The new major release provides a wealth of new features, plus a large number of interoperability improvements Berlin, 22 August 2024 – LibreOffice 24.8, the new major release of the free, volunteer-supported office suite for Windows (Intel, AMD and ARM), macOS (Apple and Intel) and Linux is available from our download page. This is the second major release to use the new calendar-based numbering scheme (YY.M), and the first to provide an official package for Windows PCs based on ARM processors. LibreOffice is the only office suite, or if you prefer, the only software for creating documents that may contain personal or confidential information, that respects the privacy of the user – thus ensuring that the user is able to decide if and with whom to share the content they have created. As such, LibreOffice is the best option for the privacy-conscious office suite user, and provides a feature set comparable to the leading product on the market. It also offers a range of interface options to suit different user habits, from traditional to contemporary, and makes the most of different screen sizes by optimising the space available on the desktop to put the maximum number of features just a
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 started June by talking to Isabelle Dutailly about her work on LibreOffice templates. Then we announced LibreOffice 24.2.4, the fourth minor update to the 24.2 line with over 70 bug and compatibility fixes. If you contributed to the LibreOffice project in May, you can claim some merchandise! We announced the winners from the “Month of LibreOffice” campaign, and are posting out the sticker packs and bonus merch 😊 Throughout the month, we posted sections from The Document Foundation’s Annual Report 2023: LibreOffice activities, our conference in Bucharest, marketing activities, social media and LibreOffice development. Finally, our documentation community announced the LibreOffice Impress Guide 24.2, covering the latest version of the suite. Keep in touch – follow us on Mastodon, X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky, Reddit and Facebook. Like what we do? Support our community with a donation – or join our community and help to make LibreOffice even better!
In 2023, the marketing team continued the deployment of the Strategic Marketing Plan, without overlooking ongoing activities to promote LibreOffice and support the efforts of native language communities (This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2023 – we’ll post the full version here soon.) Slide Decks and Videos for Marketing Purposes We updated presentations on The Document Foundation (project history and digital sovereignty), LibreOffice (technology, including commentary, and sustainability) and Open Document Format (standard format, ODF and interoperability, and OOXML issues) for use by community members. Videos are also available to help tailor a presentation to the audience. We updated the LibreOffice Technology White Paper, which explains the evolution of LibreOffice from a single desktop product to a product-based technology for personal or enterprise productivity that is the foundation for a series of products optimised for different platforms, such as desktop, mobile and cloud. To emphasise the importance of the LibreOffice technology concept, a specific logo has been created to make it visually easier to associate all products based on this technology platform. We also created a Security Backgrounder that describes – in a language accessible to everyone, even non-security specialists – the impressive work done by
The Documentation Team is proud to announce the immediate availability of the Impress Guide 24.2. The Impress Guide 24.2 update was coordinated by Peter Schofield, with assistance of Olivier Hallot and B. Antonio Fernandez, and is based on the Impress Guide 7.6. LibreOffice 24.2 Community also includes many other changes, including improvements in accessibility, change tracking, spell checking, and interoperability with Microsoft’s proprietary file formats. Notably, Impress now allows small caps in text and secured slide show remote control with bluetooth, as well as enhancements to supplied templates. Release Notes are here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/24.2 The guide is available for immediate download in PDF format, and in HTML format for online reading, as well as in source format (OpenDocument Format). Soon it will be available as printed book by LuLu inc. Download the Impress Guide 24.2 from the documentation websites at: documentation.libreoffice.org and the bookshelf at books.libreoffice.org.
Today we’re talking to Isabelle Dutailly, who’s creating and updating templates for LibreOffice… Tell us a bit about yourself! I live in Paris, France, not that it really matters, and I am a writer. My favourite tool to write with is absolutely LibreOffice Writer. I also used to training adults on office software. So I think I can say why Writer is the best word processing software I know. And I am a knitter which led me to make some tools for knitters with Calc. That was surprisingly easy, knowing my absolute lack of abilities in maths. These tools are online and free to download. I designed and made this little guy: My computer runs Linux (Mageia) and only with free software, not because they are free of charge (and considering how much money and time I put on them, they certainly are not 😊) but because they give me freedom. I did things with LibreOffice that I never did with a proprietary office suite. For example, in 2017, because I needed (and still need) to organize the colours I use, I looked at the code (which was not difficult but I am not a developer, just a writer) and
In 2023 we had elections for the foundation’s Board of Directors, along with regular Advisory Board calls, and support for other projects and activities (This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2023 – we’ll post the full version here soon. And note that this section is only about TDF’s activities – we’ll post about all the changes and improvements to LibreOffice soon too!) Election of new Board of Directors The “BoD” is the Foundation’s Board of Directors, the main administration of the Foundation’s projects and teams. Directors are directly elected by community members every two years, and serve for a two-year term. The Board of Directors consists of seven (7) members and three (3) deputies. The Board of Directors may launch any other teams or committees ad hoc if necessary. TDF’s Membership Committee announced the election in October, opening the nomination phase for candidates. The final list of candidates was published on December 11, and this was immediately followed by three live “town-hall” Q+A meetings with the candidates, so that community members could ask questions and discuss the responses. We made video recordings of these meetings, and posted them on our video channel, for those who couldn’t
