Recent Posts

Twenty Years On, ODF Is Still the Only Open Standard for Office Documents, and the Only One Governments Can Trust

Announcing the new LibreOffice website!

LibreOffice at the Augsburger Linux-Infotag 2026

Thank you, on behalf of ODF

LibreOffice project and community recap: April 2026

The Document Foundation Releases LibreOffice 26.2.3

Membership Committee Election 2022: Q+A sessions with the candidates

The Document Foundation is the non-profit home of LibreOffice, and its Membership Committee (MC) administers membership applications and renewals following the criteria defined in the Foundation’s Statutes.

The election process for a new MC is underway, and we’ve had three live Q+A sessions with the candidates! Check them out in this playlist, using the icon in the top-right to switch videos (and we’ll put them on PeerTube very soon):

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Community Member Monday: Jean-Baptiste Faure

Today we’re talking to Jean-Baptiste Faure from the LibreOffice localisation community…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am Jean-Baptiste, living in a small town near Lyon in France.

I retired in 2021, and until then I was working as a researcher in hydroinformatics in a public research institute. I was developing numerical simulation software for the study of river flows and their dynamics: mainly floods and pollutant transport.

What are you working on in the LibreOffice project right now?

Currently my main contribution to LibreOffice is the French localization of the UI. So I am less active in Quality Assurance than previously, but I continue to build several versions of LibreOffice for my own use and QA needs.

Note: it is very easy to build LibreOffice on Linux – do not hesitate to try.

Why did you choose to join the project, and how was the experience?

Well, from my point of view, LibreOffice is the natural continuation of the OpenOffice.org project. I started with StarOffice 5.1 in 1998 because I needed a word processor able to write mathematical equations under Microsoft Windows, and I never liked Latex. 😉

In 2008, I was elected to succeed to Sophie as lead of the French speaking community. I managed the QA tests for the French localized versions of OpenOffice.org.

When LibreOffice was launched, it was clear for me that it was the future. Joining the project was proof.

Let’s not lie to ourselves, the experience is not a smooth one. Current debates about LibreOffice Online are an example, but certainly that will not be the last crisis. But LibreOffice is too central and important to be stopped by such crises. I want to believe that the community is strong enough to overcome theses problems.

Anything else you plan to do in the future? What does LibreOffice really need?

The Document Foundation, through LibreOffice and its other projects, has the mission to empower the user. Free software should make the user less dependent on software and service providers, and give him back the power over the computers he uses, more or less without realizing it.

More concretely, I think that the development effort of LibreOffice should focus in particular on the elimination of regressions, and on the frugality of the software to reduce its ecological impact.

Many thanks to Jean-Baptiste for all his contributions. All LibreOffice users are welcome to get involved, learn new skills – and make LibreOffice even better for millions of users!

LibreOffice Calc Guide 7.4 is released

The new Calc Guide 7.4 bring updated information for users on the latest LibreOffice 7.4 release.

Skip Masonsmith and Kees Kriek of the LibreOffice Documentation Team are happy to announce the immediate availability of the LibreOffice Calc Guide 7.4.

The guide is for beginner to advanced users of Calc, the spreadsheet component of LibreOffice. The book introduces the features and functions of LibreOffice Calc. It is not a tutorial on using spreadsheets. Some chapters assume familiarity with basic spreadsheet usage when describing how to use Calc.

“It has been fantastic to join the LibreOffice documentation community of technical writing experts. As I worked on the Calc Guide 7.4 updates, I was well supported by the team to ensure the best outcome for everyone. It was a great experience and I look forward to working on more guides with the team.” said Skip Masonsmith, Calc Guide 7.4 coordinator.

Skip Masonsmith
Kees Kriek

The teamwork effort of Skip and Kees allowed to release the Calc Guide 7.4 in record time. The team decided to skip the Calc Guide 7.3 and merged it into the latest release 7.4.

The guide is available to download at the Documentation website and at the LibreOffice Bookshelf website. Both PDF and the source files are available. Our team used LibreOffice master documents to assemble the book and updated the style template for improved reading and text layout.

The community is invited to comment and give us feedback on the LibreOffice Calc 7.4  guide by joining our Documentation FORUM. Come along and let’s turn our Guides in the best LibreOffice user documentation reference.

 

LibreOffice project and community recap: August 2022

Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more…

  • And after announcing the new version, we followed social media, Reddit and other places to see what people were saying. The feedback was very positive! But of course, we’ll continue to maintain the LibreOffice 7.4 branch to fix issues that crop up – see the release plan here.

  • And while we’re on the subject of Mexico, we chatted with Mauricio Baeza who’s developing a library in Python to help program macros more easy.

  • Finally, the election process for a new Membership Committee at TDF is underway, and we’re having live Q&A sessions with the candidates. Two have already taken place, and one more is to come – keep an eye on this blog for video recordings very soon…

Keep in touch – follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Mastodon. Like what we do? Support our community with a donation – or join us and help to make LibreOffice even better!

Live town-hall meetings with the Membership Committee candidates

The Document Foundation is the non-profit home of LibreOffice, and its Membership Committee (MC) administers membership applications and renewals following the criteria defined in the Foundation’s Statutes.

The election process for a new MC is underway, and we’ll have live Q&A sessions with the candidates!

Where

When

A few notes

  • please send in your questions beforehand if possible, to elections@documentfoundation.org
  • pick the session that suits you best (so you can ask live questions)
  • the sessions are optional for the candidates, so while we’re grateful for everyone joining – if someone can’t make it, that is fine, and people can always ask questions on the mailing list
  • to give attendees the opportunity to ask questions in a language different from English, we’ll try to have a person doing live translations in every session
  • questions towards the candidates will be prepared in English, and/or translated to English on the go
  • we will record the sessions, for our members not able to attend
  • when you attend via Jitsi: please mute yourself when not speaking; keep your video off and ask your questions in the Jitsi chat, if you don’t want to be recorded; and note that the chat content itself might also be part of the recording

Please do follow-up with any questions – and we’re looking forward to meeting many of you in the next three days!

Community Member Monday: Mauricio Baeza

Today we’re talking to Mauricio Baeza (aka “El Mau”) from the Mexican LibreOffice community…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I live in Mexico City. My hobbies are reading, watching movies and helping other people, and my cats.

What are you working on right now?

I am developing a library in Python to help develop macros more easy. I also update my book in Spanish, which covers developing macros in Basic.

When did you join the LibreOffice community, and how was the experience?

3. Although I have been a member of The Document Foundation for only a few years, I saw the birth of LibreOffice, and have always participated in the community. So joining the LibreOffice project was very natural and satisfying.

What else are you planning to work on, and what does LibreOffice really need?

The future, for me, is only tomorrow, so just keep doing what I do every day. I think LibreOffice should be consolidated as a truly community project, not to depend on the whims of some companies.

Many thanks to Mauricio for all his contributions! All LibreOffice users are welcome to get involved, learn new skills – and make LibreOffice even better for millions of users!

Press Releases

Twenty Years On, ODF Is Still the Only Open Standard for Office Documents, and the Only One Governments Can Trust

Berlin, 8 May 2026 – Twenty years ago this week, on 3 May 2006, the Open Document Format cleared its…

Open Document Format

Twenty Years On, ODF Is Still the Only Open Standard for Office Documents, and the Only One Governments Can Trust

Berlin, 8 May 2026 – Twenty years ago this week, on 3 May 2006, the Open Document Format cleared its…