The Eötvös University and Szeged University in Hungary are increasing their use of EuroOffice and the Open Document Format (ODF), reports MultiRáció, the Budapest-based ICT firm that develops EuroOffice. Together, the two universities have about 45,000 students. In February the company signed a licence and support contract for 34,000 copies of EuroOffice.
EuroOffice is a derivative of LibreOffice and Apache Open Office, two closely related open source office suites.
The software suite will be used by universities staff as well as students. “An innovative Hungarian software firm is given the opportunity to offer the next generation office alternative”, says Kázmér Koleszár, a senior software developer at MultiRáció.
Koleszár says that last year, the Hungarian government decided to promote the use of EuroOffice and ODF in schools and universities. “It is an important policy change”, he says. “The previous 15 years the Hungarian government helped popularise software from US-based companies.”
The Hungarian software firm is actively involved in the ODF specification. The company is a member of OASIS and participates in Officeshots, an online test tool for interoperability of desktop office applications.
Language localisation
The contract was awarded by Hungary’s Governmental Information-Technology Development Agency (GITDA) in February. The deal involves 10,000 licences for the pro version of the EuroOffice suite and technical support. MultiRáció will also provide practical information about dowloading, installing and use of the EuroOffice suite.
EuroOffice is available for use in 7 languages. Koleszár says that especially for writing in Hungarian, EuroOffice is superior to all other office suites, the usual proprietary brand as well as Open Office and LibreOffice. “Our version comes with many additional functions targeting Hungarian users, including a grammar and spell checker, a hyphenation tool and thesaurus. Its Map Chart adds extra geographic detail on Hungarian territory.