KOffice 2.0.0 released after a long wait

[Dr.Jones]

After making and working for almost more than two years, the KOffice project has released version 2.0.0 of if its cross-platform office suite of the same name today, adding features like scripting support and a new shape library.The cross-platform office productivity suite has been almost completely rewritten and consists of six applications, each suited to cover various tasks either at home or in an enterprise environment. While KOffice is obviously geared towards use on KDE, it's available for Windows, Mac OS X, and GNOME-based distributions as well, making it much more platform-independent than Microsoft's Office suite. Version 2.0.0 was released today, and comes with a whole boatload of improvements.

This is the first release or we call it a "Platform Release" of a long series, much like KDE 4.0 laid the groundwork for what is now a fully mature desktop environment. The developers have so far concentrated on creating a flexible and powerful foundation that we can build on for a long time.But, as this version is the first using the new engine, the team only recommends it to early adopters, developers and testers, urging regular users to wait for upcoming maintenance releases.KOffice 2.0 will be useful for some users, but since it is the first release in a long series, it is likely to contain bugs and incompatibilities.

With its new design (everything, including the core components, is a module) and bindings, you don't need to know C++ to hack on KOffice, as extensions can be written in Python or Java, among others.Moreover, certain components that existed in KOffice 1.6 aren't available in 2.0.0, but are expected to be re-introduced in KOffice 2.1 and 2.2. The wait will be worth it, as the team promises to make them more efficient and better integrated in the suite.KOffice 2.0.0 includes six main applications – KWord, KSpread, KPresenter, KPlato (project management), Karbon (vector-based drawing), and Krita (image manipulation).In the release announcement, the team states that future versions 2.1 and 2.2 will bring feature and application parity to the 2.x series. They have learned from KDE4's mistake: they state as clearly as humanly possible that KOffice 2.0.0 is not aimed at end users just yet.

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. It is possible that the release of binaries for Windows and Macintosh will occur after some time if other packages that KOffice depend on need more time.Another anticipated change is native support for the ODF, Open Document Format, ensuring compatibility with other Office suites, including OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office. System resource usage with KOffice is considerably less than OpenOffice. That's because of the shared library effect. Works great on low-DRAM machines especially. It's snappy and does a very nice job.

[jackalz]

KOffice 2.0 is the first release that takes full advantage of the improvements in Qt4 and KDE4, a task which took over 3 years to complete. Two improvements made along the way really stand out to me: a reworked and improved interface, and the concept of Flake Shapes. Since one of my prime interests has always been UI design and functioning, let's focus on the UI changes first.The KChart software that existed in previous releases is now available throughout the whole KOffice Suite in the form of a shape plug-in.One of the major new features in KOffice 2 is "Flake," a shape that can either be a simple geometric figure or a very complex chart.

But the best part is that Flake Shape is available in all of KOffice 2.0.0 components, providing very solid integration and interoperability.All the applications of KOffice has 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 fo full flexibility. The users setup preferences are of course saved and reused the next time that KOffice is started.

KOffice Components:

1. KWord - Word processor
   
   
2. KSpread - Spreadsheet calculator
   
   
3. KPresenter - Presentation manager
   
   
4. KPlato - Project management software
   
   
5. Karbon - Vector graphics editor
   
   
6. Krita - Raster graphics editor

[Addis]

The Kexi database creator, the formula shape, and Kivio Flowchart editor; if the first two are almost certain to be available in KOffice 2.1, Kivio is not maintained anymore and its future is uncertain. Instead of using toolbars the KOffice team opted for placing tools in a sidebar. These tools can be torn off and treated as windows, docked on both sides, and so on. This brings some serious flexibility into the mix.KOffice uses the OpenDocument Format as its native format.

This will guarantee interoperability 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.While Office 2003 also supports dockable toolbars, which can also be placed on the sides, it doesn't look as elegant as what I'm seeing in KOffice 2.0.0. It feels like an afterthought in 2003.

[Charlton]

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 can e.g. target special user groups like kids or certain professions.Flake Shapes are basically clippings of a document which can be re-used in any other document in any other KOffice 2.0.0 application, providing good cross-application integration.These applications and components are still under heavy development and may appear in the 2.1 release, slated for the end of 2009.