You may have seen documents change slightly between tools – sometimes that’s between different companies’ applications, sometimes it’s even the same company’s browser-based or desktop offering. A table moves, a font changes, something is missing, or a layout looks just a bit off.

It’s all because of differences between how documents are described by both editors and file formats. The good news is: modern document editors can be designed to handle the linguistic differences.

How document editors should translate

Modern document formats such as OOXML (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx …) and ODF (.odt, .ods, .odp …) are both highly capable and widely used. But like languages, they express certain details differently.

Each editor has a native file format, like a mother tongue. For Collabora Office, that is ODF, which is a truly open format with an open development process. For Microsoft that is OOXML, “a pseudo-standard that pretends to be open”.

Ideally, a well-designed document editor acts like a skilled translator. It ensures that documents open, display, and behave consistently, even when moving between formats.

To do this, the document editor uses what are known as import and export filters ensuring that features are handled correctly. This does however leave open the question of what to happens to features that are only available in one format and therefore cannot be ‘translated’ (similar to the ‘the’ from the above example).

A good way to illustrate this question is by showing what happens when it goes wrong. Microsoft opens and edits all files in the OOXML format. This means if you open an ODP with the total slide count in the template in PowerPoint for example, a feature OOXML does not have, it permanently throws away the information – even without trying to open or save the file as .pptx. PowerPoint’s mother tongue is OOXML, so it has no idea what <count> means.

This makes us sad! We like to know how much longer a presentation is going to go on for…

In the case of a feature missing between formats in the Collabora Office suite, we tend touse what we call ‘grab bags’ to temporarily store the document feature before saving it again in its original format. Ideally, PowerPoint would operate more like the Collabora Office suite, and recognise this as information it doesn’t fully understand but that should be retained somehow. Unfortunately that is not the case.

Regrettably, this principle is not well understood by many, even by those who are aware of the problem of dependency on Microsoft’s OOXML. Two of the first five issues raised in a new office suite’s GitHub repos are duplicate requests for the suite to default to ODF. Unfortunately the office suite in question is based on a document editor that primarily speaks OOXML and has poor ODF support, so the requests are unlikely to be actioned.

Not all technologies speak the same language

Many (most?) Microsoft Office users will have noticed that Microsoft Office features look and behave differently depending on if a document is opened in the browser, or using the desktop app. This is because the applications known to most as “Microsoft Office” are in fact two independently developed applications – Word Desktop and Word Web. Confusing the situation further, Microsoft appears to have multiple and slightly differing descriptions of how features operate between the two.

Technically, this is a different question to file format interoperability, but feature availability is nonetheless important and plays a significant role in the interoperability equation. There’s no point having a document editor that cannot edit your documents right? Microsoft disagrees it would seem: “Microsoft Word Web App lets you make basic edits and formatting changes to your document in a web browser. For more advanced features, use Word Web App’s Open in Word command […] some features work differently in the two environments.” (Accessed 31/03/2026)

Fortunately for users of the Collabora Office suite, with the newly released Collabora Office, they can enjoy one and the same editing and document rendering experience whether editing documents in-browser, or on their desktop thanks to the fully shared codebase between the two apps.

Achieving perfect interoperability

We’d like to say that we are perfect translators, understanding everything and converting 100% of documents flawlessly, but this would be untrue. What we can say is we are excellent at working with both Microsoft file formats and ODF.

Additionally, unlike most Microsoft format based editors, we think it is important to work well with both legacy document types, as well as the open future. Arguments suggesting that because we encourage usage of ODF, we must therefore not be appropriate for use with .docx or .xlsx are poor and don’t stand up to scrutiny. Just because we’re great at ODF doesn’t stop us being great at interop too.

While we prefer ODF dues to it’s openness and documentation, we support and develop OOXML, both for new features that come with new versions. As a company, we deliberately use both formats internally, and do not encounter issues in our regular working. With our support these minor dialectical difference don’t need to hold up real-world large-scale migrations either.

Among other efforts to improve interoperability, over the past year we have been focusing on validity testing of about 243 000 documents, spreadsheets and presentations in various formats converted to the corresponding OOXML format, with the goal of getting to zero. The following chart shows the progress over the last few months for spreadsheets and presentations.

You should be able to open a document, edit it, share it, and know it will behave as expected. This will only be fully achieved as the world moves to a truly open standard, and away from the Microsoft owned/governed semi-proprietary confusion.

Additionally your documents should behave the same in your browser, on your desktop, or in your pocket. This is now possible with shared-codebase programs like Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

In the meantime, we continue to deal with the reality of ubiquitous Microsoft-format legacy documents, and are pleased that the vast majority of users will not discover issues opening and editing Microsoft file types in their day to day work with Collabora Office.

If you want to see what that looks like in practice, we encourage you to try out the Collabora Office suite – and enjoy working across platforms and formats with confidence.

The post Interop EXPLAINED appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Michael Meeks

Update: 2026-04-07

Update: 2026-04-11

Let’s kick the developers out!

In the ongoing saga of The Document Foundation (TDF), their Membership Committee has decided to eject from membership all Collabora staff and partners. That includes over thirty people who have contributed faithfully to LibreOffice for many years. It is interesting to see a formal meritocracy eject so many, based on unproven legal concerns and guilt by association. This includes seven of the top ten core committers of all time (excluding release engineers) currently working for Collabora Productivity. The move is the culmination of TDF losing a large number of founders from membership over the last few years with: Thorsten Behrens, Jan ‘Kendy’ Holesovsky, Rene Engelhard, Caolan McNamara, Michael Meeks, Cor Nouws and Italo Vignoli no longer members. Of the remaining active founders, three of the last four are paid TDF staff (of whom none are programming on the core code).

Contriving a mess

In recent times TDF’s strategy has included: stacking the TDF board with non-technical, affiliated staff, and at the same time accusing others of historic conflicts of interest; overriding past board and engineering steering committee decisions and violating their own processes to drag code out of the attic to enable competing with their largest single contributor. This last apparently with no clear technical plan beyond “to start a discussion”. Other schemes worth discouraging have been spending donors’ money to take legal action against blameless, volunteer, ex-board members (for seemingly contrived reasons), and threatening those that contribute to the project for using the normally free to use LibreOffice trademark under license, while ignoring the widespread misuse of the mark by unlicensed non-contributors.

Another innovation has been a new tendering policy: voted through full of regression bugs and FIXMEs, or perhaps TDF incredibly not paying for tendered code under contracts that had been delivered (and meanwhile selling that code itself in app-stores). Then we have delaying and overturning elections after they are run, or dramatic changes to TDF’s bylaws by a rump-board. Another highlight has been ejecting conference organizers Gabriel Massei and Gabor Kelemen, the latter in mid-organization of the annual conference (who nobly continued to deliver that). We could spend a week enumerating the contributions of those unfairly removed, how about Andras Timar who was responsible for creating our translation infrastructure, but let’s not get too deeply into this deep well of tangled incoherence; so where is the good news

Sense & sensibility

Our team at Collabora is dedicated to making Open Source Rock: restoring Digital Sovereignty to our users. Many of us helped to create LibreOffice before TDF even existed, and we plan to continue our mission. If for now we can climb out of this pit of directionless political grievance – that is a relief, and we have a clear plan. If, like us, you too love to work on making great Free / Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS), and like a sensible place to do it please do come work with us on what is still by far the best FLOSS Office code-base in the world – with a bright future ahead of it.

We are of course really grateful to an amazing legacy of code from StarDivision, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, SUSE, RedHat and so many others who have contributed in the wider community and to our many photogenic supporters for their support. We are also deeply grateful to our partners and customers for funding everything we do.

Outside of the TDF ‘strategy’ bubble – I would also like to acknowledge all the good and decent TDF staff with real experience of FLOSS projects that we have collaborated with around the code for many years very happily to do amazing things: we respect your service, competence and commitment.

What’s next ?

We have bold and ongoing plans to create an entirely new, cut-down, differentiated Collabora Office for users that is smoother, more user friendly, and less feature dense than our Classic product (which will continue to be supported for years for our partners). This gives a chance to innovate faster in a separate place on a smaller, more focused code-base with fewer build configurations, much less legacy, no Java, no database, web-based toolkit and more. We are excited to get executing on that.

To make this process easier, and to put to bed complaints about having our distro branches in TDF gerrit, and to move to self-hosted FOSS tooling we are launching our own gerrit to host our existing branch of core, more details on how git works here. To get involved this will mean creating a new account on the system and a few hours of disruption while our CI systems are moved over. We will continue to make contributions to LibreOffice where that makes sense (if we are welcome to), but it clearly no longer makes much sense to continue investing heavily in building what remains of TDF’s community and product for them – while being excluded from its governance. In this regard, we seem to be back where we were fifteen years ago. Meanwhile TDF continues to hire developers, sells LibreOffice and starts to act more like a staff-controlled collective than a Free Software project.

The post TDF ejects its core developers appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

A quick, practical explanation of Git?

Developed in 2005, Git is the system most modern open-source software uses to manage code.

At its simplest, Git answers three questions:

• What changed?
• Who changed it & when?
• How does this relate to everything that came before?

But the important thing isn’t just tracking changes – it’s how Git enables collaboration.

Everyone has the whole project

With Git, every developer can have a full copy of the codebase on their own machine.

Not just the latest version – the entire history.

That means no single server is “the” source of truth, work doesn’t stop if a service goes offline, and it enables developers to work independently, offline, and in parallel
Each copy is complete and verifiable.

Work happens in many repositories

Instead of everyone editing the same version of the code at once, Git encourages work to happen on clones. There are many reasons for this, but essentially it enables developers to try new features and fixes on the code, without potentially causing disruption to others.

Copies can be short-lived or long-running, shared or private. They’re simple to create, easy to merge, and easy to discard.

Parallel development is the standard operating procedure.

Git makes independence normal - not exceptional

Git isn’t just a version control system; it’s a different way of thinking about collaboration.

With Git:

• Everyone can have a complete copy of the codebase
• Every copy usually includes the entire history, in a cryptographically linked chain
  
  • This makes it extremely difficult to smuggle in malicious changes unnoticed. You can’t quietly rewrite the past – any alteration breaks this chain of links and is immediately detectable.
• Every developer can work on their own code, at their own pace
• A single developer can pull code from multiple remote sources
• Code can flow between repositories, not just “up” or “down”

This is what makes Git a real powerhouse in the programming world. Each commit hash uniquely defines the full history up to that point and the entire repository state. Provenance is built in. Trust is verifiable. Collaboration doesn’t depend on a single server or a single workflow.

Built-in resilience and disaster recovery

One of the most overlooked strengths of Git’s distributed model is resilience. Because every clone is a complete copy of the project – including its full history – the future of the codebase does not depend on a single server, organisation, or hosting provider to survive.

If a hosting platform disappears, the project does not disappear with it. If a company changes direction, the code remains available. If infrastructure fails, development can continue from any full copy.

Traditional software vendors often rely on expensive source code escrow agreements as a safeguard in case a supplier collapses. With open-source software managed by Git, this protection comes baked into the technical architecture for everyone.

Disaster recovery is no longer a contingency plan, it is the default state of the system.

This resilience matters deeply for governments, enterprises, and long-term infrastructure projects. Software that underpins critical systems must not depend on a single point of failure – organisational or technical.

More forks than a restaurant ?

In some git-based development flows, the process of creating your own repository to work on new features and fixes independently is called forking.

On platforms like GitHub, it’s a prominent button at the top of the page because it’s a normal part of how distributed development works.

At the time of this screenshot for example, there were 978 forked copies of the Collabora Online source code – most of them made by developers eager to contribute back to the goodness – we love that!

Multiple remotes, multiple maintainers, multiple priorities, connected by shared code, shared history, bonds of friendship and collaboration powered by the Git synchronisation protocol. The choice of hosting and infrastructure becomes an almost irrelevant detail, with developers choosing the tools and processes that best support their work.

Improvements can be exchanged, and collaboration can happen without requiring everyone to follow the same internal processes or timelines.

At the same time, in ecosystems with many development paths, trusted editors play a critical role in curating, integrating, and supporting coherent, branded, secure releases.

The post Distributed by Design: How Modern Open Source Works appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Sovereignty or Legacy, You Choose

There is a lot of energy right now around European digital stacks. Self-hosted infrastructure. Local control. Reduced dependence on American cloud vendors. And all of that matters.

It seems to be a pattern that people take other people’s software that they have not written, and will struggle to support and put their brand on it, and wrap a European flag around it

But we should be honest about one thing – you are not sovereign if Microsoft still defines the fundamental design of your application, as well as your document formats.

You can move the server. You can change the branding. You can even swap out one vendor for another. But if the office layer at the heart of your stack is still at root built around Microsoft’s file formats, then they still set the rules that matter most. Your documents live inside a model you do not control, cannot meaningfully govern, and have no real power to shape.

That is not digital sovereignty. That is a hosting decision.

Self-hosting is not the same as sovereignty

A self-hosted office suite built around OOXML may reduce dependency on Microsoft 365 as a service. It may reduce exposure to American hyperscalers. It may tick some procurement boxes. But it does not solve the deeper problem – after all, you could do this with SharePoint 2019 till recently.

OOXML is Microsoft’s document model, standardised after the fact. Microsoft’s own documentation clearly describes .docx .xlsx and .pptx as formats to “support the features and behavior of Microsoft Office” while noting that ODF and Open XML reflect different application behaviours and feature sets. These are not neutral containers floating above the market, they reflect the architecture, priorities and direction of the organisations that created them.

That matters because formats are not just a way to save files. They encode the document model itself: what features exist, how layouts behave, how compatibility is judged, what gets preserved, and what gets lost. If you open an .odp presentation with the total slide count in the template in Microsoft PowerPoint, or save the file as a .pptx for example, PowerPoint and the .pptx file format simply throw away the information. If you want that feature back, good luck with the Microsoft support forums…

In short, if your strategy is to architect your software around Microsoft’s models, you can play with the UI styling and colours, but your product direction is being decided elsewhere.

You can call that interoperability, you can call it compatibility, for legacy workflows, it is certainly important and necessary. But you cannot call this strategy sovereignty.

Don’t get confused by marketing

There is nothing wrong with saying a product has strong OOXML interoperability – we all work on it. The mistake is turning that into the main sovereignty story.

ONLYOFFICE, for example, leans heavily on this message. Its public materials describe its editor as using OOXML natively, with all files converted into the format “when opening and editing files”.

Quoting directly: “If the file format is different from OOXML, it will still be converted to the corresponding OOXML […] As the formats are fundamentally different, some data (such as charts, tables, autoshapes or images) and formatting can be lost due to the simple reason that some formats […] treat them differently than OOXML standard does.”

That’s great if you want to centre your digital strategy around Microsoft, but absurd as the centrepiece of a digital sovereignty pitch.

True interoperability is: “We can work with the legacy world.”

And true sovereignty says: “We won’t build our future around the proprietary past.”

If your product story begins and ends with how closely you follow Microsoft’s formats, then your roadmap is still architected by Microsoft.

The post You Are Not Sovereign If Microsoft Still Architects Your Documents appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Welcome back to our interview series, where we chat with the passionate people behind the Collabora Online code. Collabora Online is made possible by the worldwide team, community, contributors and partners. Today, we’re sitting down with Maya Stephens, a software engineering intern whose journey began in a primary school code club and evolved into contributing to global open-source projects.

About Maya

Maya is a student and open-source contributor who balances her time between university lectures and software development. After diving deep into coding during the lockdown years, she found her way to Collabora through the local robotics community. When she isn’t refining hyperlink functionality or compiling code in the Cambridge office, you’ll likely find her masterminding a victory in a board game or playing Blood on the Clocktower with friends.

What first inspired you to get into tech? Do you remember your earliest experience?

I attended a code club at primary school in Year 5 and just continued from there. I learned a lot over lockdown, where I had access to a computer all day and found the motivation to code around my schoolwork. I really enjoyed the ability to create things while also developing new skills.

What does the philosophy of open source mean to you?

I like being able to support software that is available for anyone to use for free. There is also a great sense of personal achievement in it. I enjoy being able to look at specific features and say, “I did that!” and be proud of it.

You spent a lot of time working with us over the summer. Which feature are you most excited about right now?

Considering it was the focus of so much of my work over the summer, I feel obligated to say hyperlinks! That being said, Collabora Office for desktop is really cool; it makes it a lot easier for me to recommend the suite to other people.

How did you first hear about Collabora Online?

I heard about it through a (now) colleague talking about her work while she was volunteering at a robotics society I was part of.

What’s the best part of working at Collabora / contributing to the community?

As someone who had never worked in software before, I really appreciate the patience everyone had with me. There was a lot to learn and Collabora has been very supportive. Looking back, I realized some of the problems I encountered could have been solved even faster if I had just asked for help sooner!

What does a “day in the life” look like for you?

It changes depending on the time of year. During term time I attend lectures and spend the evenings with my friends, during the holidays I do work in the office during the day, then try to call friends in the evening, while meeting local friends in person at the weekend.

When you’re not at your desk, what are you passionate about?

I enjoy playing board games with friends as a way to spend quality time together. Recently, I’ve been playing a lot of Blood on the Clocktower!

Maya’s story shows how far a little curiosity and a supportive community can take a budding developer. She represents the next generation of developers who value accessibility, open collaboration, and the simple joy of being able to say, “I built that.” We can’t wait to see what she builds next!

The post An Interview with Maya: From Code Club Curiosity to Open-Source Contributor appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Open Source Software is software whose source code is publicly available to use, study, modify, and share.

That sounds simple — and it is — but the consequences are anything but.

Open source shapes how software is built, who controls it, how long it lasts, and who gets a say when things change.

The post FLOSS FOSS OSS? Open Source Explained appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Digital sovereignty is the ability to make independent, enforceable decisions about your digital infrastructure – without being forced by vendors, platforms, or jurisdictions you do not control.

This might include but is not limited to:

• Where your data lives
• Who can access it
• What laws apply
• What happens if a vendor changes terms, pricing, or strategy
• Whether you can realistically switch providers

Crucially, it is not:

• A synonym for “on-prem”
• A rejection of cloud technologies
• A nationalist or isolationist idea

It is about control and choice.

The post Digital Sovereignty Explained appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Welcome back to our interview series, where we chat with the passionate people behind the Collabora Online code. Collabora Online is made possible by the worldwide team, community, contributors and partners. Today, we’re sitting down with Pranam Lashkari, a developer whose journey into tech began with a DIY computer build and a desire to give users better experience and more features.

About Pranam

Pranam Lashkari is a Software Engineer at Collabora Productivity and a dedicated advocate for open-source software. As a digital nomad, Pranam balances his technical contributions to LibreOffice and Collabora Online with a life of adventure. When he isn’t streamlining C++ codebases or developing new features like “Follow Me” slideshows, he can be found surfing, paragliding, or volunteering at an astronomy observatory to spread science awareness.

What first inspired you to get into tech? Do you remember your earliest experience?

As a 10-year-old child, being able to install games on a computer without anyone’s help made me think I was good at computers! With age, this grew into a profound interest in all things tech. When I was 12, I built my first computer using an AMD Phenom II X2 555. I was very proud of that small achievement, and it motivated me to learn more.

What led you specifically toward the world of open source?

When I was in university, I wanted to write code that would be used by thousands of people. As a “fresher,” it’s hard to get hired by massive projects and see your code in production instantly, and I wasn’t patient at all! I realized the easiest way to achieve that goal was contributing to established open-source projects.

How did you first hear about Collabora Online, and what brought you to the team?

Being a long-time LibreOffice user, I heard about Collabora Online. I was originally hired by Collabora Productivity to contribute to LibreOffice, and as a byproduct, I also developed for Collabora Online.

What was your very first contribution to the project?

I started by removing the Poco C++ Library from the C++ codebase and replacing it with standard C++ libraries.

Which feature or project are you most pleased with working on recently?

I love everything I’ve worked on, but most recently, I’d say the “Follow Me” slideshow and the context toolbar. I am always excited about whatever I’m currently working on; I always want to give users a better experience.

How does this work connect to your personal values?

In a world where most big corporations are trying to steal your data, Collabora Online gives the power back to the user. I love that we provide an alternative where the user owns their data and it is kept private. It feels good to be “good” in an often “evil” tech world.

You describe yourself as a digital nomad. How has the remote work culture at Collabora changed your life?

I always dreamt of being a digital nomad, and I was finally able to achieve that by working with Collabora. It has allowed me to live that lifestyle for the most part while staying connected to the community.

Speaking of the community, you’ve attended COOL Days. What was that experience like for you?

COOL Days makes me feel like I’m not just talking to a robot on a screen, but working with real humans. My most memorable moment was the 2023 treasure hunt in Cambridge – it was the most amazing time I’ve ever had at a conference. I always look forward to the team-building activities.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start contributing but feels intimidated?

Don’t think, just do it. You don’t need to be an expert at anything to start. Open-source contribution is a starting point in tech, not the end point.

Finally, what is something about you that might surprise people?

In my free time, I volunteer at a local astronomy observatory and spread science awareness through various programs. I occasionally surf too and I’m a trained paragliding pilot!

Pranam’s story is a reminder that open source is built by passionate individuals who value freedom – both in their code and in their lives. His work ensures that as we move more of our lives online, we don’t have to trade our privacy to do so.

The post An Interview with Pranam: How Open Source Powered a Digital Nomad Dream appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Our contributions

With the merger with allotropia software GmbH in May 2025, our commits to the codebase for 2025 (from January to the end of December), as per The Document Foundation’s State of the Project 2025, amounted to around 45% of the total commits from over 50 individuals. While Collabora Productivity is part of a global community of committers, we were fortunate enough to be able to contribute more than half of the documented features from the release notes for LibreOffice 26.2. In terms of total commits, this amounted to around 2,000, but, more importantly, fixed over 500 issues (including commits merged from 25.8 to 26.2.02). The chart shows the feature areas from the release notes where Collabora engineers contributed code.

Improvements in LibreOffice 26.2

It is fair to say this release focuses less on new features and instead offers many improvements to app performance and a smoother overall experience with LibreOffice. Collabora Productivity, together with peers in the community, have also worked diligently to improve interoperability and compatibility issues, and here are some of Collabora’s contribution highlights:

Writer: Auto Captions and Fixes

• AutoCaptions – When you paste in an image, Writer auto-inserts a caption, as long as you check the box in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > AutoCaptions.

• Better handling of Floating Tables – Tables are better behaved! Previously, Writer prioritised keeping tables and headers together, which meant they could both slide onto the next page if there wasn’t enough space left on the page. Sometimes this disrupted document flow, creating a large gap on the previous page, but this is now fixed. Read how it was fixed on Miklos Vajna’s blog.

• Better DOCX interoperability for Floating Tables – The handling of the Table Split feature has improved. Prior to 26.2, this would result in two floating tables inside one frame, which couldn’t be exported to DOCX.

• Track Changes improved – You have greater choice when handling interdependent changes now, and can select the ‘layer’ to change in the Manage Changes, e.g., you can choose a format change that’s on top of a Delete or Insert change.

Calc: Supporting more features

• BIFF12 support – The max limit for pasting from Excel to Calc has increased. Prior to 26.2, Calc could paste 65,536 rows. With the Biff12 file format (Excel 2007+) supported, users can paste 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns per sheet.

• XmlMaps support – Users spotted that XLSX spreadsheets lost xmlMaps.xml when opened in Calc and saved as an XLSX file. With xmlMaps.xml support, users can create direct, structural links between cells and external XML data files, e.g., turning Calc into an interface for managing XML data.

Chart: Live Preview for Sidebar

• Live Preview – It’s quicker to select colour schemes. When a user mouses over Chart data range colour palette entries, it shows a live preview in the active chart.

Performance: Boosts and Fixes

• Calc – Lots of fixes, like faster scrolling on spreadsheets with many hidden columns, faster removal of duplicates, and Reject All in Track Changes was slow to complete, so that’s been optimised.

• Graphics – Again, a lot more optimisation for many user cases, especially when exporting SVGs with bitmaps and importing certain SVGs (usually because of fills) and polygons (with tiled image fill) that were noticeably slow to render.

• UI – for example, Go To Page / Slide / Sheet Dialogs are async now, which means the UI stays responsive when navigating large documents.

UI: New Context Menu option

• Insert Hyperlink – Another new time-saver courtesy of the Context Menu, which works across all the core apps. This time, when you highlight text, and the Context Menu pops up automatically, you will find an ‘Inset Hyperlink’ as an option.

Filters: Improved Interoperability and Markdown

• Markdown – Both Markdown export and import features are improved, and you can apply templates to imported Markdown, too, so your documents pick up the colour theme and formatting, for example.

• Calc: Generic XML and JSON Tabular Mapping Support – Linkable tabular ranges are auto-mapped to sheets in Calc when opened now. A linkable range is a section of a document containing tabular records. When a document contains multiple linkable ranges, each range gets mapped to a single sheet.

The post Collabora Productivity contributions in LibreOffice 26.2 appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.

Welcome back to our interview series, where we chat with the passionate people behind the Collabora Online code. Collabora Online is made possible by the worldwide team, community, contributors and partners. Today, we’re sitting down with Justin Luth, a developer whose journey has taken him from the early days of DOS to solving complex technical challenges for a global user base.

About Justin

Justin Luth is a dedicated open-source contributor and software specialist with a deep background in computer science. Having spent a decade working in regions with highly limited infrastructure, he developed a unique perspective on the necessity of local-first, resilient software. A passionate advocate for digital sustainability, Justin balances his professional focus on bug fixing and quality assurance, with a love for long-distance cycling and a commitment to serving the global community through open-source development.

What first inspired you to get into tech?

In grade 12, I bought an Intel 8088 computer with DOS 3.3. That led me to study computer science in college on an SCO Unix system. Early on as a freshman, I knew this was what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life. I loved everything about computers.

You’ve been a long-time advocate for open source. What does working in this ecosystem mean to you personally?

It means everything. I prefer to avoid proprietary systems entirely. I’m happy to have my contributions available for everyone in the world to benefit from. I’ve always marveled at the passion expressed by shareware. It reminds me of the New Testament’s early church community where believers share all things in common. I too wanted to share the specific talents I have for the common good of the global community.

How did you first hear about Collabora?

I’ve used StarOffice, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice ever since my overpriced license of MS Office 2.0 was no longer usable. After a few years of voluntary contributions to LibreOffice, Collabora reached out and offered to mentor me.

Why did you decide to contribute to Collabora Online?

My contributions to Collabora Online came in the form of underlying LibreOffice bug fixes, which I made while I was working in South Sudan. This was done to encourage SIL to switch to an open-source office so that our collaboration with the local population could be more sustainable.

Speaking of contributions, do you remember your very first one? How did it feel to see it go live?

My first 2014 contribution to LibreOffice was a fix for a macro that affected the wrong spreadsheet when multiple files were opened simultaneously. It took three weeks to make that two-line patch! When it went live, I felt relieved, but also empowered. It gave me the confidence and determination to promote LibreOffice and Linux to my African colleagues.

You spent a decade working in an environment with very limited internet connectivity. How did that influence your view of technology?

Because of that experience, I avoid non-local technology whenever possible. What I appreciate about Collabora is that it is based on LibreOffice—software that can be installed locally to guarantee availability. My contributions were often driven by the need for sustainable, open-source solutions that could be maintained locally. Interoperability—the ability to read and write Microsoft formats—is, in my view, the most important feature.

Is there a specific feature or project you’re most proud of?

I implemented “Alt-X” while working for SIL. It toggles a character into its Unicode number and back. Alt-X is especially useful when Unicode combining characters are involved. I was happy to see the wider LibreOffice community get excited about it as well. More recently, I’m proud of my Quality Assurance work using mso-test to find regressions. As an end user, I get very frustrated when something that used to work no longer does. Although regression testing is very tedious, it has proved to be quite valuable as well.

What is the best part about being part of the Collabora community?

Collabora has been excellent at providing mentors to advise me and review my contributions. I am a much more confident programmer because of their backing. Even senior developers were happy to assist me when I was just starting out. Collabora’s expert developers have consistently assisted me time after time.

What is a common myth about open-source contributing that you’d like to debunk?

That you need specialized knowledge or high-end equipment. My contributions started in an environment where we only had generator power, shared satellite internet, and end-of-life laptops. You don’t need much to begin making an impact.

For someone wanting to start contributing, what advice would you give them?

The most important requirement is the desire to contribute. That assumes that they have something important to them that they want to solve, and having that personally motivating ‘thing’ is critical to persevering.

I guess the second piece of advice is to feel free to “waste time” trying to figure it out on your own. Nothing is worse than having someone ask a question whose answer is only a google-search away. But on the flip side, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you find you are completely stuck (and show in your question that you have spent time researching the problem).

Finally, when you aren’t fixing bugs or testing regressions, how do you spend your time?

I enjoy 100km bike rides as a form of exercise during the summer.

Justin’s journey highlights that open source is about more than just code—it’s about creating sustainable, reliable tools that are reliable, accessible, and high-performing for everyone. Whether he is refining interoperability or cycling across the countryside, Justin’s commitment to the community remains a cornerstone of his work.

The post An Interview with Justin: From Bug Fixes to Building Community appeared first on Collabora Online and Collabora Office.