[dot] KOffice 2.0 Beta1 Released

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1222347961/

From: Inge Wallin <inge at lysator.liu.se>
Dept: office-romance
Date: Thursday 25/Sep/2008, @06:06

KOffice 2.0 Beta1 Released
==========================

   The KOffice team is proud to announce the first beta of KOffice 2.0.
The goal of this release is to gather feedback from both users and
developers on the new UI and underlying infrastructure. This will allow
us to release a usable 2.0 release, demonstrating our vision for the
future of the digital office to a larger audience and attract new
contributions both in terms of code and ideas for improvements.  Read on
for more information or see the announcement
[http://koffice.org/announcements/announce-2.0beta1.php] and download it
from the release notes
[http://koffice.org/releases/2.0beta1-release.php].
   
[http://www.koffice.org/announcements/pics/2008-09-25-kpresenterbeta1.png]

     This is the first beta release of KOffice 2.0, and the first
version we encourage users to download and try out. After a very long
development cycle KOffice is now in feature freeze. The development team
will from now on shift focus from new features to bug fixes until 2.0 is
released.

     The release team has decided that the following applications are
mature enough to be part of 2.0:

    *   KWord,   Word processor
    *   KSpread,   Spreadsheet calculator
    *   KPresenter,   Presentation manager
    *   KPlato,   Project management software
    *   Karbon,   Vector graphics editor
    *   Krita,   Raster graphics editor

     The chart application KChart is available as a shape plugin, which
means that charts are available in all the KOffice applications in an
integrated manner.


  I. HIGHLIGHTS OF KOFFICE 2.0

     KOffice 2 will be a much more flexible application suite than
KOffice 1 ever was. The integration between the components is much
stronger, with the revolutionary Flake Shapes as the central concept. A
Flake Shape can be as simple as a square or a circle or as complex as a
chart or a music score.

     With Flake, any KOffice application can handle any shape. For
instance, KWord can embed bitmap graphics, Krita can embed vector
graphics and Karbon can embed charts. This flexibility does not only
give KOffice unprecedented integration, but also allows new applications
to be created very easily. Such applications could target special user
groups such as children or certain professions.


 II. UNIFIED LOOK AND FEEL

     All the applications of KOffice have a new GUI layout better suited
to today's wider screens. The GUI consists of a workspace and a sidebar
where tools can dock. Any tool can be ripped off to create its own
window and later be redocked for full flexibility. The users setup
preferences are of course saved and reused the next time that KOffice is
started.
  
[http://www.koffice.org/announcements/pics/2008-09-25-kword-windows-beta1.png]


III. PLATFORM INDEPENDENCE

     All of KOffice is available on Linux with KDE or GNOME, Windows and
Macintosh. Solaris will follow shortly and we expect builds for other
Unix versions to become available soon after the final release. Since
KOffice builds on Qt and the KDE libraries, all applications integrate
well with the respective platforms and will take on the native look and
feel.


 IV. NATIVE SUPPORT FOR OPENDOCUMENT

     KOffice uses the OpenDocument Format as its native format. This
will guarantee interoperation with many other Office packages such as
OpenOffice.org and MS Office. The KOffice team has representatives on
the OASIS technical committee for ODF and has been a strong participant
in the process of shaping ODF since its inception.