The Document Foundation has released version 5.1 of LibreOffice. This open source office package originated as a fork of OpenOffice and comes with the word processor Writer, spreadsheet program Calc, presentation program Impress, drawing program Draw, database program Base and Formula, an application for making scientific notations. Version 5.1 should launch faster, has a new styles menu, improved support for Microsoft Office 2016 documents and improvements to the spell check. Detailed information about the changes in version 5.1.0 can be found on this page are being found. Here are the main ones made in Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw:
writer
- Spelling dialog no longer automatically closes once spellcheck is complete. tdf#79312
- Widow/Orphan paragraph text-flow enabled by default for new documents. tdf#89714
- Mail merge embedding of the datasource definition (see this blog entry)
- Hide Whitespace option added to View menu tdf#39080
- Outline split button available in formatting toolbar, but hidden by default tdf#95403
calc
- New commands to add rows below and columns right.
- Formula Wizard shows the values of parameters and results.
- Organize sheet level context menus. core commit 0d7935bda6fb0ee4b63593b07c451b30f52b8598
- PNG export in LibreOffice Calc was added, as in Writer and Impress. blog entry
- Option to search formatted display strings using find bar and also “Find & Replace” dialog. tdf#48456
Table structured references tdf#85063
- The following restrictions of Table structured references that were present in 5.0 were addressed:
- The column names must not be present as cell content in the table’s header row any more; column-header-less tables are now supported.
- For this, for new database ranges without header cells or with empty header cell content, internal names are generated, for example Column1, Column2…
- Internal names are imported from OOXML spreadsheet documents and continue to function in formula expressions.
- Saving to OOXML, structured references are now written (not transformed to A1 notation any more) and the table context is maintained.
- Saving to OOXML, the defined database ranges are now exported as
elements.
- Modifying header cell content updates the internal table column names.
- When deleting header cell content, formulas referring the column name continue to function and are still editable using the previous name.
- When duplicating header cell content, duplicated column names internally are numbered. For example, having two FooBar header cells the column names will be FooBar and FooBar2. This is automatically reflected in existing formula expressions.
- When inserting columns within a table, numbered column names are internally generated for empty header cells, starting with the column number within the table. For example, inserting two columns before the third column of a table the generated names are Column3 and Column4.
- The generated column names are updated if text is entered in such an empty cell.
- All internal column names are unique within one table, which is reflected when displaying existing formula expressions.
Sticky end column/row anchors tdf#92779
- For range references that encompass at least two columns or rows where the end reference points to the last column or row, ie AMJ or 1048576the end column or row is sticky now and not moved when inserting or deleting columns or rows.
- When inserting columns or rows and updating a reference the end reference would be shifted out of the sheet bounds, the reference is anchored at the last column or row instead of generating a #REF! error.
- For example a reference B2:B1048575 when inserting two rows will be updated to B2:B1048576.
- The column or row will become sticky then, in the example row 1048576.
- A reference like B1048576:C1048576 does not have a sticky end row anchor, because only one row is referenced.
Compatibility with ODF 1.2
Function WEEKNUM strictly complies with ODF 1.2 function definition and ISOWEEKNUM has been introduced. tdf#50950- In the UI the WEEKNUM_ADD function has been renamed to WEEKNUM_EXCEL2003 to point out it exists for interoperability of documents created with Microsoft Excel.
- Importing such documents created with older Microsoft Excel versions map the WEEKNUM function to WEEKNUM_EXCEL2003
- Saving to ODF or OOXML writes WEEKNUM.
- For new documents the WEEKNUM function should be used.
- WEEKNUM now supports all arguments of the second parameter as defined in ODF OpenFormula (ODFF), see
- The ISOWEEKNUM function has been implemented, see
- Old versions saved WEEKNUM as ISOWEEKNUM to ODF. When importing ISOWEEKNUM, if the call uses one parameter it is kept as ISOWEEKNUM, if the call uses two parameters it is mapped to WEEKNUM.
Impress and Draw
- Slide navigation and sorting commands were added. tdf#91909
- Master slide view appears in a different background color to normal view. tdf#87905
- KDE, XFCE, and Mate ScreenSavers are now also inhibited when presenting
Impress Mode selection
Several modes were active in Impress:- Page to edit slides content
- Page Master to edit slides container
- Notes to add Notes
- Notes Master to edit Notes container
- Plan to sketch a presentation
- Handout to define the handout format
- Slide sorter to organize presentation
It was hard to navigate between Master / non master modes. Tabs above the working area were jumping right and left, consuming screen space.
Now, two toolbox icons have been added:- one to toggle Tab bar visibility. It’s hidden by default. Clicking the toggle disables the new Mode Selection tool and restores the previous behavior.
- one to Select the Working mode among the 7 modes listed above. It is divided into two zones: top zone is regular mode (dealing with content of the presentation), bottom zone is the Master mode (dealing with container).
Slide Design
Slide Design dialog in Slide ? Slide Design now affects all selected (standard) slides.Equalize Width/Height
When multiple objects are selected, the right click context menu Shapes submenu now supports Equalize Width and Equalize Height which adjusts the width/height of the selected objects to the width/height of the last selected object.Save Background Image
Right clicking a slide now supports saving a background image to file, this matches the pre-existing set background image option.View/Edit Control Points
The Shape Properties dialog for enhanced shapes now lists and enables editing the control points. This is in addition to the preexisting mechanism of selecting with the mouse the yellow control handle of the shape, but enables viewing and fine control over the control values.Presenter Console
There is now a button on the presenter console to restart the timer of the slideshow without restarting the slideshow itself (see this blog entry)Version number 5.1.0 Release status Final Operating systems Windows 7, Linux, Windows XP, macOS, Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows 10 Website The Document Foundation Download File size 211.28MB
License type GPL - Modifying header cell content updates the internal table column names.
- The column names must not be present as cell content in the table’s header row any more; column-header-less tables are now supported.