The Document Foundation Announces LibreOffice 3.5: “The Best Free Office Suite Ever”, Android and HT
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[td][QUOTE]Berlin, February 14, 2012 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5, the third major release of “the best free office suite ever”, which shows to end users the improvements derived from the development strategy adopted since September 2010. LibreOffice 3.5 derives from the combined effort of full time hackers – the largest group of experienced OOo code developers – and volunteer hackers, coordinated by the Engineering Steering Committee.
During 16 months, an average of 80 developers each month have provided a total of over thirty thousand code commits, introducing new and interesting features:
Writer
- a new built-in Grammar checker for English and several other languages
- improved typographical features, for professional looking documents
- an interactive word count window, which updates in real time
- a new header, footer and page break user interface
Impress / Draw
- an improved importer of custom shapes and Smart Art from PPT/PPTX
- a feature for embedding multimedia/colour palettes into ODF documents
- a new display switch for the presenter’s console
- new line ends for improved diagrams
- Microsoft Visio import filter
Calc
- support for up to 10,000 sheets
- a new multi-line input area
- new Calc functions conforming to the ODF OpenFormula specifications
- better performances when importing files from other office suites
- multiple selections in autofilter
- unlimited number of rules for conditional formatting
Base
- a new integrated PostgreSQL native driver
In addition, for the first time in the history of LibreOffice, we will be enabling the online update checker, which informs users when a new version of the suite is available.
“We inherited a 15 years old code base, where features were not implemented and bugs were not solved in order to avoid creating problems, and this – with time – was the origin of a large technical debt,” says Caolán McNamara, a senior RedHat developer who is one of the founders and directors of TDF. “We had two options: a conservative strategy, which would immediately please all users, leaving the code basically unchanged, and our more aggressive feature development and code renovation path, which has created some stability problems in the short term but is rapidly leading to a completely new and substantially improved free office suite: LibreOffice 3.5, the best free office suite ever.”
“In sixteen months, we have achieved incredible results – comments Michael Meeks, a SUSE Distinguished Engineer, who is also a founder and director at TDF – with nearly three hundred entirely new developers to the project, attracted by the copyleft license, the lack of copyright assignment and a welcoming environment. In addition to the visible features, they’ve translated tens of thousands of German comments, removed thousands of unused or obsolete methods – sometimes whole libraries – and grown a suite of automated tests. Although we still have a long way to go, users – who have sometimes complained for the stability of the software, as they were not aware of the technical debt we were fighting with – can now benefit from a substantially cleaner, leaner and more feature rich LibreOffice 3.5.”
LibreOffice 3.5 is the first release where the contribution of local communities and associations, such as ALTA in Brazil, has been acknowledged. In addition, TDF tried to recognize those volunteers – where we could easily identify them – who put so much into the 3.5 release, with a “hacking” or “bug hunting” hero badge presented the same day of the announcement. TDF is encouraging the development of a global, open and diverse ecosystem where companies, associations, local communities and volunteers share the common objective of developing the best free office suite ever.
The Document Foundation invites power users to install LibreOffice 3.5, and more conservative users to stick with LibreOffice 3.4 branch. Corporate users are strongly advised to deploy LibreOffice with the backing of professional support, from a company able to assist with migration, end user training, support and maintenance. The Document Foundation will soon provide a list of certified organizations providing these professional services.
LibreOffice 3.5 is available from: [url]http://www.libreoffice.org/download[/url]. The new features and the improvements are described in the infographic which can be downloaded from: [url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/116590/lo35-infofinal.pdf[/url].[/QUOTE][/td]
[td][IMG]http://tdfsc.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lo35-infofinal2.jpg?w=600&h=848[/IMG][/td]
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[URL="http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2012/02/14/the-document-foundation-announces-libreoffice-3-5-the-best-free-office-suite-ever/"]Source[/URL]
Imagine a world where people are forced to buy MS Office *shudders*
is it better than open office
[QUOTE=Lambeth;34706594]is it better than open office[/QUOTE]
This is by the developers of OpenOffice.
OpenOffice devs no longer work for Oracle, and the project is now dead. Oracle still owns the trademark for OpenOffice, so they can't call LibreOffice that.
So this is really OpenOffice 3.5
The only problem with LibreOffice is that the interface still looks like it's from 1998
[QUOTE=Zeke129;34706647]The only problem with LibreOffice is that the interface still looks like it's from 1998[/QUOTE]
It's totally retro dude
No shit sherlock of the day:
Libre = free in spanish.
it's pretty good, if you need that stuff, get it!
Still prefer Office 2007 over anything else.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;34706647]The only problem with LibreOffice is that the interface still looks like it's from 1998[/QUOTE]
The best interfaces for office suites are the ones that look like they're from 1995-2005
seriously Office 2007 is a fucking mess, long live 2003
[QUOTE=latin_geek;34707404]The best interfaces for office suites are the ones that look like they're from 1995-2005
seriously Office 2007 is a fucking mess, long live 2003[/QUOTE]
Have fun making indexes by hand.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;34706663]It's totally retro dude[/QUOTE]
It's got a Gnome look.
Needs more CDE.
[QUOTE=latin_geek;34707404]The best interfaces for office suites are the ones that look like they're from 1995-2005
seriously Office 2007 is a fucking mess, long live 2003[/QUOTE]
I like the ribbon
I wish I knew how to use an office suite, maybe then I would be more excited.
Alas...
[QUOTE=yawmwen;34707709]I wish I knew how to use an office suite, maybe then I would be more excited.
Alas...[/QUOTE]
typey words makey documents
[QUOTE=Zeke129;34707720]typey words makey documents[/QUOTE]
Oh...
So it's notepad, essentially?
[QUOTE=yawmwen;34707723]Oh...
So it's notepad, essentially?[/QUOTE]
Notepad with fancy thingys
[QUOTE=mobrockers2;34707731]Notepad with fancy thingys[/QUOTE]
Like new fonts? Notepad has like 50 fonts, I don't know if I could handle more.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;34707750]Like new fonts? Notepad has like 50 fonts, I don't know if I could handle more.[/QUOTE]
Like professionally formatting a document to match the today's standards set by every high-school, university and decent workplace.
[editline]15th February 2012[/editline]
The [B]REAL[/B] question for me, however, is if this LibreOffice has support for equations like MS Office has, and if so, can it handle the MS Office equation format?
I got MS Office 2003, is it worth getting this over that?
Lol use Google docs.
[QUOTE=audun;34707855]Lol use Google docs.[/QUOTE]
Google docs is neat and I use it pretty regularly, but it doesn't come close to the number of useful features a "proper" word processor has.
[QUOTE=audun;34707855]Lol use Google docs.[/QUOTE]
You can't access them if your internet is spotty though. A dude in my class tried to present something with google docs and he couldn't get the shitty school wireless to work.
I'll stick with my current install of OpenOffice, thanks.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;34708415]You can't access them if your internet is spotty though. A dude in my class tried to present something with google docs and he couldn't get the shitty school wireless to work.[/QUOTE]
That is true. I do use a word processor only for school work, though.
[QUOTE=Within;34707835]Like professionally formatting a document to match the today's standards set by every high-school, university and decent workplace.
[editline]15th February 2012[/editline]
The [B]REAL[/B] question for me, however, is if this LibreOffice has support for equations like MS Office has, and if so, can it handle the MS Office equation format?[/QUOTE]
Who needs formatting? Just type everything in Comic Sans, add some Wingdings for the touch of personality, and call it good.
[QUOTE=Within;34707835]Like professionally formatting a document to match the today's standards set by every high-school, university and decent workplace.
[editline]15th February 2012[/editline]
The [B]REAL[/B] question for me, however, is if this LibreOffice has support for equations like MS Office has, and if so, can it handle the MS Office equation format?[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure about the MS equations format (though it's possible) but it does have an equation system which has never given me any trouble, and fits neatly inline with text.
LibreOffice is great.
Ribbon is great after getting used to it.
The standard menus would have just gotten more and more maze-like every version. That would have been unsustainable. Ribbon is clearly not a perfect solution but still makes more sense than making standard tool bars and menus far more complex to navigate.
And this is coming from a guy who hated Word 2007 when it first came out.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl9kD693ie4[/media]
This video explains why MS did the change in detail.
Libre office on Ubuntu 11.10, great word processor. Reminds me of MS Office '03. Pretty much exactly the same.
Free microsoft office from brother's university master race
[QUOTE=elitehakor v2;34709097]Free microsoft office from brother's university master race[/QUOTE]
FOSS glorious overkind.
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