Apr 30 2012

The Magic of Editable PDFs

I’m a bit late in linking to Simon Phipps’ article, The Magic of Editable PDFs, but it’s such a great tip that you need to know about it (if you don’t already). Here’s a sample:

Did you know you can send a final document as a PDF attachment that everyone will be able to open and view, but which people who need to will also be able to open and edit? The document that can do this magic is called a “Hybrid PDF”, and anyone can make one using open source software. LibreOffice (and related packages like OpenOffice.org) have been able to make these editable PDFs for quite some time. A Hybrid PDF is a normal PDF file that any PDF reader can display, but with the added benefit that the original source document is also embedded in the file. Any suitably advanced office suite, such as LibreOffice, is able to retrieve the source and allow you to edit it.

Apr 23 2012

Printed copies of LibreOffice 3.4 Getting Started guide now available

Cover of LibO 3.4 Getting Started guidePrinted copies of LibreOffice 3.4 Getting Started guide are now available from Lulu.com.

If you would like a printed copy of this book, now is a good time to buy, because Lulu.com is having a sale. Between now and Friday 27 April 2012 at 11:59 pm (in some US time zone), the Lulu.com homepage will have the name of a savings coupon that you can add to your cart to save on the cost of this book—or any other book at Lulu.com.

Apr 22 2012

LibreOffice 3.4 Getting Started guide published

Individual chapters and the full book are available on the wiki. Printed copy coming soon.

Other books for v3.4 (Writer Guide, Draw Guide, Impress Guide, Math Guide) in various stages of completion are also on that wiki page. Work has begun on the v3.4 Calc Guide. More help is always welcome.

Apr 10 2012

LibreOffice 3.5.2

“Berlin, April 5, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.2, the third version of the 3.5 family, targeting private individuals and enterprises. LibreOffice 3.5.2 fixes an additional large number of the bugs identified by TDF QA experts and LibreOffice users worldwide.” Includes some nice graphs of community participation.

Apr 09 2012

What is LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is a suite of programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and vector drawings. It is free to download, use, and distribute. It is available in many languages and runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

LibreOffice’s native file formats are OpenDocument (*.ODT, *.ODS, *.ODP, etc.), but it can open and save to many other formats, including Microsoft Office formats (*.DOC, *.XLS, *.PPT, etc.).

To download LibreOffice, go to the LibreOffice website.

LibreOffice is a project of the not-for-profit organization, The Document Foundation.

Oct 15 2011

Announcements from the LibreOffice Conference

During the LibreOffice Conference, The Document Foundation announced two advanced development projects which will become products sometimes in late 2012 or early 2013:

  • LibreOffice Online Prototype (demo video).
  • LibreOffice port project to Android and iOS.

The press release, with more details, is here.

Aug 28 2011

Printed copies of LibreOffice Math, Impress, and Draw guides

Printed copies of the LibreOffice Math, Impress, and Draw guides are now available from Lulu.com:

Aug 23 2011

LibreOffice Draw and Impress Guides Published

The full Draw Guide (for the vector graphics component of LibreOffice) and Impress Guide (for the presentations or slide shows component) are now available in PDF and ODT on the Documentation page of the LibreOffice website.

Printed copies are coming soon.

Aug 14 2011

LibreOffice 3 Impress Guide and Draw Guide chapters published

Chapters in two more books have been published by the LibreOffice Documentation team:

LibreOffice 3 Impress Guide

LibreOffice 3 Draw Guide

PDFs and ODTs of the individual chapters are available from this page. Full books will be available soon.

Jun 27 2011

Print Edition of LibreOffice Calc Guide Published

The print edition of the LibreOffice Calc Guide (ISBN 978-1-921320-16-3) is available on Lulu.com.

Free PDFs and ODTs of the full book and of the individual chapters are available from this page on the LibreOffice website.