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Tender to finish transition of LibreOffice to ODF 1.3 (ODF 1.3 delta) (#202010-01)

The Document Foundation (TDF) is the charitable entity behind the world’s leading free/libre open source (FLOSS) office suite LibreOffice.

We are looking for an individual or company to finish transition of LibreOffice to ODF 1.3 (ODF 1.3 delta).

This tender builds on the previous ODF 1.3 tender and aims to implement additional features.

The work has to be developed on LibreOffice master, so that it will be released in the next major version.

The following required features (section A) need to be implemented:

  • chart:data-label-series. Missing feature. It is needed for import from Excel.
    • Relevant bugs in TDF’s Bugzilla: #94235, #133176
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-2117
  • chart:regression-moving-type. Implementation of types “center” and “average-abscissa” is missing. It is needed for interoperability with Gnumeric.
    • For this feature, there is existing code that can be extended.
    • Relevant bug in TDF’s Bugzilla: #133423
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3959
  • <text:index-entry-link-start> and <text:index-entry-link-end> in user-index. The link marks exist, but the function itself is not implemented.
    • For this feature, there is existing code that can be extended.
    • Relevant bug in TDF’s Bugzilla: #121842
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3941

The following are desirable features (section B):

  • draw:fill for background of pages. Attribute draw:background-size specifies whether a background fill covers the entire page or only the content area of the page. It belongs to element <style:drawing-page-properties>. ODF 1.3 has extended its use to all kind of pages. Some related bug reports have been set to “fixed”, but the problem is not completely solved, details in the bug report.
    • The respective attribute seems to get written by LibreOffice already. All Writer documents are now the entire page.
    • Relevant bug in TDF’s Bugzilla: #134734
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3937
  • draw:z-index more precise with increase from back to front. Problem needs to be solved too for cases when converting from docx to odt.
    • Relevant bug in TDF’s Bugzilla: #133487
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-2122

The following features are nice to have (section C):

  • Wrong icon of master document template in Windows Explorer
    • Relevant bug in TDF’s Bugzilla: #133285
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-2580
  • pivot table based on named range with local scope
    • The previous implementation didn’t work out. This is a rather complex task.
    • Relevant bug in TDF’s Bugzilla: #37268
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3665

The following features are purely optional (section D):

  • Adapt function wizard to the fact, that the second parameter of DCOUNT and DCOUNTA may be empty (i.e. optional)
    • This can be qualified as an “EasyHack”.
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3906
  • chart:coordinate-region. There is no help about this topic. There exists no option to not use this kind of position and size reference.
    • That feature was handled differently until OpenOffice.org 3.0, where the coordinates included the description, now they are without, i.e. the reference changed.
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3928
  • fo:min-height as attribute of draw:text-box. LibreOffice does not use that attribute and ignores it on file open. Missing feature.
    • That element seems to be written by Word, but likely not yet by LibreOffice.
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3735

The following feature is purely optional, and not trivial from a UX point of view (section E):

  • svg:stroke-linecap at object style vs draw:style in element. Implementation of draw:style is incomplete. Especially there is no UI to define a line style with round dashes.
    • Relevant bugs in TDF’s Bugzilla: #133499 (Implementation has error), #127509, #127348, #127266, #123349, #53276, #127207
    • OASIS reference: OFFICE-3742

Required skills

  • Extensive knowledge of C++
  • Experience working on the LibreOffice source code
  • Knowledge of the OpenDocument Format standard, particularly in version 1.3.

Other skills

  • English (conversationally fluent in order to coordinate and plan with members of TDF)

We use free, libre and open source (FLOSS) software for development wherever possible, and the resulting work must be licensed under the Mozilla Public License v2.0.

TDF welcomes applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.

Bidders will get a preference for including a partner or independent developer who has not been involved in a successful tender before.

As always, TDF will give some preference to individuals who have previously shown a commitment to TDF, including but not limited to certified developers and/or members of TDF. Not being a member, or never having contributed before, does not exclude any applicants from consideration.

The task offered is a project-based one-off, with no plans to a mid- or long-term contractual relationship. It is offered on a freelance, project basis. Individuals and companies applying can be located anywhere in the world.

When budgeting, we anticipated that this project (sections A-E) to take in the region of 32 days of work.

TDF is looking forward to receiving your applications for one or more of the aforementioned tasks, your financial expectations and the earliest date of your availability, via e-mail to a committee at tender20201001@documentfoundation.org no later than November 10, 2020.

Applicants who have not received feedback by December 8, 2020 should consider that their application, after careful review, was not accepted.

Community Member Monday: Marcin Popko

Today we’re talking to Marcin Popko, who is helping to grow the LibreOffice community in Poland…

Hey Marcin! Tell us a bit about yourself…

Hello! I’m from Bialystok, a city in north-east Poland. I work as an electromagnetic compatibility tester – it’s a seriously crazy and interesting area of electronics development. I’m quite an artist soul; in my free time I dance bachata and sing in a folk band called “Kurpie Zielone”. I also write a blog about dance, emotions and technology here.

What is the free software/Linux/LibreOffice scene like in Poland?

FLOSS (free/libre and open source software) has rather more awareness in geeky and technological domains, than in everyday normal life. LibreOffice is not well know among my friends – some of them are using Microsoft Office, and some of them are even using OpenOffice. So that’s my mission here: inform them 🙂 Companies use LibreOffice when they can’t afford Microsoft Office or when it’s not seriously needed.

You’ve recently been running Polish LibreOffice social media. How did that get started, and how has it developed?

If found a blog post about abandoned native language projects and social media sites, wrote an e-mail to the mailing list, and there I started working with Mike Saunders from The Document Foundation.

We couldn’t reach the the existing administrator of the old Polish LibreOffice fanpage, so we decided to create a new one. Then I also added a Twitter account. Step-by-step, I did surveys about our community, and I wrote articles on Polish technology sites about the current LibreOffice situation, like this one.

Then we reached 150 fans on Facebook, and I ran a sticker giveaway – thanks to Mike and TDF I can pass these stickers on to the community. We’ve also prepared a new official Polish LibreOffice site (the old one has corrupted download links).

Any tips for other people who want to start LibreOffice/FOSS social media in other countries/languages?

If you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to ask anyone from the LibreOffice community. People are helpful there and they redirect you to appropriate place if you get lost.

Many thanks to Marcin for his superb work and help! And for everyone reading this who wants to start (or expand) social media in more languages, get in touch and we’ll assist you along the way. You can gain valuable experience running social media, and of course it helps to spread the word about LibreOffice too!

Open Letter to Apache OpenOffice

Today marks 20 years since the source code to OpenOffice was released. And today we say: LibreOffice is the future of OpenOffice. Let’s all get behind it!

It’s great to have a rich and diverse set of free and open source software projects. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have benefited from the choice and customisation that they bring. But sometimes, users can lose out when they’re not aware of newer alternatives, or when one brand overshadows another.

OpenOffice(.org) – the “father project” of LibreOffice – was a great office suite, and changed the world. It has a fascinating history, but since 2014, Apache OpenOffice (its current home) hasn’t had a single major release. That’s right – no significant new features or major updates have arrived in over six years. Very few minor releases have been made, and there have been issues with timely security updates too.

In recent years, almost all development activity has taken place in LibreOffice, with 13 major releases and 87 minor releases. In 2019, LibreOffice had over 15,000 code commits, while OpenOffice had only 595. LibreOffice has a flourishing community, yearly conferences, professional support options, development and migration certification, and a robust commercial ecosystem.

In addition, LibreOffice has integrated many features essential for end users in 2020:

  • Export in Microsoft Office OOXML formats (.docx, .xlsx etc.)
  • ODF, OOXML and PDF signing for improved security
  • Major performance improvements in Calc, the spreadsheet
  • A fresh new NotebookBar user interface
  • …and a lot more

But still, many users don’t know that LibreOffice exists. The OpenOffice brand is still so strong, even though the software hasn’t had a significant release for over six years, and is barely being developed or supported.

If Apache OpenOffice still wants to maintain its old 4.1 branch from 2014, sure, that’s important for legacy users. But the most responsible thing to do in 2020 is: help new users. Make them aware that there’s a much more modern, up-to-date, professionally supported suite, based on OpenOffice, with many extra features that people need.

We appeal to Apache OpenOffice to do the right thing. Our goal should be to get powerful, up-to-date and well-maintained productivity tools into the hands of as many people as possible. Let’s work together on that!

Signed,
The Board of Directors at The Document Foundation

Update: Discussion on Reddit and LWN

LibreOffice Impress Template Contest by the Indonesian Community

Ahmad Haris writes:

Last month, LibreOffice Indonesia held an Impress Template Contest and today we announced the results. There are several items for prizes, such as ARM Mini PC and shoes, sponsored by FANS Shoes Factory.

The main goal of this contest is to get more people active in the community, design good Impress templates, and if possible, change the old default templates with the new ones. Most of the participants are from the younger generation (since in our group, only fewer than than 10 members from 739 are older than me).

Thanks to Haris and the whole Indonesian community for their great work! The templates are available on the website here.

Announcement of LibreOffice 7.0.2

Berlin, October 8, 2020 – LibreOffice 7.0.2, the second minor release of the LibreOffice 7.0 family, targeted at technology enthusiasts and power users, is now available for download from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. LibreOffice 7.0.2 includes over 130 bug fixes and improvements to document compatibility.

The most significant new features of the LibreOffice 7.0 family are: support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.3; Skia graphics engine and Vulkan GPU-based acceleration for better performance; and carefully improved compatibility with DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files.

LibreOffice offers the highest level of compatibility in the office suite arena, starting from native support for the OpenDocument Format (ODF) – with better security and interoperability features – to wide support for proprietary formats.

LibreOffice 7.0.2 represents the bleeding edge in term of features for open source office suites. Users wanting the robustness of a more mature version optimized for enterprise class deployments can still download LibreOffice 6.4.6.

For enterprise class deployments, TDF strongly recommends sourcing LibreOffice from one of the ecosystem partners, to get long-term supported releases, dedicated assistance, custom new features and other benefits, including SLAs (Service Level Agreements): https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

Support for migrations and training should be sourced from certified professionals who provide value-added services which extend the reach of the community to the corporate world. Also, the work done by ecosystem partners flows back into the LibreOffice project, and this represents an advantage for everyone.

LibreOffice – thanks to its mature codebase, rich feature set, support for open standards, excellent compatibility and long-term support options – represents the ideal solution for businesses that want to regain or keep control of their data and free themselves from vendor lock-in.

LibreOffice individual users are supported by a global community of volunteers: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/community-support/. On the website and the wiki there are guides, manuals, tutorials and HowTos. Donations help us to make all of these resources available.

LibreOffice users are invited to join the community at https://ask.libreoffice.org, where they can get and provide user-to-user support. People willing to contribute their time and professional skills to the project can visit the dedicated website at https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can provide financial support to The Document Foundation with a donation via PayPal, credit card or other tools at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

Availability of LibreOffice

LibreOffice 7.0.2 and 6.4.6 are immediately available from the following link: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Minimum requirements are specified on the download page. LibreOffice Online source code is available as Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/libreoffice/online/.

LibreOffice 7.0.2’s change log pages are available on TDF’s wiki: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.0.2/RC1 (changed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.0.2/RC2 (changed in RC2).

All versions of LibreOffice are built with document conversion libraries from the Document Liberation Project: https://www.documentliberation.org.

Get cool merchandise for upcoming openSUSE + LibreOffice Conference

The joint openSUSE + LibreOffice Virtual Conference 2020 will take place from October 15 – 17. And there’s lots going on! We’ll have talks, presentations, keynotes, tutorials and much more – see the full schedule for all the details.

And there’s more: we’ve got merchandise too! Get prepared for the conference with a T-shirt, hoodie, bag or baseball cap, and help to support The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference!

Press Releases

Announcement of LibreOffice 25.8.4

Berlin, 18 December 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.4, the fourth minor update to the free office suite developed by volunteers for…

Open Document Format

Relaunching ODF Advocacy as ODF News

I decided to start the current campaign, with one blog post per week focusing on the different aspects of Open…