Advent Resource #4: ODF Guidance by UK Cabinet Office (2)

Information on the ODF standard and how to move your organization to ODF-compliant document solutions The document has been forked in a textual format (Pandoc’s Markdown) by Paolo Dongilli, to keep track of versions and changes, correct typos, add new content and easily fork it for localization purposes. It is available on GitHub: https://github.com/paolodongilli/ODF-Guidance. This guidance gives general information on the standard, as well as more detailed information for chief technology officers and government procurement officers. Table of Contents: Introduction to Open Document Format (ODF) Procure ODF solutions Base ODF solutions on user needs Validators and compliance testing Platforms and devices Accessibility Privacy and security Avoid macros in documents Integrate ODF with enterprise tools Extensions, plugins and custom solutions Collaborate on documents Change tracking in ODF Embed fonts in ODF documents Corporate styles and templates ODF spreadsheets and formulas Support and training Overview of productivity software Costs and benefits of ODF

LibreOffice 5.2 “fresh” released, for Windows, Mac OS and GNU/Linux

LibreOffice 5.1.5 “still” announced, for enterprise class deployments Berlin, August 3, 2016 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 5.2, a feature-rich major release of the best free office suite ever created – targeted to early adopters and power users – with several user interface improvements and enterprise grade features. At the same time, LibreOffice 5.1.5 has been released, for enterprise class deployments and more conservative office suite users LibreOffice 5.2 provides document classification according to the TSCP standard, and a set of improved forecasting functions in Calc. In addition, multiple signature descriptions are now supported, along with import and export of signatures from OOXML files. Interoperability features have also been improved, with better Writer import filters for DOCX and RTF files, and the added support for Word for DOS legacy documents. Additional type argument values for interoperability with other spreadsheets, along with wildcard support in formula expressions for compatibility with XLS/XLSX and ODF 1.2, have also been added. In term of user experience, a single toolbar mode has been added to Writer and Calc to help users really focus on content, and some icons have been added to the default toolbars to make several frequently used functions – such as

The Month of LibreOffice starts here!

Every contribution to the LibreOffice project – whether it’s a large code patch or just a small bug report – makes the software better for everyone. Over the last few years we’ve had many thousands of contributions from all around the world, and in May 2016 we really want to highlight all the effort goes in to LibreOffice. So we’re running a new campaign to credit everyone who contributes to the project! Barnstars If you’re involved with LibreOffice development, design, documentation, translation or QA, and want to show your appreciation for someone’s efforts, award them a barnstar on our special wiki page. This is a bronze, silver or gold icon that shows your thanks for that person’s help or contribution, like so: To award a barnstar, all you have to do is visit the wiki, log in, and copy and paste the template. Fill in the details for the person you want to credit and show your appreciation! Badges Meanwhile, LibreOffice contributors can earn badges throughout May by doing various jobs. These include: confirming a bug report, having a code patch committed to the LibreOffice source tree, translating a string in the interface, helping users, and more. They look like

Tender to design and implement a profile safe mode for LibreOffice (#201604-01)

The Document Foundation (TDF), the charitable entity behind the world’s leading free office suite LibreOffice, seeks for companies or individuals to design and implement a profile safe mode for LibreOffice to start work as soon as possible. For bug reports and QA issues, users are from time to time required to use a fresh user profile, i.e. without settings different from the built-in defaults, with no document restore enabled and with all extensions disabled. Until now, the easiest route to achieve this is to delete or rename the existing user profile. A feature should be implemented that enables the user to start LibreOffice in a temporary safe mode as outlined above, without having to manually delete their profile, and with the ability to return to the regular state afterwards. In addition, the user should be able to choose which elements are to be put in safe mode, e.g. configuration, extension, documents, templates, and also be presented with an option to actually reset their profile permanently. Besides an UI item from where the functionality can be triggered, the safe mode dialog should also pop up after a program crash to help the user identify and report the problem. The scope of

Designing with LibreOffice

Bruce Byfield, a journalist who specializes in writing about free and open source software, has recently released Designing with LibreOffice, a book about our beloved free office suite, which is not the usual death march through the menu and standard tasks. Instead, the book takes two fresh approaches to the world’s most popular free office suite. First, it explains the importance of using styles and templates in order to use LibreOffice with the most convenience and the least effort. Second, it explains the basics of modern design and how to apply them in LibreOffice, expanding on the open secret that LibreOffice is as much a desktop publishing application as an office suite. The result of these approaches is a unique overview of using LibreOffice. If you are a new user, the book will help you get up to speed with LibreOffice. If you have already used LibreOffice, then this book will leave you with a clearer overview of the program and its capabilities. Designing with LibreOffice has been published by Friends of OpenDocument under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Readers do not need to ask for permission to copy, share, or re-use the contents of Designing with LibreOffice. However, the

TDF website has a brand new look

Wednesday, February 10, we have not limited our activity to the launch of LibreOffice 5.1, but we have also updated the look of the 5 years old TDF website – our first web property, and our first website – by using the same template of the LibreOffice website. We have also reorganized contents, to simplify the navigation. We now have a menu bar with the following items: Foundation (Statutes, Financials and Affiliations), Governance (Foundation Bodies and History), Community, Certification, Get Help (Professional Support) and Contacts. With the overhaul of the TDF website, we have now renovated all project’s web properties. TDF, LibreOffice and Document Liberation websites are complemented by this, which is supposed to become the place where people go for the last news.