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.
v7.1 [Jan 6, 2021]
Writer:
General improvements.
- Writer now has support for anchoring shapes relative to the bottom of the page content frame. blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora).
- Default anchor for newly added images can be set per Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice Writer ▸ Formatting Aids tdf#99646 (Heiko Tietze, TDF).
- Writer now supports locale-independent templates blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora).
Locale-indepentent Writer template.
- Writer can now detect Unicode type even if imported text file does not have a BOM tdf#60145 (Tomofumi Yagi).
Outline folding mode.
- Added a new Writer outline folding mode (as experimental feature). You should enable experimental features in Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Advanced dialog to see "Show outline content visibility button" checkbox in Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice Writer ▸ View dialog. After checking it you'll can see a button with arrow near any selected heading in your document. Click on it to fold all text from the current heading to next heading. Right click on it to fold all text from current heading to next the same level heading with all its subheadings tdf#38093 (Jim Raykowski).
Table formulas.
- Added several table formulas for Word interoperability (László Németh, NISZ).
- PRODUCT table formula tdf#123388.
- ABS table formula tdf#123354.
- SIGN table formula tdf#123390.
- COUNT table formula tdf#123356.
Style inspector.
- Added Style Inspector for displaying all the attributes of Paragraph Styles, Character Styles and manually formatted (Direct Formatting) properties. tdf#134554. Read the necessity of this tool here. (Shivam Kumar Singh, GSoC; mentors: Mike Kaganski, Heiko Tietze, Tomaz Vajngerl).
Fields.
- Input fields now can be toggled with View ▸ Field Names core commit 926a1a16 (Michael Stahl, CIB).
- Empty fields can be selected with the mouse core commit 2c7bf354 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB).
- Word compatible Fields can now be toggled to hide either the command or the result with View ▸ Field Names (Michael Stahl, CIB).
Fields Hide Command or Result.
Performance.
- Sped up find/replace operations tdf#119286 (Noel Grandin, Collabora).
ODF subtable conversion.
- Simple cases of subtables in legacy ODF documents initially created by OpenOffice.org 2.2 and older can now be converted to modern rowspan tables on import, typically improving the quality of a subsequent export to Word formats or HTML drastically. core commit e366c928(Michael Stahl, CIB).
New numbering style.
- Implemented Old Hungarian numbering in Writer’s lists. More info in Release Notes 7.0 (László Németh).
- Actually not limited to lists; e.g., page numbering may also use this numbering (ODT only).
- To use it, enable Tools ▸ Options ▸ Language Settings ▸ Languages ▸ Complex text layout.
Old Hungarian numbering in Writer.
Calc:
General improvements.
- Added an option to disable paste with Enter key. You can find it in a dialog from menu Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice Calc ▸ General. tdf#34686 (Martin van Zijl).
- Now you can select items in Autofilter window clicking by all item's row, but not only by checkbox tdf#116675 (Attila Szűcs, NISZ).
- Fixed an issue in formula input box when Calc fail to set the formula reference if you have freeze rows/columns enabled in a sheet. tdf#47349 (Justin Luth, Collabora).
- Added "Reset All" button to Solver dialog tdf#134528 (Rafael Lima).
Fill with merged cells.
Fix lost merging and bad linear sequence of numbers during fill with merged cells (Attila Szűcs, NISZ):.
- Copy merged cell structure like other spreadsheets do tdf#40993, tdf#59585.
- Select merged area wholly to fix the selection rectangle during fill, fixing incomplete attribute copying, bad grid and border tdf#43958.
- Apply correct linear sequence of numbers by skipping empty overlapped (invisible, i.e. not top-left) cells of the merged areas tdf#88782.
New spreadsheet functions.
Changed spreadsheet functions.
- Now INDIRECT function supports sheet-local scoped names tdf#100818 (Eike Rathke, Red Hat).
Performance.
- Improved spell checking performance in Calc core commit bdd149b1 (Dennis Francis, Collabora).
- Improved performance when searching in Autofilter. Previously if the record contains a lot of unique values Calc will be very slow if you type-in a character in the autofilter search box. Now the search is instant. tdf#122419 (Eike Rathke, Red Hat), tdf#133878 (Luboš Luňák).
Impress & Draw.
- Adding visible digital signatures to existing PDF files with Draw. Blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora).
- Now Impress allows changing animations for several objects at once tdf#126394 (Srijan Bhatia).
- Presentation console has an "Exit" button now tdf#90978 (Srijan Bhatia).
- Presentation console has a "Pause/Resume" button now tdf#128964 (Srijan Bhatia).
- Added realistic soft blurred shadows for objects tdf#48722 (Ahmad Ganzouri, GSoC; mentors: Miklos Vajna (Collabora), Tomaž Vajngerl).
