DEC
7
2011

Calligra Words

Submitted by boemann

Allow me to introduce the amazing new word processor that will be released with Calligra Suite 2.4 in 2012. It is fast and nible to use, and using the powerful Calligra Engine we have made sure it can load .doc and .docx and ODF documents. And with so astonishing quality, that it will be your favourite for viewing such documents.

For writing and editing we are developing an efficient and innovative user interface. It has a lightweight menu bar with only the basic File, Edit, View, Settings and Help menus. Everything else is manipulated through the sidebar.

And by choosing ODF as our native loading and saving format, we have ensured that your documents can be exchanged easily with other users. ODF is chosen by many governments and users around the world.

Our aim is to become the word processor of choice for everyone. In the following releases we will gradually expand and improve our user interface so you can insert and manipulate more of the fantastic features hidden in our engine. But even in the first release you can add and manipulate many of the basic document elements like tables and lists plus more special elements like footnotes, endnotes, autoupdating table of contents, graphics (the text flows around it) and even a bibliography.

We are still in beta phase of development which means we fix bugs and improve the stability, but we are no longer adding new features for the first release. We are regularly releasing beta snapshots and would like to invite you to thoroughly test and report any issues you find. Especially in the areas of editing and saving. This way you can be part of making Calligra Words the best it can be when we finally release.

Comments

If a user has a .docx file that does not open or display properly, should that be filed as a bug on BKO? If not, how should the user notify the devs?

Thanks for the great work!

By dotancohen at Wed, 12/07/2011 - 18:51

Yes Just to BKO and product calligrawords and component .docx

By boemann at Wed, 12/07/2011 - 21:40

"For writing and editing we are developing an efficient and innovative user interface. It has a lightweight menu bar with only the basic File, Edit, View, Settings and Help menus. Everything else is manipulated through the sidebar."

Please, add Ctrl+M support as well. Now many people need to use QtCurve or Bespin styles to hide the menubar. KDEPim applications suffers as well from that very powerfull and needed usability wise feature.

The sidepanel was very great choice, as they are powerfull and smarter on these widescreen display times and there is even more space to place functions and in better format.

Four things what I would add/change (these are/coming valid bug reports to bugs.kde.org so you can track them):

1) Ctrl+M support
2) Fix font look to be good looking (needs the new font engine?)
3) Lock sidepanel groups like in Dolphin and Amarok (right click and lock)
4) Shadows under sheets and bigger space between sheets in continues mode.

Words might come the #1 writing application in the future, it has nearly all the possibilities for that. And it will come to be a one key applications for KDE SC growing success in the future.

It has been so great year... Krita has evolved a lot separated, Calligra got birth and huge development happened almost everywhere in KDE community.

One I must say, I LOVE CALLIGRA APPLICATION NAMES!!!! Words, Plan, Stages, Tables, Flow....

They are so Pro......!!!!

(When calligra fix at least those for things, I will dump LibreOffice almost everywhere where I just can with my powers...)

By fri13 at Wed, 12/07/2011 - 19:47

Yes I at least don't disagree with any of them. They are however not a priority for 2.4. We have much more important things to spend our time on, and the font problem needs to wait for qt 4.8 and then the following Calligra Suite release after that we will probably take advantage of the new features.

By boemann at Wed, 12/07/2011 - 21:38

Please, add Ctrl+M support as well.

That is a very bad idea.

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG/Menu_Bar

Don't make the menubar 'hideable', users may not easily be able to make the menubar viewable again

I wrote a more detail blog about that at The CTRL+M break-me option

By Sebastian Sauer at Thu, 12/08/2011 - 06:59

I am really looking forward to it. It would be great to finally have a KDE base LibreOffice replacement. Is there a kind of feature/improvement comparison to KWORD?
What I am bit worried about is that sidebar. In Kword this was already there and found it to be a waste of space on my screen, but there was no possibility to hide it totally because did not need one of the functions in it. No I see on the screenshot that you have some more functions (manipulating fonts & paragraph) into it, which I do use. But still I would rather prefer to have it hidden and have possibly move fonts manipulation into the menubar. Since you seem to be very proud of this sidebar (which some users surely will like) I fear there is no chance you make it optional and configurable. Would be really a shame.

By markw at Thu, 12/08/2011 - 07:37

No there is no comparison. For the actual release there might be a more detailed list of features. Anyway the differences are enormous.

As far as hiding the sidebar, that may become possible one day, but the functionality will not appear in the menu instead. So if we do the hide thing it will just be hiding and nothing else.

By boemann at Sat, 12/10/2011 - 20:23

"And with so astonishing quality, that it will be your favourite for viewing such documents."

This may be true for layout etc., but the weird font rendering (barely readable, on my system) is a deal-breaker imo.

By smls at Fri, 12/09/2011 - 02:53

yes font rendering is a bit of sore point if you have hinting turn on on system level. If it is turned off the fonts look quite ok.

With Qt 4.8 we will be able to code something to turn the hinting off for just the document view. So you can keep your hinting turned on for everything else.

By boemann at Sat, 12/10/2011 - 20:27