A new version of the free LibreOffice office suite has been released, bringing with it greater support for Microsoft Office file types.
In a blog post (opens in a new tab) announcing the update, the maker of the open source software suite explained why it has historically been so difficult to integrate support for Office.
"Microsoft's files are still based on the proprietary format deprecated by ISO in 2008, not the ISO-approved standard, so they hide a lot of artificial complexity," the blog post reads. "This causes manageability issues with LibreOffice, which by default is a true open standard format (the OpenDocument Format)."
Given the popularity of Office and the large number of documents in circulation, LibreOffice must offer full compatibility to keep users away from Microsoft. The team says that users can expect multiple updates in quick succession with that goal in mind.
multiple changes
For those who don't know, LibreOffice is an office software suite designed to cover the same bases as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. In the words of our reviewer, LibreOffice provides "a competitive office software package that is equally outstanding, versatile, and feature-rich at no cost to its users."
With the cost of living rising, the open source suite could be a great option for anyone looking to save on the cost of a subscription, especially with the advent of improved Office compatibility.
According to the blog post, users should regularly check for new versions of LibreOffice because compatibility updates come so fast that "each new version is vastly improved over the last."
Although arguably the most important, it is not the only change in LibreOffice 7.4. In fact, there are quite a few improvements in the latest version of the productivity suite, including the Calc spreadsheet app, which now supports 16 columns, and the entire suite now supports dark mode in Windows 374 and 10.
When it comes to performance, the team has also made improvements to things like PDF export, document upload, and more.