Author: Olivier Hallot

The LibreOffice Documentation Team announces the release of the LibreOffice Calc Guide 6.4, the complete handbook for the spreadsheet tool of LibreOffice. The guide was updated from the existing release 6.2 and include all the improvements developed since then.

LibreOffice Calc is the spreadsheet module of LibreOffice, capable of creating and edit complex spreadsheets, from simple calculations to ‘What if…’ manner by changing some of the data and observing the results without having to retype the entire spreadsheet or sheet. Other features provided by Calc include

• Functions, which can be used to create formulas to perform complex calculations on data.
• Database functions to arrange, store, and filter data.
• Dynamic charts, including a wide range of 2D and 3D charts.
• Macros for recording and executing repetitive tasks; scripting languages supported include LibreOffice Basic, Python, BeanShell, and JavaScript.
• Ability to open, edit, and save Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
• Import and export of spreadsheets in multiple formats, including HTML, CSV, PDF, and PostScript.

The release of the Guide is an effort of the documentation team of the LibreOffice Community, a group of skilled individuals that contributes to create the best reference guides for all LibreOffice modules, including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, database and math equations.

“This guide achieves a very important milestone for the whole LibreOffice community since Calc documentation is the most demanded by the end user. I’m sure this great work will be very much appreciated.” said Daniel Rodriguez, Member of The Document Foundation Board of Directors.

“Building on the great work that went on during 2019 to complete the major update necessary to align the Calc Guide with LibreOffice 6.2, the update to 6.4 was a more modest task. However, I am delighted that the Team has completed this task because it gives an excellent platform for the subsequent update to 7.0 . From a personal perspective it was an enjoyable challenge and I was delighted to have a chance to make a useful contribution during our period of lockdown in the UK. Many thanks to all those who contributed to this update, especially Leo Moons, Kees Kriek, Gordon Bates, Drew Jensen and Randolph Gamo” said Steve Fanning, Calc Guide Coordinator.

The Calc Guide 6.4 is available in PDF for download from the new Extension website, at the following address: https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/876.

The source files in Open Document Format (ODT)can be downloaded from this address: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Calc_Guide .

And indeed, the documentation community appreciates help in all languages – plus, contributing is a good way to build up skills for a possible career in technical writing. See here to get started!

For the second year in a row, The Document Foundation has been accepted as an organization in the Google Season of Docs, a programme whose goals are to give technical writers an opportunity to participate in contributing to open source projects, and to give open source projects an opportunity to engage the technical writing community.

This year we offer a wide range of projects for technical writers, and we’re extending the reach by providing projects for e-learning, mathematical documentation and code-oriented documentation.

During the programme, technical writers will spend a few months working closely with the LibreOffice community, bringing their technical writing expertise to the project’s documentation, and at the same time learning about the open source project and new technologies. Similarly, LibreOffice documentation team members will work with the technical writers to improve the project’s documentation and processes.

LibreOffice is an advanced office suite covering many areas of knowledge, from maths and sciences, engineering, financials, editing, drawing, printing and more. LibreOffice is also an application that is used cross-industry – so it’s a very rich opportunity for technical writing.

Olivier Hallot, LibreOffice’s documentation coordinator, will lead the GSoD project, supported by Ilmari Lauhakangas and members of the LibreOffice documentation team.

All information about the Google Seasons of Docs is on the GSoD website. An outline of the project’s different steps is available on the GSoD timeline. The next deadline is June 8, as we we need to find interested technical writers to discuss our ideas, which are summarized on the following TDF wiki page. The list includes some of our project’s permanent challenges, but should not be limited to these items. Technical writers must read the technical writer page of the programme.

LibreOffice contributors who are interested in becoming a mentor for the GSoD project should get in touch with Olivier Hallot by sending him a message. We look forward to hearing from you!

Berlin, January 27th, 2020 – The LibreOffice Documentation Team is happy to announce the Calc Guide 6.2, a long-awaited update of the old Calc Guide 4.4, to cover all of the innovations included in newer versions of the suite. The team wanted to catch-up with the forthcoming release of LibreOffice 6.4, while offering to the user community a book with its contents suitable for the most-used features of the LibreOffice 6 family.

Several team members contributed to the effort, notably Steve Fanning, Jean Weber, Kees Kriek, Cathy Crumbley, Zach Parlimann, Dave Barton and Drew Jensen.

“Joining the LibreOffice Documentation Team was an opportunity for me to continue to be technically active after my recent retirement and, with my mathematical background, the Calc Guide was a great book for me to start with“, said Steve Fanning, volunteer technical writer. “I enjoyed contributing to the update of this guide, finding the task both interesting and challenging. In fact, one of the topics caught my imagination to such an extent that I proposed, and am now implementing, a new wiki-based online reference guide for the extensive set of spreadsheet functions provided by Calc“, he added.

The LibreOffice suite – and the Calc spreadsheet module in particular – is a complex application with many uses in the modern world. Calc is widely used in all kinds of businesses, and contains advanced calculation and mathematical features that demand quality and broad documentation. The team strived to provide the best content, from simple arithmetic calculations to complex features such as statistics, enhanced pivot tables, data crunching techniques and many more.

The Dutch community is actively translating the LibreOffice Guides to improve the reach of LibreOffice in the Netherlands. “The Calc Guide is an important piece of documentation that is always in great demand from our users. I devoted time and energy to review many chapters and get the guide ready quickly, so it was also possible to start the translation to Dutch sooner, and have the Dutch users benefit of the new Calc guide too“, said Kees Kriek, volunteer reviewer and translator for the Dutch community.

The LibreOffice 6.2 Calc Guide is available for immediate download from the link https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/. Source files are available from the link https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/bbawfrEfMz4zDyw