For those who aren't familiar with this product, Libreoffice is a free,
open source and therefore community-driven Office suite. In many ways,
it's very similar to the programs you're familiar with in Microsoft
Office. Libreoffice has a word processor similar to Microsoft Word,
which is called Writer. Its spreadsheet program, similar to Excel, is
called Calc. It can open files created in Office and files written in
Libreoffice can be saved in lots of formats, including those which are
compatible with Office. I've been quite the fan of this suite but I must
confess that I generally use Office for serious word processing, due to
the fact that its accessibility is much better than Libreoffice.
However, LibreOffice, while not as rich as Microsoft Office when it
comes to accessibility, is usable enough that it may be worth at least
trying it out if you need to work with documents and spreadsheets and
can't afford Office. It works reasonably well with NVDA, not badly with
JAWS and, as of version 5.2, not at all with Window-Eyes. Here's the
announcement from the blog of the Document Foundation, which produces
Libreoffice.
The Document Foundation announces feature-rich LibreOffice 5.3
Posted in Announcements, Press Releases By Italo Vignoli On February 1, 2017
LibreOffice-53-banner-big ssl=…
Berlin, February 1st, 2017 – The Document Foundation announces
LibreOffice 5.3, one of the most feature-rich releases in the history of
the application. The office suite is immediately available for Windows,
macOS, and Linux, and for the first time also for the private cloud.
LibreOffice 5.3 represents a significant step forward in the evolution
of the software: it offers an introduction to new features such as
online with collaborative editing, which increase the competitive
positioning of the application, and at the same time provides
incremental improvements, to make the program more reliable,
interoperable and user-friendly.
“LibreOffice is backed by a fantastic community of developers”, says
Michael Meeks, a member of the board of The Document Foundation. “In
2010, only a few people were betting on our capability of attracting a
large number of code contributors, which are instrumental for the
success of a large code base. In six years we have attracted over 1,100
new developers and, thanks to this large community, during the last two
years we have had an average of 300 people active on the source code”.
LibreOffice 5.3 highlights
LibreOffice 5.3 offers a number of interesting new features in every
area: a new cross-platform text layout engine that uses HarfBuzz for
consistent text layout on all platforms, with significant advantages
across languages and alphabets; a revised Help menu, with new quick
links to user guides and community support forums, for an improved user
experience; and better import/export filters to new and legacy MS Office
documents.
Writer now supports Table Styles, for applying formatting to a table
which is preserved when you make edits to it; a new Page Deck in the
sidebar lets the user quickly customise page settings without having to
go through a separate dialog box; and a new Go to Page Box makes it
possible to jump to another page in the document with just a few keystrokes.
Calc provides a new set of default cell styles, with greater variety and
better names than in previous releases; in fresh installations, “Enable
wildcards in formulas” is now the default option, rather than regular
expressions, to improve compatibility with other spreadsheet software;
and a new text entry box lets the user narrow down the functions he is
looking for, and simplifies the search for the right one.
Impress now opens with a template selector, to get the user off to a
quick start; and a new Slide Properties Deck is now available in the
sidebar while in slide master mode.
A list of the most significant new features is available in a separate
document (http://tdf.io/lo53features) and is presented in a series of
short videos (http://tdf.io/53vids). A page with the top new features is
also available on the website at
http://www.libreoffice.org/discover/new-features/.
LibreOffice 5.3 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 is deployed by large organizations in every continent. A
list of the most significant migrations announced in the media is
available here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LibreOffice_Migrations.
LibreOffice Online
LibreOffice 5.3 features the first source release of LibreOffice Online,
a cloud office suite which provides basic collaborative editing of
documents in a browser by re-using the LibreOffice “core engine”.
Rendering fidelity is excellent, and interoperability matches that of
LibreOffice.
LibreOffice Online is fundamentally a server service and should be
installed and configured by adding a cloud storage and an SSL
certificate, which are not included in the solution. It might be
considered an enabling technology for the public 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/.
A background document providing the positioning of LibreOffice Online is
available here: http://tdf.io/loonlineback.
Experimental UI features
Starting from the 5.3 family, LibreOffice UI has been extended with the
addition of an experimental Notebookbar, which offers another UI option
in addition to the Default UI (with two toolbars), the Single Toolbar UI
and the Sidebar with a Single Toolbar. Each UI layout has been thought
to serve a different cluster of LibreOffice users.
LibreOffice UI is code named MUFFIN, an acronym for My User-Friendly &
Flexible INterface. A background document explaining the UI concept is
available here: http://tdf.io/muffinback.
Availability and enterprise deployments
LibreOffice 5.3 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 5.2.5
version, which should be supported by certified professionals according
to best practices recognized worldwide
(http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).
LibreOffice 5.3 is immediately available from the following link:
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. LibreOffice users, free software
advocates, and all community members can support The Document Foundation
with a donation at http://donate.libreoffice.org.
Press Kit and Screenshots
The press kit, with background documents and high-resolution images, can
be downloaded from http://tdf.io/lo53presskit. Screenshots can be
downloaded from http://tdf.io/lo53screenshots.
--
David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
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