LibreOffice 3.6.0 arrives with incremental improvements

Version 3.6.0 of LibreOffice, the fourth major iteration of The Document Foundation's open source productivity suite, is now available to download. While the release doesn't include any outstanding changes, it does bring with it a number of incremental improvements that result in better overall performance and interoperability, while also adding some new features.

The Writer word processor in LibreOffice 3.6.0 includes support for contextual spacing and importing SmartArt graphic types. Whole document and selection word count have been added to the Writer status bar. An option to specify a custom sheet name prefix in new documents and improvements to CSV file importing
Whole document and selection word counts have been added to the status bar in the Writer word processor
Source: LibreOffice are among the notable changes in the Calc spreadsheet program. When exporting CSV files, a new "Save cell formulas instead of calculated values" option is now available. A widescreen format for slideshows and ten new master pages templates have been added to the Impress presentation manager.

The overall graphical user interface (GUI) has seen several improvements: the 3D borders in rulers and status bars have been removed, and toolbars are now borderless; on Windows 7 and Vista, these have a subtle background gradient. The splash screen and "About" dialog box have also been redesigned "for a cleaner look". Other changes include updates to the Math formula editor and a new import filter for Corel Draw documents, as well as a new watermark option when exporting PDF documents.

Announcing the release, Florian Effenberger, Chairman of the Board at The Document Foundation, says LibreOffice is "becoming increasingly popular in corporate environments". A number of large public bodies including Capital Region of Denmark, the city of Limerick in Ireland, Grygov in the Czech Republic, Las
A custom sheet name prefix can now be specified for new documents
Source: LibreOffice Palmas in Spain, Largo in Florida, the municipality of Pilea-Hortiatis in Greece, and the Public Library System of Chicago, have recently announced plans to migrate to the free office suite, added Effenberger.

More details about the major update, including a list of known issues, can be found in the release notes and on the 3.6 New Features and Fixes page. LibreOffice 3.6.0 is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from the project's site; the developers note that users running the 3.6.0 RC4 from the end of July do not need to download or reinstall the software as it is "bit-for-bit identical" to the final release. However, as this is the first 3.6.x branch release, Effenberger advises "more conservative users" to stick with LibreOffice 3.5.x until "any final wrinkles" can be found and fixed. Sponsored and governed by The Document Foundation, LibreOffice binaries and source code are licensed under the LGPLv3.

See also:

• LibreOffice Conference 2012 Call for Papers announced, a report from The H.
• LibreOffice 3.5 sharpens its grammar checking, a report from The H.

(crve)