[dot] The Importance of KOffice

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1105979760/

From: Raphael Langerhorst <raphael-langerhorst at gmx.at>
Dept: human-resource-management
Date: Monday17/Jan/2005, @17:36

The Importance of KOffice
=========================

   KOffice [http://www.koffice.org] is built on KDE
[http://www.kde.org]. This advantage brings enormous potential in terms
of integration, performance, scalability, and with the coming full
support for the OASIS Open Document Format [http://www.oasis-open.org/],
even portability.  All these factors are vital for business deployments.
The KOffice team is looking for contributors
[http://www.koffice.org/support/] and developers
[http://www.koffice.org/developer/] to significantly increase and
utilize the potential of KOffice even further.

     The functionality KOffice has already reached in its short life is
significant. And still, KOffice has good performance and is fully usable
on low-end hardware, which makes it suited for organizations and
individuals. This could even save costs when upgrading or migrating the
office software and old hardware can be reused.

     Because KOffice is built directly on KDE, it can offer the best
office experience on a KDE desktop. Many excellent technologies already
present in the KDE Framework are available for KOffice at almost no
cost. Examples are:

    * Automation via DCOP
    * Document location abstraction (remote file editing) via KIO
    * Fully object oriented design through the Qt and KDE Frameworks
    * Application Embedding through KParts

     Additionally KOffice extends the application embedding capability
(KParts) of KDE to allow highly integrated documents. Such a close KDE
integration also results in fast application load time, while still
having all these features available.

     Even full OASIS Open Document Format support is being worked on
which is the same file format as OpenOffice.org 2
[http://www.openoffice.org] will use. This will make data exchange with
OpenOffice.org seamless while being a fully integrated KDE office suite.
Building on an approved and open document standard is a key feature
today.

     Much work has already been done and central office components like 
KWord [http://www.koffice.org/kword/], KPresenter
[http://www.koffice.org/kpresenter/], Kivio
[http://www.koffice.org/kivio/] and KSpread
[http://www.koffice.org/kspread/] are quite stable with only a few
glitches here and there.

     And KOffice has many more applications to offer that will be
included in next major releases:

    * Krita [http://www.koffice.org/krita/] (Pixmap Graphics)
    * Kexi [http://www.koffice.org/kexi/] (Database Frontend)
    * KPlato [http://www.koffice.org/kplato/] (Project
      Management)

     All these applications are in development and have a huge
potential. Additionally some smaller utilities such as KFormula and
KOffice Workspace are available.

     As you can see, KOffice is close to offer a very complete office
environment, completely integrated into your KDE environment and
completely free.

     The development of so many additional office components has of
course raised the number of developers needed. We are looking for
additional contributors to offer all KOffice components in a fully
stable and feature complete state.

     If you are interested in helping to make this happen, feel free to
have a look at the webpage [http://www.koffice.org] and contact the
developers mailing list [koffice-devel at kde.org]. Both, developers and
documentation writers, are very welcome. There are also
easy-to-get-started jobs [http://www.koffice.org/developer/tasks/]
available. And in case you have special interests of any kind feel free
to contact us.


     References:

    * KOffice homepage
    * KOffice Contact page
    * Register at the KOffice Developer Mailing List
    * OASIS Open Document format supported by the EU


 [http://europa.eu.int:80/idabc/en/document/3524]