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LibreOffice 5.3.5 available for download

Berlin, August 3, 2017 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 5.3.5, the fifth minor release of the LibreOffice 5.3 family, targeted at enterprises and individual users in production environments.

TDF suggests deploying LibreOffice in large organisations, public administrations and enterprises with the backing of professional support by certified people (a list is available at: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

LibreOffice 5.3.5 includes a number of bug fixes along with improvements to the help content. Technical details about the release can be found in the change logs here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.3.5/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.3.5/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

Download LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.3.5 is immediately available for download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at http://www.libreoffice.org/donate/. Donations help TDF to maintain its infrastructure, share knowledge, and organise events such as the LibreOffice Conference, with the next one taking place in October in Rome (http://conference.libreoffice.org).

Several companies sitting in TDF’s Advisory Board (http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) provide either value-added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice or consultancy services for migrations and training, based on best practices distilled by The Document Foundation.

TDF Dashboard: an open window on LibreOffice development

Berlin, August 2nd, 2017 – Effective immediately, The Document Foundation offers a transparent overview of LibreOffice development with the announcement of a Dashboard, available at http://dashboard.documentfoundation.org, which provides a visual representation of the activity on the source code.

LibreOffice Dashboard: activities during the last 30 days

Developed by Bitergia, the Dashboard is based on information retrieved from publicly available data sources, such as Git, Gerrit and Bugzilla repositories, or mailing lists archives. All tools used to retrieve, store, analyse and visualize data from repositories are based on free, open source software. The key component is GrimoireLab, a software development analytics toolset.

“The Dashboard shows the key information about LibreOffice development in several panels, each one including different visualizations, with many actionable elements”, says Bjoern Michaelsen, one of TDF BoD members who has managed the project. “When the user interacts with the actionable elements, the information in the whole panel (or in the whole dashboard) are reconfigured, by filtering in or out some data. Following our transparency guidelines, we are therefore offering an open window on LibreOffice development”.

“Bitergia was founded by a group of Spanish FLOSS enthusiasts, with a large experience in development, research and consultancy”, says company co-founder Jesus Gonzalez-Barahona. “We are very happy to see our software deployed by The Document Foundation for LibreOffice, one of the largest and most successful free software projects”.

Other key software used to produce the Dashboard are Python (to develop most of the retrieval and analytics programs), ElasticSearch (for data storage) and Kibitter, a fork of Kibana contributed back upstream (for data visualization).

LibreOffice 5.4 released with new features for Writer, Calc and Impress

Berlin, July 28, 2017 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 5.4, the last major release of the LibreOffice 5.x family, immediately available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and for the cloud. LibreOffice 5.4 adds significant new features in every module, including the usual large number of incremental improvements to Microsoft Office file compatibility.

Shorter, sweeter documents make interoperability easier

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, LibreOffice developers have focused on file simplicity as the ultimate document interoperability sophistication. This makes ODF and OOXML files written by the free office suite more robust and easier to exchange with other users than the same documents generated by other office suites.

Thanks to the efforts of developers, the XML description of a new document written by LibreOffice is 50% smaller in the case of ODF (ODT), and around 90% smaller in the case of OOXML (DOCX), in comparison with the same document generated by the leading proprietary office suite. Additional details in the file simplicity backgrounder: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/5Oe8guDN0XSS7h8.

LibreOffice 5.4 highlights

  • A new standard colour palette has been included, based on the RYB colour model.
  • File format compatibility has been improved, with better support for EMF vector images. This helps when you’re importing detailed diagrams from other office software.
  • Imported PDF files are rendered with much better quality, also when inserted into a document, while exported PDF files – from Writer and Impress – support embedded videos (and linked videos if opened with Acrobat Reader).
  • LibreOffice 5.4 supports OpenPGP keys for signing ODF documents on Linux. If you already use GPG/PGP for signing emails, it ensures the authenticity of your ODF documents regardless of the mode of transport or storage.

WRITER

  • In Writer, you can now import AutoText from Microsoft Word DOTM templates.
  • When you’re exporting or pasting numbered and bulleted lists as plain text, their full structure is preserved.
  • In the Format menu, you can now create custom watermarks for your documents.
  • New context menu items have been added for working with sections, footnotes, endnotes and styles.

CALC

  • Calc now includes support for pivot charts, which use data from pivot tables. When the table is updated, the chart is automatically updated as well.
  • Comments are now easier to manage, with menu commands to show, hide and delete all comments.
  • When applying conditional formatting to cells, you can now easily change the priority of rules with up and down buttons.
  • Extra sheet protection options have been added, to optionally allow insertion or deletion of rows and columns.
  • Lastly, when you’re exporting in CSV format, your settings are remembered for the next export operation.

IMPRESS

  • In Impress, when you’re duplicating an object, you can now specify fractional angles. In addition, your settings are saved for the next duplication operation.

ONLINE

  • Finally, LibreOffice Online has been improved as well. Performance is better, while the layout adapts responsively to mobile devices. In addition, a read-only mode has been added.

A list of the most significant new features is presented in a short video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBNWOWJul4w). A page with a description of new features – and links to relevant resources – is available on the wiki at https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/5.4.

LibreOffice 5.4 has also been improved “under the hood,” thanks to the work of hundreds of volunteers. This translates into an open source office suite which is easier to develop, maintain and debug. Although this is not visible to users, it is extremely important for enterprise deployments.

LibreOffice Online

LibreOffice Online is fundamentally a server service and should be installed and configured by adding a cloud storage and an SSL certificate. It might be considered an enabling technology for the cloud of ISPs or the private cloud of enterprises and large organizations. Builds of the latest LibreOffice Online source code are available as Docker images: https://hub.docker.com/r/libreoffice/online/. Background document providing the positioning of LibreOffice Online: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/uSdCYL2TgPa3yUI.

Enterprise deployments

LibreOffice 5.4 represents the bleeding edge in term of features for open source office suites, and as such is targeted at technology enthusiasts, early adopters and power users. For enterprise class deployments, TDF maintains the more mature 5.3 family – to be updated very soon with the announcement of the 5.3.5 release – which should always be supported by certified professionals (http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board (http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice or consultancy services for migrations and training, based on best practices distilled by The Document Foundation. LibreOffice is deployed by large organizations in every continent. A list of the most significant migrations announced in the media is available on TDF wiki: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LibreOffice_Migrations.

Availability of LibreOffice 5.4

LibreOffice 5.4 is immediately available from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with a donation at http://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

LibreOffice 5.4 is built with document conversion libraries from the Document Liberation Project: http://www.documentliberation.org.

Press Kit

The press kit, with background documents and high-resolution images, is here: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/pfz28pVIhoZJ7uO.

LibreOffice 5.3.4 immediately available for download

Berlin, June 26, 2017 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces the availability of LibreOffice 5.3.4, the fourth minor release of the LibreOffice 5.3 family, targeted at technology enthusiasts, early adopters and power users. LibreOffice 5.3.4 integrates over 100 patches, with a significant number of fixes for interoperability with Microsoft Office RTF and OOXML documents.

People interested in technical details about the release can access the change log here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.3.4/RC1 (fixed in RC1).

For all other users and enterprise deployments, TDF suggests LibreOffice 5.2.7, with the backing of professional support by certified professionals (updated list available at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

Technology enthusiasts and early adopters looking for bleeding edge features can start evaluating the next major release by installing LibreOffice 5.4 RC1, which is available here: http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/pre-releases/.

Download LibreOffice

LibreOffice 5.3.4 is immediately available for download from the following link: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/. Flatpak and Snap versions are also available from the same link.

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

Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board (http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice or consultancy services for migrations and training, based on best practices distilled by The Document Foundation.

LibOCon 2017 Call for Papers

The Document Foundation invites members and volunteers to submit proposals for papers for the conference in Roma. Whether you are a seasoned presenter or have never stood up in public before, if you have something interesting to share about LibreOffice, we want to hear from you!

Proposals should be filed by August 15th, 2017 in order to guarantee that they will be considered for inclusion in the conference program.

The conference program will be based on the following tracks:

a) Development, APIs, Extensions, Future Technology
b) Quality Assurance
c) Localisation, Documentation and Native Language Projects
d) Appealing Libreoffice: Ease of Use, Design and Accessibility
e) Open Document Format, Document Liberation and Interoperability
f) Advocating LibreOffice

Business track:
– Enterprise Deployments and Migrations, Certifications and Best Practices, Building a successful business around LibreOffice.
– Round table with company representatives
– Small local businesses, governments and non-profits, to be conducted in Italian language

Presentations, case studies, workshops, and technical talks will discuss a subject in depth, and will last 30 minutes (including Q&A). Lightning talks will cover a specific topic and will last 5 minutes (including Q&A). Sessions will be streamed live and recorded for download.

Please send a short description/bio of yourself as well as your talk/workshop proposal to the program committee address: conference@libreoffice.org

If you do not agree to provide the data for the talk under the “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License”, please explicitly state your terms. In order to make your presentation available on the TDF YouTube channel, please do not submit talks containing copyrighted material (music, pictures, etc.).

If you want to give multiple talks, please send a separate email for each.

Second Bug Hunting Session for LibreOffice 5.4

LibreOffice 5.4 will be announced at the end of July 2017, with a large number of new features which are summarized on the release notes page: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/5.4. In order to find, report and triage bugs, the QA team is organizing the second bug hunting session on Friday, June 09, 2017. Tests will be performed on the second Beta version of LibreOffice 5.4, which will be available on the pre-releases server (http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/pre-releases/) a few days before the event. Builds will be available for Linux (DEB and RPM), MacOS and Windows, and will run in parallel with the production version.

Mentors will be available on June 09, 2017, from 8AM UTC to 10PM UTC on FreeNode #libreoffice-qa channel (connect via web chat). Of course, hunting bugs will be possible also on other days, as the builds of this particular Beta release (LibreOffice 5.4.0 Beta2) will be available until the third week of June.

During the day there will be two dedicated sessions: the first to chase bugs on the main LibreOffice modules between 3PM UTC and 5PM UTC, and the second to test a set of the top 7 features between 5PM UTC and 7PM UTC. All details of the second bug hunting session are available on the specific wiki page.

During the dedicated sessions, we will concentrate all efforts to chase and reproduce the bugs, in order to confirm and file them in a more comprehensive way. Of course, the more comprehensive will be the bug report, the easier will be for the developers to solve the bugs in time for the final release.

Besides, there will also be manual tests to be executed in TestLink, our new platform for manual tests. More information about TestLink here.

As a new feature this time, we will reward every participant who reports a bug found [*] in LibreOffice 5.4 Beta2 with a shiny ‘Proud Contributor’ sticker:

[*] In order to claim the sticker the bug needs to be reproducible in LibreOffice 5.4 Beta2 and it needs to be a not-yet-reported regression introduced in LibreOffice 5.4, a crash or a bug in a new feature introduced in LibreOffice 5.4. The bug’s description must have the detailed steps to reproduce the problem and the affected document if needed.

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