LibreOffice
Encyclopedia
LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite
developed by The Document Foundation
as a fork
of OpenOffice.org
. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office
, and available on a variety of platforms. Its developers' goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF
file support, accessible to anyone and led by developers which do not have to sign their name to the product.
LibreOffice is a hybrid word
, meaning "Free Office". Libre means free (as in freedom
) in French and Spanish.
LibreOffice has been downloaded approximately 7.5 million times since its first stable launch in January 2011. It is the default office suite in many Linux distribution
s, such as Fedora
, Linux Mint
, openSUSE
, and Ubuntu
.
LibreOffice can be run on Microsoft Windows
2000 (with Service Pack 4 or newer) or newer, Mac OS X
10.4 Tiger or newer, and Linux
-based systems running Linux kernel
version 2.6.18 or newer. Ports for FreeBSD
and OpenBSD
are being maintained by contributors to those projects, respectively.
project formed a new group called "The Document Foundation". The Document Foundation created LibreOffice from their former project in response to Oracle Corporation
's purchasing of Sun Microsystems
over concerns that Oracle would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open source project, as it had on Sun's OpenSolaris
.
It was originally hoped that the LibreOffice name would be provisional, as Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. Oracle rejected requests to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project and demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, citing a conflict of interest.
The Go-oo
project was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice. Improvements made by the project were merged into LibreOffice. Enhancements made in other forks are also expected to be incorporated into LibreOffice. Also underway is the reduction of Java dependency, with the goal of minimizing security issues and improving application stability.
As a result of the fork of OpenOffice.org into LibreOffice, and the resulting loss of developers, Oracle announced in April 2011 that it was terminating the commercial development of OpenOffice.org. In June 2011, Oracle announced that it would contribute the OpenOffice.org code and trademark to the Apache Software Foundation
, which decided to accept the offer and start an incubation process within the foundation.
Google
and Red Hat
began to contribute programmers to LibreOffice in June 2011.
LibreOffice 3.3 features several functions not found in its OpenOffice.org counterpart, mainly as a result of Oracle's strict policies on tracking copyright ownership. Most of the features found in the 3.3 release were directly adapted from several already-created plugins, as well as the Go-oo fork. Among features unique to LibreOffice are:
New features and improvements in 3.4 include:
The Foundation provides two different versions of LibreOffice. The latest version is available for users looking for the latest enhancements while the previous version caters to users who prefer stability.
LibreOffice also includes a PDF creator and a PDF import tool.
s; its native format is the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Formats supported (for reading and writing) include those used by Microsoft Office, including the Office Open XML specification used in Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010, which use the .docx, .pptx and .xlsx extensions, as well as to the older file formats used in Microsoft Office 95 and 97-2003, which use .doc, .ppt and .xls extensions. It also supports Rich Text File format (.rtf)
and OpenOffice.org XML
format. LibreOffice can save password-protected XLS
files. It uses only one basic encryption method compatible with many spreadsheet applications (for example Gnumeric
).
LibreOffice has VBA
macro support. It can import files from MS Works and Lotus Word Pro
. LibreOffice Draw has native functionality to open SVG
files, whereas OpenOffice.org
Draw requires an extension. There is improved EMF
drawing and WordPerfect
Graphics import.
Exporting to a number of non-editable formats is supported. All documents can be exported to the PDF format, as well as presentations to Adobe Flash
(SWF). LibreOffice also has the ability to import documents in read-only mode in the Uniform Office Format
, Data Interchange Format
and the formats of Microsoft Works, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3.
multimedia framework in Linux to render multimedia content such as videos in Impress and other programs. Visually, LibreOffice uses the large "Tango
style" icons that are used for the application shortcuts, quick launch icons, icons for associated files and for the icons found on the toolbar of the LibreOffice programs. They are also used on the toolbars and menus by default. OpenOffice.org uses small icon sizes and the "Classic" or "Galaxy" icon style by default.
LibreOffice also ships with a modified theme which looks native on GTK based Linux distributions. It also renders fonts via Cairo
on Linux distributions; this means that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of the Linux desktop. The first run wizard from OpenOffice.org that guides a user through the setting of user name and the registration process has been removed from LibreOffice.
.
LibreOffice Online will allow for the use of LibreOffice through a simple web browser by using the canvas element. Development is ongoing and it has not yet been released.
In 2011, the administrative authority of Île-de-France
(which includes the city of Paris
) has decided to include LibreOffice in a USB key given to students which contains free open source software. The USB key is given to approximately 800,000 students.
The Document Foundation has set a target of 200 million users worldwide before the end of the decade.
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
developed by The Document Foundation
The Document Foundation
The Document Foundation is an open-source software organization. It was created by members of the OpenOffice.org community to manage and develop a fork called LibreOffice. The goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any copyright assignment requirements...
as a fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
, and available on a variety of platforms. Its developers' goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF
ODF
ODF may be an acronym for:* OpenDocument format, a standard for electronic office documents** OpenDocument Fellowship, a volunteer organisation with members around the world to promote the use and development of the OpenDocument format....
file support, accessible to anyone and led by developers which do not have to sign their name to the product.
LibreOffice is a hybrid word
Hybrid word
A hybrid word is a word which etymologically has one part derived from one language and another part derived from a different language.-Common hybrids:The most common form of hybrid word in English is one which combines etymologically Latin and Greek parts...
, meaning "Free Office". Libre means free (as in freedom
Gratis versus Libre
Gratis versus libre is the distinction between two meanings of the English adjective "free"; namely, "for zero price" and "with little or no restriction"...
) in French and Spanish.
LibreOffice has been downloaded approximately 7.5 million times since its first stable launch in January 2011. It is the default office suite in many Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s, such as Fedora
Fedora (operating system)
Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
, Linux Mint
Linux Mint
Linux Mint is a Linux-based computer operating system best known for its usability and ease of installation, particularly for users with no previous GNU/Linux experience...
, openSUSE
OpenSUSE
openSUSE is a general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported openSUSE Project and sponsored by SUSE...
, and Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
.
LibreOffice can be run on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
2000 (with Service Pack 4 or newer) or newer, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
10.4 Tiger or newer, and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-based systems running Linux kernel
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
version 2.6.18 or newer. Ports for FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
and OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
are being maintained by contributors to those projects, respectively.
Initial release
On 28 September 2010, several members of the OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
project formed a new group called "The Document Foundation". The Document Foundation created LibreOffice from their former project in response to Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
's purchasing of Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
over concerns that Oracle would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open source project, as it had on Sun's OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software...
.
It was originally hoped that the LibreOffice name would be provisional, as Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. Oracle rejected requests to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project and demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, citing a conflict of interest.
The Go-oo
Go-oo
Go-oo was an office suite which started as a set of patches for the cross-platform OpenOffice.org office suite, then later became an independent fork of OpenOffice.org with a number of enhancements...
project was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice. Improvements made by the project were merged into LibreOffice. Enhancements made in other forks are also expected to be incorporated into LibreOffice. Also underway is the reduction of Java dependency, with the goal of minimizing security issues and improving application stability.
As a result of the fork of OpenOffice.org into LibreOffice, and the resulting loss of developers, Oracle announced in April 2011 that it was terminating the commercial development of OpenOffice.org. In June 2011, Oracle announced that it would contribute the OpenOffice.org code and trademark to the Apache Software Foundation
Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, U.S., in June 1999.The Apache Software Foundation is a decentralized community of developers...
, which decided to accept the offer and start an incubation process within the foundation.
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
began to contribute programmers to LibreOffice in June 2011.
Version 3.3
LibreOffice 3.3.0 Beta 1, which was based on the beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.3, was made available on 28 September 2010—the day "The Document Foundation" was announced to act as the suite's public figurehead. The first stable version of 3.3 was released on 25 January 2011. Because The Document Foundation and most of the software's new and former developers considered LibreOffice a direct continuation of OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice 3.3 continued the OpenOffice.org version numbering.LibreOffice 3.3 features several functions not found in its OpenOffice.org counterpart, mainly as a result of Oracle's strict policies on tracking copyright ownership. Most of the features found in the 3.3 release were directly adapted from several already-created plugins, as well as the Go-oo fork. Among features unique to LibreOffice are:
- SVGScalable Vector GraphicsScalable Vector Graphics is a family of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic . The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.SVG images and their...
image import - Lotus Word Pro and Microsoft WorksMicrosoft WorksMicrosoft Works is an integrated package software that is produced by Microsoft. Works is smaller, less expensive, and has fewer features than Microsoft Office or other major office suites. Its core functionality includes a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system...
import filters - Improved WordPerfectWordPerfectWordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
import - Dialog box for title pages
- Navigator lets one heading be unfolded as usual in a tree view.
- "Experimental" mode that allows unfinished features to be tried by users
- Some bundled extensions, including Presenter View in Impress
- Colour-coded document icons
- On Linux, the GStreamerGStreamerGStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject.GStreamer allows a programmer to create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio and video playback, recording, streaming and editing...
multimedia framework is used to render multimedia content such as videos.
Version 3.4
The second major release of LibreOffice is version 3.4, first released on 3 June 2011. Early versions of v3.4 contained some bugs, including compatibility issues with Microsoft Office, and was therefore only recommended as suitable for early adopters. By 3.4.2, the release was considered suitable for enterprises.New features and improvements in 3.4 include:
- Memory usage improvements
- Improvements to Calc, including improved speed and improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel, including pivot tablePivot tableIn data processing, a pivot table is a data summarization tool found in data visualization programs such as spreadsheets or business intelligence software. Among other functions, pivot-table tools can automatically sort, count, total or give the average of the data stored in one table or spreadsheet...
s (formerly called DataPilot in OOo/LO), support for an unlimited number of fields, and a redesigned Move/Copy Sheet dialog - There is now no need to close Writer's style edit dialog to check how a new style looks.
- Several thousand lines of German comments were translated into English and over 5,000 lines of dead codeDead codeDead code is a computer programming term for code in the source code of a program which is executed but whose result is never used in any other computation...
were removed from Writer, Calc and Impress. - Improved GTK+GTK+GTK+ is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt.The name GTK+ originates from GTK;...
theme integration - The Linux version renders fonts via CairoCairo (graphics)cairo is a software library used to provide a vector graphics-based, device-independent API for software developers. It is designed to provide primitives for 2-dimensional drawing across a number of different backends...
so that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of the desktop. - Reduction of LibreOffice's reliance on Java
- Continuing the transition to GNU Make for building LibreOffice
Release schedule
The Document Foundation intends to release new major versions of LibreOffice once every six months and to eventually align with the March/September schedule of the other major free software projects.The Foundation provides two different versions of LibreOffice. The latest version is available for users looking for the latest enhancements while the previous version caters to users who prefer stability.
Included applications
| Component | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Writer LibreOffice Writer LibreOffice Writer is the open-source word processor component of the LibreOffice software package and is a fork of OpenOffice.org Writer. Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect, with some of their features.... |
A word processor Word processor A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material.... with similar functionality and file support to Microsoft Word Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,... or WordPerfect WordPerfect WordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979... . It also can act as a basic WYSIWYG WYSIWYG WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product... editor. |
|
| Calc LibreOffice Calc LibreOffice Calc is the spreadsheet component of the LibreOffice software package.Since forking from OpenOffice.org LibreOffice Calc has been modified with longstanding bugs addressed and sought-after features beginning to be added in... |
A spreadsheet Spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas... program, similar to Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications... or Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software . It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.-Beginnings:... . It has a number of unique features, including a system which automatically defines series of graphs, based on information available to the user. LibreOffice Calc still has a function called "Solver" but it is slightly different to that in OpenOffice.org. |
|
| Impress | A presentation program Presentation program A presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show... resembling Microsoft Powerpoint Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system... . Presentations can be exported as SWF SWF SWF is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.,... files, allowing them to be viewed on any computer with Adobe Flash installed. LibreOffice Impress also includes 3D transition effects. |
|
| Base | A database management program, similar to Microsoft Access Microsoft Access Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of... . LibreOffice Base allows the creation and management of databases, preparation of forms and reports that provide end users easy access to data. Like Access, it can be used as a front-end for various database systems, including Access databases (JET Microsoft Jet Database Engine The Microsoft Jet Database Engine is a database engine on which several Microsoft products have been built. A database engine is the underlying component of a database, a collection of information stored on a computer in a systematic way... ), ODBC data sources, and MySQL MySQL MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My... or PostgreSQL PostgreSQL PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software... . |
|
| Draw | A vector graphics editor Vector graphics editor A vector graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to compose and edit vector graphics images interactively on a computer and save them in one of many popular vector graphics formats, such as EPS, PDF, WMF, SVG, or VML.... and diagramming tool similar to Microsoft Visio Microsoft Visio Microsoft Visio , formerly known as Microsoft Office Visio, is a commercial diagramming program for Microsoft Windows that uses vector graphics to create diagrams.- Features :... and comparable in features to early versions of CorelDRAW CorelDRAW CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation of Ottawa, Canada. It is also the name of Corel's Graphics Suite... . It provides connectors between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowchart Flowchart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents an algorithm or process, showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting these with arrows. This diagrammatic representation can give a step-by-step solution to a given problem. Process operations are represented in these... s. It also includes features similar to desktop publishing software such as Scribus Scribus Scribus is a desktop publishing application, released under the GNU General Public License as free software. It is based on the free Qt toolkit, therefore native versions are available for Linux, Unix-like operating systems, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2... and Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Publisher Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It is an entry-level application, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing... . |
|
| Math | An application designed for creating and editing mathematical formulae. The application uses a variant of XML XML Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards.... for creating formulas, as defined in the OpenDocument specification. These formulas can be incorporated into other documents in the LibreOffice suite, such as those created by Writer or Calc, by embedding the formulas into the document. |
|
LibreOffice also includes a PDF creator and a PDF import tool.
Supported formats
LibreOffice can import and export documents in several file formatFile format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
s; its native format is the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Formats supported (for reading and writing) include those used by Microsoft Office, including the Office Open XML specification used in Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010, which use the .docx, .pptx and .xlsx extensions, as well as to the older file formats used in Microsoft Office 95 and 97-2003, which use .doc, .ppt and .xls extensions. It also supports Rich Text File format (.rtf)
Rich Text Format
The Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....
and OpenOffice.org XML
OpenOffice.org XML
OpenOffice.org XML is an open XML-based file format developed as an open community effort by Sun Microsystems and other OpenOffice.org project contributors in 2000-2002. The open-source software application suite OpenOffice.org 1.x and StarOffice 6 used the format as their native and default file...
format. LibreOffice can save password-protected XLS
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
files. It uses only one basic encryption method compatible with many spreadsheet applications (for example Gnumeric
Gnumeric
Gnumeric is a spreadsheet program that is part of the GNOME Free Software Desktop Project. Gnumeric version 1.0 was released December 31, 2001. Gnumeric is distributed as free software under the GNU GPL license; it is intended to replace proprietary and other spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft...
).
LibreOffice has VBA
Visual Basic for Applications
Visual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6 and its associated integrated development environment , which are built into most Microsoft Office applications...
macro support. It can import files from MS Works and Lotus Word Pro
Lotus Word Pro
Lotus Word Pro is word processor software produced by IBM's Lotus Software group for use on Microsoft Windows-compatible computers and on IBM OS/2 Warp. Word Pro can be obtained as part of the Lotus SmartSuite office suite....
. LibreOffice Draw has native functionality to open SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics
Scalable Vector Graphics is a family of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic . The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.SVG images and their...
files, whereas OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
Draw requires an extension. There is improved EMF
Windows Metafile
Windows Metafile is a graphics file format on Microsoft Windows systems, originally designed in the 1990s. Windows Metafiles are intended to be portable between applications and may contain both vector graphics and bitmap components....
drawing and WordPerfect
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
Graphics import.
Exporting to a number of non-editable formats is supported. All documents can be exported to the PDF format, as well as presentations to Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
(SWF). LibreOffice also has the ability to import documents in read-only mode in the Uniform Office Format
Uniform Office Format
Uniform Office Format sometimes known as Unified Office Format is an open standard for 'office' applications developed in China. It includes word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet modules, and is made up of GUI, API, and format specifications...
, Data Interchange Format
Data Interchange Format
Data Interchange Format is a text file format used to import/export single spreadsheets between spreadsheet programs . It is also known as "Navy DIF"...
and the formats of Microsoft Works, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3.
Common features
Unlike OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice uses the GStreamerGStreamer
GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject.GStreamer allows a programmer to create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio and video playback, recording, streaming and editing...
multimedia framework in Linux to render multimedia content such as videos in Impress and other programs. Visually, LibreOffice uses the large "Tango
Tango Desktop Project
]The Tango Desktop Project is an open-source initiative to create a set of design guidelines and to provide a consistent user experience for applications on desktop environments. The project has created a set of icons known as the Tango Icon Library, which is described as a "proof of concept"...
style" icons that are used for the application shortcuts, quick launch icons, icons for associated files and for the icons found on the toolbar of the LibreOffice programs. They are also used on the toolbars and menus by default. OpenOffice.org uses small icon sizes and the "Classic" or "Galaxy" icon style by default.
LibreOffice also ships with a modified theme which looks native on GTK based Linux distributions. It also renders fonts via Cairo
Cairo (graphics)
cairo is a software library used to provide a vector graphics-based, device-independent API for software developers. It is designed to provide primitives for 2-dimensional drawing across a number of different backends...
on Linux distributions; this means that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of the Linux desktop. The first run wizard from OpenOffice.org that guides a user through the setting of user name and the registration process has been removed from LibreOffice.
Future Developments
In 2011, it was announced that plans are under way to port LibreOffice to both Android and iOSIOS
iOS is an operating system for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV.IOS may also refer to:-Companies and organisations:* Illinois Ornithological Society, American state-based bird club...
.
LibreOffice Online will allow for the use of LibreOffice through a simple web browser by using the canvas element. Development is ongoing and it has not yet been released.
Users
As of September 2011, The Document Foundation estimates that there are 10 million users worldwide who have obtained LibreOffice via downloads or CDs. Over 90% of those are on Windows, with another 5% on Mac OS X. There are an estimated 15 million Linux users, with most having obtained the software directly from their distribution. This gives a total estimated user base of 25 million people.In 2011, the administrative authority of Île-de-France
Île-de-France (région)
Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....
(which includes the city of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) has decided to include LibreOffice in a USB key given to students which contains free open source software. The USB key is given to approximately 800,000 students.
The Document Foundation has set a target of 200 million users worldwide before the end of the decade.
See also
- List of office suites
- Comparison of office suites