Introducing LibreOffice 24.8
The upcoming version 24.8 of LibreOffice, 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 will be crucial in enhancing user experience and compatibility with a variety of document formats.
Writer
Resizing the Comment Area
The comment area can now be resized, providing better flexibility for managing annotations in documents.
Bullet Selection
Users can now select the bullets used in a document via the dropdown menu, thus enhancing the customization of lists.
Improved Multi-page Floating Tables
Support for floating tables across multiple pages has been improved, allowing for smoother management of large tables in documents.
Legal Numbering
Support for legal numbering in DOC and RTF documents has been enhanced, making it easier to create documents compliant with legal standards.
Hyphenation
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
Export Selected Ranges to PDF
Users can now define specific ranges to export to PDF, enhancing flexibility when creating documents.
New Functions
Calc introduces several new functions such as FILTER, RANDARRAY, SEQUENCE, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, XLOOKUP, and XMATCH, thus improving data processing capabilities.
Performance Enhancements
Calculation performance in multi-thread mode has been optimized, reducing processing time and improving overall efficiency.
Impress
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.
Formatting Toolbar
When editing a text box, the text formatting toolbar is now displayed, providing quick access to formatting options.
Draw
Highlighting Objects on Hover
Hovering over a layer tab highlights the objects it contains, facilitating the management of elements in complex drawings.
Base
Connection to MS Access Files
Base now allows connection to MS Access files via the "ACE.OLEDB.12.0" provider, broadening database management options.
Chart
New Chart Types
Chart introduces new chart types "Pie-of-Pie" and "Bar-of-Pie," allowing for better visualization of subcategories in the data.
Text Formatting
The text inside titles, text boxes, and shapes in charts can now be formatted, including the use of subscripts and superscripts.
Math
Various Enhancements
Core / General
Displaying Recent Documents
The list of recent documents will now only display documents from the current module, improving organization and navigation.
Macro Security
Users are now informed of the need to reload the document to account for a change in macro security level.
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.
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.
