[dot] KOffice 1.5 beta 1 Released

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1138748394/

From: Inge Wallin <inge at lysator.liu.se>
Dept: ooo-here-we-come
Date: Tuesday 31/Jan/2006, @14:59

KOffice 1.5 beta 1 Released
===========================

   The KDE Project today announced the release of KOffice 1.5 beta 1,
the first preview release for KOffice 1.5, scheduled for release this
March. KOffice [http://www.koffice.org/] is an integrated office suite
with more components than any other suite in existence.  Never before
has a new version of KOffice brought this many exciting new features
including Kexi [http://www.koffice.org/kexi/] 1.0 and the first release
of project management application KPlato
[http://www.koffice.org/kplato/]. Read the full announcement
[http://www.koffice.org/announcements/announce-1.5-beta1.php] and the
changelog [http://www.koffice.org/announcements/changelog-1.5beta1.php]
for more details or read on for the full article.

     This release specifically introduces the following highlights:

    * OASIS OpenDocument as the Default File Format
      KOffice now uses OASIS OpenDocument
      [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.
    * 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. One major
      aspect is accessiblity [http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2163].
      KOffice now supports enhanced accessibility through mouseless
      operation and text-to-speech.
    * 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.
    * First Major Release of Kexi (1.0)  KOffice 1.5
      contains the much expected final 1.0 version of Kexi, a data
      management application which is the KOffice counterpart to MS
      Access or  FileMaker. It is designed from the ground up as a
      standard KDE database  application.
    * Project management application KPlato
      [http://www.koffice.org/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.

     Of course, it also fixes countless bugs and introduces a lot of
smaller new features.

     Packages are available for Debian Sarge
[http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/koffice-1.5-sarge/], Debian Sid
[http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/koffice-1.5/], Kubuntu
[http://kubuntu.org/announcements/koffice-15beta1.php] and SuSE.
 [http://download.kde.org/unstable/koffice-1.5-beta1/SuSE/]
     Throughout the beta period, to make testing easier, the Klik
[http://klik.atekon.de] developer team will provide up to date Klik
packages for all of KOffice. Klik packages may be used without
installation and run on multiple GNU/Linux platforms without disturbing
the system's native package manager. See the KOffice Klik wiki page
[http://klik.atekon.de/wiki/index.php/KOffice-1.5.0_DistroTable] for
details of the bundles and supported distributions.