[libreoffice-design] Re: Possibility of Vertex42 template usage for LibreOffice

Hello Jon,

Thank you so much for getting back to me and I apologise for the late response on my side.  I 
wanted to take a moment to clarify that we operate as a charity for public benefit, not as a 
commercial company we would not be making a single penny from your work. Unlike big tech firms such 
as Google or Microsoft, our mission is centred around improving access and usability for the 
broader public, not engagement at the expense of other organisations such as your own. We wish to 
improve template accessibility for everyone, and especially for LibreOffice users. We don’t have a 
financial incentive; we are just passionate about making these resources more widely available.

I noted in the previous mail you referenced OpenOffice, LibreOffice is the successor to OpenOffice, 
that for the most part is a “dead” project. For a general overview of the project you can visit: 
https://www.libreoffice.org/who-are-we/

Our user base numbers are in the tens of millions, and we anticipate that featuring your templates 
would drive additional traffic to your website, we would showcase your templates in a way like this 
example:

https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/99408

I note that you also provide URLs embedded in your templates, rest assured those would remain in 
place. Additionally, you would have the opportunity to define how your templates are described, 
ensuring your messaging is represented accurately. We host several extensions listed under 
different licenses, including proprietary ones.

https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/99484

Most importantly, you would always retain full control over your templates. You would be able to 
update or remove them whenever you wish, so the partnership would remain flexible and responsive to 
your preferences. Many members of our community greatly appreciate the quality of your templates 
and are enthusiastic about sharing them with LibreOffice users. Of course, we respect that the 
final decision on LibreOffice hosting copies of your templates would be entirely up to you. You 
would also be able to upload a number of extensions yourself to see if this is beneficial to you, I 
suggest perhaps 5 related to a particular topic that could bundle together for an area you would 
like to highlight.

Even if you are not happy to move forward with us hosting copies of your templates we would like to 
work with you on improving document interoperability, this will help the wider community and ensure 
your templates have a greater reach. We have noted some rendering issues with LibreOffice and 
"house keeping" points such as license statements from 2017, I assume that this is just the 
templates have not been updated. If you were to collaborate with us we then could share additional 
details with you.

Thank you again for considering this opportunity. If you have any questions or concerns, or would 
like to discuss the details further, please feel free to reach out.

Kind regards,

John


________________________________
From: Jon Wittwer <jonwittwer@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2026 03:49
To: john.mills@libreoffice.org <john.mills@libreoffice.org>
Cc: design@global.libreoffice.org <design@global.libreoffice.org>; jmills59@yahoo.com 
<jmills59@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Possibility of Vertex42 template usage for LibreOffice

Hi John,

Thanks for reaching out and for the kind words about the templates.

I'm curious what Vertex42 could gain from this, because typically when I've allowed other companies 
to use my templates (e.g. Google, Microsoft), there is little to be gained even though they have 
benefited greatly at my expense. I earn income by people visiting my website and viewing 
advertisements, so if they can obtain my templates without visiting my site, that not only allows 
people to bypass the ads, but can result in very real competition for traffic that can actually 
hurt me significantly rather than helping. This is why I almost never allow my templates to be 
distributed through means other than my own website.

Have you seen the many templates that I developed specifically as .ods and .odt files? These were 
developed for users of OpenOffice, but I believe LibreOffice is very similar? This page for example 
has a link to the .ods file:
https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/excel-invoice-template.html

Regards,
____________________
Jon Wittwer
Vertex42.com


On Sun, Jun 7, 2026 at 7:27 AM john.mills@libreoffice.org<mailto:john.mills@libreoffice.org> 
<john.mills@libreoffice.org<mailto:john.mills@libreoffice.org>> wrote:
Dear Vertex42 team,

My name is John Mills, and I am a trustee of the Document Foundation, the nonprofit organization 
behind LibreOffice. I wanted to reach out and express my appreciation for the outstanding templates 
your team has developed—I'm truly a fan of the Vertex42 collection.

 I am interested in exploring the possibility of including some of your templates in an archive 
that could be distributed by the Document Foundation. I believe this could be a fantastic "win-win" 
opportunity for both parties, allowing us to highlight the excellent work done by your colleagues 
at Vertex42 while simultaneously strengthening LibreOffice by giving our users access to more 
high-quality templates.

 One point to consider is that we predominantly use the ODF file format. We have encountered some 
compatibility issues with the Microsoft file formats available on your website. Would your team be 
open to collaborating with us on compatibility and testing? If we could work together to improve 
the templates' integration, it would greatly benefit both our communities. My colleague and I have 
been compiling a list of several of your Word templates for interoperability with LibreOffice, we 
will also start to test Excel compatibility with Calc.

https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/ifqnxyo7kgqARED?dir=/&editing=false&openfile=true

I am enthusiastic about the potential for partnership and believe this could be a great opportunity 
for all involved. Please let me know your thoughts on this proposal and if there is any interest in 
moving forward. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

John Mills

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