LibreOffice

Main article: SaaS - History. Philosophy. Development drivers

2023

A dangerous vulnerability has been discovered in LibreOffice. The update helps only partially

FSTEC sent out a warning that a vulnerability in working with links has been fixed in the popular LibreOffice office suite. She received the name BDU:2023-08655^[1], and according to MITRE estimates, her danger is 8.3 out of 10. The NCCC also mentions the same vulnerability in its mailings, although the risk of its use is assessed by the Center's specialists as high (not critical). This is due to the fact that there are no public exploits for it yet, and exploitation in malicious campaigns has not been recorded.

The vulnerability lies in the fact that in previous versions of the office suite it was possible to form a special link built into the document, clicking on which can lead to the execution of extraneous code without additional request to the user. Usually LibreOffice, when a user clicks on a link in the text, specifies whether he would like to follow it or edit it. However, when using alternative protocols in URIs (not HTTP/HTTPS), you can achieve script execution in the script language built into LibreOffice. Moreover, the corresponding macro can also be built into the same document.

The FSTEC remote control describes the vulnerability as follows:

The vulnerability of the LibreOffice office suite is related to the ability to inject code or data. Exploitation of the vulnerability can allow an attacker acting remotely to execute arbitrary code by embedding a malicious macro in a document

The vulnerability was discovered by Brazilian pentester Reginaldo Silva ^[2] Fixes for the vulnerability were developed by the Portuguese company Collabora Productivity, which implements LibreOffice from its customers. However, the fix simply opens an additional dialog to clarify with the user whether the script really needs to be executed by reference. This reduces the danger of vulnerability, but does not completely exclude it. Therefore, even a fixed version of LibreOffice 7.5.9 or 7.6.4 can execute a script built into the link. In any case, it is worth updating the office suite to the current versions, but checking the accuracy of the links indicated in the document.

The danger of the vulnerability is also that LibreOffice is often supplied as part of Linux distributions, on the basis of which Russian operating systems are built. It is used to automatically open office documents of office packages in various formats, which creates the danger of an epidemic of macro viruses aimed at inexperienced users of domestic operating systems. FSTEC recommends using antivirus software and minimizing permissions, but it is also important to teach users to correctly process links built into documents and not approach them if they contain incomprehensible scenarios or contain suspicious addresses.

LibreOffice 7.6

On August 21, 2023, The Document Foundation unveiled the release of the LibreOffice 7.6 office suite. Ready-made installation packages are prepared for various Linux, Windows and macOS distributions. 148 developers took part in the preparation of the issue, of which 89 are volunteers. 61% of the changes were made by 52 employees of three companies supervising the project - Collabora, Red Hat and Allotropia, 15% by seven employees of The Document Foundation, and 24% of the changes were added by independent enthusiasts.

As reported, the release of LibreOffice 7.6 is labeled "Community," will be supported by enthusiasts and is not aimed at application in enterprises. For August 2023, LibreOffice Community is available without restrictions for free to everyone without exception, including corporate users. For enterprises requiring additional service, LibreOffice Enterprise products are being developed separately, for which partner companies will provide full support, the ability to receive updates for a long time (LTS) and additional functions such as SLA (Service Level Agreements).

The most notable changes are:

• Added support for color themes that allow you to quickly change the color of typical elements in documents. Import and export of themes in OOXML and ODF formats is supported. The topic is selected through the Theme dialog.

• Added support for multicolor gradients in which colors change smoothly from one to the other. The interface for working with gradients has not yet been adapted for working with multicolor gradients, so only macros can be used to create and modify them for now.
• The creation of a list of recent documents, shown through the "File ▸ Recent Documents ▸ menu, has been redesigned. The first five items in the list are now specific to each module, i.e. the table processor at the top of the list will show 5 recently opened spreadsheets, in the presentation editor - five presentations, etc. Through the ShowCurrentModuleOnly parameter in the expert settings, you can enable or disable the binding of the list to modules.

• The main window provides support for scaling with gestures on the touchpad.
• Changes to Writer:
  • The Page Numbering Wizard has been added to the Insert menu to customize the format and style of page numbers in the header or footer.
  • Optimized generation of picture table of contents.
  • Support for multi-page floating tables has been added and it is possible to export/import them to/from DOCX, DOC and RTF formats.
  • The block for checking the correct use of Accessibility Check tools in the document has been moved to the sidebar to optimize access during editing.
  • AutoCorrect tools provide the ability to create hyperlinks to doi.org when quoting object digital identifiers (DOIs).
  • Added highlighting of used chapter and paragraph styles, as well as highlighting of direct formatting in the text.
  • Navigation is optimized using keyboards input forms in which pressing the Tab key cycles focus on all fields and buttons. Using the tabIndex property, you can now control the order in which items are sorted and ignore extra fields.
  • Support for Tracked tables has been added, which allows you to clearly analyze the addition or deletion of columns with the separation of different changes in colors.
  • The proofing system implements the ability to check the correctness of phrase construction by connecting multi-word Hunspell dictionaries and user dictionaries. Options have been added to disable the recognition of complex words written with a hyphen or containing numbers.
  • Storing in ODT files the properties of paragraph labels obtained when opening documents in DOCX format.
  • Zotero bibliographic information management system style citation mode is implemented.
  • The bibliographic table allows editing of bibliographic records in place. Bibliographic labels are provided with hyperlinks to elements in the bibliographic table.
  • Warning output is implemented when trying to delete hidden sections from the document.

• Calc Table Processor Changes:
  • When evaluating the validity of cell values (Validity), the calculation of formulas is implemented.

• • Optimized selection of auto-exposed hyperlinks.
  • Autofilter provides support for sorting by font color or cell background.
  • An option has been added in the import text dialog from text files or CSV format to disable the definition of an exponential record (scientific record).
  • Added pivot table compact view mode.
  • Support for Poisson Distribution has been added to the pseudo-random number generator settings.
  • When exporting to ODF, the storage of empty digits indicated by the symbol "?" as integers is implemented.
  • Added the ability to select shape appearance styles and format comments.
  • Added "Marker.ru Marker," which allows you to mark formula cells with a blue triangle, similar to how this is done in the Quattro Pro package. When you move the cursor over a triangle, a formula prompt is displayed.

• Changes to Impress and Draw:
  • A Show mice Layer has been added to the right-click context menu to display the layer, similar to the Visible option in the Modify Layer properties.
  • Added navigation bar to toggle between slides during presentation viewing. The panel is enabled through the "Slide Show ▸ Slide Show Settings ▸ Show navigation panel" parameter.
  • Navigation mode allows to display the list of objects back (View ▸ Navigator ▸ Show Shapes ▸ Front to back).
  • When importing and exporting PDFium, support for arbitrary text annotations has been added.
  • Added the ability to open summary tiff files containing multiple images.
  • The behavior of the automatic scale selection algorithm used to fill the entire page with text is similar to that of MS Office.
  • The presentation binding dialog implements categorized output of target links.
  • Draw provides visual dimming of objects that are not part of the selected group.

• Added support for OOXML files that use the zip64 format for compression.
• Export and import of PDF documents is optimized. By default, you can export using PDF version 1.7 and include tags with information about the structure of the document.
• ^[3].

2022

OS developer Astra Linux called his exclusion from the LibreOffice council non-transparent

In Astra Linux GC, they shared with TAdviser their position on the suspension of RusBITex membership in the non-profit organization The Document Foundation (TDF), which develops LibreOffice.

Aleksandr Gutin, Astra Linux GC 's chief marketing officer, says the company has received a notice from the TDF to suspend its membership. The reason for this decision is indicated "the situation in Ukraine and the obvious connection of RusBITech with the Russian military." The letter, however, emphasizes that the decision at the moment is temporary with the opportunity to clarify the company within a week.

It is immediately worth noting that the official member of TDF is RusBITech-Astra LLC (developer and copyright holder of Astra Linux OS) and, despite the similarity of names, both legally and in fact, these are different companies. Moreover, the commercial and product policy of RusBITech-Astra does not imply direct contracts for the supply of its products for the Russian Ministry of Defense, including the vendor does not work under such contracts. Therefore, we consider such actions by the TDF board of directors to be non-transparent and have prepared an appropriate response to the association, "said Alexander Gutin.

He added that in any case, the exclusion from the advisory board of The Document Foundation will not in any way affect the ability to both use LibreOffice software packages in software development and provide them to end users.

The LibreOffice Foundation suspended the participation of the Russian company RusBITech, the developer of the Astra Linux OS, in the advisory council

On February 28, 2022, the Document Foundation (TDF), a non-profit organization developing LibreOffice, announced its decision to suspend the membership of RusBITech, the developer of Astra Linux OS, in its advisory board^[4]. This happened against the backdrop of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, which began a few days earlier.

After a short exchange of views with several members of the community on February 26, TDF suspended RusBITech's membership in the advisory council. While TDF is not involved in politics in any way, the obvious connection of RusBITech with the military complex of the Russian Federation in the current situation raises a serious question about the moral aspect, the TDF said in a statement.

The organization contacted RusBITech to explain why the suspension and "possibly exclusion" from the advisory board is a necessary step based on information that TDF was able to collect from the website of the Russian developer and other "reliable online sources," also said in its statement.

TDF called on the entire LibreOffice community and users to work to achieve peace and expressed hope that the current crisis will end soon. After that, the organization expects to reassess its decision.

The TDF Advisory Board provides ideas, recommendations and other proposals to the board of directors, which sets the vector for the development of the LibreOffice free office suite. It includes representatives of such well-known companies and organizations in the world as Google, Red Hat, SUSE, Free Software Foundation (FSF) and others.

In 2015, RusBITech was the first Russian company to officially join the ranks of the advisory council. At the time of publication, RusBITex was unable to comment on TAdviser's TDF decision.

2020: Support in the Galaktika ERP system

The Galaktika ERP system provides full support for LibreOffice, a free and open source office suite that is free for private, educational or commercial use. The Galaxy Corporation announced this on November 10, 2020. Read more here.

2018

Microsoft Store Placement

In July 2018, the LibreOffice software package became available in the Microsoft Store. It is offered completely free of charge without functional restrictions. You can also purchase a version for $3, which does not offer additional features, but is a kind of donation to developers. True, it is not clear who exactly the funds are going to.

In the column "developer" in the product description in the Microsoft Store is ".net." At the same time, LibreOffice was created by the non-profit organization The Document Foundation, which develops and supports open source software. The Document Foundation told Bleeping Computer that the organization did not place this software in the Microsoft Store.

The appearance of LibreOffice in the Microsoft Store in The Document Foundation commented as follows: "First, we need to see if the terms of distribution of LibreOffice comply with our license." Thus, the version of the office software package hosted in the Microsoft store was created by third-party developers who are not related to The Document Foundation.

Apparently, LibreOffice was ported to the UWP (Universal Windows Platform) platform thanks to the Microsoft Project Centennial tool, which was created specifically to encourage developers to port their numerous.NET and Win32 desktop applications to a universal platform hosted in the Microsoft Store directory.

By downloading LibreOffice to the Microsoft Store, users access the Writer (word processing ), Calc (spreadsheets ), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base  (databases) and Math (working with formulas) applications. It is noted that a "trial version" of the product is presented.^[5]

LibreOffice 6.0

New Panel View

The new appearance of the Ribbon toolbars, although still in experimental status, received two new panel options: "Group Full" for Writer, Calc and Impress and "Compact Tabs" for Writer. The Special Characters dialog has been redesigned, lists for the most recently used and favorite characters, and a search field have been added. The Settings dialog has also been changed and is now more modern and intuitive.

The Forms menu has been added to Writer, making it easier to access one of LibreOffice's most powerful and often unknown features: the ability to create documents with forms and standard PDF forms. The Search toolbar has been expanded with a drop-down list of search options to speed navigation. A new default table style has been added, as well as a new collection of table styles that reflect evolving visual trends.

The Mail Merge feature has been improved, and you can now use both the table in the Writer document and the XLSX file as a data source.

To improve support for the standard ISO ODF 1.2 format, SEARCHB, FINDB, and REPLACEB features have been added to Calc. In addition, the selected range of cells or the selected group of shapes (images) can now be exported to PNG or JPG formats.

To support modern screen and projector form factors, the default slide size in Impress was set to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Added 10 new Impress templates and updated some old ones.

Simplicity

The old WikiHelp online help system has been replaced by a new one with an attractive web interface that can be displayed on mobile devices. In general, LibreOffice help has been updated both in terms of content and engine code.

User dictionaries now allow automatic addition of prefixes and suffixes, as well as complex word formation. This is a general improvement in proofing in LibreOffice that can speed up the work of Writer users. Instead of manually specifying many forms of a new word in a language with a rich morphology, the Hunspell spelling checker can automatically recognize a new word based on the Grammar model.

Safety

Now all desktop operating systems can use OpenPGP keys with experimental support for OpenPGP-based encryption to sign ODF documents. To use this function, the user must install special GPG software on his operating system.

In addition, document classification has been improved and several document security policies (which are now exported to OOXML files) are allowed. In Writer, the caption is now supported at the paragraph level.

Compatibility

Compatibility with the OOXML format has been improved in several areas: importing SmartArt and importing/exporting ActiveX controls, supporting embedded text documents and spreadsheets, exporting embedded videos to PPTX, exporting cross-references and MailMerge fields to DOCX, and improvements to the PPTX filter to prevent corrupted files from being created.

New filters were also added to export Writer documents to ePub, import QuarkXPress files, and improve the filter for importing EMF + (Enhanced Metafile Format Plus) files used by Microsoft Office documents. Some improvements have been added to the ODF export filter, which improves the display of ODFs by other programs to view this format.

LibreOffice Online

LibreOffice Online is primarily a server service and must be installed and configured by adding cloud storage and an SSL certificate. This could be called enabling technology for cloud services offered by ISPs or a private cloud of businesses and large organizations.

The new features introduced in LibreOffice 6.0 are aimed at coordinating the functionality of desktop and cloud versions, especially where users primarily expect this behavior. For example, Save As was added, the number of rows available in the Calc table was increased to half a million. In addition, the Find and Replace and Spell Checker dialog boxes have been added to Writer, Calc, and Impress.

Now you can create new documents using LibreOffice Viewer for Android. It also offers a new toolbar with formatting options and allows users to add camera images to a document or from a file stored locally or in the cloud. In addition, the Calc user interface is enhanced by displaying column headers, and Impress will offer a presentation mode. The release is planned in the first quarter of 2018.

2017

LibreOffice 5.4

On August 2, 2017, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 5.4. This release created the ability to sign ODF files using OpenPGP keys on Linux.

This release makes notable changes to the core components and enhancements for compatibility with Microsoft Office document formats. One of the notable features is the modernization of the standard color palette based on the RYB (Red, Yellow, Blue) color model^[6].

Other changes include:

• by combining identical XML blocks, the size of ODF documents (ODTs) is reduced by 50% and the size of OOXML documents (DOCXs) is reduced by 90% compared to documents generated by Microsoft Office;
• expanded means of verifying documents by digital signature. The verification status of the digital signature document is now highlighted in a special panel. Linux provides support for OpenPGP keys for signing ODF documents.
• improved display quality of imported (including insertion into the document) files. PDF PDF files exported from Writer and Impress support embedded video (and related videos if they open Acrobat in Reader).

The changes affected Writer:

• Allows you to import AutoText from Microsoft Word DOTM templates
• Save the structure of lists when they are exported and pasted as plain text.
• Create your watermarks for documents in the Format menu
• added a panel (View/Toolbars/Formatting (Styles)) with a selection of tools for formatting and changing the style of text,
• AutoCorrect has added the ability to use markup to display text in italics.

Calc implements:

• Support for summary graphs created from PivotTable data (automatically updated when the data in the table is updated)
• menu from commands for managing comments (show, hide, delete all);
• changing the priority of the rules with the Up/Down buttons when formatting cells according to conditions;
• Additional options to protect the sheet (allow rows and columns to be inserted/deleted)
• saves the export settings to CSV format (for the next export operation).

In Impress and Draw, in the element duplication dialog, the previously set parameters are saved and the ability to set non-target angle values ​ ​ is added. Impress has added the Ctrl + M hotkey to insert the slide. A separate color palette has been prepared for diagrams. The Chart adds support for Pivot Charts. Math has added a context menu that allows you to place or retrieve items from the clipboard while editing the formula.

In the server edition of LibreOffice Online, for organizing collaboration with documents over the Internet, the web interface for editing a document is translated into an adaptive design that provides comfortable work regardless of screen size and resolution. For example, documents can now be edited in a browser on a smartphone.

Added features to LibreOffice Online:

• glyph rendering in the character dialog on the side, servers
• display notifications when shared editing conflicts are detected
• Displays a warning that the server is unavailable.

Added support for advanced input methods specific to complex languages.

Writer Online provides:

• natural rendering of comments with animation,
• Support for change tracking
• Draw non-printed characters and a red line.

In Calc Online, the number of available lines has been increased to 10 thousand. An option is implemented to put the document into read-only mode.

Mac OS X 10.8, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP2 platforms have been declared obsolete. Their support will end with the next release.

LibreOffice 5.3

On February 3, 2017, The Document Foundation announced the release of version 5.3 of the LibreOffice office suite. According to the developers, LibreOffice 5.3 includes almost the largest number of changes in its entire existence.

The cloud package LibreOffice Online has appeared in this version. It is required to edit documents together in the browser using the main package engine.

Installing LibreOffice Online requires cloud storage support and an SSL certificate. The developers of the cloud application package do not provide such options, because the introduction of LibreOffice Online is the responsibility of public cloud providers, and an installation in a private cloud is available at enterprises. LibreOffice Online source code is distributed as ^[7] Docker images^[7]

The distribution includes experimental support for the MUFFIN (My User Friendly & Flexible INterface) project with the implementation of the modular interface concept - a technological solution that takes into account user preferences, working conditions and types of equipment.

In addition to the standard panel, several alternatives are implemented:

• a single-line panel to save vertical screen space
• sidebar for widescreen monitors
• Ribbon-style panel, familiar to MS Office users.

The text engine supports OpenType and Graphite Layout fonts on all platforms, which preserves the continuity of the same type of presentation of LibreOffice text documents. Added items to the help menu - quick links to user guides and community support forums, a safe mode of operation has appeared to help detect and fix problems with the user profile or extensions.

The word processor (Writer) has acquired support for table styles, a dialog for quickly navigating to another page. You have imported and exported ODF table styles and added support for Cancel and Check In for table styles. A new experimental section "Change Management" has been introduced into the sidebar for Writer, allowing you to track who made changes to the document and when.

The Calc table editor received a set of cell styles. Instead of the previously suggested regular expressions for new settings, the option is enabled by default to allow simple masks in formulas. A text filter was added that allows you to narrow the selection when searching for functions and added a search field for functions in the "Insert → Function" dialog.

Users can now insert images into text documents PDF , increasing the number of drawing tools in all components of the package. Added the ability to create digital signatures for existing PDF files and verify the correctness of PDF by digital signature. Presentations and a vector editor (Impress & Draw) when launching the application allow you to select a template for a quick start. By default, there are two new templates. Inserting images allows you to save them as links (without saving them to the document itself).

LibreOffice 5.3 also offers the user an advanced color interface system. The "Setup" dialog has become more convenient and user-friendly - some important buttons are placed in the dialog from the drop-down menus. Improved filters for importing and exporting documents in MS Office formats.

LibreOffice 5.3 builds are prepared for Linux, Windows and macOS. The release is positioned as an introductory release, can create stability problems and is recommended for tech-savvy enthusiasts.

2016

LibreOffice 5.1.2

On April 7, 2016, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 5.1.2, a corrective release from the LibreOffice 5.1 "fresh" LibreOffice^[8].

The release includes 89 fixes (RC1, RC2). Version 5.1.2 is aimed at enthusiasts, experienced users and lovers of the latest software versions. For conservative users and businesses, LibreOffice 5.0.5 is recommended.

Ready-made installation packages are prepared for Linux, OS X and Windows platforms.

LibreOffice 5.1.1

On March 10, 2016, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 5.1.1. This is the first corrective release of the LibreOffice 5.1 "fresh" family^[9].

Version 5.1.1 is aimed at enthusiasts, experienced users and those who prefer the latest versions of the software. For conservative users and businesses, LibreOffice 5.0.5 is recommended. Ready-made installation packages are prepared for Linux, OS X and Windows platforms.

As part of issue 83, corrections (RC1, RC3). The release is notable for adding the ability to hide spaces between pages, which allows you to form an inextricable stream of text, convenient for viewing on laptops with small widescreen screens.

LibreOffice 5.1

On February 10, 2016, the organization The Document Foundation introduced the release of LibreOffice 5.1. Ready-made installation packages are prepared for various distributions, and the LibreOffice Linux Windows OS X^[10]

This release has reorganized the user interface, modified support for ODF 1.2, expanded compatibility with proprietary formats, and added support for direct work with cloud storage.

LibreOffice 5.1 New Features: Calc (2016)

• Simplified work with data in cloud services Google Drive, Alfresco, OneDrive and SharePoint;

• in the Writer, Impress and Calc products, the menu was reorganized: similar elements were grouped, the addition of missing elements was simplified, functions were sorted taking into account the demand and importance;

Writer

• An additional style management menu has been added;
• Added tools for setting contour and indentation parameters;
• Redesigned the appearance of dialogs for setting the properties of lines and regions;
• Preservation of side panel properties between different sessions is ensured;
• Reorganized the Scope Property Definition Panel;
• Additional contour and spacing settings have been added to the image wrap settings;
• An option has been added to the spelling context menu to select AutoCorrect tables;
• Buttons have been added to the spelling dialog to paste and place special characters on the clipboard;
• In the preview mode, before printing, a field has been added to the panel to quickly navigate to the desired page;
• The mailing system no longer uses external intermediate files with the definition of mailing pattern parameters;

Calc

• The table processor reorganized the menu and added a new Sheet menu;
• New commands have been added to insert adjacent rows and columns. The Formula Wizard provides the display of values and results. A button for changing the font size has been added to the panel. An option is implemented to search for formatted strings;
• Added buttons to Calc sidebar properties to zoom in and out fonts;
• The formula preparation wizard provides the display of parameter values and calculation results;
• New commands have been added to add rows below and columns to the right;
• Perform optimization of calculations using the SUM function, including using SSE3 processor instructions. Large datasets are accelerated up to 5 times. Up to twice the work of the calculator of simple formulas (+, -, * ,/) has been accelerated;
• A new dialog has been added to calculate linear, logarithmic or regression;
• Calc has added support for exporting a document image in PNG format, similar to Writer and Impress;
• The formula engine has improved compatibility with the ODF 1.2 standard. A new ISOWEEKNUM function has been added, the WEEKNUM function has been brought into compliance with the specification, the WEEKNUM_ADD function has been renamed WEEKNUM_EXCEL2003, the old version of WEEKNUM is now available as a WEEKNUM_OOO;

Chart, Draw

• Draw, Impress, and Calc added a new dialog to customize shadow settings;
• For diagrams, a sidebar is presented that allows you to quickly change settings;
• Added the ability to align the width and height of the selected vector objects;
• In the dialog for viewing the properties of vector objects, the ability to manually adjust key points has been added;

Impress

• The Slide menu has been added to Impress.
• The function of saving the background picture of the current slide of the presentation is implemented;
• A button has been added to the presentation management console to restart the slideshow timer without restarting the slideshow itself;
• In the Impress sidebar, the available slide transition effects are grouped and presented as a collection of thumbnails;
• The visual effects of the slide transition have been translated to OpenGL 2.1 +, which led to the end of support for very old GPUs, but allowed the implementation of new features on more modern GPUs. Four new effects have been added that use the features of OpenGL 2.1;
• Settings have been added to the Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ View menu to check whether OpenGL is enabled;
• Impress has enabled editing modes and Wizard Set. Modes are available: drawing a slide, adding notes, defining the structure of the presentation, sorting slides. Wizards: template editor, template editor with notes, design of abstracts;

Miscellaneous

• The keepers of the desktop environments KDE, Xfce and MATE are disabled when showing presentations;
• Official support for importing files in the format of a free Gnumeric table processor;
• Support for importing Microsoft Write (.wri) files. Use libwps to import.
• Improving the export of OpenXML data: exporting modified VBA code back to Microsoft and OOXML binary formats, incomplete support for protected macros, macro tables and active x, improving export to DOCX and PPTX formats (including exporting formulas from LibreOffice Math);
• Improved support for MS Visio files: support for line color redefinition, partial support for hatch fill, support for bulleted lists, emulation of line rounding parameters, import of VSDX color scheme, etc.
• Support for importing Apple Keynote 6 files;
• The version for the Android platform supports the display of ODF files in flat format (.fodt and.fods);
• Declared obsolete and will be removed in the next branch support for embedding content into documents requiring NPAPI plugins (Adobe Flash). Support for ActiveX on the Windows platform has also been declared obsolete .

2015

LibreOffice Viewer для Android

Last week, the LibreOffice Viewer app was released on Android, allowing you to view Open Document Format, Microsoft Office and Google Docs files. It has already been downloaded several tens of thousands of times, which, according to the Open Document Foundation, indicates interest in a full-fledged office suite.

A version of Microsoft Office for Android is also being developed - trial versions of applications are already available; the most popular of them, Word, was installed about 500 thousand times. Dropbox wants to implement support for creating and editing documents on its online service, for which CloudOn was recently acquired. Google office applications and Mobile Systems OfficeSuite are also available on Android.

The most beautiful LibreOffice 4.4

On January 29, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the release of the "most beautiful" version of LibreOffice^[11].

According to the management of the product design team, this is the most beautiful version at the time of its release, and the design and user interface of LibreOffice 4.4 are made with love.

The new version has updated the toolbars, main and pop-up menus, ruler, and status bar. A new color selection panel has been created, the side menu has been improved, it is better integrated with the main one. Many graphic elements have been redone to suit modern trends: flat graphical interfaces.

Program Window for Mac, 2015

The Mac version comes with an updated default Sifr Monochrome artwork theme.

The Sifr Monochrome interface in OS X has a gray color scheme with a minimum of elements of other colors.

In addition to their appearance, the developers have improved compatibility with the OOXML (Office Open XML) file formats that Microsoft uses in its Microsoft Office package. For example, they included Carlito and Caladea fonts in the package, replacing Microsoft Calibri and Cambria fonts. This is done in order to eliminate problems with the display of text when opening OOXML files.

Windows Program Window, 2015

The developers have improved the functions of importing files from Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Publisher, AbiWord and Microsoft Works. Added support for importing Adobe PageMaker, MacDraw, MacDraw II, and RagTime for Mac files.

LibreOffice 4.4 download is available for Windows, OS X and Linux on the official project website.

LibreOffice Online launch announced

On March 26, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the launch of a new free cloud service LibreOffice Online - it should become a free alternative to Google Docs and other proprietary services of this type^[12].

Product Presentation, 2015

LibreOffice Online will be the first cloud-based online document service to natively support the Open Document Format (ODF) standard. On March 25, 2014, The Document Foundation is working on the project with IceWarp and Collabora - they will take part in the development of the code along with other contributors. And Collabora will provide support, provide some of its components used in creating the mobile application for viewing LibreOffice Viewer for Android office files.

The web interface of the service is based on HTML5 and JavaScript technologies. Functionality is similar to desktop applications, but not all functionality will be available. Hosting will be controlled by The Document Foundation.

LibreOffice 4.4.3

On May 7, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 4.4.3, the third corrective release from the LibreOffice 4.4 "fresh" LibreOffice^[13].

The update includes more than 80 fixes. Version 4.4.3 is marked as suitable for implementation at large enterprises, including with the provision of professional technical support services from specialists who have passed special certification. The announcement mentions an event scheduled for May 22-24 to identify errors in the new branch of LibreOffice 5.0, its release is scheduled for late July 2015.

LibreOffice 4.4.4

On June 30, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the readiness of LibreOffice 4.4.4, the fourth corrective release of LibreOffice 4.4 "fresh"^[14].

70 fixes have been updated. Version 4.4.4 is considered suitable for implementation in large enterprises, including with the provision of services of specially certified specialists.

The release of LibreOffice 5.0 is scheduled for early August 2015.

LibreOffice 5.0

On August 5, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 5.0^[15].

The release of LibreOffice 5.0 relies on the success of the 4.x branch, installed among 80 million users (according to TDF, based on the number of user checks for updates), including in large organizations in Europe and South America. LibreOffice 5.0 improves the user interface, has more efficient workspace management and a concise design.

Screenshot of the program window, 2015

LibreOffice 5.0 comes with an impressive number of spreadsheet (Calc) features: complex formulas, new features, conditional formatting, image cropping, table addressing, and more. New and improved filters for processing non-standard formats have provided better compatibility with office packages Microsoft Office and iWork. Apple Other improvements have been added to various modules of the package, platform support has been expanded: a version for 64-bit (Windows Vista and later versions) has been created, support has been announced. In Windows 10 addition, you can now use timestamps for PDFs created in LibreOffice.

The developers consider the release of LibreOffice 5.0 to be the foundation for mobile office applications on Android and Ubuntu Touch platforms, as well as for the upcoming cloud version.

A complete list of significant changes to LibreOffice 5.0 is published on the TDF wiki page. Packages with LibreOffice 5.0 are available for download from the official website.

LibreOffice 5.0.1

On August 27, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 5.0.1, the first corrective release from the LibreOffice 5.0 "fresh" LibreOffice^[16].

The release includes 76 fixes (RC1, RC2). Version 5.0.1 is aimed at enthusiasts, experienced users and lovers of the latest versions. ON Conservative users and businesses are encouraged to use LibreOffice 4.4.5.

Installation packages are prepared for Linux, OS X and Windows platforms.

Alpha LibreOffice 5.1

On October 29, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the release of the alpha version of the LibreOffice 5.1 office suite and invited all interested users to participate in the "Bug Hunt" event^[17].

According to the company, over the past 12 months, more than 19 thousand edits have been made with the participation of 300 developers.

In addition to increasing performance and compatibility with MS Office file formats (including MS Office 2016), additions have been made:

• For diagrams, a sidebar is presented that allows you to quickly change settings;
• Easier to work with data in cloud services Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint. A dialog has been added to the File menu to open and save files from external vaults;
• Redesigned the appearance of dialogs for setting the properties of lines and regions;
• Writer, Impress and Calc have reorganized the menu, added an additional style management menu;
• Writer has added tools for configuring contour and indentation parameters;
• Draw, Impress, and Calc added a new dialog to customize shadow settings;
• The Calc table processor has added commands to insert adjacent rows and columns. The Formula Wizard provides the display of values and results. A button for changing the font size has been added to the panel. An option is implemented to search for formatted strings;

Screenshot of the application window (2015)

• An option has been added to the spelling context menu to select AutoCorrect tables;
• The keepers of the desktop environments KDE, Xfce and MATE are disabled when showing presentations;

Added the ability to align the width and height of the selected vector objects;

• In the dialog for viewing the properties of vector objects, the ability to manually adjust key points has been added;
• The function of saving the background picture of the current slide of the presentation is implemented;
• Official support for importing files in the format of a free Gnumeric table processor;
• Support for importing Microsoft Write (.wri) files.

Correcting LibreOffice Packages 5.0.3 and 4.4.6

On November 4, 2015, The Document Foundation announced the availability of the LibreOffice 5.0.3 and 4.4.6 Office Suite corrective releases, including 88 (RC1, RC2) and 109 (RC1, RC2) fixes, respectively^[18].

There are security-related patches in these releases, but details of the vulnerabilities are not reported. All users are advised to upgrade to release 4.4.6 at least.

The LibreOffice 5.0 branch is aimed at enthusiasts, experienced users and those who prefer the latest versions. software For conservative users and businesses, it is recommended to use LibreOffice 4.4.6 for the time being.

Ready-made installation packages are prepared for Linux, OS X and Windows platforms.

2014

LibreOffice 4.2

On January 30, 2014, the Document Foundation announced an updated office suite - LibreOffice 4.2.

Version 4.2 is released as a trial release and is recommended for experienced users, its planned version for mass use will be released with one of the corrective releases.

The package is ready to work with various operating systems - Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

The developers announced a closer integration of LibreOffice 4.2 with Windows 7 and Windows 8, offering experienced and corporate users a number of additional features. The enterprise version has a simplified installation dialog box that helps you avoid errors, as well as the ability to connect to central management and Group Policy controls through Active Directory. In addition, when you start the application, you can now see a list of the latest open documents.

• The Calc tool has undergone the most significant changes in the code - improved performance, this will become noticeable when working with large tables and importing data from xlsx files
• The new code base provides parallel calculations using the GPU via OpenGL.
• The Impress Remote Control tool for iOS has been improved, allowing iPhone users to control presentations via mobile devices. Now this functionality is awaiting approval from Apple, after which it will appear in the App Store. Somewhat earlier, Impress Remote appeared for Android devices.

Enhanced Microsoft Office and OOXML file export and import filters have significantly improved the compatibility of these documents. LibreOffice 4.2 introduced support for OOXML encryption, added import filters for Apple Keynote and AbiWord ABW files. A new starter screen has been developed with a more reasonable layout of elements and optimal use of screen space for different classes of devices, including netbooks. The Start screen displays links to quickly create different types of content. The application for creating and editing Writer text has added embedding of images in HTML files, when importing RTF, initial support for forms has been added, the ability to create template files in.dot format has been added, compatibility with.docx format has been improved, etc.

LibreOffice 4.3

On July 31, 2014, the Document Foundation released the eighth version of the free LibreOffice 4.3 office suite.

According to the developers, with this release LibreOffice has reached maturity, and they position it as an office suite that can make up an alternative to a Microsoft product.

As an argument, they point to useful innovations in the new version:

• document compatibility. Support for the Microsoft Office Open XML (OOXML) Strict format has been implemented, OOXML graphics (DrawingML, skin fonts, saving styles and document design attributes) have been improved, OOXML files can be embedded in another OOXML file, 30 new Excel formulas, MS Works spreadsheets and databases are supported, as well as MacResaris, WorksClaris, WorksClaris file formats

• working with comments. Now you can enter comments into document fields, format them more conveniently, import and export them, including attached comments, into ODF, DOC, OOXML and RTF documents.

• intuitive work with spreadsheets. A number of Calc tasks have become more intuitive thanks to the "intelligent" highlighting of formulas in cells, showing several specified rows and columns on the status bar, the ability to edit a cell based on the content of the cell above, and choose a text conversion model.

• 3D models in Impress. There is support for animated 3D models in the new open gITF format, as well as an initial level of support for Collada and kmz files from Google Warehouse. According to the developers, this will allow users to revive presentations using animation.

LibreOffice 4.3 has increased the maximum size of paragraphs - up to 65 thousand characters, and the means of work for people with disabilities has become a standard function thanks to the improvement of the IAccessible2 API.

LibreOffice 4.3 for Linux, Mac, and Windows is free to download from LibreOffice. The previous version of LibreOffice 4.2 can be used from the cloud using the SaaS model.

2013

LibreOffice 4.0

The Document Foundation announced in early 2013 on the official website the release of the fourth version of the most popular free office suite LibreOffice.

LibreOffice 4.0 reflects the goals set by the community in September 2010: to make code simpler and easier for developers, to improve functionality and compatibility.

LibreOffice 4.0 has improved support for DOCX and RTF formats, including support for comments on documents. The speed of opening and saving files in many formats and mainly in ODS, XLSX and RTF formats has been significantly increased.

Added support for content management systems,, Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 SAP NetWeaver Cloud Service P8 IBM FileNet , etc. The function of importing Publisher documents has appeared Microsoft.

LibreOffice 4.1.2

On October 7, 2013, the non-profit The Document Foundation (TDF), the curator of LibreOffice development, announced the release of a new release 4.1.2 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

LibreOffice 4.1.2 is the second release in the LibreOffice 4.1 family. It includes a large number of updated features that provide improved compatibility with proprietary and standardized file formats such as docx, ww8, odf, and pdf. In particular, an error was excluded that led to a system crash when opening some files in doc format.

The most thoroughly tested versions of LibreOffice have a third significant digit after the point (x.u.1, x.u.2,...) and are recommended for daily use in the corporate sector and among underprepared (IT) users. However, for businesses that want to use LibreOffice, TDF recommends using version 4.0.5, which offers support for certified professionals.

LibreOffice will receive commercial support for enterprises

LibreOffice, an open source office suite developed by the Document Foundation, used as an application in many Linux distributions, will receive commercial support from Collabora Productivity. It will be carried out in cooperation with SUSE Linux, which is one of the main participants in the LibreOffice project since its inception in September 2010^[19]

On the basis of the combined team in Collabora, a new division of Collabora Productivity will be formed, which will develop and promote a commercial solution based on LibreOffice. Currently, the main participants in the LibreOffice project from SUSE Linux have left the company and joined Collabora. One of them, engineer Michael Meeks, said: "In my new job, I have to explore the commercial prospects of LibreOffice, turning it into a full-fledged working service for our customers. Our job is to improve this office suite across the board '.

The commercial product will be aimed at corporate users and will feature expanded support for use in heterogeneous environments with Linux, Windows and OS X and integration with enterprise software. According to Meeks, he is pleased with the ongoing work on improving LibreOffice and believes that in its current form the package is suitable for large-scale deployment in enterprises.

2011

LibreOffice 3.3

LibreOffice 3.3 is based on OpenOffice.org 3.3, but is further optimized for performance and includes some new features that should tentatively indicate the directions of development of the package for 2011 and beyond. In the future, each LibreOffice module must be thoroughly redesigned, and the first swallow in this direction will be Calc, which will be transferred to the new Ixion engine, which promises to give a higher level of performance and flexibility, along with long-awaited database support and improved VBA macros. The Writer text editor and Impress package will develop towards improving the accuracy of displaying text markups and presentations, improving support for various document formats, improving compatibility and conversion capabilities. One of the development tasks is the reduction of dependence on Java.

At the same time, in the upcoming version 3.3 there will not yet be revolutionary differences from OpenOffice.org. Among the most tangible advantages so far is some improvement in LibreOffice performance and "nice little things" associated with small improvements in the user interface. A new engine is also being prepared that provides more efficient operation of the Calc table processor, support for VBA macros and databases. In the future, the developers are going to get rid of the "garbage" in the project code without being constrained by the need to maintain compatibility with OpenOffice.org.

Among the most significant improvements in version 3.3 are the addition of a font similar to Arial Narrow, the ability to further protect documents from unwanted edits, support for up to 1 million rows in Calc spreadsheets, a new sort dialog in the DataPilot tool, easier selection of slide templates in Impress presentations, a new print dialog, and a more convenient thesaurus design.

The LibreOffice release includes some of the OpenOffice.org improvements, and also adds its own improvements, largely based on the previous developments of the Go-oo project, which served as the basis for LibreOffice. In particular, LibreOffice provides support for importing SVG images with the ability to edit them in the Draw vector graphics editor, improved support for WordPerfect formats, added support for Microsoft Works, Lotus Word Pro. A special dialog has been added that allows users to determine the appearance of the cover page - previously this feature was' hidden'in the OpenOffice.org deep inside and therefore not all users quickly understood how to use it.

LibreOffice 3.4.2

LibreOffice 3.4.2 was announced by the Document Foundation on August 1, 2011. Previous versions were mainly intended for technical specialists who are ready to work with the latest products. The developers did not recommend them for use in enterprises.

'LibreOffice

3.4.2 fixed most of the major bugs identified by users of previous versions, 'Italo Vignoli, a member of the foundation's steering committee, wrote on the Document Foundation blog. 'The product can now be deployed to a wide variety of organizations for office needs'.

The Document Foundation recommends that large organizations install LibreOffice with the assistance of partners who can formulate specific requirements, migrate documents, and provide specific solutions for any problems.

'When an organization buys LibreOffice from a partner firm, it also gives the client the opportunity to indirectly provide financial assistance to the project, 'adds Vignoli. "The money goes to the development of the product, to ensure its stability and accelerate growth."

The new version of LibreOffice accumulates the efforts of about three hundred participants, including individual developers, as well as teams from Oracle, SuSE, Red Hat, Canonical and smaller companies. More than half a thousand serious problems have been fixed here, including errors in Calc spreadsheets, Impress presentation editor and Writer text processor.

Working with password-protected documents, users can now change their password even during an editing session. As evidenced by the description on the LibreOffice website, the package provides compatibility with Unity, the default desktop used in Canonical's Ubuntu OS.

The developers paid special attention to improving the performance and stability of LibreOffice, wanting to make this package the most advanced version of OpenOffice. The installation file has become more compact, the launch time has decreased. Among other things, 150 duplicate 'missing' icons and 624 localized palette files were removed. The use of a more efficient compression tool has reduced the size of the installation file for Windows by more than 300 MB; The font system has fixed an error that led to a memory leak.

'The purpose of the Document Foundation was to develop the OpenOffice.org, to create a slimmer and more compact free office suite, 'says Bjern Michaelsen, a developer at Canonical and a member of the foundation's steering committee. 'After 10 months we have made significant progress towards this goal '.

Release 3.4.3, due to be released in late August 2011, will include additional stability and security enhancements. The new package is distributed in versions for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, you can download it on the LibreOffice project website.

In October 2011, LibreOffice developers announced the transfer of the office suite to the iOS and Android mobile platforms, as well as the creation of a web version of it. According to the announcement, the initial appearance of LibreOffice can be expected on devices with a large screen: iPads and tablets running on Android, after which, perhaps, the office suite will be adapted to work with smartphone screens.

In general, the release of LibreOffice for iOS and Android can be expected no earlier than the end of 2012 - beginning of 2013. The arrival of LibreOffice on the iPad iPhone threatens to provoke an interesting legal conflict, which has already been caused by the poor compatibility of open licenses and app store policies. Apple The conflict between them is that the Apple App Store and Mac Store protect all distributed applications using DRM, and also impose restrictions on the further distribution of programs, thereby violating one of the main freedoms described in public licenses.

LibreOffice 3.5

It took 16 months for Document Foundation project participants to develop a new version of the open source office suite LibreOffice. During this time, over 30 thousand modifications have been made to the package, and almost 300 new participants have joined the development, the organization reports. LibreOffice's source code was purged of thousands of outdated or unused methods, and sometimes entire libraries, and the package became lighter, faster, and richer in capabilities. However, version 3.5 is recommended primarily for experienced users, the rest, perhaps, should remain with the stable version 3.4 for now.

The Writer editor has a new grammar checking system built in for English and several other languages. Printing tools and an interface for adjusting headers and footers and page breaks have also been improved. In the Impress presentation, you can now import Microsoft Visio documents, and the formulas in the Calc spreadsheet are aligned with the ODF OpenFormula standard. The Base database module has a built-in driver for PostgreSQL. Finally, for the first time, LibreOffice has implemented automatic check for new versions.

In addition to the improvements noticeable to the user, others have been implemented: the developers have significantly cleared the code of excesses and created a set of automated tests, according to Document Foundation co-founder Michael Meeks. Although there is still a lot of work to be done, he adds, the product should already please users who were previously unhappy with the poor stability of the package.

LibreOffice 3.5.1

The update improves the stability and security of LibreOffice, fixing "most of the most serious bugs identified by users." The Document Foundation also expressed confidence that LibreOffice 3.5.1 "will interest most enterprises." Some of the fixes fix bugs that caused an unexpected shutdown of the office suite.

2010

LibreOffice separates from OpenOffice into a standalone product

LibreOffice started in September 2010 as an offshoot of another free office suite, OpenOffice. To promote LibreOffice, the Document Foundation was established, while OpenOffice developers work under the auspices of the non-profit Apache Software Foundation. At the time of the split, OpenOffice was overseen by Oracle. Actually, it caused this split, since some developers considered that its management policy was too centralized and tough. It should be noted that after the separation of LibreOffice into a separate unit, the project began to develop quite successfully.

At the end of August, its developers announced the start of migration to LibreOffice 120 thousand. PC in the state institutions of Spanish Valencia. According to the calculations of the initiators of migration, the introduction of a free office suite will save 1.5 million euros of budget funds annually.

Document Foundation announced in 2013 the inclusion of AMD on the advisory board overseeing the development of the LibreOffice office suite. AMD plans to implement support for the use of the graphics subsystem to speed up computing operations in the LibreOffice table processor.

Start LibreOffice

As of September 2010, LibreOffice ("free office") is a freely distributed suite of office applications developed by The Document Foundation community.

Notes

LibreOffice Download Section