KOffice 2.0 Alpha 4 Release Announcement

Oct 17, 2007 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the release of KOffice version 2.0 Alpha 4, a technology preview of the upcoming version 2.0.

Highlights

This is mainly a technology preview for those that are interested in the new ideas and technologies of the KOffice 2 series. This release has seen especially many improvements in OpenDocument support for KWord, KSpread and KFormula, many new formula functions for KSpread, fixes in Kexi and KWord, support for templates and animations in KPresenter. There is also further support for Windows, as KWord got support for that operating system. KPlato is getting functional and KChart now provides a Flake shape so that it can be embedded in any other KOffice application.

KOffice 2 is currently under heavy development. It is not meant as something to be used for any real work and can crash at any point. However, here are some of the highlights of the upcoming KOffice 2 series. Note that not all of the new technologies will be fully implemented in the first release, 2.0.

Also note that although KOffice is included in KDE 4.0 Beta 3, it has its own release cycle, and the first version of the KOffice version 2 series is expected around early Q1 2008.

KPlato is getting functional

The KOffice project planning tool (KPlato) has started to get functional in KOffice 2.0. This is the first time that KPlato has shown signs of maturity, and we are certain that it will be fully operational when 2.0 is released.

KChart Introduces a Flake Shape

KChart, the charting tool is now available as a Flake tool, and can therefore be embedded in any other KOffice application. It is also available as a KPart and stand-alone application so the user will be able to view any OpenDocument chart in konqueror and edit it in the application.

New Functions For KSpread

KSpread continues to receive new formula functions at a fast pace. New in this release are: BETAINV, BINOMDIST, CHIDIST, LEGACYCHIDIST, LEGACYCHIINV, CHIDIST, FDIST, LEGACYFDIST, FINV, LEGACYFINV, FTEST, GAMMADIST, GAMMAINV, PEARSON, QUARTILE, RANK, RSQ, TINV, TREND, TRIMMEAN. All these functions are mentioned in the OpenFormula standard, which will be part of OpenDocument 1.2. In addition to that, KSPread also got the ability to embed OpenDocument spreadsheet using the Flake table shape, and manipulate sheets.

KWord and Krita Now Run on Windows

In a special sprint for KDE applications on Windows, we saw further examples of a KOffice applications actually running on that OS: KWord. This is a great breakthrough for our fellow users on that platform. In addition to this, Krita and Kexi can run on Windows already. We are on the right track to bring all the components to Windows, through activity initiated by Kexi for Windows available since 2003. We want to point out, though, that there are no binary downloads for Windows yet.

Pigment Color Manipulation System

Work continues on Pigment, the KOffice technology for accurately converting and transforming colors. Expanding the already impressive functionality, this release introduces the new Color Conversion System which finds the best color conversion between two color spaces even if there is no direct conversion between them.

Going beyond the ICC defined color conversions, PigmentCMS is now the first free software library that can accurately convert between high-dynamic range images and 16/bit channel images.

More generic KOffice2 info can be found in the Alpha3-announcement and earlier.

About KOffice

KOffice is an integrated office suite built on the KDE platform, and utilizes free and open standards like OpenDocument for its document formats, component communication and component embedding.

This release includes:

• a frame-based, full-featured word processor (KWord);
• a spreadsheet application (KSpread);
• a presentation application (KPresenter);
• a flowchart application (Kivio);
• an integrated database application (Kexi);
• a new project management application (KPlato).
• a pixel based image editing and paint application (Krita);
• a vector-drawing application (Karbon14).

Additionally, KOffice includes the following helper applications:

• business quality reporting software (Kugar)
• full-featured charting engine (KChart)
• mathematical formula handling (KFormula)

as well as a built-in thesaurus (KThesaurus) and support for many different file formats.

KOffice and all its components (including KDE) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE http and ftp mirrors.

Announcement: Written by Inge Wallin

Trademarks Notices. KDE, K Desktop Environment and KOffice are trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech ASA. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.

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