Category: Collabora Online

Thank you for a great 2023!

Naomi Obbard Leave a comment

Thank You for Everything We Achieved Together in 2023 🤝

At the end of the year, we like to look back at what we have achieved as a team alongside our worldwide network of partners and the community. 2023 was a particularly significant year for us as we celebrated ten years of Collabora Productivity, adding another productive decade to our mission of bringing document editing and trillions of existing documents into the free world!

 

 

In March we held another successful COOL Days conference, this time in Cambridge, which brought together our team, partners and the community. We are looking forward to another great event in April 2024 – join us!

As well as our own events, our team also attended over ten locations to present talks, meet partners and share Collabora Online with the wider community. You can keep up to date with our adventures on our events page.

2023 saw many organisations and users throwing off their proprietary shackles, and embracing the freedom open-source solutions bring. In particular, we saw many educational institutions reconsidering their relationship with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace amid privacy concerns, great strides being taken by local and national governments such as the openDesk project in Germany, and increasing numbers of private companies taking back control of their document storage and editing needs.

Collabora Online, Collabora Office and our mobile apps have all seen performance improvements and increased functionality. In July, we released the new major release of our flagship product Collabora Online 23.05, which included increased interoperability, performance boosts and a whole range of new features and accessibility improvements. Thank you for your support! Let’s take a deeper dive into what we have achieved together this year. 💜

 

Collabora Online 22.05 → 23.05

Our flagship product, Collabora Online saw marked improvements in 2023, introducing many exciting new features and a big focus on accessibility, working to bring the best digital experience we can to all our users, regardless of their abilities or challenges.

  • February 2023: Zotero plug in, PDF and EPUB export options, insert page number dialog, Duden Corrector plugin, easy hyperlink pop up editor
  • March 2023: linking API, improved conditional formatting from XLSX files.
  • April 2023: interoperability improvements.
  • July 2023: major release 23.05 introducing dark mode, expanded keyboard shortcuts, initial screen reading support, document themes, multi-page floating tables and accessibility improvements.
  • August 2023: further updates to keyboard shortcuts and more performance improvements.
  • September 2023: new font previews and barcode/QR code functionality.
  • October & November 2023: a focus on polishing and bug fixing with over 70 improvements.
  • December 2023: STYLEREF, floating tables properties, re-designed PostMessage for integrators and developers.

See the full release notes for Collabora Online 23.05 and COOL 22.05.

 

CODE: Developing a Rock-Solid Enterprise Version 💪

The latest major release of the Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) 23.05 was released in June. CODE always appears in advance of the corresponding version of Collabora Online – the Development Edition contains all new features which are extensively tested before becoming available in the Enterprise version (COOL). An overview of CODE releases for 2023 can be found in the release notes but will mostly mirror those of Collabora Online. You can find the conversations about CODE on social media, by searching for the hashtag #cool_dev on Mastodon or Twitter.

 

Powerful New Features for Collabora Office on the Desktop 🖥️

August 2023 saw the latest major release of Collabora Office, our long term supported desktop Office Suite for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This release brought a number of powerful productivity features focusing on accessibility and improving user experience. The new features contain code that was contributed to LibreOffice 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6. Collabora Office for Windows is available through the Microsoft Store. The latest version for macOS can be bought from the App Store. We also appreciate those who help us test the latest features inside our unstable snapshots.

  • August 2023: major release of Collabora Office 23.05 including dark mode, interoperability features, document themes, 64-bit zip support, advanced editing features for tables and forms and so much more!
  • September 2023: MS Office interoperability improvements including further support of document themes, floating tables and pivot tables.
  • December 2023: Collabora Office 23.05.6 – STYLEREF, floating tables properties and advanced header and footer functionality.

Buy for Windows

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Many new Features for Collabora Office for Android, iOS & Chrome OS📱

Our major release for mobile and tablet devices in September 2023 brought more of the functionality from Collabora Online into the pockets of our users, as well as improving the current user experience and making navigating on smaller screens easier. Now you can use dark mode, improved form controls in Writer, Sparklines, consistent dialogs and a better UX for users on smaller screened devices.

 

Events 🗓️

COOL Days 2023 took place in Cambridge, with more than 50 participants joining from our team, partners and the community. We presented 45 lightning talks showcasing our talented developers’ work across the year, held workshops and discussions with our partners about the importance of data protection in Europe, shared our development roadmap, and further discussed how to mutually support our sales and marketing efforts as part of our partnership. The community dived into a LibreOffice Hackfest and of course we had a great time socialising and team building around historic Cambridge.

 

 

 

As well as our own annual conference, our team attended events across Europe presenting talks, meeting partners and sharing Collabora Online, as well as presenting a keynote at the LibreOffice Conference for Latin America in Mexico.

2023 Events

 

Date Event Location Links
17th – 18th January 2023 Univention Summit Bremen, Germany Blog
4th – 5th February 2023 FOSDEM Brussels, Belgium Blog & Talks
6th – 8th March 2023 CS3 Barcelona, Spain Talk Recording
28th – 29th March 2023 COOL Days Cambridge, UK Blog, Live Stream
16th – 17th September 2023 Nextcloud Conference Berlin, Germany Blog & Talks
20th – 23rd September 2023 LibreOffice Conference Bucharest, Romania Blog & Talks
28th – 29th September 2023 SeaDays Mainz, Germany Talk
7th – 9th November 2023 Smart Country Convention Berlin, Germany openDesk Blog
9th – 10th November 2023 LibreOffice Congreso Latin America Mexico City, Mexico Keynote
6th – 7th December 2023 Open Source Experience Paris, France Talk Slides

 

LibreOffice Community & Contributions to 7.5 and 7.6

Collabora Productivity is part of the ecosystem developing and advancing LibreOffice technology. We are the largest contributor to the LibreOffice codebase, with our developers contributing many commits to the LibreOffice core.

LibreOffice 7.5 and LibreOffice 7.6 saw many improvements from the team at Collabora – here is just a snapshot of some of the commits this year.

  • Content controls – added plain text type, combo box, PDF export, titles and tags. (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
  • Impress now supports cropped video for media shapes. blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
  • Citation handling: added plumbing in Writer to build Zotero-like functionality. blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
  • Keyboard navigation through forms (Justin Luth, Collabora)
  • Replacing strings with numbers in Calc tdf#126109 (Noel Grandin, Collabora)
  • Find and replace in very large Calc sheets tdf#150749 (Noel Grandin, Collabora)
  • Added page number wizard in Insert menu for easy one-step insertion of the page number in the header/footer tdf#86630 (Paris Oplopoios / Justin Luth, Collabora)
  • Initial machine translation is available, backend by DeepL translate (Mert Tumer, Collabora) core commit e20d2, tdf#34058
  • Added pivot table compact layout. core commit 2f8d1 (Dennis Francis, Collabora)
  • Display soft breaks as line breaks at fontwork. tdf#148000 (Attila Szűcs, Collabora)
  • Added support to open multi image tiff files tdf#155444 (Rashesh Padia, Collabora)
  • Auto fitting text scaling algorithm has been changed so it works similar to MS Office. (Tomaž Vajngerl, Collabora)

Of course, we also had many of our developers share their work in the LibreOffice Technology devroom at FOSDEM this year. You can find links to their talks and slides in our blog.

 

Partners

This year we have welcomed 20 new partners from across Europe, Australia and South America including Oodrive, Salesframe, Aridhia and unodata. We are very happy to have a growing partner network allowing more and more users to take control of their data.

Team

This year we have seen our team grow, adding another 17 people to our core team at Collabora Productivity within our Sales, Marketing and Technical teams, with 50% of these coming from the Collabora Online Community. We love to hire smart people who have contributed to the Open Source community. This allows us to provide a richer experience for our partners and customers.

Collabora Online Community Contributions

The Collabora Online Community kept growing and helped to improve the software through their commits, feedback, and translations. You can see from the stats above that our Community is doing great things! You too, can help to make Collabora Online better. Join the discussions in our forum, join our community calls every Thursday at 12pm CET, translate strings on Weblate, file bug reports or feature requests on GitHub and spread the word on Collabora Online!

 

The Collabora Online SDK ⚙️

The Collabora Online SDK describes the main methods that allow you to interact with different Collabora Online components. Find installation guides, frequently asked questions, Post Message API and documentation on exiting integrations and on how to create new ones. This year we continued to add to our information to enable better integrations and clearer guidance.

A small sample of some 2023 updates:

 

Thanks to all who helped out!

It has been an exciting year here at Collabora Productivity, and we are so grateful to everyone who has been involved in 2023, and indeed for the past ten years – customers, partners, staff, and the community. We couldn’t have achieved any of these things without everyone working together so well. We have big plans for 2024 and are anticipating an even more exciting year ahead. We look forward to sharing it with you!

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, if you’d like to partner with us, or to download Collabora Online. Thank you for the great support this year. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank You!

 

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Professional PDF Export Features in Collabora Online

Marc Rodrigues Leave a comment
Collabora Online offers numerous export features for the professional creation of PDF

Professional PDF Export Features in Collabora Online

PDF, the Portable Document Format, is currently the most important exchange format for finalised documents. Its major advantages include platform independence and consistency in the presentation of content. A significant proportion of the text documents created in Collabora Online (and of course a large proportion of presentations and a not inconsiderable proportion of spreadsheet extracts) are exported in precisely this format after completion. Collabora Online offers you the range of professional settings and selection options that you are used to from a professional office application package on the desktop. In this article on the subject, we will introduce you to some of the PDF export options and explain some of the most important features.

Exporting an image to PDF in Collabora Online

1. General Export Settings

The PDF export options can be accessed in the NotebookBar (the “Tabbed View”, the standard Collabora Online UI with the division into tabs) via the “Export as” button in the “File” tab. They appear immediately after selecting the filename of the PDF to be exported. In the compact view, the PDF export option can also be found under the ‘File’ tab. In this case, it appears as a drop-down list.

1.1 Image settings influence the file size of the exported PDF

The first Export Options tab provides a number of general settings. You can select whether to export the entire document as a PDF, a specific number of pages or only a selected range of pages using the ‘Range’ option. The Image settings allow you to specify the image quality in the exported PDF. The two radio buttons allow you to choose between lossless and compressed export of image content. The degree of compression can also be set as a percentage. The DPI of the image content can also be selected here. DPI stands for “dots per inch” and refers to the resolution or image density of a photo or graphic. 300 DPI is the standard for print products; web content is usually exported at 75 DPI due to the smaller file size. Image settings have a major impact on the file size of an exported PDF and are the most important control for adjusting the file size of large PDF documents.

1.2 Adding a watermark

The “Watermark” function allows you to add a simple watermark to the exported PDF. Please note that the text entered here will only be visible on the exported PDF and not on the original text document. If you wish to add a watermark to the editable original document, you can do so using the “Watermark” function in the “Layout” tab.

Before defining the PDF export settings, you can change the filename.
The “General” tab includes many features to define range, image quality and Universal Accessibility.
Choose the compression rate and adjust DPI to influence the PDF’s file size.

2. Define Initial View of the PDF

Defining Initial View of an exported PDF.

2.1 How to Define Panes in the PDF

In this tab, you can define various settings that affect the initial display of the exported PDF. The “Page only” option exports the content of the document without adding any elements to it, practically in the same form as the source document in Collabora Online. The “Outline and page” option, on the other hand, creates a PDF file that includes bookmarks and page content. The “Thumbnails and page” options create a thumbnail view in addition to the page content during export. The “Open on page” function can be used to specify the page on which the exported file will be opened in a PDF reader.

2.2 Set the Display Size

The options in this category allow you to specify the display size in the PDF Reader. The “Standard option” creates a file in which the page content is displayed without changing the scale. The “Window size” option ensures that the scale of the initial display of the PDF page will fit completely into the window of the reader. The “Window width” option ensures that the scale is adjusted so that the page of the exported PDF takes up the full width of the Reader. The “Fit visible” option creates a PDF file that displays the text and graphics on the page zoomed to fit the width of the Reader window, while the “Zoom Factor” option allows you to manually configure the initial zoom factor of the PDF.

2.3 Specifying the Display Size

The Default option creates a PDF file in which the pages are displayed according to the layout settings of the viewer software. The “Single page” option creates a PDF file in which the content is displayed in a page-by-page structure. If you select “Continuous”, the content of the PDF will be displayed in one continuous, long vertical column – similar to a web page. The “Continuous” option ensures that the pages are displayed side by side in a continuous column. The default setting for multi-page documents is that the first page is displayed on the right, but this can be changed by selecting the “First page is on the left” checkbox.

Collabora Online’s settings include many options to define the initial view of the exported PDF.
Define the panes and the layout of the exported PDF.
Define the magnification of the initial view of the exported PDF

3. Configure the User Interface

Defining the user interface in exported PDF.

3.1 Configure Window Settings

The settings in the “User Interface” tab allow you to make further configurations that affect the appearance of the exported PDF file. For example, the ‘Window options’ allow you to use the “Fit window to first page” option to create a PDF file that is displayed in a window that displays the entire first page when opened. You can also choose to “Centre window on screen” so that the PDF is displayed in the middle of the screen in the reader, or you can choose to open it in full-screen mode and display the document title. Of course, you can combine the window options as you wish.

3.2 Slide Transitions Available in Exported PDF

The “Transitions” feature is only available in the presentation module. It allows you to make the transition effects of your presentation available in the exported PDF. When exporting text documents or spreadsheets, this option is greyed out and cannot be selected.

3.3 Deactivating User Interface Elements

The options in the “User interface options” area allow the exported PDF file to be displayed in Reader without certain user interface elements. For example, the menu, toolbar or window controls can be hidden.

 

Collabora Online’s PDF Export settings include many UI options
The UI options include window settings for the exported PDF
Define the UI settings of the exported PDF.

Try even more features in the free Collabora Online Demo

This article only scratches the surface of the many PDF export features in Collabora Online. The export options include additional settings for accessibility checking, links and security. Would you like to try out these features? You can do so by accessing the free Collabora Online demo!

 

 

More PDF content from Collabora Online on YouTube

Interested in learning more about the development of PDF features? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest technical talks from Collabora developers.

 

Watch Miklos Vajna’s talk on “PDF Advanced Export Options”
Watch Balazs Varga’s Talk on “Headless PDF Conversion”!
Watch Nick Wingate’s talk “Export as PDF in Writer”

Find out more about Collabora Office & Collabora Online

Collabora Productivity created Collabora Online, a powerful online office suite, which you can integrate into your own infrastructure. It prioritises your digital sovereignty and provides you with all the tools to keep your data secure, without compromising on features. Collabora provides a wide range of products, as well as consulting services for enterprises and governments. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, Collabora is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice technology community. Collabora Office for Desktop and Collabora Online provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term support. Collabora’s multi-platform policy is completed with Collabora Office for iOS, Android, and Chrome OS. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing the benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specializing in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, follow us on Twitter, Mastodon, LinkedIn and YouTube.

 

 

Empowering National Defence: The Strongest Solution with Collabora Online

Richard Brock Leave a comment
In our exploration of how Collabora Online empowers various sectors, we’ve already uncovered its pivotal role in government initiatives and educational institutions. Now, let’s delve into how Collabora Online extends its capabilities to strengthen the digital sovereignty of military and national defence infrastructure. Just as we seamlessly integrate with the workflows of governments and elevate the educational experience, Collabora Online stands ready to meet the unique demands of military applications. From on-premise hosting anywhere in the world to robust data security and interoperability, Collabora Online emerges as a steadfast ally in the strategic landscape of military and national defence operations.

 

1. Host Anywhere in the World

Collabora Online offers unmatched flexibility in deployment. Whether in a remote desert outpost, a naval vessel, or a submarine with no possibility of a reliable connection to a traditional cloud, Collabora Online proves to be the best and only secure solution. This capability is vital for military operations that demand collaborative access to documents, with real-time editing, but without dependency on any third party infrastructure system. Sensitive data can be securely shared, whilst always staying within secure boundaries with Collabora Online.

Furthermore, with our new Collabora Online Controller, deployment and management in a Kubernetes cluster in a container on the battlefield is now easier than ever.

2. Data Security and Privacy

Perhaps an obvious point, but seemingly overlooked in many cases. Governments are rightfully concerned about data security and privacy, especially in military and defence applications. In this arena, Collabora Online stands out as the only solution with real-time collaborative editing and the highest levels of security (find out more here). Its on-premise hosting capability ensures that sensitive information remains within the control of national defence authorities, removing dependence on third-party services with potential security or jurisdictional concerns.

3. Open Source Code for Unmatched Adaptability

The open-source nature of Collabora Online empowers military applications with unparalleled adaptability. Its interoperability with other systems, both proprietary and open source, enables seamless collaboration and data exchange. Additionally, our out-of-the-box source code escrow means your software is continually maintained, whilst the ability to customize and modify the source code ensures that Collabora Online aligns precisely with the unique needs and requirements of military and national defence institutions.

4. Cost-Efficiency in Defence Operations

It is no secret that cost-efficiency is a top priority for governments, which has a direct effect on military and defence spending. Collabora Online offers a cost-effective solution without compromising on quality. By reducing licensing costs associated with proprietary software, governments can allocate resources more efficiently without losing access to a powerful and fully-featured office suite for document creation, editing, and collaboration.

 

As we continue to empower organisations in their journey toward digital sovereignty, Collabora Online stands as the reliable partner for military and national defence applications, offering control, adaptability, and security in an ever-evolving landscape.

Keep your data secure with Collabora Online.

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Collabora Online – Safe, Powerful, Flexible.

Flexible Integrations, Custom UIs, Genuine Partnership – Collabora Online and EGroupware

Richard Brock Leave a comment

In a recent video call with EGroupware Managing Director, Birgit Becker, we learned about some of the impressive ways EGroupware is leveraging the power of Collabora Online to enhance productivity across their software suite. In this blog post, we’ll take a quick dive into some of the ways Collabora Online’s adaptability and openness shine in this integration.

Powerful email integration

A customised user interface is just one of the ways Collabora Online has been adapted to seamlessly fit into the EGroupware ecosystem. Something that can only be dreamed of with proprietary systems, this becomes a reality with Collabora Online. In their customisation, EGroupware developers have added email functionality directly into the Collabora Online document editor interface. Rather than having to download a document and attach it to an email with a separate email application, the whole process can be managed directly from the document editor UI with just a few clicks. This integration is then further developed within the EGroupware CRM, enabling EGroupware users to quickly and easily identify which documents have been sent to which email addresses.

Flexible custom fields

EGroupware takes further advantage of Collabora Online’s versatility by allowing the insertion of EGroupware standard data or custom fields from other EGroupware modules directly into Collabora Online documents. The open-source nature of Collabora Online enables this kind of deep integration, providing users with a flexible platform where functionalities can be extended to meet specific needs. This adaptability ensures that Collabora Online is not a one-size-fits-all ‘my way or the highway’ solution, but a dynamic tool that evolves with the unique requirements of each user.

Genuine partnership

As Birgit put it towards the end of the call, “If we have a problem, we can open a ticket at your side, and it’s always one-to-one discussion. It doesn’t make us feel like a smaller company or something – we are just a partner.” At Collabora Online, we take great pride in the service we provide to our partners and integrators. This comment highlights the friendly and collaborative nature of the partnership between Collabora Online and EGroupware. With direct lines of communication, problem-solving is quick and efficient, fostering a relationship where both sides feel equally valued.

We’d love to bring some of this powerful yet flexible goodness to your organisation! Sign up below for a free trial, and unleash the power of Collabora Online.

Try the Online Demo

Collabora Online – Safe, Powerful, Flexible.

Find out more about the Collabora Online and EGroupware integration here.

Empowering Education: A Smart Choice with Collabora Online

Richard Brock Leave a comment
Following on from our recent post about Collabora Online and governments, as well as our recent discussion of the German government’s openDesk initiative, we want to explain why Collabora Online is increasingly becoming the document editor of choice for many universities and educational institutions.

Some Background

Collabora Online has now been operating for over 10 years, bringing control and security to an increasing number of sectors. In this span of time, we’ve seen legislation and regulations evolve, and more recently universities are also waking to the significance of data security and digital sovereignty. In the wake of global events, such as the Ukraine war, dependency on foreign organizations for digital infrastructure also sparks concerns.

1. Join the Free World

Learning is synonymous with free thinking, creativity, and innovation. For centuries, universities have been the bastions of research and progress, pushing against a secretive world. As dynamic environments where ideas flourish, opting for an open solution, such as Collabora Online, aligns seamlessly with the spirit of academia.

Unlike proprietary platforms that may impose limitations and roadblocks, Collabora Online empowers universities to foster a culture of exploration and intellectual freedom. By embracing an open-source approach, institutions ensure that their students and faculty are not confined to a predetermined path, but rather equipped with a versatile and adaptable tool that grows alongside their evolving needs and aspirations.

2. Privacy and Data Control

With growing concerns about data privacy, Collabora Online provides a secure environment for educational institutions to work within. Institutions can maintain control over sensitive information, ensuring that student and faculty data remains protected. French1 and German2 governments in fact have already said that Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace should not be used in schools due to ongoing concerns about data sovereignty, and privacy. Other governments and public bodies appear to moving in the same direction3,4.

Take control of your personal data, your research data, and your students’ data with Collabora Online.

3. Compatibility and Accessibility

Collabora Online’s compatibility with popular document formats ensures smooth integration with existing systems. This flexibility allows universities and schools to transition seamlessly to Collabora Online, preserving compatibility with a wide range of file types and ensuring a smooth workflow for both educators and students.

We are also continuously developing our accessibility, ensuring the the world of education remains as open as possible.

4. Integrations

With an open code, you can use Collabora Online however you want. Integrate with the open-source learning platform moodle, or your existing sharepoint, or your email client, or your video calling provider, or your… If you can dream it, we can do it. Join the new world of possibilities!

 

In conclusion, Collabora Online emerges as the ideal document editor for universities and educational institutions. Unbound by the rules of closed platforms – we fully embrace the spirit of exploration and creativity. Choosing Collabora Online, universities empower their students and faculty with a tool that not only respects privacy and data control but also seamlessly integrates with existing systems.

As institutions worldwide navigate the complexities of digital sovereignty, Collabora Online stands as a beacon, offering a reliable and versatile document editing solution for the academic community. Embrace the future of education with Collabora Online – where openness, compatibility, and security converge.

 

Keep your data secure with Collabora Online.

Try the Online Demo

Collabora Online – Safe, Powerful, Flexible.

1https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/22/france_no_windows_google/

2https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2019/07/17/germany-bans-schools-from-using-tech-giants-clouds/

3https://radar.dk/artikel/borgmester-undervurderer-chromebook-regning-nye-pcer-vil-koste-cirka-30-millioner