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Berlin, July 28, 2017 - The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice
5.4, the last major release of the LibreOffice 5.x family, immediately
available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and for the cloud.
LibreOffice 5.4 adds significant new features in every module, including
the usual large number of incremental improvements to Microsoft Office
file compatibility.
Shorter, sweeter documents make interoperability easier
Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s “simplicity is the ultimate
sophistication”, LibreOffice developers have focused on file simplicity
as the ultimate document interoperability sophistication. This makes ODF
and OOXML files written by the free office suite more robust and easier
to exchange with other users than the same documents generated by other
office suites.
Thanks to the efforts of developers, the XML description of a new
document written by LibreOffice is 50% smaller in the case of ODF (ODT),
and around 90% smaller in the case of OOXML (DOCX), in comparison with
the same document generated by the leading proprietary office suite.
Additional details in the file simplicity backgrounder:
https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/5Oe8guDN0XSS7h8.
LibreOffice 5.4 highlights
• A new standard colour palette has been included, based on the RYB
colour model.
• File format compatibility has been improved, with better support
for EMF vector images. This helps when you're importing detailed
diagrams from other office software.
• Imported PDF files are rendered with much better quality, also
when inserted into a document, while exported PDF files - from Writer
and Impress - support embedded videos (and linked videos if opened with
Acrobat Reader).
• LibreOffice 5.4 supports OpenPGP keys for signing ODF documents on
Linux. If you already use GPG/PGP for signing emails, it ensures
authenticity of your ODF documents regardless of the mode of transport
or storage.
WRITER
• In Writer, you can now import AutoText from Microsoft Word DOTM
templates.
• When you're exporting or pasting numbered and bulleted lists as
plain text, their full structure is preserved.
• In the Format menu, you can now create custom watermarks for your
documents.
• New context menu items have been added for working with sections,
footnotes, endnotes and styles.
CALC
• Calc now includes support for pivot charts, which use data from
pivot tables. When the table is updated, the chart is automatically
updated as well.
• Comments are now easier to manage, with menu commands to show,
hide and delete all comments.
• When applying conditional formatting to cells, you can now easily
change the priority of rules with up and down buttons.
• Extra sheet protection options have been added, to optionally
allow insertion or deletion of rows and columns.
• Lastly, when you're exporting in CSV format, your settings are
remembered for the next export operation.
IMPRESS
• In Impress, when you're duplicating an object, you can now specify
fractional angles. In addition, your settings are saved for the next
duplication operation.
ONLINE
• Finally, LibreOffice Online has been improved as well. Performance
is better, while the layout adapts responsively to mobile devices. In
addition, a read-only mode has been added.
A list of the most significant new features is presented in a short
video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBNWOWJul4w). A page with a
description of new features - and links to relevant resources - is
available on the wiki at
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/5.4.
LibreOffice 5.4 has also been improved "under the hood," thanks to the
work of hundreds of volunteers. This translates into an open source
office suite which is easier to develop, maintain and debug. Although
this is not visible to users, it is extremely important for enterprise
deployments.
LibreOffice Online
LibreOffice Online is fundamentally a server service, and should be
installed and configured by adding a cloud storage and a SSL
certificate. It might be considered an enabling technology for the cloud
of ISPs or the private cloud of enterprises and large organizations.
Builds of the latest LibreOffice Online source code are available as
Docker images: https://hub.docker.com/r/libreoffice/online/.
Background document providing the positioning of LibreOffice Online:
https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/uSdCYL2TgPa3yUI.
Enterprise deployments
LibreOffice 5.4 represents the bleeding edge in term of features for
open source office suites, and as such is targeted at technology
enthusiasts, early adopters and power users.
For enterprise class deployments, TDF maintains the more mature 5.3
family - to be updated very soon with the announcement of the 5.3.5
release - which should always be supported by certified professionals
(http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).
Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board
(http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are
providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice
or consultancy services for migrations and trainings, based on best
practices distilled by The Document Foundation.
LibreOffice is deployed by large organizations in every continent. A
list of the most significant migrations announced in the media is
available on TDF wiki:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LibreOffice_Migrations.
Availability of LibreOffice 5.4
LibreOffice 5.4 is immediately available from the following link:
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. LibreOffice users, free software
advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation with
a donation at http://www.libreoffice.org/donate.
LibreOffice 5.4 is built with document conversion libraries from the
Document Liberation Project: http://www.documentliberation.org.
Press Kit
The press kit, with background documents and high resolution images, is
here: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/pfz28pVIhoZJ7uO.
Blog: http://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2017/07/28/libreoffice-5-4/.