KOffice 1.5 Beta1 Announcement

January 31, 2006 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KOffice 1.5-beta1, the first preview release for KOffice 1.5, scheduled for release this March.

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. Help is welcome!

This release includes:

• a frame-based, full-featured word processor (KWord);
• a spreadsheet application (KSpread);
• a presentation application (KPresenter);
• a flowchart application (Kivio);
• an integrated database application (Kexi);
• a new project management application (KPlato).
• a pixel based image editing and paint application (Krita);
• a vector-drawing application (Karbon14).

Additionally, KOffice includes robust embeddable objects:

• business quality reporting software (Kugar)
• full-featured charting engine (KChart)
• mathematical formula handling (KFormula)

as well as a built-in thesaurus (KThesaurus) and support for many different file formats.

KOffice 1.5-beta1 complements the release of KDE 3.5.1 today. KDE is a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes, and together with KOffice constitutes the only Free Software 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 and ftp mirrors.

Principal Improvements

The principal improvements over KOffice 1.4 are:

• OASIS OpenDocument as the Default File Format:

  KOffice now uses OASIS OpenDocument as the default file format for the productivity applications KWord, KSpread, and KPresenter. In the final 1.5 release, the charting application KChart will also use OpenDocument as the default format.

  The spreading of the OpenDocument file format is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the whole IT industry right now. It will give users world-wide the possibility to control their own documents and also ensure that all documents will always be possible to read at any time in the future.

  KOffice was the first office suite that announced support for OpenDocument and now the second to announce it as the default file format after OpenOffice.org. This makes KOffice a member of a very select group and will lead to new deployment opportunities. Great care has been taken to ensure interoperability with other office software that also use OpenDocument.

• Enhanced Accessibility for Users with Disabilities:

  The decision of the Commonwealth of Massachussetts to base its future document format on open standards started a great debate with many different people and organization taking part. The start of it was Microsofts assertion that programs using the OpenDocument file format could not be used by people with disabilities.

  The direct outcome of this debate was that OpenOffice.org, KOffice and vendors of other office software started to work hard on rectifying this problem. This version of KOffice has support for enhanced accessibility through the means of mouseless operation and text-to-speech functionality.

  It is therefore our hope that KOffice will be possible to use even for users with disabilities, and we are very interested in feedback for this.

• Start of a Unified Scripting Approach:

  This version of KOffice features a start of a unified scripting solution called Kross. Kross provides cross-language support for scripting (thus its name) and at present supports Python and Ruby.

  Kross is easy to include into programs previously lacking scripting abilities, and is included in this version as a technology preview. So far, only Krita and Kexi are enhanced with the Kross engine. We would also like to point out that the API might change in the future and expect Kross to be fully integrated for KOffice version 2.0.

• First Major Release of Kexi (1.0):

  KOffice 1.5 contains the much expected final 1.0 version of Kexi - data management application that is the KOffice counterpart to MS Access or FileMaker. It is designed from the ground up as a standard KDE database application.

  Using Kexi, a new database project can be set up in less than one minute as a single efficient file, without a need for administering servers. When needed, MySQL server can be used for storage or existing project can be imported from MySQL server of MS Access file. The final version focuses on the data exchangeability and server support.

• New Project Management and Planning Application: KPlato:

  KOffice 1.5 is the first official release to include KPlato. KPlato is a project management application that lets the user control project schedules and resource use. It is included in KOffice 1.5 as a technology preview and full functionality is expected for version 2.0.

  With this release, KPlato already offers various charts (gantt, pert), scheduling capabilities, calendars, resources, tasks and subtasks, detecting critical paths and resources as well as generating a work breakdown structure. KPlato can also be embedded into other KOffice applications.

  The KPlato team is also involved in the OPMEF project (Open Project Management Exchange Format) which aims at creating a standard file format for project management applications. People from other projects such as TaskJuggler and various individuals are also involved. You're welcome to join, too.

  For a list of features supported by KPlato, see the changelog.

Common (All Applications):

• a new common startup dialog with better usability than the old one from KOffice 1.4 and before.
• a set of common modifiers (shift, meta, ctrl) for scaling, dragging and similar.
• accessibility improvements include enhanced keyboard access (mouseless operation) and Text-to-Speech capabilities. See the handbooks for further details.

KWord (Word Processor):

• OpenDocument is now the default file format.
• new internals that will remove most of the problems with tables from KOffice 1.4.

KSpread (Spreadsheet):

• OpenDocument is now the default file format
• support for non-contiguous selections
• a new faster and better formula engine
• a much improved Microsoft Excel import filter.

NOTE: KSpread received many last minute changes, so please be aware that the 1.5beta 1 version may be unstable.

KPresenter (Presentation Tool):

• OpenDocument is now the default file format
• New PowerPoint import filter
• Export slides as images
• automatic guide lines
• autoscroll
• many, many bugfixes.

Kivio (Flow-charting application):

• Automatic guidelines
• New dockers, shared with Krita and Karbon (now called palettes)
• New object list that can be used to mark objects on the page
• New stencils for ER diagrams

Kexi (Database application):

• Data-aware forms, more widget types and embedded images
• Import data from MS Access projects (packaged separately)
• Much improved GUI for database connectivity (MySQL)
• Much improved Project Import Wizard
• Scripting using Kross in Python and Ruby. (beta). Kross is a cross-language component that makes it easy to add extensive scripting capabilities to KDE applications.
• Simple printouts

Krita (Pixel based graphics editor):

• 8 and 16 bit grayscale, CMYK and RGB colormodels, 16 and 32 bit float RGB colormodels, watercolor colormodel, 16 bit L*a*b colormodel, 32 bit float LMS colormodel. Many colormodels fully support colormanagement using lcms.
• Group, object and adjustment layers (saving adjustment layers is broken in beta 1) and a new layerbox with thumbnails and tooltips
• Scripting using Kross in Python and Ruby.
• Histograms
• Creating and saving of brushes and patterns
• Show image in center of window
• Show a grid
• OpenGL mode that speeds up certain operations a lot.
• New filters, e.g. shadow, round corners, wavelet noise reduction, bumpmap, tiles and sobel filter.
• Color adjustment dialog works with most colormodels

Karbon (Vector based graphics editor):

• OASIS file format support (incomplete)
• new color selectors
• improved selection handling
• improved stability and rendering
• improved SVG compatibility
• Better toolbox

KChart (Graph and chart drawing tool):

• OpenDocument is now the default file format (not working in the beta)
• new chart type: combined bars and lines (not working in the beta)
• support for first row or column as labels
• support for changing area when charting data from KSpread

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

Installing KOffice 1.5-beta Binary Packages

Binary Packages: Some Linux/UNIX OS vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KOffice 1.5 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 and 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.

Innovative Testing Facilities with klik: KOffice developers want to make testing as easy as possible for our users throughout the beta period. Therefore, we offer to you an additional method to testdrive KOffice 1.5.0 beta which doesn't require the replacement of the last stable release on your system by current beta packages.

We teamed up with the klik developer team, who will provide up to date klik packages for all of KOffice. klik packages may be used without installation (they run, similar to Mac OS X "AppDir" bundles, from a self-contained directory tree -- but klik compresses the tree into one single file for easier handling). klik-bundles work on multiple Linux platforms without disturbing the system's native package manager (see also klik User's FAQ). A Wiki holds details about KOffice klik bundles and supported distros.

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-3.3.0 but the packages below may require Qt-3.3.2). 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 9.3 and 10.0
• Kubuntu
• Debian Sarge (these are packages updated to Jan. 31st, and include fixes not in beta1)
• Debian Sid (these are packages updated to Jan. 31st, and include fixes not in beta1)

MS Windows Version: Kexi installation package from OpenOffice Polska is available for MS Windows.

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

Compiling KOffice 1.5-beta1

Library Requirements: KOffice 1.5-beta1 requires the following libraries:

• kdelibs 3.3, 3.4 or 3.5, which can be downloaded following the instructions at the KDE website (for more information on these kdelibs releases, please see the KDE 3.5 press release);
• Qt-3.3, which is available in source code from Trolltech as qt-x11-free-3.3.0.tar.gz (qt-x11-free-3.3.5.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 KOffice 1.5-beta1 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 1.5-beta1 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 Mandriva (which sponsors KOffice developer Laurent Montel), Trolltech (which sponsors KOffice developer David Faure), theKompany.com (which has contributed Kivio and Kugar to KOffice), Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB (which has contributed KChart to KOffice), OpenOffice Polska which employs Kexi developer Jarosław Staniek and sponsored KDElibs for win32 project which enabled porting KOffice applications to MS Windows. In addition, 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.

Press Release: Written by Inge Wallin.

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.

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