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KOffice Descendent Calligra Office and Creativity Suite Hits Release

jrepin writes "The Calligra team has announced the first release of the Calligra suite of office and creativity applications. This marks the end of a long development period lasting almost one and a half year. It is the first release in a long series which is planned to make improved applications every 4 months. Calligra is a continuation of the old KOffice project and it may be interesting for KOffice users to know what they will get. Some highlights are: a completely rewritten text layout engine that can handle most of the advanced layout features of OpenDocument Format (ODF), simplified user interface, support for larger parts of the ODF specification (for example line endings like arrows), and improved import filters for Microsoft document formats. There are also two new applications: Flow for diagrams and flowcharts, and Braindump for the note taking. Calligra Active is a new interface for touch based devices and especially for the KDE Plasma Active environment. Several companies have already used Calligra as a base for their own office solution. One of them is Nokia with their N9 high end smartphone where Calligra is embedded into the so called Harmattan Office."

16 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A related question by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 2

    OpenOffice's fork libreoffice is probably the best. I haven't had a chance to play with calligra, but Koffice is a joke. Sure its fast and lightweight, but it doesn't really render any documment type very well (ODF or Microsoft formats) and crashes at every chance. There are individual applications like Krita the photo editing app that are solid decent apps, but the main Office aps ( word processor, spreadsheet, slide show presenter) suck.

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  2. Re:A related question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You should test it again. Calligra renders all the document types very much better, including MS formats, and it doesn't crash (we hope :) ).

    And Krita is not a photo editing app but a painting app. It used to be a do-it-all for images but a few years ago they decided to become a pure painting app. Which they did.

  3. Re:A related question by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have heard this before, but i have not had problems with Koffice for a few versions now.

    Sure, it was more lightweight ( by design ) and not real compatible, but it was a nice light alternative to the big boys. Espcially when you realize that 90% of the features in the larger suites go un-used by 90% of the users.

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  4. Re:A related question by pwizard2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I guess what I'm asking (and I know this is subjective and I'm not looking to start a pissing contest here), is OpenOffice still the best alternative to Office out there? And how do some of these new alternatives compare (to each other and to Office)?

    If you are still using old fashioned .doc files or ODF, you can get away with using OpenOffice/LibreOffice. I've used OO.o with MSOffice 97-03 files for the past 6 years with minimal compatibility problems. However, all that goes out the window with OOXML files, since support for that is still abysmal in OO.o or LO. For instance, don't even think of editing a moderately complex (multi-level headings, lists, tables, etc.) docx in Writer. Writer makes a passable docx viewer but the file will be fucked up every single time if you modify it in Writer and then open it again in Word. I found that out the hard way.

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  5. Re:A related question by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 3, Informative

    Libre office simply has more features. There were a lot of features people wanted to add to open office but couldn't get past the Sun gatekeeper. That lead to the Go-oo fork with all of those added in. Now they've merged with libreoffice, so all of those features and developers have been added into libre. Basically the bigest features for me are improved MS format fiedelity in reading and writing.

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  6. Re:A related question by pavon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Significantly decreased memory usage
    Significantly improved compatibility/speed with OOXML and other formats.
    Look & Feel better matches native applications
    Improved Font Rendering on Linux
    New import filters: Lotus Word Pro, MS Works
    SVG import
    Spreadsheets support RxCx cell references.
    Can use online help for more up-to-date documentation.

  7. Re:A related question by ratboy666 · · Score: 2

    Libreoffice (sorry, I am going to mash up versions). No "fatal" flaw fixed -- but there are a lot of improvements.

    - improved text display
    - better typography (true small-caps, etc.)
    - bug fixes
    - improved ergonomics (dialogs, previews)
    - better header/footer editing
    - better import/export, including Visio import
    - dead code removal
    - grammar checker

    Anyway, OpenOffice is no longer Oracle, so there may be a merge

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    Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
  8. Re:COCS? by marcello_dl · · Score: 2

    COCS for UNIX.
    It figures.

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  9. Diagramming/Flow charts by Patch86 · · Score: 2

    There are also two new applications: Flow for diagrams and flowcharts, and Braindump for the note taking.

    If it has something comparable to MS Visio, suddenly I'm interested. Visio is pretty much eh only piece of software in the MS Office suite which I haven't found at least a very rough FOSS competitor to. I've been pinning my hopes on Libre/Open Office coming up with something, and never given KOffice much thought. This makes it a bit of a game changer for when I'm deciding which free office suite to throw on my home computers.

    Anyone have any experience running this software under Windows 7? Or Gnome/XFCE/LXDE for that matter? Any good?

    1. Re:Diagramming/Flow charts by fast+turtle · · Score: 3, Informative

      then you've never looked at Dia have you? It's a reasonble competitor to Visio and it's opensourced.

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    2. Re:Diagramming/Flow charts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Come back when it uses a single window and you can draw basic shapes and link them together with lines, arrows, and objects have "snappy" corners and midpoints of their edges. That's really what 90% of people need.

      Oh, it is not a single window app. The remaining is there.

    3. Re:Diagramming/Flow charts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Visio import filter via libvisio is in the master already, so it will be available in 2.5 (it will be released in 4 months or something).

  10. Slashdotted by Qubit · · Score: 2

    Coral Cache link to the press release/notes.

    Use it.

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  11. Re:COCS? by Barefoot+Monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    COCS for UNIX.
    It figures.

    I know - it's appalling. As a KDE application they should put a K somewhere in the abbreviation.

  12. Re:A related question by spookthesunset · · Score: 2

    And that 90% is different for every user. You might use all the charting in excel, I might use all the financial functions. You might use the templates in word, I might use the collaboration tools.

  13. Re:How does it stack up? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2

    What is missing from TFA is how well it stacks up with other software. When you want me to switch to your new system, you have to make your case.

    Sorry, you're not the target audience.

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