LibreOffice 7.4 is released with greater compatibility with MS Office

Today the suite LibreOffice 7.4 was launched bringing a series of features, highlighting Interoperability — that is, its full compatibility — with the Microsoft Office. Let's talk a little about the novelty that can be downloaded for devices that run the operating systems Windows, MacOS ou Linux. Check it out!

MS Office and Interoperability

Based on several features in the LibreOffice Technology, which are aimed at personal productivity on smartphone, cloud and desktop, LibreOffice 7.4 is offering many improvements to users sharing documents through MS Office. Users who use the platform should regularly check LibreOffice releases so they don't miss any updates from the previous version — such as 7.4.

The new LibreOffice 7.4 is also offering greater support for documents in ODF (OpenDocument Format), including in terms of robustness and security. Among other aspects, in addition to interoperability with MS Office, it also features filters for a large number of documents in legacy formats, the return to their original ownership and control to users. Microsoft files are still based on the proprietary format deprecated by the ISO in 2008 rather than the ISO-approved standard, this ends up creating a lot of artificial complexity.

The new features found in LibreOffice 7.4 were developed by 147 collaborators, with 72% of the code written by 52 developers employed by three companies that are part of the TDF Advisory Board – composed of COLLABORATE, Red Hat e allotropy – or other organizations, and 28% are 95 individual volunteers.

In addition, 528 other volunteers provided localizations in 158 different languages. LibreOffice 7.4 is being released in 120 different language versions, and according to the institution, more than any other free software. In this way the software can be used in the native language by more than 5,4 billion people worldwide. In addition, more than 2,3 billion people speak one of these 120 languages ​​as a second language, making the program as democratic as possible.

LibreOffice for Business

For companies that want to make LibreOffice services available to their workers, TDF recommends using the LibreOffice tools LibreOffice Enterprise — also available for smartphone, cloud and computer. A large number of companies use the personal version instead of the business version, but possibly with the new features of LibreOffice 7.4, this scenario may change.

Over time, this poses a problem for project sustainability. LibreOffice, as it slows down its evolution, since it is not known that those data are being collected from a company that used the individual service. In fact, every line of code developed by companies in the ecosystem for their enterprise customers is shared with the community in the master code repository and enhances the platform. LibreOffice Technology.

Migrating to LibreOffice

The Document Foundation has developed a Migration Protocol to support companies that want to move from proprietary office suites to LibreOffice. The process that is based on the deployment of an LTS version of LibreOffice Enterprise, in addition to consulting and migration training provided by certified professionals, still offer value-added solutions according to proprietary offerings. For more details on the process, visit LibreOffice official website.

Highlights at a glance

In general

• Support for WebP images and EMZ/WMZ files;
• Help pages for the ScriptForge script library;
• Search field for Extension Manager;
• Performance and compatibility improvements.

typing part

• Improved tracking of changes in the footnote area;
• Edited lists show original numbers in change tracking;
• New typographic settings for hyphenation.

Calculations

• Support for 16.384 columns in spreadsheets;
• Extra functions in the AutoSum drop-down widget;
• New menu item to search worksheet names.

Layout

• New support for document themes.

Availability

On the LibreOffice website it is possible to download the LibreOffice 7.4. The minimum prerequisites are Windows 7 SP1 ou macOS 10.12. For users who don't want the latest features and prefer a version that has undergone more testing and bug fixing, The Document Foundation still maintains the LibreOffice 7.3 family, which includes a few months of portability fixes. The current version is LibreOffice 7.3.5. The Document Foundation does not provide technical support to users, however it is possible to obtain it from volunteers on the user mailing lists and on the website. Ask Libre Office.

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