Contest for LibreOffice Ecosystem and LibreOffice Technology logo

The Strategic Marketing Plan discussed in 2020 has introduced a couple of concepts – LibreOffice Ecosystem and LibreOffice Technology – which will be the cornerstone of LibreOffice marketing activities for the foreseeable future, and will be deployed on web properties, marketing materials, documents, presentations and merchandise for events. Now, we need high-impact visuals to stress the importance of these concepts for LibreOffice.

Based on the success of the community contest for the 2020 Anniversary Logo, which has provided a consistent visual image for presentations at virtual events in 2020 (and will be used in 2021 as well), The Document Foundation is challenging community members with the task of developing two different logos:

(1) LibreOffice Ecosystem logo, to underline the unique characteristics of the LibreOffice project: global reach, continuous research for improvement and high quality, inclusiveness, loyalty to copyleft licenses, smooth combination of paid and volunteer contributors, and eventually lots of fun especially at events. The LibreOffice Sustainability slide deck provides an extensive description of the concept: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/4qLzRad8wNd8pFk.

(2) LibreOffice Technology logo, to underline the uniqueness of the LibreOffice platform, which provides a single common engine for all platforms, from desktop to mobile to cloud, and therefore a more consistent way of handling files both in ODF and OOXML document formats, which improves interoperability. The LibreOffice Technology slide deck provides an extensive description of the concept: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/Xw4A7mY6W6yJTqo.

LibreOffice Ecosystem logo is the most important one, so community members should focus their best energies on it. LibreOffice Technology logo would be nice to have, but not as important as the Ecosystem one, as this will be a logo that all community members should use.

As a reference, TDF design and style guides (Corporate Image) are published on the wiki: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Marketing/Branding.

Both logos will be used for presentations, event signage, merchandise and gadgets (like stickers). They should be easy to recognize and read even at small sizes.

Both logos logo must be developed with free and open source software, and released in vector-based (SVG) as well as bitmap-based (PNG, JPG) formats. The logo must be available in a square or nearly square version, plus other formats as appropriate. An example of a possible implementation should also be provided with the proposal.

Intellectual property must be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), while a copyright transfer to TDF is not required. The authors must declare in writing that they are the sole owner of all rights related to the artwork they have developed.

It should be clear that this is not a request for a mascot, and any kind of proposal which could be interpreted as a mascot will not be considered. Also, the logo must have a global reach, and as such any reference to a regional styling approach will not be considered.

Logo proposals must be sent to: italo@libreoffice.org by Augus 31, 2021, at 11:59PM UTC. TDF Team will select the winning proposals, which will be announced – and used – during the LibreOffice Virtual Conference, from September 23 to September 25, 2021.

We look forward to meeting the authors of the winning proposals at FOSDEM 2022 in Brussels or at the LibreOffice Conference 2022 (location still to be decided), to celebrate their work.

Community Member Monday: Hüseyin GÜÇ

Today we’re speaking to Hüseyin GÜÇ from our Turkish community, who’s helping with translations and spreading the word. Last year, he updated us on a LibreOffice migration in a municipality in Turkey.

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m a passionate administrator and open source enthusiast, starting my career 26 years ago. I live in Istanbul, and enjoy keeping myself up to date with the latest in the open source world, and trying out the latest tools, features, and services around Linux. In my spare time, I participate in the Turkish translation of open source applications.

You recently decided to become a Member of The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice. Tell us about that…

I want the OpenDocument Format and LibreOffice application to be used in my institutions and city. For this reason, I wanted to support The Documentation Foundation individually.

Also, I am here because I think the LibreOffice community has a differentiation from other open source communities. You can install and use open source applications, but there is a need for the OpenDocument Format to become widespread in order to use the produced output.

Here, I want to be a part of this dissemination and I believe that there will be an opportunity for this. Open source usage in Turkey is not at the desired level yet. In addition, it is very sad that many individuals and institutions are unaware of the OpenDocument Format and LibreOffice. I want to strive to eliminate this problem.

Many thanks to Hüseyin for his contributions! Learn more about the Turkish LibreOffice community here. And if you want to spread the word about LibreOffice in your area, join our marketing community – we can help you!

The LibreOffice Calc Guide 7.1 is Here!

The LibreOffice Documentation community announces the immediate availability of the Calc Guide 7.1, with additions based on the the improvements in LibreOffice Calc 7.1, which was released in February this year.

Download Calc Guide 7.1

The Guide is the volunteer effort of many members of the documentation community. Revisions and enhancements on the contents are the work of Rafael Lima from Brazilian community, Martin Van Zijl and Kees Kriek from the Dutch community, Celia Palacios from the Hispanic language community. A special mention to Yusuf Keten from the Google Summer of Code program on new extensions and templates dialogs, to Steve Fanning for his editorial review and to Jean Hollis Weber for her improvements and organization of the text. The LibreOffice Calc Guide 7.1 update activities was coordinated by Felipe Viggiano from Brazil.

Celia, Jean, Kees, Steve, Rafael, Felipe

The book is available in PDF format and contains 545 pages, covering all basic and advanced features of the spreadsheet module of LibreOffice, and is a must-read book for exploiting the maximum of LibreOffice Calc.

Download the Calc Guide 7.1

Month of LibreOffice, May 2021 – Half-way through!

At the start of May, we launched the Month of LibreOffice, encouraging all users to get involved and help to make the software even better. Everyone who contributes – be it to documentation, translations, bug report testing and other areas – can claim a cool sticker pack, and has a chance to win extra merch too:

So how’s it looking? 285 sticker packs have been awarded so far – so if you see your name/username on that list, congrats! We still have two weeks to go, though, so if you’re not yet on the list, read on to find out how you can take part…

Do something awesome

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 7.1.2”.
  • 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.

So, join us! And keep following updates on this blog and our Mastodon and Twitter accounts…

LinkedIn Pages, an invitation to subscribe

The Document Foundation has launched the foundation and the LibreOffice LinkedIn pages a while ago, followed in late 2020 by the LibreOffice Enterprise LinkedIn page. These resources have never been promoted in a serious and continuous way, so they have grown organically during the years to reach respectively 1,112, 949 and 171 followers. Given the growing importance of LinkedIn as a source of information, it is now time to leverage the effective potential of these content resources for the growth of the project, especially in areas which are tangent to the FOSS ecosystem.

As usual, we need the help of TDF and community members to grow the number of people subscribed to these pages, and to add contents about community activities, product development, migrations, large enterprise deployments, and the open document format. In general, community activities should be published on The Document Foundation page, product development and open document format news on the LibreOffice page, migrations and large enterprise deployments on the LibreOffice Enterprise page. We are happy to receive your content suggestions, and to put them online.

The Document Foundation LinkedIn page
To go to the page and subscribe, click on the image
LibreOffice LinkedIn page
To go to the page and subscribe, click on the image
LibreOffice Enterprise LinkedIn page
To go to the page and subscribe, click on the image

Brazilians in turbo mode: Impress Guide 7.0 in Portuguese is now available

The Brazilian LibreOffice community is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Portuguese Impress 7.0 Guide, the complete guidebook for creating high quality presentations in any environment, be it family, cultural or professional.

The book is 330 pages, and details the fundamentals of Impress, before covering the concepts of slide masters, styles, presentation templates, graphic objects, transition effects, object animations, export to other formats and much more. It’s rich in illustrations and examples – as well as scripts for the most important operations when editing and running presentations.

The documentation team in Brazil grew with the arrival of Luciana Mota, Diego Marques Pereira and Márcia Buffon Machado. Here are the newcomers’ messages to all!

Luciana Mota

“I already used LibreOffice professionally when it was still BrOffice.org. I learned about the work of the documentation team in Brazil through social networks, and decided to participate. It was a good surprise to get back in touch with former colleagues and everyone excited about reviewing the texts and answering questions. I’m learning a lot from this team. The Impress Guide was just the beginning, and I am already working on the Writer Guide with this great team!” said Luciana Mota.

Diego Marques Pereira

“I followed the activities of LibreOffice through the Telegram channel, and the activities of the LibreOffice documentation group in Brazil caught my attention. I started with some formatting tasks – and then went on to review one of the chapters of the Impress Guide, and participated in team meetings to answer questions and learn a lot about LibreOffice. I am already reviewing some chapters of the Writer Guide (that I consider one of the most important in the suite). The opportunity left me with a new perspective on text editors and software documentation” added Diego Marques.

Márcia Buffon Machado

“I’ve recently met the skilled Brazilian LibreOffice documentation group and, from my experience in localisation (EN-PT) and enthusiasm for this software, I was welcomed and started collaborating with them. It’s been a rewarding experience! We’re sharing knowledge about the software and technical writing all the time in the virtual group, as well as in the weekly virtual meetings. I’m living in Ireland and, even with different time zones, I enjoy those meetings because learning is a social and collaborative process and the best way for building a better world” said Márcia Buffon Machado.

The Impress 7.0 Guide is the group efforts of Peter Schofield, Felipe Viggiano, Claire Wood, Regina Henschel, Dave Barton, Jean Hollis Weber, Samantha Hamilton and Olivier Hallot.

Jackson, Timothy, Vera, Flavio, Felipe, Raul, Tulio and Olivier

The LibreOffice Brazilian Portuguese documentation team is composed by Raul Pacheco da Silva, Vera Cavalcante, Jackson Cavalcanti Jr, Tulio Macedo, Marcia Buffon Machado, Luciana Mota, Felipe Viggiano, Diego Peres Marques, Timothy Brennan Jr and Flavio Schefer, coordinated by Olivier Hallot. The final assembly of the Impress Guide was in charge of Vera Cavalcante.