LibreOffice 26.8: a faster Writer, cell shuffling in Calc and new chart types

The LibreOffice project has released the latest semi-annual update of its office suite — version 26.8. As befits a free alternative to Microsoft Office, the release brings not a revolution but a host of careful refinements that together noticeably improve everyday work.

Writer and Calc

The main focus is on the performance of the Writer text editor: very large documents with images now open noticeably faster. In addition, the groundwork has been laid for comparing documents side by side — a feature long missed by users accustomed to similar capabilities in other editors.

The Calc spreadsheet application has gained a shuffle command, which randomly rearranges the order of cells in a selected range. The Draw editor now offers the ability to swap the mouse wheel actions — zooming and scrolling.

Compatibility with Microsoft Office

Work continues on getting along with Microsoft formats. The chart-building module has gained experimental support for importing and re-exporting the new Chartex chart types, which are created in Microsoft Office and saved in OOXML files. Compatibility with XLSX-format spreadsheets has also been improved.

The interface has not been left untouched either: the background of the Notebookbar panels is now colored individually for each LibreOffice module, which helps you quickly tell which application you are in.

The saga of the donation banner

The story surrounding the donation request deserves a separate mention. Originally, a full-fledged banner calling on users to support the project was planned for the startup screen (Start Center). In the final build, however, all that remained of these ambitions was a modest button — the fate of the intrusive advertising for the project's own foundation turned out to be far more restrained than the initial plans.

The details are listed in the release notes, and you can download LibreOffice 26.8 from the project's official website.

Source: Phoronix