Home » Archives for Mike Saunders » Page 51

Author: Mike Saunders

Interview with German Scholarship student Julian Hübenthal

In 2019, the German LibreOffice community unfortunately lost one of its most active members, Klaus-Jürgen Weghorn. In his memory, The Document Foundation decided to support a student through the Deutschlandstipendium initiative.

Let’s get to know him…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I come from near Lüneburg. I graduated from the Wilhelm-Raabe-Schule Gymnasium in Lüneburg last year.

I have quite a wide range of interests, which certainly contributed to my Abitur [qualification at the end of secondary education] average of 1.0 and did not make my decision to study any easier. However, my main focus is certainly in the mathematical/scientific/technical subjects.

I like to ride my road bike and go cycling in general, and I like to travel, gladly combining both interests together.

What are you currently studying, and how is it going?

I am currently studying computer science in my second semester. The course is interesting and I like the challenge. However, I have found out that the course is not quite right for me. Therefore, I would like to change to business informatics for the coming winter semester, for which I am currently already taking the appropriate modules. I am impressed by what I have already learned in a comparatively short time during my studies. Apart from that, I have been able to maintain my Abitur during my studies.

Are you familiar with free and open source software?

I have already used free and open source software, for example the Linux distribution Ubuntu as part of my studies, or Eclipse even before my studies. However, I have not yet participated in such a project myself.

Apart from the questions, I would also like to thank you again for the support and recognition of my achievements.

You’re welcome, Julian! We wish you every success in your studies.

Winners in the Month of LibreOffice, May 2022!

At the start of May, we revved up a new Month of LibreOffice, celebrating community contributions all across the project. We do these every six months – so how many people got sticker packs this time? Check it out…

Awesome work, everyone! Hundreds of people, all across the globe, have helped out in our projects and communities. We’re hugely thankful for your contributions – and, of course, everyone who’s listed on the wiki page can get a sticker pack, with these stickers and more:

How to claim

If you see your name (or username) on this page, get in touch! Email mike.saunders@documentfoundation.org with your name (or username) from the wiki page so that we can check, along with your postal address, and we’ll send you a bunch of stickers for your PC, laptop and other kit.

(Note: your address will only be used to post the stickers, and will be deleted immediately afterwards.) If you contributed to the project in November but you’re not on the wiki page, please let us know what you did, so that we can add you!

There is one more thing…

And we have an extra bonus: 10 contributors have also been selected at random to get an extra piece of merchandise – a LibreOffice hoodie, T-shirt, rucksack or snazzy glass mug. Here are the winners – we’ll get in touch personally with the details:

  • Andrew Watson
  • Yotam Benshalom
  • Yuvarani
  • Ulrich Gemkow
  • klaatu1
  • Christophe JAILLET
  • gregors15
  • Riyadh Talal
  • qsu
  • Siddhant Chaudhary

Congratulations to all the winners, and a big thanks once again to everyone who took part! Your contributions keep the LibreOffice project strong. We plan to have another Month of LibreOffice next May, but everyone is welcome to see what they can do for LibreOffice at any time!

LibreOffice project and community recap: May 2022

Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more…

  • We kicked off May with the Month of LibreOffice. This is an event that we run twice a year, awarding sticker packs (and the chance to win more merchandise) to everyone who contributes to LibreOffice. We posted an update later in May – and we’ll soon post the final results on this blog!

  • During the month, we released two updates to the suite: LibreOffice 7.3.3 on May 5, and 7.2.7 on May 12. (The latter is the last release in the LibreOffice 7.2 series. Also, LibreOffice is now available to download on SourceForge.

  • Then we had updates about the LibreOffice Conference 2022, which will take place in Mikan, northern Italy from September 28 – October 1. We announced the Call for Papers, followed by the sponsorship package. We look forward to seeing you there – in-person, or online!
  • Our Indonesian community reported on recent activities, including an online session to broaden students’ knowledge of LibreOffice and FOSS (free and open source software) in general.

  • We’re glad that more in-person events are becoming possible again, and LibreOffice community members were present at the Univention Summit 2022 in Bremen, northern Germany.

  • In May, LibreOffice won two awards: SourceForge’s Open Source Project of the Month, and Software Informer’s Editor’s Pick.

Keep in touch – follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Mastodon. Like what we do? Support our community with a donation – or join us and help to make LibreOffice even better!

Last week of the Month of LibreOffice, May 2022!

So far, 233 sticker packs have been awarded in the Month of LibreOffice, May 2022. But there’s still one more week to go – so if your name (or username) isn’t on the list, join in, help to make LibreOffice even better, and get some cool swag! We’ll have 10 bonus pieces of merchandise to give away, to 10 lucky people…

How to take part

So, let’s get started! There are many ways you can help out – and as mentioned, you don’t need to be a developer. For instance, you can be a…

  • Handy Helper, answering questions from users on Ask LibreOffice. We’re keeping an eye on that site so if you give someone useful advice, you can claim your shiny stickers.
  • First Responder, helping to confirm new bug reports: go to our Bugzilla page and look for new bugs. If you can recreate one, add a comment like “CONFIRMED on Windows 10 and LibreOffice 7.3.2”.
  • Drum Beater, spreading the word: tell everyone about LibreOffice on Twitter or Mastodon! Just say why you love it or what you’re using it for, add the #libreoffice hashtag, and at the end of the month you can claim your stickers.
  • Globetrotter, translating the user interface: LibreOffice is available in a wide range of languages, but its interface translations need to be kept up-to-date. Or maybe you want to translate the suite to a whole new language? Get involved here.
  • Docs Doctor, writing documentation: Whether you want to update the online help or add chapters to the handbooks, here’s where to start.

Join in, learn new things, and have fun! We’ll post the final results in early June…

LibreOffice at the Univention Summit 2022

After two years of pandemic restrictions, more and more in-person events are now taking place. Members of the LibreOffice community attended the recent Univention Summit 2022 in Bremen, northern Germany. They had a stand with LibreOffice merchandise, talked to visitors and answered questions.

Thorsten Behrens, Chairperson of The Document Foundation’s (TDF) Board of Directors, said: “The event was super, and it was great to talk to people in-person again.”

Lothar Becker, who served on the Board from 2020 to 2022, added:

The representation of TDF and the LibreOffice project at the event, along with partners, was very well received – and perceived as important in terms of digital sovereignty, both for users and other projects and providers. Intensive discussions for the first time – also in person again – especially regarding integration topics, and the role of TDF, were very encouraging and motivating for all after the long period of the pandemic. The evening then offered the opportunity to continue these discussions in a more informal atmosphere.

Let’s wrap up with a couple more pictures from the event. We plan to attend many more this year – keep an eye on this blog for updates!

Annual Report 2021: Attracting new contributors to LibreOffice

Bringing new community members on board, and helping them to get started in the LibreOffice community, is an essential part of our work. Here’s what we did in 2021…

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2021 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Onboarding tools and sites

Joining a large and established project like LibreOffice can be daunting for many. The software has a large codebase, and sub-projects use a wide array of tools. In recent years, we’ve made efforts to simplify the onboarding process by linking more services together with SSO (single sign-on), thereby reducing some of the complexity. In addition, we’ve created Easy Hacks and similar “bite size” projects in other areas, so that newcomers can get involved quickly and achieve something without months of work.

Currently, we have two websites/pages that function as starting points for new contributors: What Can I Do For LibreOffice and the Get Involved page. The former was set up by LibreOffice’s Albanian community, and lets users click through topics of interest, until they find something they want to do. The latter is a regular page, with a list of sub-projects inside LibreOffice, and quick steps to make initial contact.

Throughout 2021, we posted regular “Community Member Monday” interviews on this blog. In many cases, we emphasised how these contributors started off as regular LibreOffice users, but wanted to “scratch an itch” and start to make changes to the software. We highlighted the ways in which other community members helped newcomers to start working on projects, and used these as “success stories” on our social media accounts, encouraging others to make the step-up from being a user to an active contributor.

In addition, we have accounts and projects listed on various volunteering platforms, including VolunteerMatch and Idealist (English), Vostel (German), Vapaaehtoistyo (Finnish), TuDu (Polish) and HeroClan, Um sem um tam and Zapojim se (Czech).

LibreOffice New Generation

In early 2021, we announced LibreOffice New Generation, a project to bring new – and especially younger – people into the LibreOffice community. While The Document Foundation is proud that our community is diverse and has people from all ages, younger people help to bring fresh ideas and approaches to the project. So we wanted to make it easier for everyone to join, get involved and have fun – regardless of age.

To achieve this, we set up the New Generation project with communication channels, contact points in the community, and initial ideas for things to work on. The community grew quickly, with 300 members arriving in the Telegram group within the space of a few weeks, and many ideas being proposed. One was to create a distinctive flyer that can be distributed in schools and universities, which not only explains what LibreOffice does, but how all users can also get involved and help to improve the software. New Generation community members created an initial design for the flyer, along with an update, and then translated it into several languages. TDF used funds from its marketing budget to get flyers printed and distributed to people around the globe.

Open Badges

We also continued to issue Open Badges, special, custom images with embedded metadata, confirming contributions from people in the community. For instance, we sent our personalised badges to French translators of the Math Guide, along with Brazilian Portuguese documentation team members and Czech documentation contributors.

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or consider making a donation. Thank you!

Press Releases

Announcement of LibreOffice 25.8.4

Berlin, 18 December 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.4, the fourth minor update to the free office suite developed by volunteers for…

Open Document Format

The Role of ODF in the Era of Digital Identity and Authentication

Digital identity has become an integral part of everyday life. We use it to access work tools and sign documents…