Author: Richard Brock

Collabora Office 5.0 Release

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collabora_office_5_0_splash

Today we released Collabora Office 5.0. This version includes a long list of updates, including much-improved Microsoft import and export filters. And, it also contains all fixes from the upstream libreoffice-5-0 branch and several backported features from 5.1.

Changes from 4.4 to 5.0

A lot of changes have been made. Many of the improvements are under the hood, but Collabora Office 5.0 also significantly improved the User Interface. Changes include: style previews in the Sidebar, image cropping, table management, conditional formatting in Calc and a many more. You can check out the full list at the wiki of The Document Foundation.

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collabora_office_5_0_calc
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Remote file open/save dialogue

collabora_office_5_0_remote_filesApart from the list of new and improved features mentioned above, we also integrated others that were not available in LO 5.0. One that stands out is the Remote file open/save dialogue. You can now easily open and save remote files from resources as Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Alfresco and others. In the Start screen and “File” menu you can find the “Open remote files” option, and to save to a remote resource, just select “Save to remote server”.

Manage complex user needs with ease

As with our previous version, Collabora Office 5.0 also allows system administrators to quickly apply per-user configurations to large-scale deployments thanks to extended support for Windows Server ADMX Group Policy templates. Developed by Collabora, this facility allows multiple users on a single machine to have separate local settings, managed centrally by an administrator. These include over 25,000 options such as those relating to language, security, and file formats.

Security fixes

Our previous version, LibreOffice-from-Collabora 4.4, has been updated too. We have applied security fixes and released version 4.4-11. For more details, check out the release notes.

Try a demo of Collabora Office 5.0

You can try Collabora Office 5.0 yourself! Just head to the Collabora Office page and request your demo today.

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CODE updates

Richard Brock 1 Comment

code-logoToday we’ve updated the Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE), including a list of nice improvements and many bugfixes. Last month we included shared editing and presentations enhancements, and now spreadsheets and overall usability got a big boost!

Spreadsheet improvements

spreadsheet_selectionYou can now select multiple cells with your mouse and apply your desired action over those selected cells (for example, change the background-color). With a single click anywhere on the spreadsheet again you deselect the cells again.

When you are in one cell, you can use the keyboard arrows to change cell. The improvement here is that when you are navigating to a cell outside of the visible area, the view will follow you.

And now, you can also insert, delete and rename sheets. Just click with the right mouse button on a sheet and a menu showing the possible options pops up.

add_sheets

Usability

The toolbar is responsive now. If your have a reduced screen size, the buttons that don’t fit will be under the ˅ button near the end of the toolbar. A simple click on that button reveals them. And, you can also use your scroll button on your mouse to scroll down within the document now.

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Other improvements

It’s now possible to open password protected files (if you have the password, of course) and there have been many other bugfixes under the hood.

How to update

Your VM updates automatically. If you don’t see the changes (like the responsive menu), do a hard refresh that reloads the JavaScript files or restart you VM. Didn’t download CODE yet? Head out to the CODE page and get your own VM today!

FOSDEM 2016 and LibreOffice hackfest

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FOSDEM_2016

Like last year, Collabora attended FOSDEM and it was unforgettable. FOSDEM is a two-day event to promote the widespread use of free and open source software.

For us (and other LibreOffice people) the event started two days earlier, with the LibreOffice FOSDEM 2016 Hackfest. Together with others we worked two full days on LibreOffice at the beautiful Betacowork Coworking Offices in Brussels. A big thanks to them for making the hackfest possible!

LibreOffice hackfest

Betacowork_Coworking_Brussels,_better_than_a_shared_office_or_business_center

After hacking for two days on LibreOffice we had a great dinner, just the evening before the start of FOSDEM. It was with the guys from Kolab, to celebrate the announcement of Collabora and Kolab joining forces! Dinner was amazing, and drinks afterwards were fun!

And then FOSDEM started on a rainy Saturday. Nevertheless, it was packed with around 7000 people! It’s amazing to see how alive the Open Source world is and how much interest the talks generated. Just like last year many Collaborans had a talk at FOSDEM and the rooms were very well attended. We also helped out with promoting LibreOffice at the stand, handing out stickers, selling t-shirts and answering questions from people.

FOSDEM

“It was new this year that the LO stand was on the ground floor, not buried far away on the corridor on the first one, that was really nice.

The dev-room was as usual impressive, a steady flow of tech talks from 10:30 till 18:30.

Wrt the hackfest, some entirely new contributors appeared, and we could help them, that’s great — after all a hackfest without new contributors is only a half-hackfest.”
Miklos Vajna

“For me it was the first time I attended FOSDEM and it was amazing. There was a lot of interest in LibreOffice and LibreOffice online and I was able to help people out with questions about CODE.

Next year I hope to be able to check out more talks, but anyway, I’m happy I can catch up on video.

Looking forward to FOSDEM 2017!”
Lenny Horstink

Most of the talks from people from Collabora are still being uploaded (they will appear here), but Michael Meeks keynote is already online. Check out the video on YouTube (thanks to FOSDEM for recording and uploading the video!)

Looking forward to FOSDEM 2017!

Kolab Systems and Collabora Productivity will produce the first 100% open source, enterprise-grade cloud Office Suite.

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kolabZürich, Switzerland – 30 January 2016.

Kolab Systems, creators of Kolab, the leading open source groupware and collaboration framework, today announced a partnership with Collabora Productivity, the architects behind LibreOffice Online, the cloud-based office productivity suite.

Collabora’s CloudSuite web-based document solution will be available as an integrated component in Kolab. The integration of Cloud Suite into Kolab will allow users to work on documents simultaneously using a full-featured online office suite from within the Kolab collaboration suite. Users will be able to compose text documents, fill in spreadsheets, and design presentations together, even when in different locations from each other. Documents can later be saved in the most common formats, including Microsoft compatible formats and the Open Document ISO-approved format. The CloudSuite offering also comes with Collabora Office, a professional LibreOffice distribution, for offline use on the desktop.

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CloudSuite complements Kolab’s integrated editor which is also gaining collaborative editing capabilities. Users will be able to cooperate in real-time composing emails, setting agendas for meetings, or adding contacts to distribution lists before sharing their work with colleagues and clients. The integration of these two products means the companies will be able to leverage synchronized cooperative features across the board of all their office productivity tools.

“For too long, closed and insecure solutions have been the industry standard for office and groupware productivity.” said Kolab System’s CEO, Georg Greve. “With this partnership Collabora and Kolab are taking the lead, not only with bleeding edge technological innovation and an office stack with full, user-friendly and comprehensive collaborative features, but also with a product that respects users’ freedoms, protects their privacy, and guarantees their work will not be locked away in proprietary formats.”

“Collabora Productivity is delighted to provide a key building block in Kolab’s comprehensive, new offering” said Michael Meeks, General Manager at Collabora Productivity. “Kolab Systems have been a leading light in open source for many years and we look forward to supporting their ambitious growth plans in the enterprise sector and beyond”.

The first version of Kolab with integrated CloudSuite functionality is scheduled to appear in the second quarter of 2016.

If you are interested in receiving pre-release information and early access to Kolab with integrated CloudSuite, please contact sales@kolabsystems.com or sales@collaboraoffice.com.

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About Kolab Systems AG.
Kolab Systems AG is an Open Source Independent Software Vendor (ISV) developing, maintaining, supporting and providing a wide range of services around the Kolab Groupware Solution. Fully committed to software freedom and Open Standards, it is the global competency leader and custodian for a process open to community participation. The results of that process reach our customers as a quality assured solution that brings all the benefits of Free Software. Part of a company group that excels in security and cross platform solutions, Kolab Systems is prepared to provide you with the level of mission critical data integrity you deserve.

Learn more about Kolab Systems at http://kolabsys.com
Or try out Hosted Kolab at https://MyKolab.com

About Collabora Productivity:
Collabora Productivity is the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the Cloud, providing a range of products and consulting to enterprise and government. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, it is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice codebase and community. Collabora Office for Desktop and CloudSuite provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term, multi-platform support. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing the benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specialising in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, visit www.collaboraoffice.com or follow @CollaboraOffice on Twitter.

CODE updates

Richard Brock 1 Comment

code-logoGreat news for everyone interested in LibreOffice Online! We have updated the Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE), including new features and fixing some bugs. Two of the new features are very cool: shared editing and transitions and animations for presentations!

Shared Editing

Multiple people can have the same file open at the same time and share its editing. See the animated gif below for an example. Shared editing works in text documents, presentations and spreadsheets, but it has one important limitation. There is currently only one cursor which is being shared. But the good news is that full collaborative editing is coming later this year and this limitation will not exist anymore!

shared-editing

Transitions and animations presentations

Online-Office-Suites-presentation-transitions-and-animations-comparison-chart.pdf_-_2016-01-18_14.01.18A long list of transitions and animations are implemented with this last update. Just check out this comparison chart to see how we compare with Microsoft PowerPoint Online and Google Sheets. Adding or modifying transitions and animations is still on the roadmap, but visualisation is very advanced! Want to try it for yourself? Download the demo file.

Other improvements

  • Drag and drop HTML and/or images to documents
  • Ctrl + Alt + C to insert a comment
  • Ctrl + F1 to view cell comment
  • Button for Zoom 100%
  • Add / Delete / Duplicate slides
  • File – Download as… uses the original file name
  • Fixed typing bug to update the correct sheet
  • Fixed Insert Image to Impress
  • Fixed column/row header problems in Calc

How to update

Your VM updates automatically. If you don’t see the changes in the menus (like the Zoom to 100% button), do a hard refresh that reloads the JavaScript files. Didn’t download CODE yet? Head out to the CODE page and get your own VM today!