairman of the Board at TDF.

Charles-H. Schulz, one of the founders and a member of the Board of Directors, adds: “Berlin is the icon of reunification and unity, and as such is the ideal home of our global community, aggregated around the objective of creating the best free office suite ever. We expect to be legally established during the next weeks, as soon as the last details of the formal process have been finished.”

“After many months of work in close cooperation with the authorities, we were able to keep the spirit of the community bylaws, and incorporate them into legally binding statutes, that ensure the promises that TDF has made in its manifesto”, says Michael (Mike) Schinagl, a Berlin-based lawyer and contributor to various free software projects, who has been driving the legal aspects of the foundation set-up from the very beginning.

In addition, TDF currently publically discusses ways for local entities to join and participate, and operative entities are currently being created to carry on special projects.

Founder of the Stiftung will be the German nonprofit association Freies Office Deutschland e.V., formerly OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V., that so far acted as interim legal entity. “We congratulate the community for having achieved this key step, and are proud of having played a key role in setting up The Document Foundation. Our association is looking forward to working closely with the new entity and acting as a gateway between TDF and private as well as enterprise users”, says Thomas Krumbein, Chairman of the Board at Freies Office Deutschland e.V.

The LibreOffice project welcomes donations at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/donate/

The website of TDF can be found at http://www.documentfoundation.org
The best free office suite, LibreOffice, has its website at http://www.libreoffice.org
Freies Office Deutschland e.V. host their German homepage at http://www.frodev.org

Note to editors: A “Stiftung” is a German Foundation established with an endowment and supervised by state authorities. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_%28non-profit%29#Germany for more details.

About The Document Foundation

The Document Foundation is an open, independent, self-governing, meritocratic organization, which builds on ten years of dedicated work by the OpenOffice.org Community. TDF was created in the belief that the culture born of an independent foundation brings out the best in corporate and volunteer contributors, and will deliver the best free office suite. TDF is open to any individual who agrees with its core values and contributes to its activities, and warmly welcomes corporate participation, e.g. by sponsoring individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors in the community. As of February 1, 2012, TDF has 146 members and over a thousand volunteers and contributors worldwide.

Media Contacts

Florian Effenberger (based near Munich, Germany, UTC+1)
Phone: +49 8341 99660880 – Mobile: +49 151 14424108
E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org – Skype: floeff

Olivier Hallot (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812 – E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org

Charles-H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424 – E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org

Italo Vignoli (based in Milan, Italy, UTC+1)
SIP Phone: +39 02 320621813 – Mobile: +39 348 5653829
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org – Skype: italovignoli
GTalk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com

Following our public Call for Locations, two proposals for hosting the LibreOffice Conference 2012, the annual gathering of the community, have been sent in. In alphabetical order, the proposals are:

• the city of Berlin, Germany (see proposal as PDF)
• the city of Zaragoza, Spain (see proposal as PDF)

Thank you very much to all candidates for their work and efforts!

We now invite the candidates and the community to discuss the proposals on our public discuss mailing list, where further questions can be asked, and where the applicants can give more details. Following this discussion, there will soon be an election that is scheduled to run for one week, where all members of The Document Foundation can vote. The final location of the LibreOffice Conference 2012 will then be announced soon.

Candidates who did not manage to send in their proposals in time, and those who are unsuccessful in this election, are invited to apply again for the next years’ conference, where the call for location will end this August.

The Internet, January 24, 2012 – TDF and LibreOffice will be on stage at FOSDEM 2012 conference in Brussels, Belgium, on February 4 and 5, with a dedicated track and a booth where it will be possible to meet developers and other volunteers and ask for information about contributing to the project.

Michael Meeks, member of TDF Board of Directors, says: “We’re honored to be hosted at FOSDEM again, the key event for Free Software hackers in Europe, and we’ve lined up a large number of our core contributors to give talks and mentor interested hackers”.

LibreOffice has just surpassed the number of 390 code contributors completely new to the project since the announcement on September 28, 2010. The 400th new code contributor might be announced at FOSDEM, and will be awarded a free LibreOffice T-Shirt.

With an average of close to 80 code contributors per month since January 2011, LibreOffice has been one of the largest Free Software projects during the last year (source: Ohloh).

Southern California Linux expo. “SCALE: The Next Generation” — lets the FOSS community leaders of tomorrow spotlight their talents and ideas today. Los Angeles, California

Apache OpenOffice 3.4 supports embedding SVG graphics using a newly created native SVG interpreter implementation. I want to talk about the advantages and some internals of this solution and the necessary changes done.

One reason to do this was IP clearance. It allowed removal of six GPL/LGPL libraries, namely librsvg, libcroco, libgsf, gdk-pixbuf, glib, and pango gettext. These were used as an external pixel-based renderer. The new SVG uses an own internal interpreter in a new library and some new UNO API services. IP clearance was no interesting task to do, but it leaded to effects like here with SVG; the install sets get smaller (less libraries to deliver), the app needs less libraries (startup, memory, runtime) and the internal handling of SVG vector data is completely vector-graphic oriented.

There were also ODF-compatible File Format adaptions needed, more concrete the in ODF already contained and described multi-image support. In ODF, the original SVG is now embedded to the 'Pictures' folder inside the ODF file as one would expect from such a feature and can be easily extracted (unzip the ODF file and there you are). There is also a Png file written as replacement image. The draw:frame is now multi-image capable (as the spec allows). In the case of a SVG it writes a good quality Png and the original SVG as draw:image elements. Since older (and other) office versions are only capable of loading a single (and thus the first) image, the Png is written first. This allows file exchange with other and older offices without breaking backward compatibility and/or ODF file exchange. At load time, multi-image support will choose the best quality graphic available for further work, e.g. preferring vector format over pixel format, pixel format with alpha over non-alpha and lossless formats over those with losing info (you get the idea). Other ODF implementations (e.g. a viewer) may just use the pixel graphic available. Multi-image support is independent from SVG in principle and will work with all image file formats. This is implemented for the Drawinglayer graphic object (used in Draw/Impress/Calc) and the Writer graphic object (used in Writer).

SVG is no longer interpreted each time it needs to be rendered (unavoidable by an external renderer), but only once transformed to a sequence of primitives (UNO API graphic atoms). That sequence is then used for all outputs, transformed to the graphic object's form and viewport. The sequence itself is completely view-independent. Internally, it is reused and thus it makes no difference if you have your SVG graphic added once or multiple times to your document. This is also true for saving, so always only one copy of your added SVG will be written (the same is true for the replacement Png image). Both, the sequence of primitives and the replacement image, are created using new UNO API services. One is capable of converting an io::XInputStream with SVG content to a sequence of primitives, the other is able to convert every sequence of primitives to a rendering::XBitmap with given DPI and discrete sizes (pixels, with automatic resolution reduction to a given maximum square pixel count to be on the safe side). This will be useful for other purposes, too, since it creates a fully alpha-capable representation of anything in primitive format to use as e.g. sprite.

For all graphic processing the created vector graphic in form of a sequence of primitives is used. This means that you will get best quality in all zoom situations and all resolutions. This is also true for all exports, e.g. printing or PDF export which also uses the vector format. With an external renderer, it is unavoidable to use bitmaps with discrete solution in those cases, looking bad when zooming and needing more space in most cases as vector data. There is one caveat since not all program paths already use primitives; some will use the internal MetaFile format in-between (One more reason for more reworks to primitive usages in the future).

I implemented most SVG features from SVG 1.1, but not yet using animations or interactions (but possible in the future due to an own interpreter, impossible with an external SVG renderer). It supports all geometric SVG forms. It supports SVG gradients (using a new primitive for this which will be reused when we add SVG gradients to SdrObjects one day), these have a resolution-dependent low-level format to not waste runtime on low resolutions. It supports masks, clipPath, markers, linked content, embedded graphics or SVG (intern, extern, base64), SVG use nodes, text, text on curve and patterns. It does not yet support filters, color profiles, embedded scripts, interactions and linking. These can be added when needed, most of them will need to implement new primitive types (e.g. filtering) which would be useful for the future anyways. Especially interesting is the possibility to later add SVG animation import to GraphicObjects for Impress.

Some side effects: I had to fix cropping (unified with new primitive) which works now also for mirrored graphics (never worked) and quite some other stuff. We are prepared for SVG gradients as possible future feature (we can already render them now). You can work with an added SVG as with a normal GraphicObject; crop it, break it (to SdrObjects, currently limited to the transfer over the old MetaFile format, though). You can convert an inserted Tux to 3D, you can bend the SVG in vector quality in Draw. It is possible to directly export the original SVG again by selecting the object and using 'Save as Picture...' from the context menu. You can add text, line style, fill style, pretty much the same as most other graphic objects. You can add shadow which casts shadow for the SVG graphic itself as expected (also not possible with an external renderer).

This is a bigger change, but most stuff is isolated in the two mentioned services. There will be errors (I'm too long a programmer to deny that :-)), but I tried to be as careful as possible. I already got some help from other community members and fixed some reported bugs (kudos to all testers and bug writers), but to find the rest, your help is appreciated. Please feel free to play around with any SVG you can find in current AOO 3.4 builds and report problems early in the Apache bugtracker!

Here is another blog entry about an early version of this feature.
And here are some developer snapshots of AOO 3.4 when you want to check it out. Be aware that these are AOO 3.4 Unofficial Developer Snapshots; these are intended to be used for early testing by other community volunteers. They have no release quality and should not be installed in a production environment. Developer snapshots can be unstable and are expected to have bugs.

Regards,
        Armin

The Internet, January 17, 2012 – Following the success of the first session, The Document Foundation (TDF) announces the second LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session, to be held in a virtual environment on January 21 and 22, 2012. This session will put the first Release Candidate of LibreOffice 3.5.0 on the test bench.

During the first session, organized in late December 2011, over 150 volunteer bug hunters have been able to file over 70 bugs, led by the “hero” Gustavo Pacheco, who has filed 10.
LibreOffice 3.5 will be announced in early February 2012. Thanks to a very large number of improvements and new functions, and to the background work of the developer’s community, it will be “the best free office suite ever”, ahead of any other competing product.

Participating is easy, and fun. Details are available on the wiki of The Document Foundation (http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-2), where is also possible to find a comprehensive list of LibreOffice 3.5 new and improved features (http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/3.5).

All you need is a PC with Windows, MacOS X or Linux, and a LibreOffice 3.5 test version (which can be downloaded from http://www.libreoffice.org/pre-releases), plus a lot of enthusiasm. Filing bugs will be extremely easy, thanks to the help of several experienced people who will be around to help users and supporters with tips, on the QA mailing list (listlibreoffice-qa@freedesktop.org) and on the IRC channel (irc://chat.freenode.net/libreoffice).

At the end of the two days, The Document Foundation will award the title of Bug Hunting Hero to the individual who has been able to spot, report and file the most bugs (http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport).

The Internet, January 16, 2012 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 3.4.5, a new improved version of the award-winning free office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux, solving a number of bugs and further improving the stability of the program.

LibreOffice 3.4.5 represents the best choice for a free office suite for every user, including conservative corporate users who were still deploying LibreOffice 3.4.4.

In 2011, LibreOffice has won InfoWorld’s BOSSIE Award 2011 as Best of Open Source Software, and the Open World Forum Experiment Award of Most-Popular Software. The awards are a demonstration of the key improvements brought to the legacy code by a small army of close to 400 TDF developers.

LibreOffice 3.4.5 is available for immediate download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Extensions for LibreOffice are available from the following link: http://extensions.libreoffice.org.

Change logs are available at http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/src/bugfixes-libreoffice-3-4-release-3.4.5.1.log (fixed in 3.4.5.1) and http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/src/bugfixes-libreoffice-3-4-5-release-3.4.5.2.log (fixed in 3.4.5.2).

…to apply for hosting the LibreOffice Conference 2012. More details can be found in our Call for Location.