Introducing LibreOffice 24.8
LibreOffice 24.8, scheduled for this summer, will bring numerous improvements and new features across its various applications, including Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Chart. This update focuses on enhancing user experience and compatibility with a variety of document formats.
This overview summarizes the main changes already mentioned for each module. It highlights practical improvements for writing documents, managing spreadsheets, editing presentations, working with drawings, connecting databases, creating charts, and using general office features.
Writer
Writer receives several improvements designed to make document editing more flexible. The changes concern comments, bullets, floating tables, legal numbering, and hyphenation.
Resizing the Comment Area
The comment area can now be resized, providing better flexibility for managing annotations in documents.
This is useful when reviewing long documents, because comments can take more or less space depending on the amount of feedback displayed on screen.
Bullet Selection
Users can now select the bullets used in a document via the dropdown menu, thus enhancing the customization of lists.
This makes list formatting easier to access when preparing structured content such as reports, notes, instructions, or checklists.
Improved Multi-page Floating Tables
Support for floating tables across multiple pages has been improved, allowing for smoother management of large tables in documents.
This improvement helps when a table needs to continue across pages while keeping its floating behavior in the document layout.
Legal Numbering
Support for legal numbering in DOC and RTF documents has been enhanced, making it easier to create documents compliant with legal standards.
Legal numbering is especially useful in structured documents where headings, clauses, or sections must follow a precise numbering pattern.
Hyphenation
LibreOffice 24.8 also includes several hyphenation-related improvements in Writer. These options give users more control over how words are divided at line breaks.
Excluding Words from Hyphenation
A new feature allows certain words to be excluded from hyphenation without losing spell-checking and local layout.
Hyphenation Across Pages
Text flow options now allow control over hyphenation across columns, pages, or spreads, thus avoiding inappropriate word breaks.
Composite Characters at Line End
Management of composite characters at line ends has been improved for languages requiring specific typographic rules, such as German and Hungarian.
Calc
Calc introduces changes for PDF export, new spreadsheet functions, and calculation performance. These features are intended to improve spreadsheet creation and data processing.
Export Selected Ranges to PDF
Users can now define specific ranges to export to PDF, enhancing flexibility when creating documents.
This can help when only part of a spreadsheet needs to be shared, such as a selected table, a summary area, or a specific range of calculated results.
New Functions
Calc introduces several new functions such as FILTER, RANDARRAY, SEQUENCE, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, XLOOKUP, and XMATCH, thus improving data processing capabilities.
These functions can help users filter records, generate sequences, sort values, remove duplicates, and search for data inside spreadsheets.
Performance Enhancements
Calculation performance in multi-thread mode has been optimized, reducing processing time and improving overall efficiency.
This is relevant for spreadsheets that contain many formulas or calculations, where processing time can affect day-to-day work.
Impress
Impress gains improvements related to notes and text formatting during presentation editing.
Notes Panels
Notes are now available as a collapsible panel below the slide in normal view, making it easier to edit and visualize presentation notes.
This allows presentation notes to remain close to the slide being edited while keeping the interface more compact when the panel is collapsed.
Formatting Toolbar
When editing a text box, the text formatting toolbar is now displayed, providing quick access to formatting options.
This gives users faster access to common text formatting actions while working directly inside a presentation text box.
Draw
Draw includes a visual improvement for managing objects placed on layers.
Highlighting Objects on Hover
Hovering over a layer tab highlights the objects it contains, facilitating the management of elements in complex drawings.
This makes it easier to identify which objects belong to a layer when a drawing contains multiple elements.
Base
Base receives an improvement for database connectivity with MS Access files.
Connection to MS Access Files
Base now allows connection to MS Access files via the "ACE.OLEDB.12.0" provider, broadening database management options.
This feature helps users work with MS Access files from Base when the required provider is available in the working environment.
Chart
Chart adds new chart types and more formatting possibilities for text used inside charts.
New Chart Types
Chart introduces new chart types "Pie-of-Pie" and "Bar-of-Pie," allowing for better visualization of subcategories in the data.
These chart types are useful when a main category needs to be broken down into smaller subcategories in a clearer visual form.
Text Formatting
The text inside titles, text boxes, and shapes in charts can now be formatted, including the use of subscripts and superscripts.
This gives more control over chart labels and titles, especially when specific notation requires subscript or superscript characters.
Math
Various Enhancements
Math is also mentioned among the modules receiving various enhancements in LibreOffice 24.8.
Core / General
Core and general changes affect recent documents, macro security, and locale-specific separators.
Displaying Recent Documents
The list of recent documents will now only display documents from the current module, improving organization and navigation.
This means Writer, Calc, Impress, and other modules can show a more focused list of recent files related to the module currently in use.
Macro Security
Users are now informed of the need to reload the document to account for a change in macro security level.
This message helps users understand when a document reload is needed after changing macro security settings.
Support for South African Separators
South African locales now use the period as the decimal separator and the comma as the thousands separator, aligning practices with the latest CLDR updates.
LibreOffice 24.8 Feature Summary
| Module | Main improvements mentioned |
|---|---|
| Writer | Resizable comment area, bullet selection, floating tables, legal numbering, and hyphenation controls |
| Calc | Selected range export to PDF, new functions, and multi-thread calculation performance enhancements |
| Impress | Collapsible notes panel and text formatting toolbar while editing text boxes |
| Draw | Object highlighting when hovering over a layer tab |
| Base | Connection to MS Access files via the "ACE.OLEDB.12.0" provider |
| Chart | "Pie-of-Pie" and "Bar-of-Pie" chart types, plus text formatting in chart elements |
| Math | Various enhancements |
| Core / General | Recent documents by current module, macro security reload notice, and South African separators |
FAQ
What is LibreOffice 24.8?
LibreOffice 24.8 is an upcoming version of LibreOffice scheduled for this summer, with improvements and new features across several modules.
Which LibreOffice modules are mentioned for version 24.8?
The article mentions Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Chart, Math, and Core / General improvements.
What are the main Writer improvements in LibreOffice 24.8?
Writer improvements include a resizable comment area, bullet selection from a dropdown menu, improved multi-page floating tables, enhanced legal numbering, and new hyphenation options.
What new Calc functions are mentioned in LibreOffice 24.8?
The Calc functions mentioned are FILTER, RANDARRAY, SEQUENCE, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, XLOOKUP, and XMATCH.
Where can users learn more and try LibreOffice 24.8?
Users can learn more and try this version from the download page linked in the conclusion.
Conclusion
Version 24.8 of LibreOffice will bring significant improvements and new features, strengthening its position as the leading open-source office suite. To learn more and try this version, visit the download page.
