KOffice is working on its future, one based on KDE4. KOffice is starting new initiatives with libraries like Flake and Pigment that are going to be used for all KOffice applications. For the users of KOffice those changes are invisible until the 2.0 previews actually start to appear some months from now. Therefore the KOffice crew wants to show you their goals of what KOffice 2 is going to look like. Read more for the whole story.

The KOffice team today released the first bug-fix release in their 1.5 series. Critical bugs in KSpread, KWord and Krita were fixed, thanks to the helpful input of our users. We also have updated languages packs. You can read more about it in the press release and the full announcement. A full changelog is also available. Currently, you can download binary packages for Kubuntu and SUSE.

The KOffice team is proud to announce KOffice version 1.5. With this release, KOffice starts its ascent into the office suite hall of fame. This version sports OpenDocument as the default file format, accessibility, a new project planning tool KPlato, professional color support and adjustment layers in Krita and the long awaited Kexi 1.0. You can read more about it in the press release and the full announcement. Packages are available for <!-- Debian,--> Kubuntu and SUSE.

Things are getting closer. The KOffice team is proud to announce the release candidate of KOffice 1.5. With lots of good feedback from the users of beta 1 and beta 2, the release candidate is better than ever. We now invite the user community for the final round of testing of KOffice 1.5 before before the suite is finally released. Read the full announcement, the changelog, download the release, and give it some real world testing for us!

OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 has been announced. Among other new features, fixes, and improvements, this version contains the KDE Addressbook Connector by Éric Bischoff, and Crystal icons from KDE, many newly created by Nuno Pinheiro and Robert Wadley. The Crystal icon set for OOo is not yet complete have a look at the status page if you are interested in helping. Both the KDE Addressbook Connector and the Crystal icons were already available in ooo-build, so you may already have them if your distribution uses ooo-build as a base for the OpenOffice.org packages.

With more than 1500 improvements since the first beta release of the 1.5 series, the KOffice developers invite the user community for the final round of testing of KOffice 1.5 before the first release candidate. Read the full announcement, the changelog, download the release, and give it some real world testing for us!

Martin Pfeiffer has won the competition for KOffice 2 GUI and functionality design. All entries are available under the GPL license at the results page. His entry was chosen from among the eighteen submissions because of its innovative, ground-breaking approach to workflow and document handling. Across the board, the entries were of a high quality and demonstrated eagerness to think outside the established office suite paradigm.

The KOffice UI competition has received a large number of very innovative and detailed entries. Unfortunately KOffice 1.5 is a little delayed and still needs to be released. So all hands are on deck to make sure 1.5 has a perfect OpenDocument implementation and no Krita crashes. That means that the jury (Inge and me, Boudewijn) have decided to postpone our final decision until Sunday, instead of tomorrow, as we need more time to be able to treat all the great contributions fairly.

Late December the KOffice team announced a design competition for KOffice 2. A prize of $1000 USD will be given to the best entry as determined by a panel of judges. The deadline for submissions is now only 2 weeks away. Several quality proposals have been submitted, but there is always room for more. So if you have been considering an entry until now, please read the guidelines for objectives, submission formats and examples. For those already working on entries, please review entry requirements and make sure to meet the deadline. Questions on the competition can be directed to the KOffice mailing lists or on the #koffice IRC channel.

The KDE Project today announced the release of KOffice 1.5 beta 1, the first preview release for KOffice 1.5, scheduled for release this March. KOffice is an integrated office suite with more components than any other suite in existence. Never before has a new version of KOffice brought this many exciting new features including Kexi 1.0 and the first release of project management application KPlato. Read the full announcement and the changelog for more details or read on for the full article.