Beta for Calligra 2.5 arrives for testing

The Calligra development team has published a beta for version 2.5 of the Calligra Suite, its collection of open source office and productivity applications for the KDE desktop environment. The notable changes are in the Sheets spreadsheet application, Krita image editing application and Kexi visual database creator.

The Sheets spreadsheet application sees the addition of a new stand-alone docker for the program's cell editor. The 2.4 version of Sheets had the cell editor as a standard tool docker in the side bar. As this was considered to be too narrow by a number of users, the cell editor in 2.5 now has its own dock window; this allows it to be placed above the work area like in other spreadsheet applications. Alternatively, it can be pulled out into its own window. A new cell tool window with formatting controls has also been added to Sheets.

The UI for the Sheets spreadsheet application has been updated The Krita image editing application features improvements to the canvas handling subsystem, an initial version of textured brushes and better OpenRaster compatibility. Other changes in Kirta include support for selecting ruler units, and updates to the transform tool and paintop presets, as well as overall performance improvements.

The Kexi visual database creator now has a full screen mode that can be enabled by pressing the F11 key, and new form elements including a Command Link Button, Slider, Progress Bar and Date Picker widgets have been added to Forms. Across the other programs in the suite, a new system for connecting shapes has been added; these are used for creating charts and are now said to be "both more powerful and easier to use than those in version 2.4".

Further information about the beta can be found in the announcement. The beta for the GPLv2-licensed Calligra 2.5, labelled 2.4.91, is available to download as source or as binaries for various Linux distributions.

Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they find. According to the developers, the final 2.5 release of the Calligra Suite should arrive around the end of July. The current stable release is version 2.4.2 from 30 May.

See also:

• First stable release of the Calligra office and productivity suite, a report from The H.
• KDE: KOffice becomes the Calligra Suite, a report from The H.

(crve)