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TDF Annual Report 2024

2025-09-152025-10-11

The Annual Report of The Document Foundation describes the foundation’s activities and projects, especially in regard to LibreOffice and the Document Liberation Project.

We’ve been posting sections of the 2024 report here on the blog, and now the full version is available in PDF format on TDF’s Nextcloud server in two different versions: low resolution (6.6MB) and high resolution (56.2MB). The Annual Report is based on the German version presented to the authorities.

The document has been entirely created with free open source software: written contents have obviously been developed with LibreOffice Writer (desktop) and collaboratively modified with LibreOffice Writer (online), charts have been created with LibreOffice Calc and prepared for publishing with LibreOffice Draw, drawings and tables have been developed or modified (from legacy PDF originals) with LibreOffice Draw, images have been prepared for publishing with GIMP, and the layout has been created with Scribus based on the existing templates.

We at The Document Foundation are very grateful to all contributors to our projects and communities in 2024 – none of this would be possible without you!

In memory of Juan Carlos Sanz

2025-08-272025-08-27

Juan Carlos Sanz, a long time contributor to OpenOffice and LibreOffice, and a TDF Member, passed away last Friday, August 22. He has been contributing to documentation and localization in Spanish, and has been active in the forums to help LibreOffice users as much as he could.

In July 2022, Juan Carlos was interviewed by Mike Saunders for the Community Member Monday. In 2022, he also attended the LibreOffice Conference in Milan (2022) and Bucharest (2023).

Join the LibreOffice Team as a Paid Developer focusing on UI with initial emphasis on macOS, preferably full-time, remote (m/f/d)

2025-08-07

Love LibreOffice development? Want to turn your passion into a paid job? We are The Document Foundation (TDF), the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice. We’re passionate about free software, the open source culture and about bringing new companies and people with fresh ideas into our community.

To improve the user interface of LibreOffice, the office productivity suite for over 200 million users around the globe, we’re searching for a developer (m/f/d) to start work (from home) as soon as possible. This is what you’ll do:

Work on the LibreOffice codebase (mostly C++)
Focus on LibreOffice’s user interface, in the way it is rendered and laid out
Fix bugs, implement new features, and improve the quality of the UI code in LibreOffice while working together with the design team and other contributors
Document what you do, actively share knowledge in public with volunteers and contributors via blog posts, workshops and conference talks, so other developers and users have an easier time learning about your work

Examples of tasks:

Convert the remaining uses of macOS Carbon API to Cocoa and move from deprecated functions to supported ones
Rework the code responsible for the Tabbed UI and other alternative UIs to make it consistent with the rest of the UI

What we want from you:

Very good C++ development skills
Proven experience working on macOS
Proven experience working with UI toolkits
Good understanding of graphics programming
Good team-playing skills
Speaking and writing English

Previous development experience under Windows and Linux and contributions to FOSS projects (show us your repos!) are a plus. A previously established relationship within the developer community, as well as with other teams such as QA is a plus, but it is not mandatory at the start and can be achieved during the work itself.

As always, TDF will give some preference to individuals who have previously shown a commitment to TDF, including but not limited to members of TDF. Not being a member does not exclude any applicants from consideration.

Join us!

All jobs at The Document Foundation are remote jobs, where you can work from your home office or a co-working space. The work time during the day is flexible, apart from a few fixed meetings. The role is offered as full-time (ideally 40 hours per week). While we prefer full-time for the role, part-time applications, or proposals to grow the hours over time, will be considered. Candidates that are resident in (or willing to relocate to) Germany will be employed directly by TDF. Otherwise, external payroll services will be used if available in the candidate’s country of residence.

Are you interested? Get in touch! We aim to schedule the first interview within two weeks of your application. You can also approach us any time for an informal chat, to learn about the role or in case of questions.

TDF welcomes applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, gender, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age. Don’t be afraid to be different, and stay true to yourself. We like you that way! 😊

We’re looking forward to receiving your application, including information about you (your resume), when you are available for the job, and of course your financial expectations. Pointing to public repositories with your code is very helpful. Please send us an e-mail to developers@documentfoundation.org no later than September 12, 2025. If you haven’t received feedback by October 13, 2025, your application could not be considered.

Also note: we only accept applications from the applicant, and not from any intermediary. We do not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to any recruiting alias or employee.

LibreOffice for End User Privacy – TDF’s Annual Report 2024

2025-06-102025-09-03

LibreOffice stands out as a privacy-respecting open source office suite. Unlike proprietary alternatives, the software is designed with privacy, user control and transparency in mind.

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Introduction

Concerns about end user privacy in the digital world have grown significantly over the past two decades, with increasing awareness of data collection, user tracking and online surveillance. Many proprietary applications, including office productivity tools, often collect vast amounts of user data, in most cases without clear user consent.

All this has been clearly documented by Shoshanna Zuboff in her book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which is defined as a new economic strategy that uses the activities and experience of the individual as a free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, profiling and selling.

In this context, open source software differs substantially because respect for the user and for privacy are part of the ethical principles that guide the development of all applications. And LibreOffice stands out as the only office suite – open source or not – that respects privacy. Unlike proprietary alternatives, LibreOffice is designed with privacy, transparency, and user control of content in mind. The software does not collect telemetry data by default, does not include intrusive tracking functions, and allows users to work completely offline.

The following is a list of LibreOffice features and settings which help ensure end-user privacy, making the software a preferred choice for individuals, businesses and government institutions that prioritise data security.

No data collection or telemetry by default

One of the most significant privacy benefits of LibreOffice is its lack of telemetry by default. Unlike proprietary office suites that constantly send usage data back to their developers, LibreOffice does not collect or send any personal data without the user’s consent.

There are no background processes that track document usage, keystrokes or user activity.
LibreOffice does not create a unique user ID or track document interactions like some proprietary office suites do.
There is no built-in cloud storage requirement, ensuring that files remain on the user’s device unless manually uploaded elsewhere.

Optional telemetry with user consent

LibreOffice offers an optional telemetry feature, but it is entirely opt-in and requires explicit user consent. The collected data will only be used to improve the functionality of the software and will never be shared with third parties.

Full offline functionality

Unlike cloud-based office suites such as Google Docs, Microsoft 365 or Apple iWork, LibreOffice is a fully offline suite.

No forced cloud storage: documents remain on the local computer, reducing the risk of unauthorised access.
No dependence on an Internet connection: users can work in completely isolated environments.
No third-party server involvement: documents are never stored on a corporate server unless explicitly uploaded by the user.

For security-conscious organisations such as government agencies, law firms and healthcare providers, this offline capability ensures that sensitive documents never leave the internal network.

Open Document Format (ODF) for privacy and transparency

LibreOffice uses the Open Document Format (ODF) as its default file format. Unlike proprietary formats such as Microsoft’s DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, ODF is an open standard, which means:

It does not contain hidden tracking elements or embedded metadata that can leak user information.
It guarantees the integrity of the data in the long term because the format is fully documented, and the documentation is publicly available. Furthermore, the documentation corresponds to the format currently used by the software, unlike what happens with Microsoft 365 where the documentation is stuck at 2008.
It does not contain proprietary encryption mechanisms that could be exploited for surveillance or unauthorised access.

Control over metadata

Metadata can contain sensitive information such as: author details, document history, and editing timestamps. LibreOffice allows users to remove all metadata before sharing a document to ensure that private information is not inadvertently shared with external parties.

Strong encryption and password protection

LibreOffice provides robust document encryption to prevent unauthorised access. Users can protect their documents with strong passwords and encryption settings. This prevents unauthorised users from opening or modifying the file.

In addition, LibreOffice supports GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) encryption for users who require public key cryptography to secure their documents.

No cloud lock-in: freedom to choose storage

Unlike Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, which force all users to store documents in their respective cloud ecosystems, LibreOffice allows full control over file storage. This flexibility ensures that no third party can access user data without explicit permission.

Users can:

Store files locally on their hard drive or external storage.
Use self-hosted cloud services such as Nextcloud or ownCloud for increased privacy.
Store files on USB drives, encrypted partitions or private network servers.

Macro security and malware protection

Macros are often used in office documents for automation, but they can also be exploited to deliver malware. LibreOffice includes robust macro security settings to protect users.

By default, LibreOffice blocks macros from untrusted sources.
Users can only enable macros if they are signed with a trusted certificate.
The security level can be configured to prevents malicious actors from using macros as an attack vector.

Transparency and open source code

One of the biggest privacy benefits of LibreOffice is its open source nature. Unlike proprietary office suites that operate as black boxes, LibreOffice’s source code is publicly available and regularly audited by the security community. This level of transparency and user control makes LibreOffice a trusted alternative to closed-source office suites.

No hidden spyware: because anyone can inspect the code, LibreOffice cannot contain hidden trackers or surveillance tools.
Independent security audits: governments, cybersecurity experts and researchers can verify LibreOffice’s privacy claims.
No forced updates: users have complete control over when and how they update LibreOffice, avoiding unwanted feature changes or telemetry settings.

Conclusion

LibreOffice is the most privacy-conscious office suites available today. With no telemetry by default, full offline functionality, strong encryption, metadata control and open source transparency, it provides users with a secure and private environment for document creation and collaboration.

For individuals, businesses and governments concerned about privacy and digital sovereignty, LibreOffice is a reliable, free and ethical alternative to proprietary office suites.

As privacy concerns continue to grow in the digital age, LibreOffice remains committed to ensuring that users retain full control over their data: a core principle that sets it apart from many commercial alternatives.

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

LibreOffice Design team work in 2024 – TDF’s Annual Report

2025-05-31

Design has been one of the major focus points of LibreOffice in recent years. The design/UX community has continued to support QA by evaluating user reports on Bugzilla, helping development with mockups, and mentoring volunteers and students in different projects.

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Besides a large number of fixed issues on macOS thanks to Patrick Luby, and continuous work on the Navigator by Jim Raykowski, we had many more improvements – here is just a small selection:

Improvements in LibreOffice 24.2

The column/row for active cells can be highlighted in Calc (implemented by Sahil Gautam)

Tools ▸ Options was complemented by a search feature (Bayram Çiçek)

Comment styles were introduced for quick and consistent formatting of all comments (Maxim Monastirsky) (depicted in the screenshot at the top of this post)

Improvements in LibreOffice 24.8

Bundled templates were refactored with localized placeholders (Laurent Balland)

New “Quick Find” deck in the Sidebar, which lists the search results along with their context (Khushi Gautam)

Formatting characters are now treated independently from fields and do not toggle with non-printable characters (Heiko Tietze)

“Keep Ratio” settings in the Position and Size dialogs are more intuitive now with a lock symbol and reference lines (Heiko Tietze)

Hovering over a layer’s tab in Draw highlights the objects it contains (Jim Raykowski)

Among many other improvements to the Basic IDE, a dialog was added that allows users to pick one of six syntax highlighting colour schemes (Rafael Lima)

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

LibreOffice Native Language Projects – TDF’s Annual Report 2024

2025-05-262025-09-01

By helping to translate and market LibreOffice around the world, native language projects bring enthusiasm and passion to the global community. Here’s what they did in 2024…

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Armenian

In 2024, the Armenian translation of LibreOffice reached 100% thanks to the efforts of Tigran Zargaryan. The suite was offered in Armenian for the first time. In addition, he ensured that the strings in the LibreOffice UI-master, website, Android Viewer and Help also reached 100% translated.

In appreciation for Tigran’s work, TDF invited him to join the LibreOffice Conference 2024 in Luxembourg using the foundation’s travel support programme.

Czech

Throughout the year, Czech speakers worked on keeping the translation of LibreOffice’s UI complete, and the Help content around 95%. They presented the software at booths at two events: InstallFest in Prague in April, and LinuxDays in Prague in October.

They supported LibreOffice users on the Czech Ask site, and maintained social media accounts including X (Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. They also introduced a new Mastodon account.

Czech speakers produced many translated user guides in 2024, including the Getting Started Guide 24.8, Writer Guide 24.2 and Impress guide 7.5. And throughout the year they maintained the Czech LibreOffice website.

Danish

Speakers of Danish brought the user interface translation of LibreOffice up to 100%, while the Help content approached 100% (that goal was finally reached two months into 2025). They also translated the subtitles for LibreOffice videos covering features in new major releases.

Dutch

Dutch-speaking community members supported users by answering questions on the Ask LibreOffice website and mailing lists. They also translated the following guidebooks: the Calc Guide for LibreOffice 7.6 (translated and published in January); the Writer Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (March); the Calc Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (June); the Draw guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (July); the Impress Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (July); the Getting Started Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (August); the Impress Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (October); the Draw Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (December); the Writer Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (December); and the Math Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (December).

On Weblate, the community managed to keep up with the changes of the UI, maintaining it at 100% translated. Although the Help content kept growing they were able to maintain it at 100% translated.

Community members also set up a stand at the NLLGG in May 2024 – a conference of the Dutch Linux community. There, LibreOffice users could obtain information and ask questions about LibreOffice, whether or not in conjunction with a Linux operating system.

They also had a stand at the LocHal open source event in November 2024 – another conference of the Dutch Linux community.

Finnish

There was ongoing translation of the LibreOffice user interface and (to a lesser extent) Help, along with ongoing recruitment of volunteers on the vapaaehtoistyo.fi online platform. In addition, there was translation of the upcoming LibreOffice website redesign.

French

Thanks to the French-speaking community, translations on Weblate were maintained at 100% for all versions of LibreOffice. There were also other translations: the new website (based on Hugo); Calc functions on the wiki; press releases and video subtitles for LibreOffice “New Features” videos; and release notes for all versions.

In terms of events, community members were present at Capitole du Libre (Toulouse) and Open Source Experience (Paris). There was also coordination with UBO University for LibreOffice guidebook translations by translator students.

German

In terms of translations and documentation, the German-speaking community continued their work on Weblate by translating LibreOffice’s user interface and Help content. They also translated the release notes for major updates of the software, blog posts from TDF’s English blog, and published videos in German showing and explaining various features in LibreOffice. In addition the German community updated the Base Guide for versions 24.2 and 24.8.

Development continued on the XRechnungs-Extension for the new German legal requirements (which became effective in January 2025).

Members of the German-speaking community attended various events throughout the year to promote LibreOffice and encourage more people to join the project, such as the Univention Summit 2024 in January, Chemnitz Linux Days 2024 in March, FrOSCon in August and 38c3 in December.

Finally, the community helped to raise awareness of the ongoing migration of 30,000 PCs to LibreOffice in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Japanese

The Japanese community had its local annual conference, LibreOffice Kaigi 2024 Online – which they reported about on their blog.

There were also Online Study Parties, held twice, where users shared knowledge and interacted with each other. And then there were 44 online hackfests throughout the year, where participants worked together in the community to make progress on tasks and transfer skills. They mainly checked the Japanese Ask LibreOffice website and tried to answer questions, but also did some UI translation, and occasionally bug triaging and bug reporting. All online events were held on Jitsi and streamed live on YouTube.

Meanwhile, there were in-person events every month in Awaji, Osaka City. They were held jointly with Open Awaji, an event themed around open data and the movement to open cities. Other activities at events included having booths and open source conferences (Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Tokyo, and Fukuoka). There was also the Kansai Open Forum 2024, an event for open source and IT communities in the Kansai region that has been held annually since 2002. Attendees talked about LibreOffice.

Japanese community members participated in the LibreOffice Asia Conference 2024 and COSCUP (Taiwan), along with the openSUSE.Asia Summit 2024 (Tokyo).

Six people from Japan participated in the LibreOffice Asia Conference 2024 in Taipei, two of whom gave joint presentations. Many members of the FLOSS community outside of the LibreOffice project who participated in COSCUP also attended the LibreOffice Community Party.

In terms of translations into Japanese, the user interface was 93% complete, and Help content 48% complete. There were also guidebook translations (Writer, Calc etc.) – Meguro-san translated using TexTra, a machine translation service provided by NICT, a Japanese government research institute.

On Japanese Ask LibreOffice, 101 questions or comments were added in 2024, while on the blog, community members posted 19 articles; these mainly consisted of translating the English TDF blog, especially the release announcements. And finally, on social media, the Japanese LibreOffice X (Twitter) account had: 2936 followers and 65 posts, while on Facebook there were: 624 followers and 23 posts. The Japanese community has created a Bluesky account but has not yet started using it fully.

Norwegian – Nynorsk

The Nyorsk project is led by one translator (Kolbjørn Stuestøl) who has maintained the user interface and Help content translations for LibreOffice at 100%.

Portuguese (Brazil)

One of the community’s key achievements was the publication of the Guia do Writer 7.6, a fully revised Portuguese translation of the Writer Guide 7.6, initially generated through machine translation and then carefully edited for linguistic accuracy and style. To streamline future translation efforts, the community launched a GitHub project utilizing the OmegaT computer-assisted translation tool, which integrates machine translation to reduce rework and improve quality control.

The local team — Tim Brennan, Tulio Macedo, and Olivier Hallot — successfully completed the full translation of both the user interface and Help content into Brazilian Portuguese. Rafael Lima contributed significantly by enhancing the Operations Research tools, commonly known as “Solver,” making them fully functional.

Weekly community meetings were held every Wednesday at 21:00 local time, providing a space to discuss all aspects of the LibreOffice environment and stay updated on developments from TDF.

The community also revamped the announcements for LibreOffice versions 24.2 and 24.8 with multimedia content tailored for Brazilian social media platforms, greatly expanding their reach — an effort led by Eliane Domingos.

Support and engagement remained strong across multiple channels, including active participation in the Brazilian Portuguese section of the Ask LibreOffice forum, two dedicated Telegram groups, Facebook and Instagram communities, and the ongoing translation of wiki pages, with notable contributions from Diego.

Spanish

Spanish speakers worked on updating their translation of the LibreOffice Base tutorial book (by Mariano Casanova), reaching 80% translation status. 31 articles were published on the Spanish blog, and community members worked on updating the LibreOffice UI translation (99%) and Help content (around 80%). They also published various guidebooks: Draw Guide 7.6 (in ODT, PDF and HTML formats); Calc Guide 7.5 (in ODT, PDF and HTML formats); and the Math Guide 7.3 (in HTML format).

Tagalog

The LibreOffice Tagalog localization project was relaunched in April 2024 after it was discovered that a previous effort had been abandoned years earlier. Motivated by the opportunity to complete the project for the benefit of both the global and local community, a new initiative was launched with the goal of finishing the translation within a year.

Working closely with the LibreOffice localisation support community, the project followed a consistent schedule of weekly and monthly progress updates. A key focus was integrating and automating translations using three different AI language tools, which included implementing verification processes, suggestions, and comments to ensure quality.

Technical workflows were developed to compile developer edition translations on a bi-weekly basis using Linux Mint, with results verified and shared through best practices posts on a US-based technology blog. The project also drew on the support of Filipino relatives to better understand and incorporate the nuances of various Filipino dialects, enhancing translation accuracy and cultural relevance.

The translation work was completed ahead of schedule in January 2025 – four months earlier than planned. Fine-tuning continued with the help of the l10n support team to correct inaccuracies, particularly in the LibreOffice menus. (The screenshot below shows TDF’s Weblate instance being used to translate LibreOffice into Tagalog.)

In a further step toward community impact, the project began outreach to local contacts in Manila to share tools and methods used in the localization process, aiming to support similar efforts in K–12 education and non-profit business software across the Philippines.

Thank you to everyone

These are just some of the native language projects in the LibreOffice community, who provided summaries for the Annual Report. But there are many more – so we at The Document Foundation would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who in the native language communities. Your work makes LibreOffice accessible to hundreds of millions of people around the world, and your passion is wonderful. Thank you so much!