Olivier Hallot has published a detailed summary of the Documentation Team’s successes during 2021 and a look ahead at plans for 2022.
Dec 16 2021
New user guide for Base
Another user guide was published by the LibreOffice documentation team on December 8: the LibreOffice 7.2 Base Guide, for the database component. It is available in free PDF or ODT from the LibreOffice website, or in a low-cost printed copy from Lulu.com.
Given the very few changes in Base since LibreOffice 6.4, the team decided to just rebrand the previous book, as part of an effort to produce a complete set of books for v7.2. If you want printed copies and already have the Base 6.4 book, you could choose to save some money by not buying this one.
Visit the Documentation page on the LibreOffice website for links.
Nov 23 2021
Two new user guides: Impress and Calc
The latest user guides from the LibreOffice documentation team are LibreOffice 7.2 Impress and LibreOffice 7.2 Calc, available in free PDF, ODT, or to read in a browser. Low-cost printed copies are available from Lulu.com.
Visit the Documentation page on the LibreOffice website for links.
Oct 02 2021
Workaround for a bug in Base on macOS
EDIT/UPDATE: The bug has been fixed in version 7.1.3.
On macOS (but not on Windows or Linux), in versions 7.1.x and 7.2.x of LibreOffice, a bug in Base causes the Memo (LONGVARCHAR) field type to have a dark background, so the contents are not visible. Other field type [date, number, TEXT (VARCHAR), and so on] have a normal white background. When clicked, the black fields turn white and I can type into them, but when I click or Tab to another field, they return to black. When I use a form to enter data, the form fields are normal, but the results in the database itself have the black field background. The database otherwise works as it should.
This behaviour has been reported as Bug 140854. The workaround is to use an older version of LibreOffice, such as 7.0.x, where the bug does not occur. You can find a link to version 7.0.6 near the bottom of the download page.
Fortunately, it is easy to install more than one version of LibreOffice on macOS, so you don’t have to completely give up the latest version if you want to use it for other components. Simply rename the existing version to something else; I usually change “LibreOffice” to “LibreOffice721” or similar. Then install a second version as usual by double-clicking the downloaded DMG file. Both versions will share the same user profile, so it’s easy to switch among them. Note: You can set up separate user profiles (for example, for testing purposes), but that’s beyond the scope of this article; see this wiki page if you want to go there.
Sep 09 2021
Getting Started Guide 7.2 published
The latest user guide from the LibreOffice documentation team is Getting Started with LibreOffice 7.2, available in free PDF, ODT, or to read in a browser. Visit the Documentation page on the LibreOffice website for links.
Low-cost printed copies are available from Lulu.com.
Aug 30 2021
Writer Guide 7.2 published
The latest user guide from the LibreOffice documentation team is Writer Guide 7.2, available in free PDF, ODT, or to read in a browser. Visit the Documentation page on the LibreOffice website for links.
Low-cost printed copies are available from Lulu.com.
Aug 06 2021
Designing ebooks with free software
Bruce Byfield has written Designing ebooks with free software, which teaches several methods that help you to gain control over the creation of your ebooks. All it takes is two open-source tools that are free to download: LibreOffice and Calibre, plus some trial and error to get the precision and professionalism you want.
Designing ebooks is available as a free download in PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and ODT versions, as well as a low-priced print edition. Links to all versions are on the book’s website.
Designing ebooks is a companion volume to Bruce’s 2016 book, Designing with LibreOffice.
Aug 06 2021
Four LibreOffice 7.1 user guides
So far this year the LibreOffice Documentation Team has produced four user guides for version 7.1: Getting Started, Writer, Calc, and Draw. They are available in free PDF, ODT, or to read in a browser, as well as low-cost printed copies. Visit the Documentation page on the website for links.
Mar 02 2021
LibreOffice 7.0 Getting Started and Impress Guides
Two more volumes of LO 7.0 user guides were published in January: Getting Started Guide and Impress Guide. They are available in free PDF downloads and in low-cost print editions. See this page for links.
Mar 02 2021
LibreOffice 7.1 Community released
On 3 February, The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 7.1 Community, the volunteer-supported version of the office suite. The Community label emphasises the fact that the software is not targeted at enterprises, and not optimised for their support needs. Blog post with more information.
For enterprise-class deployments, TDF has strongly recommended the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners—for desktop, mobile and cloud—with long-term support options, professional assistance, custom features and other benefits. See LibreOffice in business.