Category: Community

So far, 202 sticker packs have been awarded in the Month of LibreOffice, May 2023. But we’re only half of the way through – 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 11 and LibreOffice 7.5.3”.

• 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.

• Code Cruncher, contributing source code: The codebase is big, but there are lots of places to get involved with small jobs. See our Developers page on the website and this page on the wiki to get started.

• 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…

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 started the month noting Microsoft’s plans to raise the prices of its office software in Germany – and other services – significantly. And not just once, but every six months there are to be “price adjustments”. Of course, LibreOffice (and LibreOffice Technology-based products) comes to the rescue!

• Next up, we reported about our policy-related activities in the European Union. TDF is backing campaigns to support free and open source software (FOSS) in the EU – and raise awareness of problems with the “Cyber Resilience Act”, amongst others.

• Talking of FOSS, we looked at how free and open source software continues to grow, as shown by data provided by reports of analysts, and by declarations of users. Over 76% of IT managers have increased the use of open source software during 2022, while almost 22% have not changed the amount, and less than 2% have reduced it.

• Throughout the month, we posted sections from The Document Foundation’s Annual Report 2022. The full version will be online soon – but in the meantime, you can find out what we did in the LibreOffice project, in the foundation, and at the conference in Milan!

• Want new features in LibreOffice? Help to fund developers! Every major release of LibreOffice includes a bunch new features, thanks to our community of volunteer and ecosystem developers. But what can you do, if you want a new feature in LibreOffice but don’t have the technical know-how to implement it? Find out more here…

• Finally, the Brazilian community gave a presentation at the FLISOL-DF event (Festival Latino Americano de Instalação de Software Livre) about the LibreOffice project. Check it out!

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!

Want to expand your skillset and gain experience with UX, marketing, documentation, QA or translations? Join the Month of LibreOffice, May 2023! Over the next four weeks, hundreds of people around the world will collaborate to improve LibreOffice – and you can help them. There are many ways to get involved, as we’ll see in a moment.

And best of all: everyone who contributes to LibreOffice in the next four weeks can claim a cool sticker pack, and has the chance to win extra LibreOffice merchandise such as mugs, hoodies, T-shirts, rucksacks and more (we’ll choose 10 participants at random at the end):

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 11 and LibreOffice 7.5.2”.

• Drum Beater, spreading the word: tell everyone about LibreOffice on Mastodon or Twitter! 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.

• Code Cruncher, contributing source code: The codebase is big, but there are lots of places to get involved with small jobs. See our Developers page on the website and this page on the wiki to get started.

• Docs Doctor, writing documentation: Whether you want to update the online help or add chapters to the handbooks, here’s where to start.

We’ll be updating this page every few days with usernames across our various services, as people contribute. So dive in, get involved and help make LibreOffice better for millions of people around the world – and enjoy your sticker pack at the end as thanks from us! And who knows, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to win bonus merch as well…

OK – let’s go! We’ll be posting regular updates on this blog and our Mastodon and Twitter accounts over the next four weeks – stay tuned!

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 started March by announcing the location of the LibreOffice Conference 2023: Bucharest in Romania! It will take place from Wednesday, September 20 (community meetings), to Saturday, September 23. Join us and register here!

• Throughout the month, we had three updates to LibreOffice – version 7.5.1 on March 2, and version 7.5.2 on March 30. We’re also maintaining the older LibreOffice 7.4 branch, and released 7.4.6 on March 9.

• LibreOffice installer improvements (on Windows) are coming, thanks to Rachael Odetayo, Ximena Alcaman and Outreachy mentors. We talked to Rachael about what she’s working on, and how the installation process will be simplified.

• Data protection and privacy is very important to us – and our users – in the LibreOffice project, so we’re happy to see that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is piloting the use of LibreOffice Technology.

• On March 8, we celebrated International Women’s Day!

• While we’re planning the LibreOffice Conference 2023, as mentioned, we’re also looking further ahead to 2024. If you’d like to host the conference in your location, get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.

• In documentation news, the Czech team translated the LibreOffice Base Guide 7.3 – and had more updates regarding the Bookshelf.

• Members of the German-speaking LibreOffice community met at the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage event. They had a booth with merchandise, and answered questions from visitors.

• And there was another meeting, at the LinuxHotel in Essen!

• Finally, we updated our infographic showing how donations to The Document Foundation were used in 2022. Thanks so much to everyone who supported us 😊

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!