[tdf-announce] LibreOffice 5.2 “fresh” released, for Windows, Mac OS and GNU/Linux

LibreOffice 5.1.5 “still” announced, for enterprise class deployments

Berlin, August 3, 2016 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice
5.2, a feature-rich major release of the best free office suite ever
created – targeted to early adopters and power users – with several user
interface improvements and enterprise grade features.

At the same time, LibreOffice 5.1.5 has been released, for enterprise
class deployments and more conservative office suite users.

LibreOffice 5.2 provides document classification according to the TSCP
standard, and a set of improved forecasting functions in Calc. In
addition, multiple signature descriptions are now supported, along with
import and export of signatures from OOXML files.

Interoperability features have also been improved, with better Writer
import filters for DOCX and RTF files, and the added support for Word
for DOS legacy documents. Additional type argument values for
interoperability with other spreadsheets, along with wildcard support in
formula expressions for compatibility with XLS/XLSX and ODF 1.2, have
also been added.

In term of user experience, a single toolbar mode has been added to
Writer and Calc to help users really focus on content, and some icons
have been added to the default toolbars to make several frequently used
functions – such as hide/show track changes, and freeze the first column
or row of a spreadsheet – quicker to access. Also, most of the context
menus can now be customized, for even greater control.

LibreOffice has been downloaded 140 million times since the launch in
January 2011. The office suite is deployed by large organizations in
every continent, with the latest addition being the Lithuanian Police
with over 8,000 desktops.

Other New Features of LibreOffice 5.2

- New drawing tools, including filled curves, polygons and freeform
lines, have been added to all program modules.

Writer

- When printing a document, Print to File is now available in the list
of printers.
- If you use Google Drive for storage, two-factor authentication support
has been included.
- The Save toolbar button includes a quick Save as Template option, so
you don't have to go through the menu.

Calc

- New functions have been added, along with extensive tooltips that
describe what a function does as you type it.
- Multiple status bar functions can be active at the same time, to
provide a quick overview of your data.
- The currency toolbar icon now includes a drop-down menu to quickly
choose the currency you want to use.
- When removing the border from selected cells, you can also choose to
remove the border from adjacent cells as well.

Impress

- When working with custom animations, you can now quickly add an effect
to an element via the sidebar, instead of using a separate dialog box.
- The list of effects in the sidebar now includes a description of the
effect, along with the element name.
- In the properties sidebar, a new Slide Background panel lets you
quickly change the format, orientation and background image of a slide.

A complete list of the better documented new features is available in a
separate PDF document (http://tdf.io/lo52features), and on the website
at http://www.libreoffice.org/discover/new-features/. Short videos
presenting the most significant new features for Writer, Calc and
Impress are available at: http://tdf.io/52vids.

LibreOffice 5.2 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.

According to Coverity Scan, the number of open issues for 1,000 lines of
LibreOffice 5.2 source code at the time of release is a record setting
0.00 (for 7,8 million lines of source code), against an industry average
of 0.61 for open source software and 0.75 for proprietary software.

“LibreOffice 5.2 is a significant step forward for Free Software on the
desktop, and will soon be available as a full featured cloud office
suite,” says Michael Meeks, a Director at The Document Foundation (TDF)
and a leading developer of LibreOffice Online. “The tight integration
between desktop and cloud will provide enterprises a value added
experience, with the best of both platforms always available to all users.”

“LibreOffice is growing fast, thanks to distinctive advantages such as
the standard document format, which is recognized by a growing number of
governments as the best solution for interoperability,” says Thorsten
Behrens, a Director at The Document Foundation (TDF) and a member of the
OASIS ODF Technical Committee.

Availability and enterprise deployments

LibreOffice 5.2 represents the bleeding edge in term of features for
open source office suites. For enterprise class deployments, TDF
maintains the more mature 5.1.5 version.

LibreOffice 5.2 “fresh” and LibreOffice 5.1.5 “still” are 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.

LibreOffice 5.2 for GNU/Linux is also available in new packaging
formats, which make it easier for end users to install and update the
application: FlatPak from RedHat and Snap from Canonical.

In any case, TDF suggests deploying or migrating to LibreOffice with the
backing of certified professionals providing Level 3 support, migration
or training consultancy according to recognized best practices worldwide
(http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/).

Several companies sitting in TDF Advisory Board
(http://www.documentfoundation.org/governance/advisory-board/) are
providing either value added Long Term Supported versions of LibreOffice
or consultancy services for migrations and trainings, based on best
practices distilled by The Document Foundation.

LibreOffice 5.2 and LibreOffice 5.1.5 are built with document conversion
libraries supporting proprietary document formats from the Document
Liberation Project: http://www.documentliberation.org.

Additional technical details

LibreOffice 5.1.5 change logs:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.5/RC1 (fixed in RC1)
and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.1.5/RC2 (fixed in RC2).
LibreOffice 5.2 change logs:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC1 (fixed in RC1),
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC2 (fixed in RC2),
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC3 (fixed in RC3),
and http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.2.0/RC4 (fixed in RC4).

LibreOffice Conference

In 2016, LibreOffice Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of
Information Technology at Brno University of Technology, and organized
by OpenAlt, from September 7 to 9. Registration for the LibreOffice
Conference is open at: http://conference.libreoffice.org/2016/registration/.

Press Kit and Screenshots

The press kit, with press release, infographic, and backgrounds, can be
downloaded from: http://tdf.io/lo52presskit. Linux based screenshots can
be downloaded from: http://tdf.io/lo52screenshots.

Link to blog:
http://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2016/08/03/libreoffice-5-2-fresh-released-for-windows-mac-os-and-gnulinux/

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Italo Vignoli - Marketing & PR
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