LibreOffice 6.0 is due to be released at the end of this month (or in early February), and you can learn about the changes in on the wiki. Closer to the release, we’ll make a short video showing off the new features in action. But as we head towards LibreOffice 6.0, we want to hear from the many communities that have contributed to this version. We start off by talking to Sophie Gautier, who has been working with the localisation community to make the software available in as many languages as possible…

What has the localisation community been doing in preparation for LibreOffice 6.0?

Each time a developer makes a change to the user interface (UI), that means some work for the localisation team, both in terms of the UI itself and the help system. And our UX/Design team has been very busy moving menu entries, designing new dialogs and making new toolbars – so all this work ends up in the hands of the translation team.

Once we have finished the translations of the suite, we have to check that our translations are correct. Sometimes, the localisation process means that you’re translating out of context, with very poor references for where you are in the interface.

Then, there are also press release preparations, new features pages for the website, videos, and all the work done by the marketing team that we have to translate and adapt to our languages, to cover the LibreOffice 6.0 launch.

What are your favourite new features in this release?

I’m not sure I have a preferred one – I’m just always amazed by the work done by the community at each level. I’m very grateful for it, but to name a few: I like the new and easy way to customise the UI, OpenPGP signing of documents, and the work done to modernise the help system.

What tools and services do you use in the localisation community?

Most of the teams use Pootle as an online tool for translations. Some other teams use Pootle as a repository for their files, but also use a computer-assisted translation tool (like OmegaT) to work on the files. Some others don’t use Pootle as a
repository and commit their files directly to Gerrit. We want our teams to be able to use the tools they like the best to translate.

To search for the strings in the source code and get some context (which dialog the string is in, other strings in the dialog, accelerators, etc.) we use OpenGrok which is a simplified web interface for browsing the code.

Finally, how can people get involved with the localisation community?

If a language team already exists, it’s best to contact them directly (the address can be found on our wiki). If none exists, then the best way is to ask on l10n@libreoffice.org for the creation of the language – both in LibreOffice itself, and on Pootle. We will help the newcomers with the first steps in localisation.

Also, Yousuf Philips has written a script that categorises and references the most important strings to translate at the beginning. This shows what is most visible in the interface, and will be of the most help for the users.

Thanks Sophie for that overview – and indeed, a hearty thanks to the whole localisation community for their great help with preparing LibreOffice 6.0. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be talking to other communities in the LibreOffice project, so stay tuned to the blog…

The Month of LibreOffice, November 2017 has finished – and what a great month it has been. There have been contributions all across the project, including source code patches, bug report confirmations, user interface translations and documentation updates. Not to mention user support on Ask LibreOffice, along with LibreOffice promotion on Twitter! Here’s how many stickers have been awarded:

Click the number for the full details. And if you see your name (or username) on that page, claim your sticker for your laptop, PC or other devices! Simply email mike.saunders@documentfoundation.org with your name (or username) from the wiki page, and “Sticker claim” in the subject line, along with your postal address. We’ll send you a sticker in the next couple of weeks – and it’ll look like this:

(Note that your postal address will only be used for posting the sticker to you, and not be stored afterwards or used otherwise.) Enjoy showing off your sticker, and thanks again for your contribution!

Going into detail

So what happened over the month? Let’s go through the sections on the stickers page. The first, code patches, shows source code contributions from community members. It has been great to get fixes, updates and new features from the community – and note that this list doesn’t include people who are paid to work on the code on a daily basis! See here for a full list of recent development activity.

Next up we have bug report confirmations. This is an important job, and our QA community works hard to categorise and check new bug reports as they come in. It’s also a way for anyone to get involved, even if you’re not a developer: just find a new report on our bug tracker, see if it affects you as well (with the latest LibreOffice version), and confirm it if so. This helps our QA team to narrow down the cause of a bug.

Then we had translations of the LibreOffice interface – lots of fantastic work there! One of the goals of LibreOffice is to make the software accessible to everyone, regardless of location or language, so it’s great to see so many contributions here. Next we give credit to people who help other users on Ask LibreOffice, which isn’t always an easy task, but the answers can be very useful for other people in the future.

Finally, we had documentation contributions and people spreading the word on Twitter. A huge thanks once again to everyone who took part, and don’t forget to claim your sticker! We’ll run another Month of LibreOffice next year – but you can get involved at any time. Join our friendly community, help make LibreOffice even better, and we look forward to your contributions!

Yes, we’re into the final week of this Month of LibreOffice, which gives thanks (and stickers) to our great worldwide community for all their hard work! Here’s how many stickers have been awarded so far:

256

Click the number to see if your (user)name is on the list – and if so, you’ll soon be able to get a shiny sticker for your computer kit! Here they are, waiting to be claimed:

But if you’re not yet on the list, you still have time to get involved with LibreOffice, help make the software better for millions of users around the world, and grab a sticker from us as thanks for your work. Plus, you build up experience of working in a friendly and well-known open source project! Read on to see ways you can help…

How to get a sticker

• Help to confirm bugs: 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 5.4.2”. (Make sure you’re using the latest version of LibreOffice.)

• Contribute 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. Once you’ve submitted a patch, if it gets merged we’ll send you a sticker!

• Translate the 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.

• Write documentation: Another way to earn a badge is to help the LibreOffice documentation team. Whether you want to update the online help or add chapters to the handbooks, here’s where to start.

• Answer questions from users: Over on Ask LibreOffice there are many users looking for help with the suite. We’re keeping an eye on that site so if you give someone useful advice, you can claim a shiny sticker.

• Spread the word: Tell everyone about LibreOffice on 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 a sticker. (We have a maximum of 100 stickers for this category, in case the whole internet starts tweeting!)