Home » Archives for Italo Vignoli » Page 34

Author: Italo Vignoli

ODF 1.3 is an OASIS Standard

The Document Foundation is pleased to announce that LibreOffice’s native document format – the OpenDocument Format for Office Applications (ODF) 1.3 – has been approved as OASIS Standard with 14 affirmative consents and no objections. ODF is a free, open XML-based document file format for office applications, to be used for documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts and graphical elements. ODF 1.3 is an update to the international standard Version 1.2, which was approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO/IEC 26300 (2015).

The OpenDocument Format specifies the characteristics of an open XML-based application-independent and platform-independent digital document file format, as well as the characteristics of software applications which read, write and process such documents. It is applicable to document authoring, editing, viewing, exchange and archiving, including text documents, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, drawings, charts and similar documents commonly used by personal productivity software applications.

The most important new features of ODF 1.3 are digital signatures for documents and OpenPGP-based encryption of XML documents, with improvements in areas such as change tracking and document security, additional details in the description of elements in first pages, text, numbers and charts, and other timely improvements. The development of ODF 1.3 features has been funded by donations to The Document Foundation.

ODF Technical Committee has received 3 Statements of Use from The Document Foundation, CIBlabs GmbH, and Collabora Productivity.

ODF 1.3 Specification can be downloaded from OASIS website.

Part 1: Introduction
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part1-introduction.odt (Authoritative)
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part1-introduction.html
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part1-introduction.pdf

Part 2: Packages
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part2-packages/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part2-packages.odt (Authoritative)
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part2-packages/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part2-packages.html
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part2-packages/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part2-packages.pdf

Part 3: OpenDocument Schema
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part3-schema/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part3-schema.odt (Authoritative)
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part3-schema/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part3-schema.html
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part3-schema/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part3-schema.pdf

Part 4: Recalculated Formula (OpenFormula) Format
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part4-formula/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part4-formula.odt (Authoritative)
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part4-formula/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part4-formula.html
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part4-formula/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part4-formula.pdf

XML/RNG schemas and OWL ontologies: https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/schemas/

OASIS provides a complete package of the specification and any related files in a single ZIP: https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/OpenDocument-v1.3-os.zip

ODF is the only document format which protects the rights of users as digital citizens, and allows transparent sharing of content without disruption, today and in the future.

Update from the ODF Technical Committee

While waiting for the official publication of ODF (OpenDocument) 1.3 as an OASIS Standard, after the approval of the ODF Technical Committee Draft at the end of April 2021, there are a few news updates from the ODF TC which are worth some publicity.

Since 2020, the ODF TC has two co-chairs – Patrick Durusau and Svante Schubert – and four co-editors: Francis Cave, Patrick Durusau, Svante Schubert and Michael Stahl. In the past, there were only two editors, and having doubled the number provides more bandwidth and flexibility.

The ODF TC has recently updated the project charter after more than a decade. The updated document is available on this page. The most important news is the commitment to deliver a Committee Specification Draft at least every year in December, consisting of RelaxNG schemas and written specifications, to avoid a long delay between two consecutive versions of the standard as in the recent past.

The ODF TC also aims to provide a fast-track for new ODF features of implementers, and publish the basic description (OASIS Committee Specification) more frequently, so features can be quickly  reviewed and embraced into an ODF Specification without the need to use the intermediate LibreOffice External namespaces (lo-ext), with all the associated delays and costs.

In addition, Michael Stahl and Svante Schubert have collected all the technical tooling required for the publishing of the ODF specification and the specification artefacts into an OASIS Github repository: https://github.com/oasis-tcs/odf-tc. The aim is to be able to deliver all specification deliverables by automation from command line, to become more agile, and improve transparency and quality by adopting modern toolings.

Last, but not least, the ODF TC is considering an ODF Plugfest in 2022.

Learn more about the OpenDocument Format here.

Hossein Nourikhah joins the TDF team as Developer Community Architect

Next week, Hossein Nourikhah will join the team at The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice, as Developer Community Architect. Hossein is a developer, university lecturer and FOSS advocate. He writes programs, teaches programming to students, and is an advocate for the use of free software applications, because they have a huge positive impact on the quality of our life by providing the essential freedoms that we all deserve.

Hossein has a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering (Software) from Isfahan University of Technology, and a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Information Technology from Amirkabir University of Technology, also called the Tehran Polytechnic. Since 2016 he has been an instructor at the Amirkabir University of Technology, teaching various courses including C/C++ programming, operating systems, software design, and many others.

Hossein started programming in BASIC and Pascal when he was 12, and after two and a half decades he is still involved in programming for fun and profit. He has worked with several programming languages, including C/C++, Java, Pascal, PHP and many more.

Industry experience

In addition to the university activities, including teaching and research, Hossein has several years of experience in the industry, working at various software/hardware companies as a C/C++/Java programmer – and lately as a software team manager and lead developer.

Hossein’s work experience ranges from web development with PHP to industrial application development with C++/Qt. He considers Qt a great platform for C++ software development, and he likes it very much as a clean and lovely tool.

Hossein has worked with many programmers as mentor, helping them to improve and reach their potential in software development by better understanding programming languages, libraries and tools. He feels great when he can empower other people, also because this helps him to expand his knowledge and understand things much better than before.

As Developer Community Architect, Hossein will be responsible for attracting new contributors to the LibreOffice project by identifying and onboarding new potential developers, building relationships between them and the community, and introducing them to TDF’s communication channels – where they will meet fellow co-hackers. He will encourage everyone’s contribution, and show community members ways to grow by bringing the more skilled contributors in contact with existing experts in the various fields for even deeper learning.

We’re happy to have him on board, and look forward to working with him!

100 Paper Cuts as a new student mentoring activity

Just before the pandemic, the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation approved a budget to launch an educational program targeted to universities, where students at selected tech schools would receive an economic incentive to promote LibreOffice amongst their peers, with the objective of increasing the number of young contributors both in source code development and in other areas. Unfortunately, the pandemics has forced all universities to stop all collateral activities, and this has resulted in the program being frozen for over one year.

Although the situation is not yet back to normal, we have the opportunity to mentor a student in Turkey. Muhammet Kara, a member of the MC and a Collabora full time developer, will mentor Ahmet Hakan Çelik, an undergraduate computer science student at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, who will be working on 100 Paper Cuts – a list of bugs and enhancement requests relating to LibreOffice’s user experience – during June and July, trying to solve as many issues as he can. The target is to collect 10 points.

This is a first step in the direction set before the pandemic. We are planning to make similar announcements soon.

After the summer, if the academic activities will be back to normal – although the recover will be slow, and will have to cope with entirely new regulations – The Document Foundation will be able to get back in touch with the universities to start the planned Ambassador Program.

LibreOffice 7.1.4 Community available for download

Berlin, June 10, 2021 – LibreOffice 7.1.4 Community, the fourth minor release of the LibreOffice 7.1 family, targeted at technology enthusiasts and power users, is available for download from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. LibreOffice 7.1.4 includes around 80 bug fixes, with 20% focused on Microsoft Office file compatibility (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, and legacy DOCs).

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners, with long-term support options, professional assistance, custom features and Service Level Agreements: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

LibreOffice Community and the LibreOffice Enterprise family of products are based on the LibreOffice Technology platform, the result of years of development efforts with the objective of providing a state of the art office suite not only for the desktop but also for mobile and the cloud.

Products based on LibreOffice Technology are available for major desktop operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux and Chrome OS), mobile platforms (Android and iOS) and the cloud. They may have a different name, according to each company brand, but they share the same LibreOffice unique advantages, robustness and flexibility.

Migrations to LibreOffice

The Document Foundation has developed a Migration Protocol to support enterprises moving from proprietary office suites to LibreOffice, which is based on the deployment of a LTS version from the LibreOffice Enterprise family, plus migration consultancy and training sourced from certified professionals who offer CIOs and IT managers value-added solutions in line with proprietary offerings. Reference: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/.

Availability of LibreOffice 7.1.4 Community

LibreOffice 7.1.4 Community represents the bleeding edge in term of features for open source office suites. For users whose main objective is personal productivity and therefore prefer a release that has undergone more testing and bug fixing over the new features, The Document Foundation provides LibreOffice 7.0.6.

LibreOffice 7.1.4 change log pages are available on TDF’s wiki: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.1.4/RC1 (changed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.1.4/RC2 (changed in RC2).

LibreOffice Technology based products for Android and iOS are listed here: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/android-and-ios/, while for App Stores and ChromeOS are listed here: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-from-microsoft-and-mac-app-stores/.

LibreOffice individual users are assisted by a global community of volunteers: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/community-support/. On the website and the wiki there are guides, manuals, tutorials and HowTos. Donations help us to make all of these resources available.

LibreOffice users are invited to join the community at https://ask.libreoffice.org, where they can get and provide user-to-user support. People willing to contribute their time and professional skills to the project can visit the dedicated website at https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can provide financial support to The Document Foundation with a donation via PayPal, credit card or other tools at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

LibreOffice 7.1.4 is built with document conversion libraries from the Document Liberation Project: https://www.documentliberation.org.

REMINDER LibreOffice Conference Call for Papers

LibreOffice Conference Call for Papers is open until June 30, 2021. Thanks to the efforts of TDF infra team led by Guilhem Moulin, you can now submit your proposal using TDF brand new event management platform at https://events.documentfoundation.org/libocon2021/cfp. We know that you were all eager to use that platform for your proposals, and now you don’t have any excuse for a further delay of your submission!

LibreOffice Conference 2021 will take place online from September 23 to 25, Thursday to Saturday. The Document Foundation invites all members and contributors to submit talks, lectures and workshops. Whether you are a seasoned presenter or have never spoken in public before, if you have something interesting to share about LibreOffice, ODF, the Document Liberation Project or the ODF Toolkit, we want to hear from you!

Proposals should be filed by June 30, 2021, in order to guarantee that they will be considered for inclusion in the conference program.

The conference program will be based on the following tracks:

  • a) Development, APIs, Extensions, Future Technology
  • b) Quality Assurance
  • c) Localization, Documentation and Native Language Projects
  • d) Appealing Libreoffice: Ease of Use, Design and Accessibility
  • e) Open Document Format, Document Liberation and Interoperability
  • f) Advocating, Promoting, Marketing LibreOffice
  • g) Diversity and Inclusion, New Generation Project for Students’ Inclusion

Presentations, case studies and technical talks will discuss a subject in depth and will last 30 minutes (including Q&A), while Workshops will last 90 minutes (including Q&A). Lightning talks will cover a specific topic and will last 5 minutes (including Q&A). Sessions will be streamed live and recorded for download.

If you do not agree to provide the data for the talk under the “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License”, please explicitly state your terms. In order to make your presentation available on TDF YouTube and PeerTube channels, please do not submit talks containing copyrighted material (music, pictures, etc.).

If you want to give multiple talks, please submit a separate proposal for each one, using the submission form at the following address (is always the same): https://events.documentfoundation.org/libocon2021/cfp.

Thanks a lot for your participation!

Press Releases

The Document Foundation Releases LibreOffice 26.2.1 with Contributions from Community and Ecosystem Partners

Videos describing new features available on YouTube and PeerTube Berlin, 26 February 2026 – The Document Foundation today announced the…

Open Document Format

IMPORTANT ODF Template added to CRA Guidance feedback

Last week, the European Commission published the draft guidelines for the CRA and opened a comment session open to all…