Open Office is something that is constantly being updated with new features and bug fixes, all done to make the experience even better for you. However, it can be tricky for the developers to find these bugs and to figure out what users actually want from the office suite that it can’t do already. If there was a way of these actions and bugs to be tracked, they’d be able to sort through the data and find what people want the most and then make it reality in the next software update. You’ll be happy to know that there is a way and we’re going to talk about it in this article – it is called the improvement program.
This program is where the software will monitor your usage statistics – basically which tools in the suite you go to most of the time, which features you like to use, what happens when you do use them. This allows the developers to get a much better impression about what people like about it and what they think should be improved. Best of all, this is all done in the background so you’re never bothered with any notifications or anything similar, you can just enable it and then leave it while you enjoy the office suite. There are bound to be some concerns based on our description so we’ll put these to rest for you now.
All usage statistics are collected anonymously. The developers cannot see who you are or any personal information about you. They receive millions of reports every single day through this feature so they wouldn’t even have the time to look up personal details even if it was possible. The aim of this program is just to help them with the development and not to find anything about you. You’ll also be glad to know that absolutely no document contents is collected either so they won’t be able to see what you’re writing or anything like that, they’ll just be able to tell when you open a feature in the suite. It’s very simple and there’s nothing to worry about when you enable it.
Now that you know a bit more information about the improvement program, we’re going to quickly tell you how you can enable it. By default, it is switched off. Simply go into Tools –> Options and then click on the “Improvement Program” tab. You’ll be presented with some extra information here about it which is worth reading, and you’ll also be presented with two options, “Yes, I am willing to participate” and “No, I do not wish to participate”. These are very clear and you can select the one which you prefer the most. We highly recommend that you subscribe to the program if you love the program because it will help the future of the software for many years to come. You can also see which data has been sent back to them from here too.
In conclusion, the improvement program is something which not many people know about but really should enable it if they want to make a small contribution. It doesn’t cost you anything and it doesn’t even take up any of your time either, everything is done automatically and in the background so that you don’t need to worry. The software has been worked on for many years and it is programs like this which help to keep the project up and running and competing with the very best office suites available. If you haven’t installed it yet and you haven’t enabled the improvement program, we highly recommend that you go ahead and do both of them now.
Tags: bugs, improvement program, open office