KOffice 1.3 Beta1 Announcement

April 23, 2003 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KOffice 1.3beta1, the first preview release for KOffice 1.3, scheduled for release this September. KOffice is an integrated office suite for KDE which utilizes free and open standards for its document formats, component communication and component embedding. This release is principally a public testing and developer solicitation release (more help is welcome!).

This release, which is available in 40 languages, includes a frame-based, full-featured word processor (KWord); a presentation application (KPresenter); a spreadsheet application (KSpread); a flowchart application (Kivio); business quality reporting software (Kugar); an integrated database client (alpha) (Kexi); and a vector-drawing application (alpha) (Karbon14). Additionally, KOffice includes robust embeddable charts (KChart) and formulas (KFormula) as well as a built-in thesaurus (KThesaurus) and numerous import and export filters.

KOffice 1.3beta1 complements the release of KDE 3.1.1 last month. KDE is a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes, and together with KOffice constitutes the only Open Source project to provide a complete desktop and productivity environment for Linux/UNIX.

KOffice and all its components (including KDE) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE http or ftp mirrors.

Principal Improvements

The principal improvements over KOffice 1.2 are:

• Integrated Database Environment. A new database frontend, Kexi, has joined the KOffice suite. It can be used with various database backends, though currently only MySQL is recommended and CQL++ has some support. Kexi integrates smoothly into both KOffice and KDE. For example, it supports report generation using the Kugar component, and can be used as a data provider for mail merges in KWord. Kexi also provides a scripting engine based on Qt's QSA as well as user-defined forms for data input and presentation.
• Hyphenation. KWord and KPresenter now support automatic hyphenation.

KWord (Word Processor).

• a new MS Word import filter;
• support for pictures, tables and footnotes in the RTF export filter (which has been re-written);
• support for pictures and footnotes in the LaTeX export filter;
• a new MS Write export filter and a re-written MS Write import filter;
• support for bookmarks;
• text sorting;
• new character attributes, such as word-by-word underlining and relative font sizes; and
• improved spell checking (selection only; ignore words; etc.).

KPresenter (Presentation Tool).

• an improved slide transition dialog, featuring a preview of the slide effect;
• drawing images with alpha channels;
• customizable printing of slide notes; and
• improved HTML export as well as usability enhancements to the HTML export wizard.

KSpread (Spreadsheet).

• over 100 new formulas (date/time, math, statistical, financial and more);
• an OpenCalc import and export filter;
• a new LaTeX export filter;
• enhancements to the CSV import and export options;
• new date and time formats;
• a subtotal dialog and formula; and
• default cell styles.

Kugar / Kugar Designer (Business Reporting).

• redesigned to better integrate into the KOffice environment;
• enhanced handling of items in the designer (cut / copy / paste; undo / redo; manual z-ordering; etc.);
• support for printing reports from the command line / scripts; and
• a DCOP interface.

A more complete list of changes is available at the KOffice web site.

Installing KOffice 1.3beta1 Binary Packages

Binary Packages. Some Linux/UNIX OS vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KOffice 1.3 beta1 for some versions of their distribution, and in other cases community volunteers have done so. Some of these binary packages are available for free download from KDE's http or ftp mirrors. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available over the coming weeks.

Please note that the KDE Project makes these packages available from the KDE web site as a convenience to KDE users. The KDE Project is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties - typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution - using tools, compilers, library versions and quality assurance procedures over which KDE exercises no control. If you cannot find a binary package for your OS, or you are displeased with the quality of binary packages available for your system, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy and/or contact your OS vendor.

Library Requirements / Options. The library requirements for a particular binary package vary with the system on which the package was compiled. Please bear in mind that some binary packages may require a newer version of Qt and other libraries than was shipped with the system (e.g., LinuxDistro X.Y may have shipped with Qt-3.0.0 but the packages below may require Qt-3.0.3). For general library requirements for KDE, please see the text at Source Code - Library Requirements below.

Package Locations. At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

• SuSE Linux
• Slackware Linux

Please check the servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other distributions. More binary packages will become available over the coming days and weeks.

Compiling KOffice 1.3beta1

Library Requirements. KOffice 1.3beta1 requires the following libraries:

• kdelibs 3.1, which can be downloaded following the instructions at the KDE website (for more information on these kdelibs releases, please see the KDE 3.1.1 press release);
• Qt-3.1, which is available in source code from Trolltech as qt-x11-free-3.1.0.tar.gz (qt-x11-free-3.1.2.tar.gz is recommended); and
• for reading help pages and other KOffice documentation, libxml2 >= 2.4.9 and libxslt >= 1.0.7.

Compiler Requirements. Please note that some components of KOffice 1.3beta1 (such as the Quattro Pro import filter and KChart) will not compile with older versions of gcc/egcs, such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2. At a minimum gcc-2.95-* is required.

Source Code. The complete source code for KOffice 1.3beta1 is available for free download via one of the KDE http or ftp mirrors.

Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KOffice, please consult the KOffice installation instructions. For problems with SRPMs, please contact the person listed in the applicable .spec file.

Corporate KOffice Sponsors

Besides the valuable and excellent efforts by the KOffice developers themselves, significant support for KOffice development has been provided by MandrakeSoft (which sponsors KOffice developer Laurent Montel), theKompany.com (which has contributed Kivio and Kugar to KOffice) Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB (which partially sponsors KOffice developer David Faure and has contributed KChart to KOffice) and SuSE AG which employs Lukáš Tinkl, the current KOffice release manager. In addition, the members of the KDE League, as well as individual sponsors (donate), provide significant support for KDE and KOffice. Thanks!

About KOffice/KDE

KOffice is part of the KDE Project. KDE is an independent project of hundreds of developers, translators, artists and professionals worldwide collaborating over the Internet to create and freely distribute a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop and office environment employing a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and offering an outstanding development platform. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop, a full, component-based office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking and administration tools and utilities, and an efficient, intuitive development environment featuring the excellent IDE KDevelop. KDE is working proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

Please visit the KDE family of web sites for the KDE FAQ, screenshots, KOffice information and developer information. Much more information about KDE is available from KDE's family of web sites.

Release Coordinator: Thanks to Lukáš Tinkl for his excellent services as release coordinator.

Press Release: Written by Andreas Pour for the KDE League, with the invaluable assistance of numerous gifted volunteers from the KDE Project.

Trademarks Notices. KDE, K Desktop Environment and KOffice are trademarks of KDE e.V. Incorporated. Adobe Illustrator and PostScript are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems dBASE is a registered trademark of dBASE Inc. Corel, Quattro Pro and WordPerfect are registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.