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The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 5.3.1

Berlin, March 16, 2017 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces the availability of LibreOffice 5.3.1, the first minor release of the LibreOffice 5.3 family released in early February, with 100 bugs or regressions fixed against the previous version.

LibreOffice 5.3.1 is targeted at technology enthusiasts, early adopters and power users, as it is focused on bleeding edge features. For all other users and enterprise deployments, TDF suggests the just released LibreOffice 5.2.6, with the backing of professional support by certified professionals (a list is available at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

People interested in technical details about the release can access the change log here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.3.1/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.3.1/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

Download LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.3.1 is immediately available for download from the following link: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at http://donate.libreoffice.org.

Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board (http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice or consultancy services for migrations and trainings, based on best practices distilled by The Document Foundation.

Meet the Brazilian LibreOffice 5.3 team

We can assure readers of this blog that LibreOffice 5.3 in Brazilian Portuguese did not simply sprout from the last tropical rainfall. It is the product of a team of volunteers working to make the best free office suite in Portuguese a reality.

Following the experience gained by translating the Getting Started with LibreOffice 5.0 guide, the team began to translate the Help Contents of LibreOffice 5.3 in December 2016. This task involved translating 18,000 words on our Pootle server in two months, due to all the improvements, updates and corrections that went in the software since version 5.2. The work was split into smaller tasks under the supervision of Olivier Hallot, translator leader since 2007 (during the OpenOffice.org days). The LibreOffice 5.3 user interface translation was handled by Olivier in that period.

So, the Brazilian community and the Brazilian users say thanks to Chrystina Pelizer, Túlio Macedo, Raul Pacheco da Silva and Douglas Vigliazi for the new LibreOffice 5.3 and Help system in Brazilian Portuguese.

Chrystina Pelizer “It was like a challenge for me: to actively take part in a collaborative, international software project. Learning and using the tools and techniques that volunteers use to translate the software made me feel more important and met my expectations, because they greatly reduce the effort and we get results very quickly. Also, I am very happy to be part of a project team.” Chrystina Pelizer (Florianópolis – SC)
Raul Pacheco da Silva “I always liked to be part of the LibreOffice community when my professional activities let me do so. Specifically, I like to be part of the translation projects of the software and the documentation. I use all the resources I can to fulfil my duties within the team and I don’t like to miss our weekly team call.” – Raul Pacheco da Silva (Suzano – SP)
Douglas Vigliazi “I took advantage of the fact that my professional duties are related to LibreOffice, and for me, taking part in the LibreOffice project is an opportunity to develop my professional skills, including at an international level. The translation project is one of the opportunities to contribute to the community.” – Douglas Vigliazi (Santos – SP)
Túlio Macedo “I already had translation experience with the Fedora project in Brazilian Portuguese, and that helped me a lot with using the LibreOffice toolset. The translation helped me to get to know LibreOffice in depth, in order to understand the context of the translation I was doing. I also liked very much being part of a team.” – Túlio Macedo (Brasília – DF)
Olivier Hallot “After years of personal commitment to keeping the Brazilian LibreOffice fully translated and with quality, it was a great satisfaction to assemble a team that will be able to keep the project alive by themselves, ensuring part of the translation effort of this wonderful software.” – Olivier Hallot (Rio de Janeiro – RJ)

A big hooray for the team! Click here to discover Native Language Projects in your area

LibreOffice and Google Summer of Code 2017 – get involved!

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a yearly programme in which Google funds university students to work on free and open source software projects. LibreOffice has benefited from this – last year 11 students were accepted into GSoC to do various programming jobs, helping to improve the software.

GSoC students are assisted by experienced “mentors” in the LibreOffice community, as 2016 student Jaskaran Veer Singh explains:

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For 2017, LibreOffice is once again an organisation in the GSoC programme, so if you’re a university student and want to get experience working on a well-known free software project, while also being paid for your efforts, get involved! But don’t delay: the application period runs from March 20 to April 3, so it’s not far off.

To get started, check out some ideas for projects you can work on. Each project describes what’s involved, the skills required, and the mentor you can contact to get help. If you see something you’d like to work on, contact the mentor as soon as possible! Then you can discuss how to proceed.

After that, read the general GSoC 2017 page on our wiki, which provides more information on the GSoC programme and tells you how to apply. You will have to complete an Easy Hack (simple programming challenge) to be accepted, which demonstrates that you’re comfortable modifying the LibreOffice source code, building it, and submitting a patch.

So, check out the ideas, talk to the mentors, and good luck with your projects!

Job Search for a Development Mentor

The Document Foundation (TDF), the charitable entity behind the world’s leading free office suite LibreOffice, seeks an individual – or individuals part (or full) time – to be:

a Development Mentor

to start work as soon as possible. The role requires the following:

  • Self-starting, remote working experience
  • Experience contributing to FLOSS communities
  • C++ or LibreOffice coding experience
  • Excellent communication skills

The role is a for a minimum of 10 hours per week, and includes amongst other items:

Supporting existing mentors in the LibreOffice community including:

  • Building relationships between existing mentors and new contributors
  • Identifying and onboarding new contributors
    1. Affirming and encouraging their contribution
    2. Building initial relationships with them
    3. Encouraging them to join IRC to meet the team
    4. Introducing them to domain experts for deeper learning
  • Helping to educate new contributors by
    1. Positively reviewing their code contributions
    2. Introducing them to our tooling & culture
  • Attracting new contributors by promoting the project

Previous experience with such tasks is highly welcome, so is using free software. Speaking and writing English reasonably well is a mandatory requirement.

The work time during the day is flexible, apart from some fixed times when availability is required (e.g. during meetings, which usually take place at 14:00 or 15:00 UTC once per week).

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

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, or never having contributed before, does not exclude any applicants from consideration.

TDF is looking forward to receiving your applications, including curriculum vitae, your financial expectations, and the earliest date of your availability, via e-mail to Florian Effenberger at floeff@documentfoundation.org no later than April 11, 2017. You can encrypt your message via PGP/GnuPG.

If you haven’t received feedback by May 16, 2017, your application could not be considered.

Announcement of LibreOffice 5.2.6

Berlin, March 9, 2017 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 5.2.6, the sixth minor release of the LibreOffice 5.2 family, targeted to enterprises and individual users in production environments.

TDF suggests to deploy LibreOffice in large organisations, public administrations and enterprises with the backing of professional support by certified people (a list is available at:
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

People interested in technical details about the release can access the change log here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.6/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.6/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

Download LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.2.6 is immediately available for download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at http://donate.libreoffice.org.

Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board (http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice or consultancy services for migrations and training, based on best practices distilled by The Document Foundation.

International Women’s Day: #BeBoldForChange

March 8 is the International Women’s Day. The theme for 2017 is #BeBoldForChange.

Amongst the members of The Document Foundation there are only 19 women (10% of the total number): Belinda Dibra (Albania), Christina Roßmanith (Germany), Chrystina Pelizer (Brasil), Eliane Domingos de Sousa (Brasil), Ellen Pape (Germany), Emma Pietrafesa (Italy), Gülşah Köse (Turkey), Irmhild Rogalla (Germany), Jean Hollis Weber (Australia), Jona Azizaj (Albania), Katarina Behrens (Czech Republic,), Marina Latini (Italy), Priyanka Gaikwad (India), Regina Henschel (Germany), Rosemary Sebastian (India), Sigrid Carrera (Germany), Sonia Montegiove (Italy), Sophie Gautier (France) and Vinaya Mandke (India).

Marina Latini is the current ChairWoman of the Board of Directors, while Katharina Behrens is a member of the Membership Committee.

Women active in the LibreOffice and Document Liberation communities are definitely more than 19. They should apply for membership, not only to be recognized for their contributions but also to elect and be elected to the Board of Directors and the Membership Committee. They can find the application form on the website: http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/members/application/.

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