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.
v6.4.0.3 [Dec 24, 2019]
Writer:
- Added option to mark comments as resolved in Writer tdf#119228 (Scott Clarke, Codethink).
- Fix missing change tracking layout of numbers and bullets of lists tdf#42748 (László Németh, NISZ).
- The btLr text direction is now available in Writer Text Frames as well blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora) It is now possible to comment on Writer images and charts blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora) It is now possible to automatically avoid overlapping shapes with a new wrap option blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora).
- Add proposal for anchored object overlapping to OASIS ODF draft core commit 9e827baed18bbcd410029dbcb81ac5a0da2cc6b4.
- Make it possible to set anchored object to overlap tdf#124600.
- Improved performance when importing files with many bookmarks core commit b5b607cf5afe6ebf5964102770a52965f5b98533 (Michael Stahl, CIB).
- Selection of drawing objects anchored at-paragraph works more consistently and user-friendly now core commit 91b2325808a75174f284c48c8b8afc118fad74e4(Michael Stahl, CIB).
Tables:
- Fast table moving & deletion: Cut command cuts the selected table instead of removing its text content tdf#118311.
- Fast table row/column moving & deletion tdf#127759.
- Cut command cuts the selected table rows or columns, if they are selected by enhanced table selection (clicking in front of them).
- After that, paste command inserts the removed table part before the actual row/column.
- New Paste Special menu options for pasting table data into tables (in table popup menu and Writer’s Edit menu).
- Paste Special menu option "Paste as Nested Table" tdf#37156.
- Paste Special menu options "Paste as Rows Above" and "Paste as Columns Before" tdf#64902.
- Improved drag & drop mouse operations to move table data.
- move the selected table instead of duplicate it tdf#84806.
- move rows and columns (selected by enhanced table selection) and wholly selected tables by inserting new table rows above or columns before instead of overwriting cells of the target table. In the case of moving (not copying, i.e. without using the key Ctrl during drag & drop), the selected rows and columns are removed completely, instead of emptying their cells. tdf#35570.
Calc:
- Improved selecting cells which contain hyperlinks tdf#126393 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB).
- On MM:SS or [MM]:SS or MM:SS.00 or [MM]:SS.00 pre-formatted cells a two digit groups input like 12:34 is now accepted as minutes:seconds value instead of the usual hours:minutes:00 value; to force the usual hours:minutes:seconds input on such cells enter three digit groups like 12:34:00. tdf#76441 (Eike Rathke (Red Hat, Inc.)).
- Improved scalability of formula-groups computation on CPUs with large number of cores by potentially threading multiple independent formula-groups together. core commit 845e1c (Dennis Francis, Collabora).
- Implemented a parallelized version of super scalar sample sort algorithm (read the paper here) to speed up sorting. This is now used in pivot-table creation where some sorting is required. core commit 46d0af (Dennis Francis, Collabora).
- Shading of columns/rows headers is removed; the headers are drawn flat now. tdf#127508 (Heiko Tietze).
- Deleted a 15 symbols limit to password length for XLSX files tdf#97086 (Eike Rathke, Red Hat).
- speed up opening of XLSX file with lots of comments tdf#129228 (Noel Grandin, Collabora).
- speed up loading Calc documents with lots of COUNTIF() tdf#128812 (Noel Grandin, Collabora).
- speed up saving XLS with lots of styles tdf#126021 (Noel Grandin, Collabora).
- speed up loading of change-tracking ODS files tdf#125688 (Noel Grandin, Collabora).
- speed up copy operation with lots of comments in Calc tdf#76324 (Noel Grandin, Collabora).
Impress & Draw:
- Added 'Remove Hyperlink' to context menu in Impress tdf#111707 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB).
- Added 'Consolidate Text' which combines multiple selected textboxes into one (primarily to simplify editing fragmented content from imported PDFs). tdf#118370 (Justin Luth, SIL).
- Interaction now only executed in presentation mode (when clicking on an object). For edit mode, a context menu "Execute interaction" was added. tdf#125748 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB).
- Image Maps now respect the setting to require Ctrl Click to follow the hyperlink (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB).
- Hyperlink in Image Maps now work in Slideshow too tdf#74045 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB).
BASIC:
- Macros: When converting Hex strings of negative value, treat the high-order bit always as sign bit, e.g., &H8000 = -2^15, &HFFFF = -1, and &H7FFFFFFF = 2^31-1. Behaviour is identical in either modes, i.e., LibO Basic, with Option Compatible, and Option VBA Support 0/1. tdf#62326 (Andreas Heinisch).
- Implement Save As Word 2000 and Save As for Word.VBA-document core commit 0f1458cff56e2be9614acc9357fd10099bb5e8ab (Tor Lillqvist, Collabora).
- Fix handling for function that does not has closing parenthesis. tdf#80731 (Pierre Lepage; Mike Kaganski, Collabora).
