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Author: Italo Vignoli

Announcement of LibreOffice 24.2.3 Community

Berlin, 2 May 2024 – LibreOffice 24.2.3 Community, the third minor release of the free, volunteer-supported office suite for personal productivity in office environments, is now available at https://www.libreoffice.org/download for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The release includes around 80 bug and regression fixes over LibreOffice 24.2.2 [1] to improve the stability and robustness of the software. LibreOffice 24.2.3 Community is the most advanced version of the office suite, offering the best features and interoperability with Microsoft Office proprietary formats.

LibreOffice is the only office suite with a feature set comparable to the market leader. It also offers a range of interface options to suit all user habits, from traditional to modern, and makes the most of different screen form factors by optimising the space available on the desktop to put the maximum number of features just a click or two away.

The most significant advantage of LibreOffice over other office suites is the LibreOffice Technology engine, a single software platform for all environments: desktop, cloud and mobile. This allows LibreOffice to provide a better user experience and produce identical, and interoperable, documents based on both ISO standards: Open Document Format (ODT, ODS and ODP) for users concerned about compatibility, resilience and digital sovereignty, and the proprietary Microsoft format(DOCX, XLSX and PPTX).

A full description of all the new features of the LibreOffice 24.2 major release line can be found in the release notes [2].

LibreOffice for Enterprises

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners – for desktop, mobile and cloud – with a wide range of dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLAs: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/

Every line of code developed by ecosystem companies for enterprise customers is shared with the community on the master code repository and contributes to the improvement of the LibreOffice Technology platform.

Availability of LibreOffice 24.2.3 Community

LibreOffice 24.2.3 Community is available at https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Minimum requirements for proprietary operating systems are Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 and Apple macOS 10.15. Products based on LibreOffice Technology for Android and iOS are listed here: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/android-and-ios/

For users who don’t need the latest features and prefer a version that has undergone more testing and bug fixing, The Document Foundation maintains the LibreOffice 7.6 family, which includes several months of back-ported fixes. The current release is LibreOffice 7.6.6 Community.

The Document Foundation does not provide technical support for users, although they can get it from volunteers on user mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website: https://ask.libreoffice.org

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support the Document Foundation by making a donation at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate

[1] Fixes in RC1: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/24.2.3/RC1. Fixes in RC2: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/24.2.3/RC2.

[2] Release Notes: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/24.2

European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has found that the European Commission (Commission) has breached several provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the EU data protection law for EU institutions (EUIs), in its use of Microsoft 365, including those relating to the transfer of personal data outside the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The EDPS is imposing corrective measures on the Commission.

In particular, the Commission has failed to provide adequate safeguards to ensure that personal data transferred outside the EU/EEA are afforded the same level of protection as that guaranteed within the EU/EEA.
Furthermore, in its contract with Microsoft, the Commission did not sufficiently specify the types of personal data to be collected and for what explicit and specified purposes when using Microsoft 365. The Commission’s breaches as data controller also relate to data processing, including the transfer of personal data, carried out on its behalf.

The EDPS has therefore decided to order the Commission to suspend, with effect from 9 December 2024, all data flows resulting from the use of Microsoft 365 to Microsoft, its subsidiaries and sub-processors located in countries outside the EU/EEA that are not covered by an adequacy decision.

In effect, the EDPS has confirmed what we have been arguing for years, namely that the only individual productivity solutions that also guarantee data protection and support the concept of Europe’s digital sovereignty – technological independence from the commercial decisions of high-tech companies, especially from the US – are FOSS solutions such as LibreOffice combined with a standard, open and independent data format such as the Open Document Format.

The EDPS, though, has also decided to order the Commission to bring the processing operations resulting from its use of Microsoft 365 into compliance with the EU Regulation 2018/1725. The Commission has until 9 December 2024 to demonstrate compliance with both orders.

The EDPS considers that the corrective measures it imposes (described in the document annex [1]) are appropriate, necessary and proportionate in light of the seriousness and duration of the infringements found.
Many of the infringements found concern all processing operations carried out by the Commission, or on its behalf, when using Microsoft 365, and impact many individuals.

Unfortunately, all the remedies identified by the EDPS relate to Microsoft 365, and therefore do not address the root of the problem by suggesting the use of FOSS solutions such as LibreOffice and the only truly standard, open and independent document format, the Open Document Format.

It is highly likely that Microsoft’s solution will be the usual ‘sticking plaster’ that hides the problem without addressing it, and that the lobbyists – who I am sure are already at work – will make it look appropriate in the eyes of politicians.

And if we continue to protest, knowing that we will not be heard because we do not have the same firepower as the lobbyists of the big US hi-tech companies who are present in Brussels with hundreds of professionals, we will always hear the same thing: “They all do the same…”.

[1] https://www.edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/press-releases/2024/european-commissions-use-microsoft-365-infringes-data-protection-law-eu-institutions-and-bodies_en

Joint release of LibreOffice 24.2.2 Community and LibreOffice 7.6.6 Community

Berlin, 28 March 2024 – Today the Document Foundation releases LibreOffice 24.2.2 Community [1] and LibreOffice 7.6.6 Community [2], both minor releases that fix bugs and regressions to improve quality and interoperability for individual productivity.

Both versions are immediately available from https://www.libreoffice.org/download. All LibreOffice users are encouraged to update their current version as soon as possible to take advantage of improvements. Minimum requirements for proprietary operating systems are Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 and Apple MacOS 10.15.

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners – for desktop, mobile and cloud – with a wide range of dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLAs: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

The Document Foundation does not provide technical support to users, although it is available from volunteers on user mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website: https://ask.libreoffice.org.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support the Document Foundation by making a donation at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

[1] Change logs for LibreOffice 24.2.2 Community: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/24.2.2/RC1 (release candidate 1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/24.2.2/RC2 (release candidate 2).

[2] Change logs for LibreOffice 7.6.6 Community: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.6.6/RC1 (release candidate 1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.6.6/RC2 (release candidate 2).

The new Board of Directors

The new Board of Directors of The Document Foundation has just started its two-year term on 18 February 2024.

The full members are, in alphabetical order: Eliane Domingos, Sophie Gautier, Björn Michaelsen, László Németh, Simon Phipps, Eike Rathke, Italo Vignoli.

The deputies are again in alphabetical order: Osvaldo Gervasi, Mike Saunders, Paolo Vecchi.

Mike Saunders was elected to the Board for the first time. All the other members have served either on the Steering Committee from 2010 to 2012 (Sophie Gautier and Italo Vignoli) or on the Board of Directors since 2014 as full or deputy members.

At its first meeting, the Board unanimously elected Eliane Domingos as Chair and Simon Phipps as Vice-Chair.

At the same time, they decided to review and reorganise responsibilities and areas of oversight to ensure a more agile decision-making process.

Six people who served during the previous term have left the Board, but will continue to contribute to the project as TDF Members: Thorsten Behrens, Gábor Kelemen, Gabriel Masei, Cor Nouws, Emiliano Vavassori, Ayhan Yalçınsoy.

We are deeply grateful to all of them for their dedication, their contribution to decision making and all the time they have volunteered to serve on the Board, as well as their ongoing contribution to FOSS and LibreOffice.

Announcement of LibreOffice 24.2.1 Community

Berlin, 29 February 2024 – LibreOffice 24.2.1 Community, the first minor release of the free, volunteer-supported office suite for personal productivity in office environments, is now available at https://www.libreoffice.org/download for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

The release includes more than 100 bug and regression fixes over LibreOffice 24.2 [1] to improve the stability and robustness of the software. LibreOffice 24.2.1 Community is the most advanced version of the office suite, offering the best features and interoperability with Microsoft Office proprietary formats.

LibreOffice is the only office suite with a feature set comparable to the market leader. It also offers a range of interface options to suit all user habits, from traditional to modern, and makes the most of different screen form factors by optimising the space available on the desktop to put the maximum number of features just a click or two away.

Highlights of LibreOffice 24.2.1 Community

The main advantage of LibreOffice over other office suites is the LibreOffice Technology engine, a single software platform for all environments: desktop, cloud and mobile. This allows LibreOffice to provide a better user experience and produce identical – and interoperable – documents based on both ISO standards: Open Document Format (ODT, ODS and ODP) for users concerned about compatibility, resilience and digital sovereignty, and the proprietary Microsoft OOXML (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX).

Most notable new features in the LibreOffice 24.2 family:

GENERAL
• Save AutoRecovery information is enabled by default, and is always creating backup copies
• Fixed various NotebookBar options, with many menu improvements, better print preview support, proper reset of customised layout, and enhanced use of radio buttons
• The Insert Special Character drop-down list now displays a character description for the selected character (and in the tooltip when you hover over it)

WRITER
• “Legal” ordered list numbering: make a given list level use Arabic numbering for all its numeric portions
• Comments can now use styles, with the Comment paragraph style being the default
• Improved various aspects of multi-page floating table support: overlap control, borders and footnotes, nesting, wrap on all pages, and related UI improvements

CALC
• A new search field has been added to the Functions sidebar deck
• The scientific number format is now supported and saved in ODF
• Highlight the Row and Column corresponding to the active cell

IMPRESS & DRAW
• The handling of small caps has been implemented for Impress
• Moved Presenter Console and Remote control settings from Tools > Options > LibreOffice Impress to Slide Show > Slide Show Settings, with improved labelling and dialogue layout
• Several improvements and fixes to templates

ACCESSIBILITY
• Several significant improvements to the handling of mouse positions and the presentation of dialogue boxes via the Accessibility APIs, allowing screen readers to present them correctly
• Improved management of IAccessible2 roles and text/object attributes, allowing screen readers to present them correctly
• Status bars in dialogs are reported with the correct accessible role so that screen readers can find and report them appropriately, while checkboxes in dialogs can be toggled using the space bar

SECURITY
• The Save with Password dialogue box now has a password strength meter
• New password-based ODF encryption that performs better, hides metadata better, and is more resistant to tampering and brute force
• Clarification of the text in the options dialogue box around the macro security settings, so that it is clear exactly what is allowed and what is not

The LibreOffice 24.2 family offers a host of enhancements and new features aimed at users sharing documents with or migrating from MS Office, building on the advanced features of the LibreOffice Technology platform for personal productivity on the desktop, mobile and in the cloud.

A full description of all the new features can be found in the release notes [2].

LibreOffice for Enterprises

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners – for desktop, mobile and cloud – with a wide range of dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLAs: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/

Every line of code developed by ecosystem companies for enterprise customers is shared with the community on the master code repository and contributes to the improvement of the LibreOffice Technology platform.

Availability of LibreOffice 24.2.1 Community

LibreOffice 24.2.1 Community is available at https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Minimum requirements for proprietary operating systems are Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 and Apple MacOS 10.15. Products based on LibreOffice Technology for Android and iOS are listed here: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/android-and-ios/

For users who don’t need the latest features and prefer a version that has undergone more testing and bug fixing, The Document Foundation maintains the LibreOffice 7.6 family, which includes several months of back-ported fixes. The current release is LibreOffice 7.6.5 Community.

The Document Foundation does not provide technical support for users, although they can get it from volunteers on user mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website: https://ask.libreoffice.org

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support the Document Foundation by making a donation at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

[1] Fixes in RC1: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/24.2.1/RC1. Fixes in RC2: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/24.2.1/RC2.

[2] Release Notes: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/24.2

LibreOffice 7.6.5 released for productivity environments

Berlin, February 22, 2024 – LibreOffice 7.6.5 Community is immediately available from https://www.libreoffice.org/download for Windows, macOS, and Linux [1]. This is the most thoroughly tested version of the suite, for deployments by individuals, small and medium businesses, and other organizations in productivity environments.

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners – for desktop, mobile and cloud – with a large number of dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLA (Service Level Agreements): https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/

Users can download LibreOffice 7.6.5 Community from the office suite website: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Minimum requirements are Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 and Apple macOS 10.14. LibreOffice Technology-based products for Android and iOS are listed here: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/android-and-ios/

The Document Foundation does not provide technical support for users, although they can be helped by volunteers on user mailing lists and on the Ask LibreOffice website: https://ask.libreoffice.org

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at https://www.libreoffice.org/donate

[1] Change log pages: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.6.5/RC1 and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/7.6.5/RC2

Press Releases

Announcement of LibreOffice 25.8.4

Berlin, 18 December 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.4, the fourth minor update to the free office suite developed by volunteers for…

Open Document Format

Why open standards are extremely beneficial to end users

Whenever I talk to other technology users — including CTOs, CSOs and ICT managers, who in theory should have a…