Work with document files either imported from programs like MS Word, Excel and other office tools or created natively in formats like ODF or PDF compatible with modern and open standards. Editing, copying and incorporating data in databases is possible.
LibreOffice is an open-source free alternative to heavy commercial office suites like MS Office. While having generally the same functionality, LibreOffice is more open to modification and updates, making it a more attractive suite if you want a comfortable and adjustable tool for working with documentation.
LibreOffice consists of several tools capable of working with documents of any type, from standard Word files and Excel tables to presentations and Publisher files. There's a word processing and desktop publishing tool called Writer; spreadsheet program Calc; tool for creating effective multimedia presentations called Impress; a sketching tool named Draw; database manager Base; formula editor Math; advanced chart and diagram creator Charts. Every tool has all the features of an advanced editor for the kind of files you could work with. The tools work stable and fast, they are easy to use even if you're not an experienced user of office tools.
LibreOffice adds several unique features into its programming, such as the support for ODT documents and the ability to incorporate various plugins and extensions. You can always add new templates for various documents.
Open-source tools sometimes disappoint by being attempts to copy a licensed product. LibreOffice is different in that, it's a genuinely good product itself.
v6.1.6.3 [Jul 7, 2018]
Writer
- Inline tooltips on tracked changes are optional now (Tools ▸ Options ▸ Writer ▸ View) plus are not shown when View ▸ Track Changes is off; UNO command .uno:ShowInlineTooltips ("Tooltips") available for customization tdf#114523 (Heiko Tietze, Michael Stahl).
- Basic list styles were added to the Styles submenu in the Context Menu. tdf#85940 (Yousuf Philips).
- Add insert page number option to header and footer menus. tdf#92685 (Gülşah Köse, Pardus).
- Allow removing the whole ideographic variance sequence with one backspace. tdf#113481 (Mark Hung).
- Support vertical ruby text format that is commonly used in traditional Chinese. tdf#35301 (Mark Hung).
- Allow ruby text to export in docx format. tdf#115258 (Mark Hung).
- Export comments with right-to-left text to .doc correctly for MS Word. tdf#45999 (Mark Hung).
- Fix reversed text of column break mark in a RTL page. tdf#84522 (Mark Hung).
- The Chapter Numbering dialog now allows multi-line headings for chapters by allowing a line break as separator between a chapter number and its name. For this case select tab Position and in drop-down list Numbering followed by select variant New line. tdf#112384 (Nithin Kumar Padavu).
- DOCX change tracking: handle moveFrom and moveTo tdf#104797 (László Németh, NISZ).
- Much improved performance of converting between small ODT and XHTML documents blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora). Two Writer-specific settings that should have localized values did not work exactly as intended in the past.
- Improved link support, table support, image support and font embedding blog entry (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
- cover image support, improved metadata support, footnote and image popup support, support for fixed layout blog entry (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
- Support vertical writing by export writing-mode in the page style as CSS body styles. tdf#115623 (Mark Hung)
- Export ruby text. tdf#116822 (Mark Hung)
- Now mail merge fields hide the paragraph for records that have relevant fields empty (tdf#35798; blog post) (Mike Kaganski, Collabora)
- The Mail merge toolbar is now automatically shown for files that have mail merge fields in them (tdf#115386) (Mike Kaganski, Collabora)
- New “spell out” chapter numbering styles. Ordinal indicators (1st, 2nd, 3rd...), cardinal (One, Two, Second...) and ordinal numbers (First, Second, Third...) tdf#117171 (László Németh, FSF.hu Foundation, Hungary).
- New numbering styles in Tools ▸ Chapter Numbering... window.
