Date: 2006-11-16 Category: News

Free bilingual office software gains support from Welsh Assembly Government

by Sali Earls

Agored, a new free office software suite has been launched today in Cardiff. The suite, a Welsh and English dual-language version of the OpenOffice suite used worldwide, has been developed over the past two years at the Mercator Centre, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Agored represents a major investment by the Welsh Assembly Government, S4C and the Welsh Language Board in the provision of a comprehensive office suite functional in both English and Welsh.

Andrew Davies, Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks of the Welsh Assembly Government, said, "Agored is going to be an extremely useful tool to many businesses right across Wales who operate bilingually."

Alun Pugh, Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport, commented, "The launch of this office software is a major advance within the IT strategy developed by the Welsh Language Board as part of the Assembly Government’s strategy for the language, Iaith Pawb."

Agored is a complete office software suite, with a word processor, spreadsheet programme, presentation programme, database, and a drawing and design programme; and it works with existing office files in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint format. The software has been designed with the bilingual office in mind, and will enable users to switch from English to Welsh and back again simply without having to restart your computer or install different versions of the software. The functions and help messages are bilingual, and users can also use Welsh and English spell-check options within the same document.

Ned Thomas, Academic Director of the Mercator Centre at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, said, "This is the largest Welsh software project to date and has involved a team of five at Mercator, with further translators throughout Wales working on the project. Over half a million words of help screens and interface have been translated, and a comprehensive, original handbook has been written from scratch."

Meri Huws, Chair of the Welsh Language Board said "Agored is the latest in a series of important developments in Welsh language Technology. It’s surprising how much is already available in Welsh in this field. This is a most welcome additional contribution."

A full copy of the software can be downloaded from www.agored.com.