The KOffice team is happy to release KOffice 2.2.1, the first bugfix release in the 2.2 series. This release contains no new features but a number of bugfixes for most of the components in KOffice 2.2. More details of the 2.2.1 release can be found in the changelog. This version of KOffice is translated to no less than 27 languages.

Many Linux distributions package KOffice 2.2.1. We know that binary packages are ready for at least Kubuntu (10.04 and Maverick, the upcoming 10.10), Fedora F13, and Debian Unstable. If you wish to build KOffice from the sources, you can download them at downloads.kde.org. You can find instructions on how to build them on the KOffice wiki.

The KOffice team is very happy to announce version 2.2.0, half a year after the release of KOffice 2.1. This release brings an unprecedented number of new features and bugfixes as can be seen in the full list of changes. There are two reasons for this very high development rate: People have started to notice KOffice again and the developer community is growing and the fact that Nokia is sponsoring development of KOffice for their office viewer. Here follows a list of the most important changes in this release.

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The KOffice team is happy to announce the first and hopefully only release candidate of the upcoming 2.2 release of KOffice. This is the final prerelease before the final release of version 2.2, so we urge our users to try it out and test it.

As usual, this release offers many improvements and bug fixes, as can be seen in the list of changes. Most of the reported bugs on the so called “release blocker list” have been fixed. The rest will be fixed before the final release. A release blocker is a bug that is either a crash that prevents the user to use the application or a bug that leads to unacceptable data loss. They are marked with a special keyword in the bug database. A regression within the unit test suite can also be regarded as a release blocker.

A more thorough description of what is new in KOffice 2.2 in relation to version 2.1 can be seen in the announcement for version 2.2 beta 1.

Readiness for End Users and External Developers

As also mentioned in the 2.2 beta 1 announcement, the KOffice team had hoped to have time to make the user interface and available feature set ready for end users as well as make the underlying engine ready for external extension developers in time for 2.2. Unfortunately time and limited developer resources didn’t permit to reach both of these goals. The libraries have been reorganized and improved, but the user interface does still not reach the level of quality that the team wants to achieve.

Notable exceptions to this are Krita, that has seen much work on the user interface and Karbon that was already usable before.

Sources and Binary Packages

The source code to KOffice 2.2 RC can be downloaded from download.kde.org. Binary packages of KOffice 2.2 RC will be available and announced separately as soon as the respective distribution provides them.

The KOffice team is happy to announce the second beta of the upcoming 2.2 release of KOffice. This release offers many improvements and bug fixes, as can be seen in the list of changes.

A more thorough description of what is new in KOffice 2.2 in relation to version 2.1 can be seen in the announcement for version 2.2 beta 1.

Readiness for End Users and External Developers

As also mentioned in the 2.2 beta 1 announcement, the KOffice team had hoped to have time to make the user interface and available feature set ready for end users as well as make the underlying engine ready for external extension developers in time for 2.2. Unfortunately time and limited developer resources didn’t permit to reach both of these goals. The libraries have been reorganized and improved, but the user interface does still not reach the level of quality that the team wants to achieve.

Notable exceptions to this are Krita, that has seen much work on the user interface and Karbon that was already usable before.

Sources and Binary Packages

The source code to KOffice 2.2 beta 2 can be downloaded from download.kde.org. Binary packages of KOffice 2.2beta 2 will be available and announced separately as soon as the respective distribution provides them.

The KOffice team is happy to release KOffice 2.1.2, the second and probably last bugfix release in the 2.1 series. This release contains no new features but a number of bugfixes for most of the components in KOffice 2.1. More details of the 2.1.2 release can be found in the changelog. This version of KOffice is translated to no less than 27 languages.

As was noted in the announcement for 2.1.0, KOffice 2.1.2 is probably still not usable for production work.

Many Linux distributions package KOffice 2.1.2. A Windows version is expected within a month. If you wish to build KOffice from the source, you can download them at downloads.kde.org. You can find instructions on how to build them on the KOffice wiki.

The KOffice team is happy to announce the first beta of the upcoming 2.2 release of KOffice. This release brings back Kexi, the data management application similar to MS Access. The new beta also offers many new features and improvements, bug fixes, and improved support for Microsoft file formats.

Kexi 2.2 - Form Designer

The 2.2beta1 release of KOffice gives you a preview of what will be new and improved when the final 2.2 version is released in May. As you can see in the list of changes, there are many new features and an old application from KOffice 1 has made a reappearance: Kexi, the data manager in the style of MS Access. Another completely new feature is import filters for the MS OOXML formats, introduced in MS Office 2007.

Readiness for End Users and External Developers

The KOffice team had hoped to have time to make the user interface and available feature set ready for end users as well as make the underlying engine ready for external extension developers in time for 2.2. Unfortunately time and limited developer resources didn’t permit to reach both of these goals. The libraries have been reorganized and improved, but the user interface does still not reach the level of quality that the team wants to achieve.

Notable exceptions to this are Krita, that has seen much work on the user interface and Karbon that was already usable before.

Sponsored Development and OpenDocument Community Work

Release 2.2 will be the first release where external companies and organizations made significant contributions in development. Nokia has sponsored much work on the general improvements and the converters for importing MS file formats for their Maemo office viewers. NLnet has sponsored the work on RDF metadata and change tracking. KO GmbH as well as NLnet have sent participants to the ODF plugfest and OpenOffice.org conference in Orvieto, Italy.

Sources and Binary Packages

The source code to KOffice 2.2 beta 1 can be downloaded from download.kde.org. Binary packages of KOffice 2.2beta1 will be available and announced separately as soon as the respective distribution provides them.

The KOffice team is happy to release KOffice 2.1.1, the first bugfix release in the 2.1 series. This release contains no new features but a number of bugfixes for most of the components in KOffice 2.1. More details of the 2.1.1 release can be found in the changelog. This version of KOffice is translated to no less than 27 languages.

As was noted in the announcement for 2.1.0, KOffice 2.1.1 is probably still not usable for production work.

Many Linux distributions package KOffice 2.1.1. A Windows version is expected within a month. If you wish to build KOffice from the source, you can download them at downloads.kde.org. You can find instructions on how to build them on the KOffice wiki.

The KOffice team is very happy to announce version 2.1.0 of KOffice, 6 months after the platform release 2.0.0. This release brings a number of new features as well as general improvements in the maturity of the individual applications. Importing of documents have also been given an overhaul.

The advantages of the clean and well-structured codebase have started to show. Despite a relatively limited developer group, there are a large number of improvements over 2.0. During the development of 2.1, it was also announced that KOffice is going to be used in the Nokia n900 smartphones based on Maemo Linux.

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The KOffice team is happy to announce the first release candidate of KOffice 2.1. As usual, the team has worked diligently and has now been able to remove all the release blocker bugs. See the full changelog for the details.

The application that has received the most bugfixes is once again Krita. Also KWord has seen numerous improvements in many places, and the Microsoft Word filter has once again been improved. The same goes for KPresenter and its Powerpoint import filter and KSpread.

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