Performance-focused LibreOffice 6.4 is available for download

Berlin, January 29, 2020 – The Document Foundation announces the availability of LibreOffice 6.4, a new major release providing better performance, especially when opening and saving spreadsheets and presentations, and excellent compatibility with DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files. LibreOffice offers the strongest compatibility in the office suite arena, starting from native support for the Open Document Format (ODF) – with superior security and interoperability features over proprietary formats – to almost perfect support for DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files. In addition, LibreOffice includes filters for many legacy document formats, and as such is the best interoperability tool in the market. In addition, the new version provides some interesting new features [1]: GENERAL Application icons have been added to document thumbnails inside the Start Center, making it easier to recognise the different types of documents. A QR Code generator has been added to the suite, making it easy to add QR codes – that can be read by mobile devices – to documents. Hyperlink context menus have been unified throughout the suite, and now provide the following menu entries: Open Hyperlink, Edit Hyperlink, Copy Hyperlink Location and Remove Hyperlink. The new Automatic Redaction feature lets your hide classified or sensitive data

Installing LibreOffice on Windows 10 in “S mode”

Certain versions of Microsoft Windows include “S mode” (also known as “Windows 10 S” or “Windows 10S”), which limits the range of software that users can install, and imposes other restrictions. There are at least 75 million LibreOffice users who have installed the software on Windows 10 without any security or performance issues, so we would like to offer the same possibility to Windows 10 “S mode” users. If you’re running Windows 10 in “S mode” but can’t install LibreOffice, here are some options: You can stay in “S mode” and install LibreOffice Vanilla from the Windows Store – this version is made by one of our partners, and funds from the purchase price help to improve LibreOffice on Windows If you have some technical knowledge, you can switch out of “S mode” and get full control back over your computer, as described here – then you can install the applications you want In addition, LibreOffice lets you store documents in the superior OpenDocument standard document format, which is not affected by the same security issues as DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files (according to security specialists Symantec, Kaspersky and Barracuda Networks, between 48% and 70% of malware attacks are based

ODF 1.3 approved as OASIS Committee Specification

OASIS is pleased to announce that Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.3 from the OpenDocument TC has been approved as an OASIS Committee Specification. The OpenDocument Format is an open XML-based document file format for office applications, to be used for documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical elements. OpenDocument Format v1.3 is an update to the international standard Version 1.2, which was approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO/IEC 26300 in 2015. OpenDocument Format v1.3 includes improvements for document security, clarifies underspecifications and makes other timely improvements. The OpenDocument Format specifies the characteristics of an open XML-based application-independent and platform-independent digital document file format, as well as the characteristics of software applications which read, write and process such documents. It is applicable to document authoring, editing, viewing, exchange and archiving, including text documents, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, drawings, charts and similar documents commonly used by personal productivity software applications. This Committee Specification is an OASIS deliverable, completed and approved by the TC and fully ready for testing and implementation. The prose specifications and related files are available on the OASIS website. Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.3 Part 1: Introduction Editable source

LibreOffice monthly recap: October 2019

Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more! We kicked off the month by interviewing Ilmari Lauhakangas, aka Buovjaga, who has joined the TDF team in Development Marketing. Ilmari is a long-time member of the LibreOffice community, and has been especially active in the QA project. Then we announced the LibreOffice 10/20 Logo Community Contest. The year 2020 will be the 20th anniversary of the free office suite (OpenOffice.org was announced on July 19, 2000) and the 10th anniversary of LibreOffice (announced on September 28, 2010). So to celebrate, we want a special logo for presentations, events and swag – and you can help out! See the blog post for more details… Meanwhile, throughout the month we edited and uploaded more presentation videos from the LibreOffice Conference 2019 in Almeria, Spain. Check out the playlist below – use the button at the top to switch between videos. There are currently 44 presentations to explore, and some more to come! (For better audio, use headphones.) Please confirm that you want to play a YouTube video. By accepting, you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service

LibreOffice and macOS Catalina

Apple has released macOS 10.15 Catalina on October 7, 2019. Mac apps, installer packages and kernel extensions that are signed with a Developer ID must be notarized by Apple to run on macOS Catalina. Although we have duly followed the instructions, when users launch LibreOffice 6.3.x – which has been notarized by Apple – the system shows the following scary message: LibreOffice.app cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified, and provides only two options: Move to Bin (delete) and Cancel (revert the operation, i.e. do not run LibreOffice). Of course, this represents a problem for all Mac users who rely on LibreOffice for their office documents after they have upgraded to macOS Catalina. To solve the issue and bypass the block, the user has to right-click with the mouse (or press Control on the keyboard while clicking with the mouse) on the LibreOffice icon and select Open. The system will show a less scary message: macOS cannot verify the developer of LibreOffice.app. Are you sure you want to open it?, and will eventually provide the Open option to launch LibreOffice. There is also another solution, which does not bypass Gatekeeper forcing macOS Catalina to open LibreOffice as the