The Document Foundation Blog

Spending part of my time to LibreOffice QA, I look over the web page displaying all the commits for LibreOffice code (1) from time to time.
The last months, I saw an large amount of commits related to ‘Coverity’. I remembered that name from years back, in the old OpenOffice.org project.
To explain: Coverity is a project that runs all kind of automated code checks, discovering typical but often hidden programming errors. Memory leaks, but also errors that may cause little, not so often encountered errors for the users. The reports from Coverity are a valuable contribution to – among others – the LibreOffice development process.

The work on using the Coverity reports for LibreOffice is done by a variety of LibreOffice developers, some on the building and testing, others on the other work to fix the issues. In the first months many hundred improvements have been made, making LibreOffice more robust, better. There are still some few thousand issues left however So pls get in contact if you like to help with these improvements.

Again it’s lovely to see that core and volunteer developers work together to get thousands of improvements in the LibreOffice code.
Of course in this special case it only can be done with to the work of the Coverity team, that helps open source projects to become more stable and improve quality. Thanks a lot for that!

Berlin, April 11, 2013 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 3.6.6, for Windows, MacOS and Linux, targeted to enterprises and individual end users who prefer stability to more advanced features. This new release is suited to the increasing number of organizations migrating to LibreOffice, which is steadily growing worldwide.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation. There is a donation page – with many options including PayPal and credit cards – at
http://donate.libreoffice.org
, to support the growth of the project in areas such as infrastructure, marketing and development of native language communities.

LibreOffice 3.6.6 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/extension-center
.

The change log – with over 50 bugs solved – is available at
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.6.6/RC1
(fixed in 3.6.6.1) and
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.6.6/RC2
(fixed in 3.6.6.2).

The intense pace of development work on LibreOffice as we approach our 4.0 release has rather delayed an update on our recent extremely successful LibreOffice hack-fest. To give an idea of the work going on, instead of the around 1500 commits per month we normally get, we had nearly a month’s worth of commits in the last two weeks before our feature freeze, with lots of bug fixing ever since; things have been busy.

Some portion of this work was done by the more than thirty LibreOffice developers that arrived to augment the existing Munich Limux developers – who kindly hosted us. Munich is a forward looking enterprise who have deployed Linux to their fifteen-thousand users, and have committed to moving to LibreOffice.  First of all – many thanks to our friendly hosts who provided a great venue, helped feed us, so we could continue coding late into the night, and tidied up the detritus afterwards: your contribution is greatly appreciated.

It was also nice to meet a number of the Debian guys – who had a separate room for a parallel bug squashing party some of whom took an interest in and did a little LibreOffice work too. We had over thirty participants for LibreOffice alone, with other new people we’d never met before showing up and getting involved over the weekend which was particularly encouraging.

So what did we get done ?

(more…)

Hi all,

This is the second post with a list of features/functions that have been worked on recently.

We tried our best to include all the important ones and to make sure that the referred information is clear enough. But whenever you miss something: don’t hesitate to ask (via the QA mail list) if there is anything you really miss.

Just as the previous post, this all is to give you as interested users the change to take a better look at the work and provide valuable feed back for the developers.

You can simply download the latest nightly build, and install it on your computer. It will be placed beside your current LibreOffice. (Or you may want to do a custom parallel installation.) Look at the features of your desire or that you work with most, and give some feedback. Simple as that.

Now the list:

• Writer was confused by overlapping grammar errors, 2012-05-09, commit message / info, related issue: 49605.
• Printing from Calc: use default printer settings only when explicity mentioned., 2012-05-09, commit message.
• Bullet lists in file saved as .doc or .docx were loaded incorrectly, 2012-05-09, related issue: 34814.
• Color Scales are now imported from xlsx., 2012-05-10, commit message(one of the many related ones).
• Value >12 with AM/PM can’t be clock time, 2012-05-10, commit message, related issue: 46233.
• Import of .xls with HTML, 2012-05-10, commit message, related issue: 49639.
• Work / improvements on fields, mostly Calc, and Draw/Impress. New is the possibility to insert 3 new fields into Calc cells via the context menu with cell in edit mode, 2012-05-11, one of the related commit messages.
• OpenFormula function Datedif added, 2012-05-13, one of the related commit messages, related issue: 44456.
• Fixing drawing problems with ruler, 2012-05-16, commit message / info.
• Hight of tab pages in dialogs: changed code to allow for easier variable height, 2012-05-17, commit message / info.
• Databars are now imported from oox, 2012-05-18, commit message / info.
• Related to the previous: some changes to color scales – maybe interesting to look at too, 2012-05-18, commit message / info.
• Changes with borders and more in Writer UI, 2012-05-18, commit message / info.
• Autofilter: separators, sorting, some strings, 2012-05-18, one of the related commit messages.
• Work around broken cups installations in complex environments, 2012-05-18, commit message / info.
• Make that row heights (incl default row height) from excel files are saved correctly, 2012-05-22, commit message / info.
• Changes in status bar and zoom slider, 2012-05-22, one of the related commit messages.
• Handle columns in docx files, 2012-05-24, one of the related commit messages.
• Improve shape position in xlsx files, 2012-05-25, one of the related commit messages, related issue: 49430.
• Import new conditional format information for xlsx files, 2012-05-25, commit message / info.
• Better export of images scaled in PDF export, 2012-05-28, commit message / info, related issue: 46378.
• Better rendering of multiline input bar, 2012-05-28, commit message / info.

Found something worth a bug-report? Then this page will help you. There also is a list with the people that are there to help you helping! For that list and for general information in LibreOffice QA, look here.

Thanks a lot for your support!

Without doubt you are very much interested in the latest news for LibreOffice and the new and improved functions that will be in the next version!
Now, this is your chance to both get to know these and to help the developers working on all this!
You can simply download the latest nightly build, and install it on your computer. It will be placed beside your current LibreOffice. (Or you may want to do a custom parallel installation.) Look at the features of your desire or that you work with most, and give some feedback. Simple as that.
Found something worth a bug-report? Then this page will help you. There also is a list with the people that are there to help you helping! For that list and for general information in LibreOffice QA, look here (warning: it’s a lot ).

Now… features and functions added or worked on recently are:

• The file picker now has a list of bookmarks, 2012-04-02, commit message / info, related issue: –.
• Added Presentationsize 16:9 Widescreen, 2012-04-18, commit message / info, related issue: 42986.
• Add a “Save cell formulas” checkbox to the CSV Export panel, 2012-04-21, commit message / info, related issue: 45664.
• Proper sort SelectionTree control of Custom Setup with a custom action for all languages, 2012-04-24, commit message / info, related issue: 46355.
• Border width in Calc and Writer tables, lots of ongoing fixes…
• RTF import improvements, lots of ongoing fixes…
• Install only one language on Windows during silent install, 2012-04-25, commit message / info, related issue: 40481.
• Enable insertion of OLE objects into external applications, 2012-04-26, commit message / info, related issue: 47944.
• Paragraph and lists: don’t overwrite numbering properties with paragraph properties, 2012-04-26, commit message / info, related issue: –.
• Make detection of certificate folder ui-configurable, 2012-04-27, commit message / info, related issue: 39825.
• Ruler: implemented new design, 2012-04-27, commit message / info, related mail on the list.
• Cleaned up command line arguments, behaviour has been changed slightly, 2012-05-02, commit message / info, related issue: –.
• Autoformat in tables saving more information, such as column width, margins, text orientation, 2012-05-03, commit message / info, related issue: 31005.
• Wiki-publisher: media-wiki export was broken (testing highly appreciated to add fix to 3.5 branch!), 2012-05-09, commit message / info, related issue: 46509.

This is the first post in what we expect will be a long series. We hope it’s useful and look forward to feedback, results and suggestions!

Berlin, March 15, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.1, the second version of the 3.5 family, targeting private individuals and enterprises. LibreOffice 3.5.1 fixes the majority of the most-important bugs identified by users and is expected to be appealing for most enterprises.

TDF encourages large organizations to deploy LibreOffice in conjunction with a support partner, who can assess specific requirements, help manage migration and provide bespoke fixes for identified issues. Purchasing LibreOffice support from a TDF partner provides enterprises with an indirect means to contribute financially to the project, to fund software development, to improve the stability and accelerate the growth.

“During the last month, the number of TDF hackers has overtaken the threshold of 400 code developers, with a large majority of independent volunteers and several companies paying full time hackers. In any case, the project is independent, as none of these companies employs more than 7% of the developers”, affirms Italo Vignoli, member of the Board of Directors. “Since September 2010, a monthly average of 20 new hackers has joined the project, attracted by the copyleft license, the lack of copyright assignment and a welcoming environment”.

LibreOffice 3.5.1 is available for immediate download from the following link:
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/
.

Change logs are available at
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.1/RC1
and
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.1/RC2
.

About The Document Foundation (TDF)

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 March 15, 2012, TDF has over 140 members and well over a thousand volunteers and contributors worldwide.

Media Contacts

Florian Effenberger (based near Munich, Germany, UTC+1)
E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org – Skype: floeff
Charles H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org
Eliane Domingos de Sousa (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
E-mail: elianedomingos@documentfoundation.org – Skype: elianedomingos
Italo Vignoli (based in Milan, Italy, UTC+1)
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org – Skype: italovignoli
GTalk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com

Full contact details:
http://www.documentfoundation.org/contact/
.

Die Document Foundation (Stiftung) wird auf der Cebit 2012 auf dem Stand des Vereins
“Freies Office Deutschland e.V.” (Halle 2, Stand D 64/2) vertreten sein. Besucher
können dort  sowohl Fragen rund um die gerade in Berlin gegründete Stiftung mit
Mitgliedern des Vorstandes besprechen wie auch  sich zu der Office-Suite LibreOffice
informieren, deren Entwicklung von der Stiftung maßgeblich organisiert und gefördert wird.

Neben Präsentationen zu LibreOffice und Spezialthemen rund um die Office-Suite am
Messestand werden Mitglieder des (erweiterten) Vorstandes der Stiftung drei Vorträge
im Forum Open Source (Halle 2, Stand E 56) und im Vortragsbereich der Firma Univention
(Halle 2, Stand D48 ) halten. So wird am Donnerstag 8.3.2012 um 13.45 Uhr Florian
Effenberger, Mitglied im Vorstand der Stiftung, im Forum Open
Source unter dem Titel “Die Document Foundation – 18 Monate danach” den Weg bis zur
Genehmigung der Stiftung in Berlin aufzeigen. Dem folgt am Freitag 9.3.2012 um
14.00Uhr im Vortragsbereich von Univention eine Präsentation von Andreas Mantke
(Deputy of the Board at The Document Foundation) zu LibreOffice 3.5 und den darin
enthaltenen Neuerungen. Am Samstag referiert er im Forum Open Source ab 11.30 Uhr zum
Thema “LibreOffice – Die professionelle freie Community Office-Suite” und wird dabei
neben der Community auch das Programm und seine Entwicklung ansprechen.

Das Projekt LibreOffice und The Document Foundation freut sich, Sie auf der Cebit in
Halle 2, Stand D 64/2 begrüßen zu können und mit Ihnen interessante und spannende
Gespräche zu führen.

This FOSDEM we had a popular LibreOffice Dev-Room, with many interesting talks focused on a technical audience. Starting from Italo’s overview of where we’re at as of now, and moving into how to how to write filters, the code structure of our major components, how to get involved with easy hacks, and more.

If you missed some of that, the slides are now available (where there were slides) in our wiki, please do check them out.

Last Thursday evening late, the first LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session was finished.
And with success. During two days about 150 people extra visited our IRC channel, evaluated bugs and submitted new ones. More then 70 bugs were filed.

The most bugs were reported by Gustavo Pacheco, who for the moment is our official Bug Hunting Hero. It is not sure for how long he may use that title: on January 20 and 21, there will be a next Bug Hunting Session, so new chances for our supporters to help make LibreOffice 3.5.0 the best free office suite ever!

Again a big thanks for all!