Software:LibreOffice

Short description: Free and open-source office software suite

LibreOffice

LibreOffice 7.5.2.2 Start Center (released in April 2023, running on Linux and GNOME)
Original author(s)	Star Division
Developer(s)	The Document Foundation
Initial release	25 January 2011 (2011-01-25)
Stable release	Fresh: Still:
Written in	C++, XML, Python, and Java
Operating system	Linux, Windows 7+, macOS 10.15+; Unofficial: Android and iOS, iPadOS, ChromeOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Haiku, Solaris (v. 5.2.5)
Platform	x86-64 (all operating systems), IA-32, ARMel, ARMhf, ARM64, MIPS, MIPSel, PowerPC, ppc64le, S390x, VLIW
Predecessor	OpenOffice.org
Standard(s)	OpenDocument
Available in	115 languages
Type	Office productivity suite
License	MPL-2.0
Website	libreoffice.org

LibreOffice (/ˈliːbrə/) is a free and open-source office productivity software suite, a project of The Document Foundation (TDF). It was forked in 2010 from OpenOffice.org, an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. The LibreOffice suite consists of programs for word processing, creating and editing spreadsheets, slideshows, diagrams, and drawings, working with databases, and composing mathematical formulae. It is available in 115 languages. TDF does not provide support for LibreOffice, but enterprise-focused editions are available from companies in the ecosystem.

LibreOffice uses the OpenDocument standard as its native file format but supports formats of most other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, through a variety of import and export filters.

LibreOffice is available for a variety of computing platforms, with official support for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux and community builds for many other platforms. Ecosystem partner Collabora uses LibreOffice upstream code and provides apps for Android, iOS, iPadOS and ChromeOS. LibreOffice is the default office suite of the most popular Linux distributions.

LibreOffice Online is an online office suite that includes the applications Writer, Calc, and Impress and provides an upstream for projects such as commercial Collabora Online.

It is the most actively developed free and open-source office suite, with approximately 50 times the development activity of Apache OpenOffice, the other major descendant of OpenOffice.org, in 2015.

The project was announced, and a beta was released on September 28, 2010. In the nine months between January 2011 (the first stable release) and October 2011, LibreOffice was downloaded about 7.5 million times. In 2015, the project claimed 120 million unique downloading addresses from May 2011 to May 2015, excluding Linux distributions, with 55 million of those being from May 2014 to May 2015. The Document Foundation estimates that there are 200 million active LibreOffice users worldwide. Approximately 25% are students and 10% are Linux users; the latter usually find LibreOffice part of their preferred distribution.

Features

Included applications in LibreOffice

Component		Notes
	Writer	A word processor with functionality similar to Microsoft office and file support for Microsoft Word or WordPerfect files. It has extensive WYSIWYG word processing capabilities, but can also be used as a basic text editor. It can also create fillable forms via PDF or the Forms tab.
	Calc	A spreadsheet program, similar to Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3. It has several unique features, including a system which automatically defines series of graphs, based on information available to the user.
	Impress	A presentation program resembling Microsoft PowerPoint. Impress has support for multiple file formats including PPTX, ODP, and SXI.
	Draw	A vector graphics editor, raster graphics editor, and diagramming tool similar to Microsoft Visio, CorelDRAW, and Adobe Photoshop. It provides connectors between shapes, which are available in a range of line styles and facilitate building drawings such as flowcharts. It also includes features similar to desktop publishing software such as Scribus and Microsoft Publisher, but the features are not on par with desktop publishing software. It can also act as a PDF file editor.
	Math	An application designed for creating and editing mathematical formulae. The application uses a variant of XML 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.
	Base	A database management program, similar to Microsoft Access. LibreOffice Base allows databases to be created and managed, and the generation of forms and reports of database content. Like Access, it can be used to create small embedded databases that are stored with the document files (using Java-based HSQLDB and C++ based Firebird as its storage engine), and for more demanding tasks it can also be used as a front-end for various database management systems, including Access Database Engine (ACE/JET), ODBC/JDBC data sources, and MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and Microsoft Access.

LibreOffice Impress and Math, version 7.2.4 (released in December 2021, running on Linux and KDE Plasma 5 with the Breeze icon set)

Operating systems and processor architectures

Screenshot of LibreOffice 5.3 Writer using the MUFFIN interface running on Ubuntu 16.04

LibreOffice Viewer on Android

LibreOffice is cross platform software. The Document Foundation developers target Microsoft Windows (IA-32 and x86-64), Linux (IA-32, x86-64, and ARM) and macOS (x86-64 and ARM). There are community ports for FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Mac OS X 10.5 PowerPC receive support from contributors to those projects, respectively. LibreOffice is also installable on OpenIndiana via SFE.

Historically, predecessors of LibreOffice, dating back to StarOffice 3, have run on Solaris with SPARC CPUs that Sun Microsystems (and later Oracle) made. Unofficial ports of LibreOffice, whose versions are now obsolete, have supported SPARC. Current unofficial ports of LibreOffice 5.2.5 run only on Intel-compatible hardware, up to Solaris 11.

In 2011, developers announced plans to port LibreOffice both to Android and to iOS. A beta version of a document viewer for Android 4.0 or newer was released in January 2015; in May 2015, LibreOffice Viewer for Android was released with basic editing capabilities. In February 2020, Collabora released its first officially supported version of LibreOffice (branded as Collabora Office) for Android and iOS. In July 2020, Collabora shipped an app, branded Collabora Office, for ChromeOS, as used on the popular Chromebook line of notebook computers as well as other form factors of computers.

The LibreOffice Impress Remote application for various mobile operating systems allows for remote control of LibreOffice Impress presentations.

In June 2023, Red Hat announced that it will no longer support LibreOffice on future editions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in order to focus on Wayland support and other priorities towards workstation users. LibreOffice will still be available via distribution-neutral Flatpak. Starting with LibreOffice 7.6 on Fedora 39, packaging and maintenance of LibreOffice on Fedora Linux will be managed by the Fedora LibreOffice Special Interest Group instead of Red Hat.

Table of cross platform support

Operating system	Processor architectures	Current	From one or more of the following
Android		Yes	LibreOffice, Collabora Office
BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD)	IA-32, x86-64, ARM, many others	Yes	Community ports
ChromeOS		Yes	Collabora Office
iOS		Yes	Collabora Office
iPadOS		Yes	Collabora Office
Linux	IA-32, x86-64, ARM64, ppc64le	Yes	LibreOffice, Collabora Office, Collabora Online
macOS	X86-64, Aarch64 Apple Silicon (M1 etc.), 10.5 PowerPC	Yes	LibreOffice, Collabora Office, NeoOffice, community ports
OpenIndiana	x86-64	Yes	OpenIndiana
Windows	IA-32, x86-64, ARM is in development	Yes	LibreOffice, Collabora Office, CIB
All operating systems running a modern web browser	All processors running a modern web browser	Yes	Collabora Online, LibreOffice Online (frozen)

LibreOffice Online

LibreOffice Online is the online office suite edition of LibreOffice. It allows for the use of LibreOffice through a web browser by using the canvas element of HTML5. Development was announced at the first LibreOffice Conference in October 2011, and is ongoing. The Document Foundation, IceWarp, and Collabora announced a collaboration to work on its implementation. A version of the software was shown in a September 2015 conference, and the UK Crown Commercial Service announced an interest in using the software. On 15 December 2015, Collabora, in partnership with ownCloud, released a technical preview of LibreOffice Online branded as Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE). In July 2016 the enterprise version Collabora Online 1.0 was released. The same month, Nextcloud and Collabora partnered to bring CODE to Nextcloud users. By October 2016, Collabora had released nine updates to CODE. The first source code release of LibreOffice Online was done with LibreOffice version 5.3 in February 2017. In June 2019, CIB software GmbH officially announced its contributions to LibreOffice Online and "LibreOffice Online powered by CIB".

In October 2020 Collabora announced the move of its work on Collabora Online from The Document Foundation infrastructure to GitHub.

Comparison with OpenOffice

A detailed 60-page report in June 2015 compared the progress of the LibreOffice project with the related project Apache OpenOffice. It showed that "OpenOffice received about 10% of the improvements LibreOffice did in the period of time studied."

Supported file formats

As its native file format to save documents for all of its applications, LibreOffice uses the Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), or OpenDocument, an international standard developed jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). LibreOffice also supports the file formats of most other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, through a variety of import and export filters.

Format	Extension	Type	Read	Write	Notes
AbiWord	ABW, ZABW	Document	From 4.2
Adobe Flash	SWF	Graphics, multimedia	Yes	Up to 6.4 (Impress / Draw only)	Support for writing the format was discontinued as Adobe Flash Player will no longer be maintained.
Adobe PageMaker	PMD, PM3, PM4, PM5, PM6, P65	Document, DTP	From 4.4
AppleWorks word processing	CWK	Document	From 4.1		Formerly called ClarisWorks
Adobe Swatch Exchange	ASE	Color plate	From 5.0
Adobe FreeHand	AGD, FHD	Graphics / Vector	Yes
Apple Keynote	KTH, KEY	Presentation	From 5.0
Apple Numbers	Numbers	Spreadsheet	From 5.0
Apple Pages	Pages	Document	From 5.0
AportisDoc (Palm)	PDB	Document	Yes	Yes	Requires Java
AutoCAD DXF	DXF	Graphics / CAD	Yes
BMP file format	BMP	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
Comma-separated values	CSV, TXT	Text	Yes	Yes
ClarisDraw		Graphics / Vector	Yes
CorelDRAW 6-X7	CDR, CMX	Graphics / Vector	From 3.6
Computer Graphics Metafile	CGM	Graphics	Yes		Binary-encoded only; not those using clear-text or character-based encoding
Data Interchange Format	DIF	Spreadsheet	Yes	Yes
DBase, Clipper, VP-Info, FoxPro	DBF	Database	Yes	Yes
DocBook	XML	XML	Yes	Yes
Encapsulated PostScript	EPS	Graphics	Yes	Yes
Enhanced Metafile	EMF	Graphics / Vector / Text	Yes	Yes
EPUB	EPUB	eBook		From 6.0
FictionBook	FB2	eBook	From 4.2
GIMP Palette	GPL	Color plate	From 4.4
Gnumeric	GNM, GNUMERIC	Spreadsheet	From 5.1	No
Graphics Interchange Format	GIF	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
Hangul WP 97	HWP	Document	Yes		Newer "5.x" documents are not supported
HPGL plotting file	PLT	Graphics	Yes
HTML	HTML, HTM	Document, text	Yes	Yes
Ichitaro 8/9/10/11	JTD, JTT	Document	Yes
JPEG	JPG, JPEG	Graphics	Yes	Yes
Lotus 1-2-3	WK1, WKS, 123, wk3, wk4	Spreadsheet	Yes
Lotus Word Pro		Document	Yes
MacDraft		Graphics / CAD	From 5.0
MacDraw		Graphics / Vector	From 4.4
MacDraw II		Graphics / Vector	From 4.4
Macintosh Picture File	PCT	Graphics	Yes	Yes
MacWrite Pro 1.5		Document	From 4.1
MathML	MML	Math	Yes	Yes
MET	MET		Yes	Yes
Microsoft 365	DOCX, XLSX, PPTX	Multiple formats	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Excel 2003 XML	XML	Spreadsheet	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Excel 4/5/95	XLS, XLW, XLT	Spreadsheet	Yes	Up to 3.6
Microsoft Excel 97–2003	XLS, XLW, XLT	Spreadsheet	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Excel 2007-2021	XLSX	Spreadsheet	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Excel Web Query File	IQY	Data sources, text	From 5.4
Microsoft Office 2007-2021 Office Open XML	DOCX, XLSX, PPTX	Multiple formats	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Pocket Excel	PXL	Spreadsheet	Yes	Yes	Requires Java
Microsoft Pocket Word	PSW	Document	Yes	Yes	Requires Java
Microsoft PowerPoint 97–2003	PPT, PPS, POT	Presentation	Yes	Yes
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007-2021	PPTX	Presentation	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Publisher	PUB	Document, DTP	From 4.0
Microsoft RTF	RTF	Document	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Word 2003 XML (WordprocessingML)	XML	Document	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Word 4/5/6.0/95	DOC, DOT	Document	Yes	Up to 3.6
Microsoft Word 97–2003	DOC, DOT	Document	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Word 2007-2021	DOCX	Document	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Word for Mac		Document	From 4.1		Word 1–5.1
Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0	DOC, DOT	Document	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Works	WPS, WKS, WDB	Multiple	Yes		Microsoft Works for Mac formats since 4.1
Microsoft Write	WRI	Document	From 5.1	No
Microsoft Visio	VSD	Graphics / Vector	From 3.5
Netpbm format	PGM, PBM, PPM	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
OpenDocument	ODT, FODT, ODS, FODS, ODP, FODP, ODG, FODG, ODF	Multiple formats	Yes	Yes
Open Office Base	ODB	Database forms, data	Yes	Yes
OpenOffice.org XML	SXW, STW, SXC, STC, SXI, STI, SXD, STD, SXM	Multiple formats	Yes	Yes
PCX	PCX	Graphics	Yes
Photo CD	PCD	Presentation	Yes
Photoshop	PSD	Graphics	Yes
Plain text	TXT	Text	Yes	Yes	Various encodings supported
Portable Document Format	PDF	Document	Yes	Yes	Including hybrid PDF
Portable Network Graphics	PNG	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
QuarkXPress 3–4	QXP	Document, DTP	From 6.0
Quattro Pro 6.0	WB2, wq1, wq2	Spreadsheet	Yes
RagTime for Mac			From 4.4
Scalable vector graphics	SVG	Graphics / Vector	Yes	Yes
SGV	SGV		Yes
Software602 (T602)	602, TXT	Document	Yes
StarOffice StarCalc 3/4/5	SDC, VOR	Spreadsheet	Dropped in 4.0, added back in 5.3	Up to 3.6
StarOffice StarDraw/StarImpress	SDA, SDD, SDP, VOR	Presentation	Dropped in 4.0, added back in 5.3	Up to 3.6
StarOffice StarMath	SXM	Math	Up to 3.6	Up to 3.6
StarOffice StarWriter 3/4/5	SDW, SGL, VOR	Document	Dropped in 4.0, added back in 5.3	Up to 3.6
Star Writer graphics	SGF	Graphics	Yes
Sony Broad Band eBook	RLF	eBook	From 4.4
SunOS Raster	RAS	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
SVM	SVM	Graphics / Vector	Yes	Yes
SYLK	SLK	Spreadsheet, file exchange	Yes	Yes
Tag Image File Format	TIF, TIFF	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
Truevision TGA (Targa)	TGA	Graphics / Raster	Yes
Unified Office Format	UOF, UOT, UOS, UOP	Multiple	Yes	Yes
Windows Metafile	WMF	Graphics, vector, bitmap	Yes	Yes
WordPerfect	WPD	Document	Yes
WordPerfect Suite 2000/Office 1.0	WPS	Document	Yes
WriteNow 4.0		Document	From 4.1
X BitMap	XBM	Graphics / Raster	Yes
X PixMap	XPM	Graphics / Raster	Yes	Yes
Zoner Draw	ZMF	Graphics	From 5.3

Miscellaneous features

LibreOffice can use the GStreamer multimedia framework in Linux to render multimedia content such as videos in Impress and other programs.

Visually, LibreOffice used 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 in the past, and used on the toolbars and menus by default. They were later replaced by multiple icon themes to adapt the look and feel of specific desktop environment, such as Colibre for Windows, and Elementary for GNOME.

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.

With version 6.2, LibreOffice includes a ribbon-style GUI, called Notebookbar, including three different views. This feature has formerly been included as an experimental feature in LibreOffice 6 (experimental features must be enabled from LibreOffice settings to make the option available in the View menu).

LibreOffice has a feature similar to WordArt called Fontwork.

LibreOffice uses HarfBuzz for complex text layout, it was first introduced in 4.1 for Linux and 5.3 for Windows and macOS. Fonts with OpenType, Apple Advanced Typography or SIL Graphite features can be switched by either a syntax in the Font Name input box or the Font Features dialog from the Character dialog.

LibreOffice supports a "hybrid PDF" format, a file in Portable Document Format (PDF) which can be read by any program supporting PDF, but also contains the source document in ODF format, editable in LibreOffice by dragging and dropping.

Licensing

The LibreOffice project uses a dual LGPLv3 (or later) / MPL 2.0 license for new contributions to allow the license to be upgraded. Since the core of the OpenOffice.org codebase was donated to the Apache Software Foundation, there is an ongoing effort to get all the code rebased to ease future license updates. At the same time, there were complaints that IBM had not in fact released the Lotus Symphony code as open source, despite having claimed to. It was reported that some LibreOffice developers wanted to incorporate some code parts and bug fixes which IBM already fixed in their OpenOffice fork.

Scripting and extensions

LibreOffice supports third-party extensions. (As of July 2017), the LibreOffice Extension Repository lists more than 320 extensions. Another list is maintained by the Apache Software Foundation and another one by the Free Software Foundation. Extensions and scripts for LibreOffice can be written in C++, Java, CLI, Python, and LibreOffice Basic. Interpreters for the latter two are bundled with most LibreOffice installers, so no additional installation is needed. The application programming interface for LibreOffice is called "UNO" and is extensively documented.

LibreOffice Basic

LibreOffice Basic is a programming language similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) but based on StarOffice Basic. It is available in Writer, Calc and Base. It is used to write small programs known as "macros", with each macro performing a different task, such as counting the words in a paragraph.

History

A timeline of major derivatives of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org with LibreOffice in green

ooo-build, Go-oo and Oracle

Members of the OpenOffice.org community who were not Sun Microsystems employees had wanted a more egalitarian form for the OpenOffice.org project for many years; Sun had stated in the original OpenOffice.org announcement in 2000 that the project would eventually be run by a neutral foundation and put forward a more detailed proposal in 2001.

Ximian and then Novell had maintained the ooo-build patch set, a project led by Michael Meeks, to make the build easier on Linux and due to the difficulty of getting contributions accepted upstream by Sun, even from corporate partners. It tracked the main line of development and was not intended to constitute a fork. It was also the standard build mechanism for OpenOffice.org in most Linux distributions and was contributed to by said distributions.

In 2007, ooo-build was made available by Novell as a software package called Go-oo (ooo-build had used the go-oo.org domain name as early as 2005), which included many features not included in upstream OpenOffice.org. Go-oo also encouraged outside contributions, with rules similar to those later adopted for LibreOffice.

Sun's contributions to OpenOffice.org had been declining for some time. They remained reluctant to accept contributions and contributors were upset at Sun releasing OpenOffice.org code to IBM for IBM Lotus Symphony under a proprietary contract, rather than under an open source licence.

Sun was purchased by Oracle Corporation in early 2010. OpenOffice.org community members were concerned by Oracle's behaviour towards open source software, specifically the Java lawsuit against Google and Oracle's withdrawal of developers, and lack of activity on or visible commitment to OpenOffice.org, as had been noted by industry observers; as Meeks put it in early September 2010, "The news from the Oracle OpenOffice conference was that there was no news." Discussion of a fork started soon after.

The Document Foundation and LibreOffice

On 28 September 2010, The Document Foundation was announced as the host of LibreOffice, a new derivative of OpenOffice.org. The Document Foundation's initial announcement stated their 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.

LibreOffice 3.3 beta used the ooo-build build infrastructure and the OpenOffice.org 3.3 beta code from Oracle, then adding selected patches from Go-oo. Go-oo was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice. Since the office suite that was branded "OpenOffice.org" in most Linux distributions was in fact Go-oo, most moved immediately to LibreOffice.

Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. However, Oracle demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, claiming a conflict of interest.

Naming

The name "LibreOffice" was picked after researching trademark databases and social media, as well as after checks were made to see if it could be used for URLs in various countries. Oracle rejected requests to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project.

LibreOffice was initially named BrOffice in Brazil. OpenOffice.org had been distributed as BrOffice.org by the BrOffice Centre of Excellence for Free Software because of a trademark issue.

End of OpenOffice.org and beginning of Apache OpenOffice

Oracle announced in April 2011 that it was ending its development of OpenOffice.org and would lay off the majority of its paid developers. In June 2011, Oracle announced that it would donate the OpenOffice.org code and trademark to the Apache Software Foundation, where the project was accepted for a project incubation process within the foundation, thus becoming Apache OpenOffice. In an interview with LWN in May 2011, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth blamed The Document Foundation for destroying OpenOffice.org because it did not license its code under Oracle's Contributor License Agreement. In opposition to Shuttleworth's view, the former Sun executive Simon Phipps argued in the interview for the same online magazine, that the lay-off was an inevitable business decision by Oracle, not impacted by existence of LibreOffice.

In March 2015, an LWN.net comparison of LibreOffice with its cousin project Apache OpenOffice concluded that "LibreOffice has won the battle for developer participation".

Release history

Branch	Version	Release date	Notes	Screenshot
3.x	3.3 beta	28 September 2010	Initial release based on OpenOffice.org and ooo-build; 80,000 downloads	First LibreOffice 3.3 beta: startup center and About box
	3.3	25 January 2011	First-introduced features unique to LibreOffice: SVG image import New or improved import filters: Lotus Word Pro, Microsoft Works, WordPerfect. PPTX chart import feature Bundled extensions, including Presenter View in Impress Colour-coded document icons Load and Save ODF documents in flat XML AutoCorrections match case of the words that AutoCorrect replaces Vastly improved RTF export Embedding of standard PDF fonts	LibreOffice Calc 3.3
	3.4	3 June 2011	New features include: Memory usage improvements Speed and MS Excel compatibility improvements to Calc, redesigned Move/Copy Sheet dialog Code cleanup: German comments translated to English, dead code removed Improved GTK+ theme integration and font rendering in Linux. Reduction of LibreOffice's dependence on Java Continuing the transition to GNU Make for building LibreOffice	Redesigned Move/Copy Sheet dialog in LibreOffice Calc 3.4
	3.5	14 February 2012	New features include: Visio .vsd import A native PostgreSQL driver Java 7 support AES encryption support for ODF file encryption A .msi Windows Installer package available Improved Office Open XML support Introduction of an online update checker. By default, this feature is not fully automated.	LibreOffice Impress 3.5.5
	3.6	8 August 2012	New features include: Support for color scales and data bars in Calc Added word count to status bar PDF Export with watermark option 10 new Impress master pages Support for importing Office SmartArt Import Filter for CorelDRAW documents This was the last version to support the Windows 2000 operating system.	Libreoffice Math 3.6
4.x	4.0	7 February 2013	New features include: Import/export support for native RTF math expressions, import filter for Microsoft Publisher files Support of all versions of Visio files Improved XLSX load time Various DOCX improvements CMIS support Support for Firefox Personas PDF import, Presenter Console and Python scripting provider now core features Support for comments to text ranges in Writer	LibreOffice Writer 4.0 with "GNU – I" Persona showing comment set for text range
	4.1	25 July 2013 (final)	New features include: Sidebar Improved image rotation Gradient backgrounds Embedding fonts in documents Import large HTML documents with more than 64,000 table cells Import/export of charts to ODC files and export to various vector formats OOXML and RTF bugfixes and enhancements, Basic implementation of EMF+ metafiles. Import of legacy Mac text formats (Write Now, MacWrite Pro, AppleWorks) Layout via Core Text for OSX and HarfBuzz for Linux	LibreOffice 4.1.5, showing sidebar and text frame with gradient background
	4.2	30 January 2014	New features include: Calc performance improvements and OpenCL for calculations via the graphics card Start Center with file lists New set of monochrome icons, "Sifr" Import filter for Apple Keynote and AbiWord files IAccessible2 (IA2) in Windows version Embedded Firebird database engine for Base (experimental)	LibreOffice 4.2.1, showing a character border and Sifr icons in the interface
	4.3	30 July 2014	New features include: Brand new drawingML-based DOCX import/export filter for shapes and TextFrames Improved PDF import Improved handling of Microsofts's Office Open XML format Non-printing characters are displayed in a different color Paragraphs in Writer can now be over 65,536 characters (up to 2 GB) The default icon set has been updated Toolbar background is now rendered natively on Mac OS X Comments can be printed in the margins Data fields in Calc pivot tables can now be set to columns Presentations can have OpenGL 3D objects	LibreOffice 4.3 showing the updated tango icon set
	4.4	29 January 2015	New features include: Sidebar now enabled by default in Writer, Calc and Draw Possibility of connection directly to OneDrive and SharePoint 2010/2013 directly from LibreOffice Allowing Draw to import Adobe PageMaker files The ability to digitally sign PDF files in Windows Toolbar buttons in Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw have been reorganized and improved New color selector: Shows recently used document colors Support for different color palettes and for .gpl GIMP palette format Allows directly opening the color picker and choose another color Added the ability to import files from MacDraw, MacDraw II and RagTime for Mac (v. 2–3) in Draw and Writer Firefox Themes improvements Added new fonts: Caladea and Carlito	LibreOffice Writer 4.4
5.x	5.0	5 August 2015	New features include: Writer: Sidebar previews styles as formatted (pictured); Emoji support in 22 languages, including shortcodes for symbols and numerous other replacements; :keyboard: becomes ⌨ Images can be cropped; Text highlighting and shading compatible with MS Word; Improved import of comments (annotations) for text ranges in binary .doc files; Equations in early RTF and DOC formats imported as editable math objects; Apple Pages '09 or older import. Calc: Added UI to conditional formatting; Improvements to scientific formatting of cells; Import of Lotus 1-2-3 (.wk3 and .wk4), Quattro Pro (.wq1 and .wq2), and Apple Numbers '09 or earlier (basic spreadsheets for Numbers). Math: Equations and their parts can be given 15 basic colors (see picture). Draw: Import of MacDraft (v1) and ClarisDraw files. Core and filters: When e-mailing, maintain document invisible content; PDF export supports Time-Stamp Protocol (RFC 3161); MS Works import: Add dialog to ask for text encoding; Support for Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) color palettes; LibreOffice Expert Configuration now searchable.	LibreOffice Writer 5.0 in Estonian showing style previews in Sidebar. Note the expanded icon set. The selected icon theme is Sifr.
	5.1	10 February 2016	New features include: Writer: A Styles menu has been added to the main menus. Calc: A Sheet menu has been added to the main menus. Impress: A Slide menu has been added to the main menus. Math: The Math module now has a new item "Import MathML from Clipboard". Core and filters: Support Unicode character input with on Windows PNG export in Writer, Calc and Impress; Import of the following formats supported: Gnumeric, Microsoft Write, Apple Keynote 6	LibreOffice Writer 5.1 showing the flat Breeze icon set, reorganised items in sidebar, whitespace hiding in the document, and the 'Always correct to' spellcheck submenu
	5.2	3 August 2016	New features include: Writer: New drawing tools New button for showing/hiding track changes toolbar Single Toolbar Mode Calc: New drawing tools Pressing in the multiline input to insert a new line Single Toolbar Mode Option to delete border from adjacent cells too in the borders tab of "Format Cells" dialog Freeze Rows and Columns button became a split button and added "Freeze First Row" and "Freeze first Column" options in that button Extensive function tooltips Impress: Quick access to slide and page properties in a new 'Slide' and 'Page' content panel in the 'Properties' sidebar tab Exporting to PDF only notes pages Filters: Better import of DOCX and RTF linked graphic into LibreOffice Writer Import of Microsoft Word for DOS files GUI: Print to File available within the list of printers in Print dialog Video clips, charts and OLE objects will resize proportionately by default Improved resizing behavior for images, videos and OLE objects Simplification of Character spacing "Save as Template" is now available in the Save toolbar button dropdown Added Find Previous button Added Icon View and buttons for switching between modes at Remote Files dialog, as well as supporting Google Drive's Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) New user interface for Template Manager
	5.3	1 February 2017 Writer: New dialog for quickly jump to another page Implement table styles New drawing tools for arrows A toolbar button for small capitals Calc: New drawing tools for arrows Improve saving WEEKNUM field behavior to ODF New options for fraction number formats Median is added to functions available in pivot tables New option for merging non empty cells Impress: Images inserted via Photo Album can be linked in the document Slide properties content panel in sidebar for master slide mode Opening Template Selector at startup Draw: New arrow endings, including Crow's foot notation's ones. Base: Upgrade Firebird to version 3.0.0 Text Layout: New cross-platform text layout engine that uses HarfBuzz for consistent text layout on all platforms, also improved text layout on macOS and Windows. Improved and consistent calculation of inter-line spacing across platforms Enable vertical "left to right" block direction for traditional Mongolian and Manchu Filters: Multiple improvements in Open XML, PDF and DOC filters StarOffice StarWriter, StarCalc and StarDraw/StarImpress files can again be imported GUI: Revamped the Extension Manager dialog Redesign of the Colors, Gradients, Hatching and Bitmap tabs and the addition of a Pattern tab Introduction of the Page Deck in the sidebar in Writer Added "Import Bitmap" functionality to the Area Content Panel found in the Properties deck Added Styles Preview checkbox functionality to the Styles & Formatting Sidebar Deck Introduction of the new "Media Playback Panel" found in Properties deck when Media is selected Introduction of the "Default Shapes Panel" in the new Shapes Deck for Draw Online: First source code release of LibreOffice Online Experimental features: Added four toolbar modes to make it easy for users to switch the visible toolbars
	5.4	28 July 2017	New features include: Writer: Importing AutoText from Microsoft Word DOTM templates Preserving full structure of numbered and bulleted lists while exporting or pasting them as plain text Creating custom watermarks via Format menu New context menu items have been added for working with sections, footnotes, endnotes and styles Calc: Adding support for pivot charts, which use data from pivot tables. When the table is updated, the chart is automatically updated as well. Menu commands to show, hide and delete all comments Priority of conditional formatting rules can be changed with new up/down buttons Extra sheet protection options have been added, to optionally allow insertion or deletion of rows and columns CSV export settings are now remembered Impress & Draw: Allowing specify fractional angles while duplicating an object Core: A new standard colour palette has been included, based on the RYB colour model Support OpenPGP keys for signing ODF documents on Linux Added support for ECDSA keys on Linux and macOS Signature status showing with colored infobars Filters: File format compatibility has been improved with better support for EMF vector images Using PDFium to render imported PDF files Online: Responsive design and read-only mode for the document iframe added Performance and rendering improvements This was the last version to support the Windows XP and Vista operating system.
6.x	6.0	31 January 2018	New features include: Writer: Add Form menu in menubar Input field behavior improves Implement rotation of images to any angle Use ODT and XLSX files as mail merge data source New default table style "Grammar By" spell checking Calc: Export cell range selection or a selected group of shapes (images) to PNG or JPG The text/plain Unformatted text format results in unquoted/unescaped content as expected for external pastes Added "Paste unformatted text" command New command to select unprotected cells on protected or unprotected sheet Lock symbol to mark protected sheet Added three new ODFF1.2 compliant functions English syntax keywords for number format "Styles" entry in the main menu Impress: Better UI for handling layer attributes Added 10 new Impress templates Slide format defaulting to 16:9 screen Core and filters: Addition of Noto fonts and some additional Arabic and Hebrew fonts Cross platform support for OpenPGP document signing and encryption TSCP-based classification for ODF and OOXML formats Option to save images modified in place Visualization of borders for tables New filters to import from QuarkXPress 3–4 and export to EPUB Various improvements to OOXML, EMF+, ODF, XHTML, Adobe Freehand, Pagemaker, publisher, Visio, FictionBook, Abiword, Apple Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Quattro Pro filters GUI: Insert Special Characters button become drop-down list, Special characters dialog was also reworked Added elementary icon theme Reworked Customize dialog Added Groupedbar Full and Tabbed Compact interfaces
	6.1	8 August 2018	New features include: Writer: Multiple improves for Ruby characters Support generating signature line via Insert menu Add localized settings for tab scopes and caption order Multiple improves to EPUB export Calc: Sorting images anchored to Calc cells Draw: Added New Page menu item Base: HSQLDB database engine is still used by default, but Firebird engine is used by default when experimental mode is turned on. Core / General: New default order for Traditional and Simplified Chinese fonts Reworked Areafill backgrounds New RYB Standard palette, based on Itten RYB color ring theory providing Red, Yellow, Blue primaries New set of default gradients New application icons Colibre and Karasa Jaga icon themes added
	6.2	7 February 2019	New features include: Writer: Copy and paste spreadsheet data directly in an existing table UTF-8 and UTF-16 text file can be saved without byte order mark (BOM) Calc: Support Signature Line in the spreadsheet Data Validation supports custom formulas Do multivariate regression analysis via regression tool Add the REGEX function to match or replace text with regular expression Impress and Draw: Multiple improvements on animation Add a couple of text related drawing styles Add Table submenu to menu Format in Draw Base: Embedded Firebird database engine becomes available in public Firebird Migration Assistant creates a backup copy of content for migration MySQL C++ connector is replaced with MariaDB C connector BASIC: Add fully support for Firebird RDBMS Core / General: Signing Signature Lines with an image of handwritten signature Add Source Serif Pro font Filters: Add support for exporting OOXML gradient, bitmap and pattern properties for chart Implement OOXML agile encryption GUI: Notebookbar becomes available in public Add three SVG based icons styles Added Minimum and Maximum labels for some conditions in Conditional formatting dialog Add a dialog to switch font feature
	6.3	8 August 2019	New features include: Writer: AutoCorrect exception list function has been extended to avoid auto-capitalization in words like mRNA, iPhone, fMRI Add "Send Outline to Clipboard" button to Navigator → Context Menu New bottom-to-top, left-to-right writing direction in table cells and text frames Support importing charts from DOCX drawingML group shapes New interface add Word form controls Calc: New UNO API to let cell anchored graphics resize with the cell New Russian ruble currency symbol (₽) to currency formats New drop-down widget into formula bar instead old tool Sum New checkbox to trim input range to the actual data content Add With replacement and Keep order checkboxes for Sampling FOURIER() function to computes discrete Fourier transform [DFT] of an input array Impress and Draw: Various improvements for importing SmartArt from PPTX files Base: Firebird Migration Assistant is enabled by default Chart: Add palette selection to options charts default colors Math: Introduce attributes harpoon and wideharpoon for an alternative representation of vectors Core / General: LibreOffice TWAIN module can work on both 32-bit and 64-bit on Windows New UNO command to insert narrow no-break space via keyboard shortcut Tip-Of-The-Day dialog shows useful information once per day on startup What's-New infobar pointing to the release notes after update Sentence selection (triple click) is available for keyboard customization Support redacting documents Support Apple Advanced Typography (AAT) outside macOS Filters: Various improvements on EMF+, PDF and OOXML filters GUI: Tabbed Compact UI is available in public Contextual Single UI is available in public This version removed support for Firefox personas.
	6.4	29 January 2020	New features include: Writer: Option to mark comments as resolved in Writer The bottom-to-top, left-to-right text direction is available in Writer Text Frames Comments on Writer images and charts New Paste Special menu options for pasting table data into tables Calc: The columns/rows headers are drawn flat now Password length no longer limited to 15 symbols for XLSX files Whole Sheet Export setting of the PDF export options Impress & Draw Added 'Remove Hyperlink' to context menu Added 'Consolidate Text' to combine multiple selected textboxes into one Interaction now only executed in presentation mode Image Maps now respect the setting to require Ctrl+Click to follow the hyperlink Hyperlink in Image Maps now work in presentation mode Base: Access2Base API for Base users can be invoked from Python BASIC: Implement Save As Word 2000 and Save As for Word.VBA document Core / General: Internal Paths are now displayed in the UI Added checkbox to enable/disable sending crash reports to The Document Foundation Hyperlink context menus were unified Added QR Code Generator GUI: Document thumbnails at the start center have an icon overlaid to indicate the module Added Table panel to Writer's Sidebar
7.x	7.0	5 August 2020	New features include: Writer: Implemented a padded numbering in Writer's lists Implemented support for semi-transparent text Added experimental feature for Universal Accessibility Calc: TEXT() now allows the second argument to be an empty format string for interoperability with other implementations Improved opening speed of XLSX files with many pictures Impress & Draw Subscripts now return to the default of 8%. Automatic positioning fixed for superscripts and subscripts in Textboxes Implemented support for semi-transparent text Speed up: Long operation during typing in list with animations Speed up: entering to table editing mode became faster Base: Macro signatures are now evaluated on document load Math: Added RGB personalized color Added Laplace symbol Core / General: The underlying Cairo graphics library was replaced with Skia library Glow effect on objects was implemented Navigator's categories are gray if they do not have any items All objects in Navigator (Headings, Tables, Frames, Images, etc.) have own context menu items like Go To, Edit, Delete, Rename Headings in Navigator have Promote/Demote level and Promote/Demote chapter context menu items Table's context menu in Navigator now has Insert caption item Added Outline tracking for Headings in Navigator. It can be in three states: Default, Focus, Off. Try clicking with your mouse in several places in your big text document with many headings Replaced the navigation toolbox with the navigate by elements control Added Navigator section tooltip word and character count Filters: Added support for exporting to ODF version 1.3 Multiple improvements for Open XML filters GUI: All toolbars are locked by default now on fresh user profiles Added a new Sukapura icon theme. That icon theme will be a default theme for new LibreOffice installations in macOS Sifr has been polished and receive many updates The unmaintained Tango icon theme was removed from core but will be available as extension New icons and banner in Windows installer Renaming a page in Draw or slide in Impress with empty or already used name give a tool tip dialog
	7.1	3 February 2021	New features include: Writer: New Style Inspector to display the attributes of Paragraph and Character Styles, and manually formatted (Direct Formatting) properties Default anchor for newly added images is able to be configured Ability to detect Unicode, even if the imported text file does not have the Byte Order Mark Significant speed improvement of find/replace operations Calc: Added an option to manage pasting with Enter key Added option to select items in Autofilter window clicking on all item's row, in addition to the checkbox Significant speed improvement of Autofilter and find/replace operations Impress & Draw: Possibility to add visible signatures to existing PDF files in Draw Possibility to change animations for several objects at once in Impress Addition of "Pause/Resume" and "Exit" buttons to Presenter's Screen Addition of realistic soft blurred shadows to objects Addition of new physics based animation capabilities and new animation effect presets that use them General: New dialog to select the User Interface flavor, aiming to pick the right UI based on each user's own preferences at first start Improved search for a matching printer paper size for the printed document Show all supported files when adding a new extension in Extension Manager Print Preview is now updated asynchronously, to not block UI when adjusting settings in Print Dialog Additions Dialog: to search, get and install extensions with one-click Macro: ScriptForge libraries: an extensible and robust collection of macro scripting resources for LibreOffice to be invoked from user Basic or Python scripts This is the first version added experimental support for Windows ARM64 platform.
	7.2	19 August 2021	New features include: Writer: Background fills can cover whole pages, beyond margins Page styles can now have a gutter margin Mail merge shows a warning about nonexistent data sources RDF metadata in Style Inspector Custom color metadata field shadings Calc: Calc now can filter by color in AutoFilter HTML tables listed in the External Data dialogue now show captions "Fat cross" cursor available in the options Type can be selected in "Moving Average" trend lines Impress & Draw: New templates: Candy, Freshes, Grey Elegant, Growing Liberty, Yellow Idea Multiple columns now available in text boxes Direct access to the scaling factor via the status bar Math: Scaling the code input box General: Popup list to search for menu commands Scrollable style picker in the NotebookBar Fontwork panel in the Sidebar New list view for the templates dialog Built-in "X-ray"-like UNO object inspector This is the first version to provide experimental support for Apple Silicon-based ARM Macs.
	7.3	3 February 2022	New features include: Writer: Visualization and Manage Changes support for tracked deletion and insertion of tables and table rows. Calc: The "Link to External Data" dialog lists HTML tables in the order they appear in the source. Whitespace line feed and character tabulation in cell formula expressions are now preserved and survive round-tripping between Office Open XML and ODF file formats. New "Evaluate formulas" option in the CSV Import and Paste Special and Text to Column dialog. Bash like autocompletion for Calc autoinput was implemented. Use system's highlight color for cell cursor. Support Color Filter in "Standard Filter" dialog. Queries and filters using some text-based operations such as 'contains' now properly work even with numeric data. Quick find allowed to search for values instead of formulas. Impress & Draw: New screen sizes compatible with PowerPoint. Core / General: New options to generate one-dimensional barcodes. New WebDAV/HTTP UCP based on libcurl. Unified line width options.
	7.4	18 August 2022	New features include: Writer: Supports clearing breaks from Word for improvement layout fidelity. Allow to view tracked changes for read-only documents. Tracked footnote deletion and insertion are visible in the footnote area. Supports rich text, checkbox content controls, dropdown, picture and date content controls from Word natively Edited lists show original numbers in change tracking. New typographic settings for hyphenation. Supports remote LanguageTool APIs for grammar checking. Calc: Supports sparklines Allow to edit up to 16,384 columns. The height of the formula bar can be stored into the document. Extra functions in drop-down AutoSum widget. New menu item to search for sheet names. Impress & Draw: New support for document themes. Support using slide background as shape fill for PPTX interoperability. Core / General: Added support for WebP and EMZ/WMZ images. The configuration now remembers whether recent documents were opened read-only or editable. Help pages for the ScriptForge scripting library. Filters: Support import textboxes in group shapes for DOCX filters Added "glue points" to some basic shapes for PPTX filters Field type of Numeric, Currency, Date and Time forms are exported to PDF Various additions for EMF/WMF import. Add support for OfficeArtBlip TIFF format. GUI: The Navigator can scroll to the item on selection. Search field for the Extension Manager. Experimental dark mode support for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Dark variant for Colibre icon theme.
	7.5	2 February 2023	New features include: Writer: Objects can be marked as decorative, for better accessibility New types added to content controls, which also improve the quality of PDF forms A new automatic accessibility checker option has been added to the Tools menu Initial machine translation is available, based on DeepL translate APIs Calc: Add support for Kamenický and Mazovia encodings Data tables are supported in charts The Function Wizard now lets you search by descriptions "Spell out" number formats have been added Conditional formatting conditions are now case insensitive Correct behavior when entering numbers with a single prefix quote (') Paste Special of cells now remembers last used settings between sessions Impress & Draw: New set of default table styles, and creation of table styles Table styles can be customized, saved as master elements and exported Objects can be drag-and-dropped in the navigator It is now possible to crop inserted videos in a slide and still play them The presenter console can also run as a normal window instead of fullscreen Core / General: Added support for rotate and zoom gestures when using touchpads Allow searching for combining marks from so-called complex scripts New application and MIME-type icons, more colorful and vibrant The Start Centre can filter documents by type PDF Export added new options and features Support for font embedding on macOS Support variable fonts for printing and exporting to PDF Addition of a zoom slider at the bottom right of the macro editor
	7.6	21 August 2023	New features include: Writer: New Page Number Wizard in the Insert menu, for easy one-step insertion of the page number in the header/footer The Paragraph Style dropdown in the Formatting toolbar shows a list of styles used in the document, rather than the full list of the available styles Tables of Figures can be generated more flexibly based on paragraph styles Bibliography entries can be edited directly from a bibliography table, and bibliography marks hyperlink by default to the matching row in a bibliography table Highlighting for used paragraph and character styles and direct formatting in text Phrase checking: multi-word dictionary items of Hunspell and custom dictionaries are now accepted Calc: Number format: ? is now supported when exporting to ODF to represent an integer digit, replaced by blank if it is a non significant zero, and decimals for formats in seconds without truncation like [SS].00 are now accepted Spreadsheets copied to another document retain a user-defined print range Solver settings are saved with documents, and page styles are exported even if they are not in use Support for drawing styles for shapes and comments, including a dedicated style for comments that makes it possible to customize the default look and text formatting of new comments New compact layout for pivot tables Autofilter support for sorting by color. Filter/sort by color considers colours set by number format. The Import Text dialog (as CSV file or as unformatted text) has a new option to not detect number in scientific notation (only if “Detect Special Numbers” is off) Impress & Draw: New navigation panel for switching slides while viewing a presentation (option is enabled by flagging a checkbox in Slide Show Settings) Objects can now be listed in front to back order in the Navigator, with the top-most object at the top of the list Support for free text annotations to PDFium import, plus support for ink, free text and polygon/polyline annotations in PDFium export Modified the auto-fitting text scaling algorithm to work in a way similar to MS Office. Text scaling now separates scaling for space (paragraph and line) and scaling fonts, where space scaling can be 100%, 90% and 80%, and font scaling is rounded to the nearest point size. Horizontal spacing (bullets, indents) is not scaled anymore Base: Added Firebird functions DATEDIFF and DATEADD to the set of functions that can be used in the query designer Added MariaDB/MySQL functions TIMESTAMPDIFF and TIMESTAMPADD to the set of functions that can be used in the query designer Core / General: Added support for zoom gestures when using touchpads in the main view Exporting to PDF updates the last printed time in document properties Added support for document themes Added support for multicolor gradients Each view of a document now can have its language specific accelerator manager Entering a group once again dims the objects that are not included in it Added support for compressing fullwidth CJK punctuations Categorized link targets when linking to a presentation Filters: Added support for OOXML files created in ZIP64 format Added support for SVG files with elements prefixed by fe
24.x	24.2	January 31, 2024	New features include:

Mascot competition

In late 2017 The Document Foundation held a competition for the new mascot of LibreOffice. The mascot was to be used primarily by the community, and was not intended to supersede existing logos for the project. Over 300 concepts were submitted before the first evaluation phase.

The mascot contest was cancelled soon after new submissions stopped being accepted. The Document Foundation cited their lack of clear rules and arguments among community members as their reasoning for cancelling the contest.

Versions

Since March 2014 and version 4.2.2, two different major "released" versions of LibreOffice are available at any time in addition to development versions (numbered release candidates and dated nightly builds). The versions are designated to signal their appropriateness for differing user requirements. Releases are designated by three numbers separated by dots. The first two numbers represent the major version (branch) number, and the final number indicates the bugfix releases made in that series. LibreOffice designates the two release versions as:

• "Fresh" – the most recent major version (branch), which contains the latest enhancements but which may have introduced bugs not present in the "still" release.
• "Still" (formerly "Stable") – the prior major version, which, by the time it has become the "still" version, has had around six months of bug fixing. It is recommended for users for whom stability is more important than the latest enhancements.

From February 2024, LibreOffice will use calendar based-release numbering, thus the next major release will be LibreOffice 24.2.0.

Release schedule

LibreOffice uses a time-based release schedule for predictability, rather than a "when it's ready" schedule. New major versions are released around every six months, in January or February and July or August of each year. The initial intention was to release in March and September, to align with the schedule of other free software projects. Minor bugfix versions of the "fresh" and "still" release branches are released frequently.

Enterprise support

Commercially supported distributions for LibreOffice with service-level agreements are available via partners such as Collabora (marketed as Collabora Office and Collabora Online), CIB (marketed as CIB Office on the Microsoft Store), and Red Hat. The three vendors are major corporate contributors to the LibreOffice project.

As of version 7.1, the open source release of LibreOffice is officially branded as "LibreOffice Community", in order to emphasize that the releases are intended primarily for personal individual use, and are "not targeted at enterprises, and not optimized for their support needs". The Document Foundation states that usage of the community versions in such settings "has had a two-fold negative consequence for the project: a poor use of volunteers' time, as they have to spend their time to solve problems for business that provide nothing in return to the community, and a net loss for ecosystem companies."

Users and deployments

LibreOffice weekly downloads since 2010

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Worldwide number of LibreOffice users from 2011 to 2018 in millions. References are in the text.

The figure shows the worldwide number of LibreOffice users from 2011 to 2018 in millions. References are in the text.

2011: The Document Foundation estimated in September 2011, that there were 10 million users worldwide who had obtained LibreOffice via downloads or CD-ROMs. Over 90% of those were on Windows, with another 5% on OS X. LibreOffice is the default office suite for most Linux distributions, and is installed when the operating system is installed or updated. Based on International Data Corporation reckonings for new or updated Linux installations in 2011, The Document Foundation estimated a subtotal of 15 million Linux users. This gave a total estimated user base of 25 million users in 2011. In 2011, the Document Foundation set a target of 200 million users worldwide before the end of 2020.

2013: In September 2013, after two years, the estimated number of LibreOffice users was 75 million. A million new unique IP addresses check for downloads each week.

2015: In 2015, LibreOffice was used by 100 million users and 18 governments.

2016: In August 2016, the number of LibreOffice users was estimated at 120 million.

2018: The Document Foundation estimated in 2018 that there are 200 million active LibreOffice users worldwide. About 25% of them are students and 10% Linux users (who often automatically receive LibreOffice through their distribution). In comparison, Microsoft Office was used in 2018 by 1.2 billion users.

Mass deployments

LibreOffice has seen various major deployments since its inception:

2003–2010

• In 2003–2004, the Brazilian corporation Serpro started migrating its software to BrOffice (the local version of LibreOffice at the time), with estimated value of BRL 3.5 million (approximately US$1.2 million at the time), and became a case study for similar initiatives in Brazil, particularly in e-government.
• In 2005, the French Gendarmerie announced its migration to OpenOffice.org. It planned to migrate 72,000 desktop machines to a customised version of Ubuntu (GendBuntu) with LibreOffice by 2015.
• In 2010, the Irish city of Limerick gradually started migrating to open-source solutions to free itself from vendor lock-in and improve its purchase negotiation power. One of the key aspects of this move has been the use of LibreOffice.

2011

• The administrative authority of the Île-de-France region (which includes the city of Paris) included LibreOffice in a USB flash drive given to students which contains free open-source software. The USB flash drive is given to approximately 800,000 students.
• It was announced that thirteen hospitals of the Copenhagen region would gradually switch to LibreOffice, affecting "almost all of the 25,000 workers".

2012

• The Greek city of Pylaia-Chortiatis migrated its PCs to use LibreOffice. The local Linux user group estimated cost savings to be at least €70,000.
• In July, the Spanish city of Las Palmas switched its 1,200 PCs to using LibreOffice, citing cost savings of €400,000.
• The administration of Umbria, Italy, started a project to migrate an initial group of 5,000 civil workers to LibreOffice.
• The city of Largo, Florida, US, has been a long-time user of open-source software using Linux thin clients. Originally using OpenOffice.org, the city switched to LibreOffice in 2013.

2013

• In August, the administration of the Spanish autonomous region of Valencia has completed the migration of all 120,000 PCs of the administration, including schools and courts, to LibreOffice.
• The German city of Munich announced that it would transition from OpenOffice to LibreOffice in the near future. This is in line with Munich's long-term commitment to using open-source software. Munich uses LiMux, an Ubuntu Linux derivative, on nearly all of the city's 15,000 computers. The city of Munich is the second public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation. News appeared in 2014 that the council is considering migrating back to Microsoft Windows & Microsoft Office but was later denied. Based on a study, the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, initiated the re-investigation of the scenario of migrating back to Microsoft systems. The trustworthiness of the study is questionable because the company has been "Microsoft's Alliance Partner of the Year" for nine years. Further details were issued by the Document Foundation.

2014

• The French city of Toulouse announced it saved €1 million by migrating thousands of workstations to LibreOffice.

2015

• The Italian Ministry of Defense announced that it would install LibreOffice on 150,000 PCs.
• The Italian city of Bari replaced Microsoft Office with LibreOffice on its 1,700 PCs.
• LibreOffice was officially made available for all UK Government agencies nationwide. Annual cost saving on a subscription for 6,500 users compared to MS Office is approximately £900,000.
• In July 2015, the IT project manager working for the administration of Nantes (France's sixth largest city) talked about the ongoing switch of its 5,000 workstations to LibreOffice started in 2013. According to the IT project manager, the switch to LibreOffice allowed the administration to save €1.7 million.
• As of 2015, LibreOffice is installed on almost all of the 500,000 workstations of the 11 French ministries members of the MIMO working group. The MIMO working group was the first public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation.

2016

• The Taiwanese county of Yilan would purchase no more Microsoft Office licenses and turned to ODF and LibreOffice.
• The Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group switched all of its PCs (more than 15,000) to LibreOffice.
• Lithuanian police switched to LibreOffice on over 8,000 workstations, citing cost savings of €1 million.

2017

• The majority (75%) of municipalities in the Walloon region of Belgium use open source software and services which include LibreOffice. As of March 2017, over 20,000 public administration staff and many times more citizens use the services.
• The Spanish autonomous region of Galicia announced plans to finalize its switch to LibreOffice at several central government services and ministries, making LibreOffice the only office productivity suite on 6,000 workstations.
• The city of Rome, Italy, began installing LibreOffice on all of its 14,000 PC workstations, in parallel to the existing proprietary office suite. It is one of the planned steps to increase the city's use of free and open-source software, aiming to reduce lock-in to IT vendors.

2018

• Barcelona, Spain announced its transition to LibreOffice from Microsoft Office in January 2018. The change was part of a broader shift from proprietary to open-source software, and the city council aimed to eventually reach "full technological sovereignty" by eliminating its dependency on Microsoft products. During the announcement, Barcelona indicated that it would dedicate 70 percent of its software budget to open-source software.
• The city of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, is migrating all of its PC workstations, around 2,000, to Pardus and LibreOffice.
• The city of Tirana, Albania, is finishing installing LibreOffice on all of the city's 1,000 PC workstations.

2019

• The city of Seixal, Portugal, migrated to LibreOffice on 1,100 workstations across all departments in Seixal City Hall.

2020

• The German state of Schleswig-Holstein wants to switch completely from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice by 2025 for its 25,000 employees. The transition will begin gradually in 2021.

2021

• Administration of several Russian nuclear power plants and subsidiaries of Rosatom are planning to switch to Astra Linux by the end of 2021, which includes LibreOffice; a total of 15,000 users.

Conferences

Starting in 2011, The Document Foundation has organized the annual LibreOffice Conference, as follows:

• 2011 – Paris, France – 12–15 October
• 2012 – Berlin, Germany – 17–19 October
• 2013 – Milan, Italy – 24–27 September
• 2014 – Bern, Switzerland – 3–5 September
• 2015 – Aarhus, Denmark – 23–25 September
• 2016 – Brno, Czech Republic – 7–9 September
• 2017 – Rome, Italy – 11–13 October
• 2018 – Tirana, Albania – 26–28 September
• 2019 – Almería, Spain – 11–13 September
• 2020 – web conferencing – 15–17 October
• 2021 – web conferencing – 23–25 September
• 2022 – Milan, Italy & remotely (hybrid) – 28 September–1 October
• 2023 – Bucharest, Romania – 20 September–23 September

Derivatives

• Collabora Office and Collabora Online are enterprise editions of LibreOffice. Most software development work on LibreOffice is by its commercial partners that includes Collabora, Red Hat and CIB/Allotropia, also providing long-term support, technical support, custom features, and Service Level Agreements (SLA)s.
• EuroOffice is a derivative of LibreOffice with free and non-free extensions, for the Hungarian language and geographic detail, developed by Hungarian-based MultiRacio Ltd.
• "NDC ODF Application Tools" is a derivative of LibreOffice provided by the Taiwan National Development Council (NDC) and used by public agencies in Taiwan.
• NeoOffice 2017 and later versions are based on LibreOffice. Prior versions included stability fixes from LibreOffice, but were based on OpenOffice.
• OxOffice is a derivative of LibreOffice (originally a derivative of OpenOffice.org) with enhanced support for the Chinese language.
• OffiDocs is a derivative of LibreOffice online developed and supported by the OffiDocs Group OU with multiple applications to use LibreOffice in mobile apps.

See also

• Comparison of office suites
• List of free and open-source software packages
• List of office suites
• OpenDocument file format

External links

• LibreOffice at Curlie