KOfficeSource Means Business

On Open Enterprise blog.

KOffice Made Simpler

The high-profile nature of OpenOffice.org means that KOffice tends not to get the respect it deserves. Maybe the latest iteration will change that, because it offers an interesting addition:

Over two years ago, Inge Wallin proposed a simplified word processor to be used in school for kids. Thomas Zander, the KWord lead developer, made a proof of concept of this using the infrastructure of KOffice 2. This proved simpler than even Thomas would have believed, and KOffice 2.0 Alpha 5 now contains a first version of the KOffice for kids. Note that only the GUI is simplified, and that it still contains the full power of KOffice. This means that it can save and load the OpenDocment Format, which will make it easy to interact with other users of OpenOffice.org or the full KOffice suite.

These are precisely the kind of innovations that free software makes so easy: hacking together a quick prototype and then polishing it. Let's hope that other simplified versions follow, since an "Easy" Office would be useful far beyond its original target market, education.

It would also be a nice riposte to never-ending complexification of Microsoft's own products, which are forced to add more and more obscure features - whether or not users what them - in a desperate attempt to justify yet another paid-for upgrade. Free software is under no such pressure, and can therefore downgrade applications when that might appropriate, as here. Microsoft, by contrast, is trapped by its ratchet-based business model.

ODF Test Suite

One of the key features of the ODF standard is that it can be supported by many different programs. But this begs the question what the standard should look like in practice - i.e., which implementation does things properly.

This test suite, currently under development, goes some way to answering that by providing screen shots of various features in both OpenOffice.org and KOffice. It's both useful and fascinating. (Via An Antic Disposition.)

The ODF Dark Horse: IBM Workplace

By now, everyone (well, nearly) knows about ODF support in things like OpenOffice.org, KOffice and Writely. But a name that may not be so well known is that of IBM Workplace. This mysterious and slightly amorphous product is finally pinned down with almost obsessive thoroughness by Andy Updegrove in one of his continuing series on the ODF environment. Read it for more than you ever wanted to know about the subject.