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Author: Mike Saunders

Czech translation of LibreOffice Draw Guide 7.4 – and more news

Draw Guide cover

Zdeněk Crhonek (aka “raal”) from the Czech LibreOffice community writes:

The Czech team has finished its translation of the LibreOffice Draw Guide 7.4. As usual it was team work, namely: translations by Petr Kuběj, Zdeněk Crhonek and Radomír Strnad; localized pictures by Roman Toman; and technical support from Miloš Šrámek. Thanks to all the team for their work! The Czech translation of the Draw guide 7.4 is available for download from this page.

Now the team continues with translation of the Impress Guide 7.5. We always looking for new translators and correctors. Join us!

Migration protocol translated into Czech

Thanks to Jana Švejdová for translating the LibreOffice Migration Protocol into Czech, and HeroClan for finding a volunteer. The protocol represents a reference for migrations, based on best practices from some of the most successful projects. The file is available on the Czech website.

Try our updated Extensions and Templates site!

Screenshot of LibreOffice extensions and template website

LibreOffice includes a wide range of features, covering most use-cases. But it also supports extensions for more functionality, and our worldwide community has submitted hundreds of great extensions (and templates).

Recently, our new Web Developer Juan José González (aka “JJ”) improved the design of the site, to make it more usable and visually appealing, including:

  • Counters for number of downloads
  • A more prominent search bar
  • Tag filters in a menu on the left
  • Larger sort order buttons
  • Easier to read dates of last update (e.g. “2 months ago”)

Explore the new site here! If you notice anything that could still be improved, please report it on our tracker.

And a huge thanks to all extension and template maintainers – you’ve done the biggest work on the website.

Create and submit an extension

Interested in making an extension and sharing it with the world? It’s a great way to learn about LibreOffice development. Here are some guides to get started:

LibreOffice 7.5.5 Community available for download

LibreOffice 7.5 banner

Berlin, July 20, 2023 – LibreOffice 7.5.5 Community, the fifth minor release of the LibreOffice 7.5 line, the volunteer-supported free office suite for desktop productivity, is available from our download page for Windows (Intel/AMD and ARM processors), macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel processors), and Linux [1].

Given the upcoming announcement of LibreOffice 7.6, all users are invited to update to this version, which has been tested and sought after enough to be ready for production environments.

Several other products based on the same LibreOffice Technology of LibreOffice 7.5.5 are available for major desktop operating systems (Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and Linux), for mobile platforms (Android and iOS), and for the cloud. In some cases the name is not LibreOffice, although the underlying technology is the same.

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners – for desktop, mobile and cloud – with a large number of dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLA (Service Level Agreements).

Availability of LibreOffice 7.5.5 Community

LibreOffice 7.5.5 Community is available from this page. Minimum requirements for proprietary operating systems are Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 and Apple macOS 10.14. LibreOffice Technology-based products for Android and iOS are listed here.

The Document Foundation does not provide technical support for users, although they can be helped by volunteers on user mailing lists and on the Ask LibreOffice website.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation on this page.

[1] Change log pages: RC1 and RC2

TDF’s Membership Committee announces a new membership management system: Proteus

The Membership Committee (MC) at The Document Foundation is responsible for managing membership applications and renewals. The primary objective of their task is to carefully evaluate applications from individuals who want to become members of TDF. Also the members’ contributions to the LibreOffice project are verified, in order to ensure a transparent, fair, and efficient membership process.

To do it, a script created by the early MC members has been used for many years. With the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the drive for improved internal processes, the MC decided to develop a new open source management system that meets the legal requirements for members’ and applicants’ data governance.

During 2022, an open source tool called Proteus was developed. Proteus will be used for renewals and applications starting in the second half of 2023. All TDF members with renewals due in this quarter are called upon to submit their information through the new system, which will utilize Single Sign-On and can be accessed on this page. If you have questions, please contact the MC.

Learn more about becoming a member of TDF

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TDF Team Meeting in Munich, June 2023

Team members standing on a patio

LibreOffice is made by a worldwide community, comprised of volunteers, certified developers, ecosystem companies and many other people. Coordinating the project is The Document Foundation, a small non-profit entity registered in Berlin, which has a team of 16 people (thanks to generous donations).

We mostly work online, but in June, most team members met in-person in Munich! We are (alphabetically by first name):

  • Christian Lohmaier – Release Engineer
  • Florian Effenberger – Executive Director
  • Guilhem Moulin – Infrastructure & Services
  • Heiko Tietze – UX Architect
  • Hossein Nourikhah – Developer Community Architect
  • Ilmari Laukahangas – Development Marketing
  • Italo Vignoli – Marketing & PR
  • Juan José González – Web Technology Engineer
  • Khaled Hosny – Developer, prioritising complex text-layout tasks
  • Michael Weghorn – Developer, prioritising accessibility tasks
  • Mike Saunders – Marketing and Community Coordinator
  • Olivier Hallot – Documentation Coordinator
  • Sophie Gautier – Foundation Coordinator
  • Stephan – Administrative Assistant
  • Stéphane Guillou – QA Analyst
  • Xisco Fauli – QA Engineer

Over four days, we discussed many topics, including: how we can grow the LibreOffice community; marketing the software; improving documentation; planning for Quality Assurance activities; localisation and liaisons; and updating the LibreOffice and TDF websites. We shared many ideas, came up with concrete action items, and are now working to get them done.

Of course, we’re just one part of the wider LibreOffice community. We always appreciate getting feedback and suggestions from other members of the project, so let us know what you’d like us to work on! And many thanks to everyone in the community for all your contributions and support 😊

Join the LibreOffice community here

Welcome Michael Weghorn, new Developer at TDF

Michael Weghorn

The Document Foundation (TDF) is the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice, providing infrastructure and support for the community that makes the suite. Recently, TDF decided to expand its small team with two new Developers – the first (Khaled Hosny) focusing on “complex” text layout languages. Today, we welcome our second Developer, Michael Weghorn, who will initially focus on accessibility improvements. Let’s hear from him…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am from Germany, and have been living in Munich since moving here for my studies in computer science about 12 years ago.

I am a free and open source software enthusiast.

Before coming to TDF, I was working for the City (administration) of Munich, first being part of their Linux client team – and since 2018 with the main focus on LibreOffice development. I am also a member of the LibreOffice Engineering Steering Committee (ESC).

Besides my involvement in LibreOffice, I have also contributed a few changes to other open source projects – mostly fixes for issues that I ran into myself as a user. The possibility to do this is certainly one of the many benefits of open source software.

Besides being an open source software developer, I’m involved in a Christian church and like meeting friends, sports and reading.

You’ve been in the LibreOffice project for a while – what have you been working on so far?

I have been involved in the LibreOffice project since 2014, mostly in QA (Quality Assurance) and development.

The first code change I was working on had to do with the selection of the Java runtime on LibreOffice startup, and I was also translating German comments in the source code back then.

Since then, I have mostly been working on fixing bugs in different areas of LibreOffice. The main areas that I have been focusing on are Qt/KDE integration, the Android version and accessibility.

What’s your new role at TDF, and what will you be working on?

I’m joining TDF as a LibreOffice Developer, focusing on accessibility.

Accessibility is quite a broad topic, ranging from the accessibility of LibreOffice’s user interface to the accessibility of the documents that the program creates.

From what I have seen so far, LibreOffice has a good basis regarding accessibility. It’s also great to see recent contributions by others to further improve accessibility (eg improvements for document accessibility and PDF/UA export, the accessibility checker and accessibility on macOS), but there are certainly also areas that will benefit from getting some more attention.

My initial focus will probably be fixing problems encountered in the user interface when using LibreOffice with a screen reader.

From my experience so far, this often not only involves making changes to LibreOffice itself, but also to the corresponding screen reader or elsewhere in the accessibility software stack. Therefore, cooperation with other projects is also essential.

How can all users of LibreOffice help out?

There are different ways to get involved – for example:

  • Join the LibreOffice accessibility mailing list
  • Report accessibility issues in the Bugzilla issue tracker and set the “accessibility” keyword for accessibility-related bugs, so developers become aware and can fix them
  • Confirm already existing bug reports and add more helpful information to them
  • Test development versions of LibreOffice with assistive technology (and report bugs), so issues can be fixed before a new version is released
  • If you’re a developer: help with fixing reported bugs

There’s also an accessibility page in the wiki, which contains some more information and will be further updated in the future.

Great to have Michael on board! 😊 Follow this blog and our Mastodon and Twitter accounts for updates on his work – plus more news from the LibreOffice community.

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