<part id="kde-office">
<partinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<personname>
<firstname>Raphael</firstname>
<surname>Langerhorst</surname>
</personname>
<email>raphael.langerhorst@kdemail.net</email>
</author>
<!--
<othercredit role="reviewer">
</othercredit>
-->
</authorgroup>
</partinfo>

<!-- keep a copy of the desired structure here:
* KDE Office
        * Introduction to KOffice
                * Overview
                * Features
                * OASIS OpenDocument file format
        * Document embedding
                * KParts and KOffice
                * Example document
        * KOffice components overview
                * ... [a short intro to all components]
        * Further information
                * Application manuals
                * Internet resources
                * Plugin development
-->

<title>&kde; Office</title>

<chapter id="kde-office-introduction">
<title>Introduction to KOffice</title>

<sect1 id="kde-office-overview">
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
The &kde; project has also created a fully featured office suite
called &koffice; which adheres to standards and fits very well into
the &kde; desktop. This section was written with version 1.4 of
&koffice; in mind.
</para>
<para>
&koffice; is a highly integrated office suite that builds directly on the
KDE technology. This has many advantages in terms of integration, features,
performance, familiar look and feel and so on. All technologies like &DCOP;,
KIO, KParts are directly available.
</para>
<para>
In particular the KParts technology is extended for the &koffice;
components to allow very flexible embedding of documents inside documents.
</para>
<para>
Because much technology is already present inside &kde; itself, &koffice; is
a very lightweight office suite, which results in fast application startup
and low memory consumption. This makes &koffice; a very suitable office suite
for older hardware as well, which can save lots of costs in some cases.
</para>
<para>
&koffice; is also a very feature complete office suite. It is not limited to
word processing, spreadsheets or presentations, but has also components for
image manipulation, flow charts, business report generation, database
management and project management. Because of the flexible component
integration smaller utilities like the diagram and chart engine as well
as the formula editor are available as stand alone tools.
</para>
<para>
As you can see &koffice; brings a lot of features that can enrich your
office experience. Its straight forward and &kde; like approach in look
and feel as well as familiar usability makes &koffice; quite useful for
daily office work.
</para>
<!-- include this para at the end in further information
<para>
You can always take a look at the &koffice;
<ulink url="http://www.koffice.org">website</ulink> to check on the latest
state of the application.
</para>
-->
</sect1>

<sect1 id="kde-office-features">
<title>Features</title>
<para>
This list gives a general outline of the &koffice; features.
The &koffice; office suite is too large to list every detail.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<title>&koffice; features:</title>
<listitem><para>Fully builds on &kde; which makes these technologies available at low costs.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Fully integrates into &kde; which is vital for business environments.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>&kde; technologies include document location abstraction, DCOP scripting, parts and plugins,...</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Full Component embedding.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Low memory footprint, fast startup, lightweight.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Feature complete: many components are offered.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Intuitive, good looking and easy to learn user interface.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Adheres to standards: OASIS OpenDocument file format.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="kde-office-fileformat">
<title>OASIS OpenDocument file format</title>
<para>
It is important for an office suite to use standards where possible,
especially for the file format. The OASIS OpenDocument file format
specification is an open standard for office applications. This
format is spreading more and more, it is also the same file format
OpenOffice.org uses, which means that file exchange with any
user of this office suite is easily possible.
</para>
<para>
Adhering to official standards is always a good thing. For business
environments it is even vital to exactly know about their documents.
</para>
<para>
&koffice; has more components to offer than what is covered by the
OASIS specification. Still, all components covered by the specifications
actually use the OASIS OpenDocument file format. 
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>

<!-- comment out for final commit before freeze
<chapter id="kde-office-embedding">
<title>Component Embedding</title>
<sect1 id="kde-office-kparts">
<title>KParts and &koffice;</title>
<para>To be written</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="kde-office-example">
<title>Example</title>
<para>To be written</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
-->

<chapter id="kde-office-components">
<title>&koffice; Components Overview</title>
<sect1 id="kde-office-componentslist">
<title>Available &koffice; Components</title>
<para>Keep in mind that all these components can integrate
very well into each other. So basically a spreadsheet
can contain anything from charts to presentations,
reports and even text documents. Likewise almost any
component can contain almost any other.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Text Processing and Desktop Publishing - &kword;</title>
<para>&kword; is mainly a textprocessing component, but it
includes many aspects of a desktop publishing application.
This creates a rather unique mixture of features that makes
interesting layouts easily possible.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Spreadsheets - &kspread;</title>
<para>&kspread; is a pretty standard spreadsheet application.
It offers many functions as well as formatting, multiple
sheets, charts, diagrams and more. Of course it can easily
integrate any other koffice component to extend its abilities.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Presentations - &kpresenter;</title>
<para>&kpresenter; is a presentation component. It can be used
to create on-screen presentations or to design and print
transparencies.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Flow Charts and more - &kivio;</title>
<para>&kivio; can be used for any kind of flow charts or
diagrams. Additional stencil sets can be used for custom
needs. Even UML diagrams are possible.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Vector Graphics - &karbon14;</title>
<para>&karbon14; is a vector drawing application.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Pixmap Graphics - &krita;</title>
<para>&krita; is a tool for creating high quality
pixmap graphics. It offers many plugins for image
manipulations and supports various formats.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Business Reports - &kugar;</title>
<para>&kugar; can be used to create business
quality reports. A designer helps to easily
design such reports.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Database Management and Forms - &kexi;</title>
<para>&kexi; is a full blown database management
application. You can design forms for working with
data. Many backends, like PostgreSQL or MySQL are
possible. It is even capable of importing MS Access mdb
database files.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="kde-office-furtherinfo">

<title>Further Information</title>
<sect1 id="kde-office-manuals">
<title>Application Manuals</title>
<para>Each Koffice component comes with its own manual.
These manuals offer all the latest information about the
various components &koffice; has to offer and should be
read to learn more about &koffice;. The website is
also a good place to find out more.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="kde-office-internet">
<title>Internet Resources</title>
<para>The primary site on the internet is
<ulink url="http://www.koffice.org">http://www.koffice.org</ulink></para>
<para>You will also find information about the user and developer
mailing lists as well as additional developer resources.</para>
<para>The Kexi project has even an additional website, which can be
found at <ulink url="http://www.kexi-project.org">http://www.kexi-project.org
</ulink></para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="kde-office-plugininfo">
<title>Plugin development</title>
<para>&koffice; can easily be extended with plugins. Plugin development is
not very difficult and can be used to optimize your everyday workflow. Such
capabilities are probably very interesting in business environments to
make &koffice; meet individual requirements. You can either take a look
at existing plugins or read a general introduction at
<ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/developing-a-plugin-structure/index.html">
the developer's site</ulink>. The general KDE developers website is available
at <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/">http://developer.kde.org</ulink>.
</para>
</sect1>

</chapter>
</part>
