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LibreOffice 5.1 Officially Released

Posted by timothy on from the good-gets-better dept.

prisoninmate writes: After being in development for the last three months or so, LibreOffice 5.1 comes today to a desktop environment near you with some of the most attractive features you've ever seen in an open-source office suite software product, no matter the operating system used. The release highlights of LibreOffice 5.1 include a redesigned user interface for improved ease of use, better interoperability with OOXML files, support for reading and writing files on cloud servers, enhanced support for the ODF 1.2 file format, as well as additional Spreadsheet functions and features. Yesterday, even with the previous version, I was able to successfully use a moderately complex docx template without a hitch — the kind of thing that would have been a pipe-dream not too long ago.

31 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. What do you mean... by Nutria · · Score: 4, Funny

    "redesigned user interface for improved ease of use"?

    If it went "ribbon", that'll suck rocks.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:What do you mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Clippy!

    2. Re:What do you mean... by steveha · · Score: 5, Informative

      "redesigned user interface for improved ease of use"?

      You might try watching the demo videos. They made improvements to the menus, improvements to the context menus, and improvements to toolbars (including a pop-out side panel formatting toolbar thing that I guess is new to the 5.x series).

      No ribbon.

      Here, have a playlist URL that lets you watch the demo videos directly from YouTube instead of using the embedded videos in TFA.

      https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0pdzjvYW9RHSwdRnZfaxAWICrkBrQl7k

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    3. Re:What do you mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Is this why debian stable is stuck on LO 4.x? Oh wait, that's just the usual Linux BS where you're not allowed to have new apps unless you meticulously install it from the command line and take responsibility for updating it by hand.

      Debian stable is really meant more for a server than for a desktop, as in "a stable (albeit a little stagnant), well-tested, and rock-solid platform where you can run an application for years without unwelcome surprises creeping into the underlying software stack or into the environment in general." Servers and desktops have different needs.

      If you want a desktop environment, maybe consider running a Debian-based distro that pulls responsibly from Debian Testing or Sid, or better yet, an Ubuntu LTS based system where you can use PPAs to grab fresher versions of applications. If you want more cutting edge than that consider running non-LTS Ubuntu versions or go to Fedora, accepting more frequent OS upgrades. If you really want the hot metal that has barely even solidified yet, look to Arch.

    4. Re:What do you mean... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2

      Is this why debian stable is stuck on LO 4.x? Oh wait, that's just the usual Linux BS where you're not allowed to have new apps unless you meticulously install it from the command line and take responsibility for updating it by hand.

      You mean how you can download the .deb package from the LibreOffice website, and double click on it to install it? You're right, that's such a huge, painful operation of cryptic commands that nobody could possibly remember. :-/

      While you still have to update it manually, that's the same for just about every single program on Windows, including Microsoft Office, if you've still got the default settings for Windows Update.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    5. Re: What do you mean... by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're just haters. No modern computer user can honestly say they'd prefer searching through dropdown menus over the ribbon that focuses on putting the most used features at the users fingertips.

      *Raises hand*

      I dislike the ribbon. But then I'm a keyboard shortcuts guy. I know dozens of them for MS Office, and whenever there's a feature that I use often, I look up a keyboard shortcut if possible.

      Which means the ribbon is useless to me. It takes up a bunch of space with buttons I don't need, and on the rare occasions when I need a feature advanced or rare enough that I don't know a shortcut, it's often not even on a ribbon button -- I end up going through advanced feature dialogs anyway. I use a Mac at work, so luckily I still have the drop down menus, which are usually at least twice as fast as wading through a bunch of non-intuitive icons in a half-dozen ribbon tabs with 20 buttons each.

      Text was invented for a reason -- it communicates quickly, clearly, and efficiently. So I find it a lot easier to navigate when I'm searching for a feature I don't know -- which is the only time my mouse generally goes up to that part of the screen.

      If you actually use the ribbon for common everyday tasks, I can understand how it might be useful for you. I'm not against offering a ribbon interface, but I do think it should be one option rather than the only one. I'm not a "hater." I just work differently and I'm just glad Mac versions of Office still give the menu options.

    6. Re: What do you mean... by dwywit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hear, hear. Google is your friend. It took me all of 10 minutes searching and reading to learn how to customise the toolbar system in MSOffice versions prior to the ribbon, e.g. remove and add toolbar buttons for features as desired, and even create a keyboard shortcut for things in frequent use.

      Thus, the features that I use most frequently *are* at my fingertips, and the items I don't use are banished back to their menus. It seems the ribbon was created to pander to those people who weren't able to figure out toolbar customisations. The ribbon is harder to customise, takes up far too much screen real estate in the "full" version, is almost useless in the minimised version, and it took a long time to get used to it.

      And while we're at it, Microsoft's UI design team should be sent to a real design school. White, light grey, and dark grey are the colour schemes available in Office 2013, and I had customers complaining that they couldn't see things easily. How did such a design get past testing and QA? The response from the "experts" on answers.microsoft.com was to set the entire computer's colour scheme to "high contrast" - never mind ruining the interface for other programs, sheesh.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    7. Re:What do you mean... by chipschap · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I deal with it just fine, as do most people who care to run Linux.

      I pay nothing for Linux. I pay nothing for LibreOffice. I don't complain about having to do a little work, which has the side benefit of allowing me complete control and choice over what I have on my system.

      If you want it all done for you, more like if you want it all done to you, stay with Microsoft.

    8. Re: What do you mean... by Espectr0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can't believe you got upvoted. Means none of them, including you know that you can use keyboard shortcuts with the ribbon. Just press the damn ALT key, watch and learn.

      It's a better interface. Sometimes change can be good, and i tell you this as a hater of windows 8 menu and even windows 10 inferior start menu.

      --
      Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
    9. Re:What do you mean... by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 2

      stable has 5.0.4 in backports and one would assume 5.1 soon after it reaches testing.

      But if you weren't busy trolling you'd have learned how to configure sources.list

    10. Re: What do you mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If it were truly a better system I wouldn't have to switch endlessly between ribbon tabs while performing simple formatting tasks. Once configured (even minimally), the toolbar stayed *put*, allowing muscle memory to speed operation.

      The ribbon is great for discovery and people who never get past "ransom letter" documents. It sucks ass for experienced users.

    11. Re:What do you mean... by chipschap · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Social isolation for Linux geeks is a stereotype which, like most stereotypes, don't apply universally, and in this case (Linux users) I suspect don't apply even to the majority.

      Nice try, but you get a fail on this one.

    12. Re: What do you mean... by Njorthbiatr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Programmers aren't designers. And one of the things they do the worst is design UIs for end-users. Every time I hear a programmer complain about how graphic designers don't know anything all I do is laugh, because it's elitist and pretentious to presume you know about designing graphics. You don't. You weren't trained to do that, and you probably don't even have the aptitude for it.

      MS's ribbon UI, which is getting so much hate, is because programmers are biased. They're biased because they know what "Window" is but not what "Review" is. They know what "Format" should do, but not what "Design" should do. You're so caught up in your own jargon that you stop thinking like other, normal people do. Do you honestly people think that the Window menu item is going to have everything you need that would manipulate a window object in it? Come off it.

      There's a reason why Office and Windows have such a large marketshare. The only reason ANY business, outside of maybe some select tech companies even use libreoffice is because its free. It's time to wake up and realize it's not MS's aggressive business tactics that really make them win the game here: it's that they sell a superior product and you can leave your overly convoluted menus to yourself and the few select people who mistakenly think it's better because they're too inflexible to learn new ways of doing things.

      Enjoy your coding in C, since I'm sure you have the same issues with thinking everyone should be managing memory.

    13. Re:What do you mean... by KGIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have a nice, pretty, and many years my junior girlfriend. Why? Because I just happened to have my laptop bag with me and a Live USB disk handy. It was Lubuntu (as we seem to recall) but she's been using Mint Cinnamon lately.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    14. Re:What do you mean... by Burz · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oops! From the readme:
      --
      As a general rule, you are recommended to install LibreOffice via the installation methods recommended by
        your particular Linux distribution (such as the Ubuntu Software Center, in the case of Ubuntu Linux). Th
      is is because it is usually the simplest way to obtain an installation that is optimally integrated into
      your system. Indeed, LibreOffice may well be already installed by default when you originally install you
      r Linux operating system.

      This "stand-alone" LibreOffice installer is provided for users in need of previews, having special needs,
        and for out-of-the-ordinary cases.
      --

      They recommend against direct user installs! Who knew?! And BTW, to most people your 'easy' command line install looks like you had an epileptic seizure at your keyboard.

      Oh, almost forgot to mention... You just installed unsigned code.

    15. Re:What do you mean... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Oh, almost forgot to mention... You just installed unsigned code.

      So? For most purposes, for those of us not specifically targeted for intensive surveillance, checking md5s will do

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re:OpenOffice kind of sucked by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    OpenOffice kind of sucked.

    Want to know what sucked and sucked really badly? Having to pay for the mighty flagship Microsoft Office for the PC. Then paying for the mighty flagship Microsoft Office for the Mac. Then when you take a document from one to the other, they hardly resemble each other. If' I'm paying for a program on two computers it might be nice to have the same document look the same on each computer

    After standardizing on the supposedly inferior free Office on my Mac's my PC's and My Linux boxes, documents are passed back and forth without an issue. Been several years now, and Microsoft Office is the incompatible one, the outlier.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  3. Congrats, team! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Big thanks to everyone who contributed to the LibreOffice project! Great product I couldn't live without. Your work is much appreciated!

  4. I was able to successfully use a docx by sciengin · · Score: 2

    > I was able to successfully use a moderately complex docx template without a hitch
    Im sorry what?
    How is that a new feature?
    LibreOffice has been more compatible to MS Office than MS Office to MS Office, for years!
    The only way nowadays to open old doc and docx files that were created with ancient versions of MS Office is to use LibreOffice since MS likes to drop support for its own file formats.

    1. Re: I was able to successfully use a docx by BlueLightning · · Score: 2

      It depends on the document. I still regularly encounter Word docs and Powerpoint presentations that don't render properly in LibreOffice; it'll be interesting to see how 5.1 improves that though.

    2. Re: I was able to successfully use a docx by JanneM · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yep. I always use LibreOffice to edit and send back documents for work. It usually works OK, but with frequent glitches. I worried about that, so I once asked our admin if she had a problem with the docs I sent back. She said mine were no worse than those she got from everybody else, and she had never realized I wasn't actually using MS word to edit them. Glitches and formatting errors is apparently completely normal even with the same version of MS word on different computers.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    3. Re: I was able to successfully use a docx by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The only way nowadays to open old doc and docx files that were created with ancient versions of MS Office is to use LibreOffice since MS likes to drop support for its own file formats.

      I've heard this repeated time and time again on Slashdot and in other nerd circles without a single example of such a document file ever posted to back up the claims. Do you actually have one to back up your claims? I routinely open doc files created back in Office 97 that open just fine in 2010 and beyond. Even saved back out and work perfectly fine in the older versions of Office as well.

  5. Re:OpenOffice kind of sucked by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Want to know what sucked and sucked really badly? Having to pay for the mighty flagship Microsoft Office for the PC. Then paying for the mighty flagship Microsoft Office for the Mac. Then when you take a document from one to the other, they hardly resemble each other. If' I'm paying for a program on two computers it might be nice to have the same document look the same on each computer

    It's worse than that. How about setting up a document, getting pagination, margins, font size, etc, all figured out, so it looks perfect. Then, you go to print it, and change the printer from your cheapo inkjet to your good laser, and suddenly your document formatting takes a dump.

    --
    "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
  6. Can this be co-installed with the stock version? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

    Can this be co-installed with the current version (for instance, 4.8.2.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, the latest Long Term Support Ubuntu release)?

    Or do you have collisions which require you to purge the old one in order to try the new one, or which cause foulups if you don't?

    (Honest question. I've seen a lot of that kind of thing with other projects. So now I'm a bit shy of trying the latest-and-greatest release of any tool on the production machines I depend on for time-critical work.)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  7. Re:OpenOffice kind of sucked by MSG · · Score: 2

    The tool you were after was Adobe FrameMaker

    Or Scribus. Or TeX. Or anything that makes PDFs.

  8. Re:Can this be co-installed with the stock version by caseih · · Score: 2

    Yes you can install the latest version alongside the existing stock version. It's always a good idea to keep the old working version around should you encounter any bugs in the new version. Just grab the latest deb packages from libreoffice.org.

  9. Re:My Mac Experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dude, the guy already stated that he's not a communist. So unless someone is paying him for working on submitting his bug reports, he ain't doing squat.

  10. Re:My Mac Experience by pz · · Score: 2

    I run a conference where the abstracts of presenters are published in a book. After a teeth-gnashing experience dealing with the output of Pages, much worse than the experience with Word or OpenOffice output, I decided to no longer accept submissions written in Pages. I just don't have the time for incompatibility for the sake of incompatibility.

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
  11. Re:Prisoninmate, didya really have a need for .doc by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 2

    It's also not necessarily a good thing. There's good reason that almost no one jabs knives into their eyes. It's not because their "sheeple".

  12. Hopeful LibreOffice user here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've (finally) installed Linux Mint end of last year (dual booting with Win7 ATM) as well as LibreOffice 5.0. Here are my particular observations (YMMV):

    * I have a quick&dirty (not too dirty for continued use though) tool made in Excel using Macros, for I18N purposes. It takes tabular data and generates plain text .properties files from it (a bit more complicated than exporting to .CSV). The macros worked "almost"-as-is in Libre Office, it took me no more than half an hour to port it. Very happy to use LO for that in future.

    * I occasionally (freelance) write some information material that gets sent to customers. The volume does not warrant professional brochure printing, but given that it is inkjet printed, one would still like to put a nice neat "publishing" touch to it. MS Word worked very nice for this kind of "light desktop publishing". Admittedly, it does have some slightly more "advanced" features like paragraph styles, custom gradient backgrounds behind graphics with transparent areas, text flowing around graphics, page headers and footers, custom borders. Gets broken by LO. Also, as of yet I have not been able to create an equivalent document from scratch in LO, it seems not to have all the functions. So stuck with Win+MSOffice on this one for now.

    * I regularly give talks and relied heavily on PowerPoint for slides. What is especially nice for me in PP is that I am able to enter slide notes on the same screen as the main slide. Also presenter view, which shows (on the presenter's local screen) the current slide, notes, thumbnails of the following slides, as well as a timer. Afterwards, the presentation file is often requested by members of the audience. Currently using LO, but in a limited fashion. Conversion to/from Powerpoint is not viable, fonts for one get lost as well as some of the graphical effects. The way I make it work for me is to export to PDF and use that for slides. Notes are handheld/handwritten (still need to finetune this), timer gets delegated to a timer on the mobile phone. There are some nice 3rd party templates for LO to be downloaded, although not quite on the level of a PP "theme" that also does fonts and suggested color combinations and generally makes the look&feel a no-brainer. Not ideal but workable. On the positive side this frees me from the lectern with the notebook running the presentation, so I can move about on the stage and even in the audience.

    * Oh, and apart from MS Office the other thing that I haven't gotten lucky/happy with on Linux is Sketchup.

    So I will certainly be upgrading and trying this with a lot of interest, and be hoping it will get me closer to my goal of ditching MSOffice. On the other hand, I doubt that that will happen soon for people that are "almost" power users of MS Office as its not only a matter of menu option position and maybe file format, but extends all the way to how these apps are actually used.

  13. Warning: Java broken on Mac by kwack · · Score: 2

    LO 5.1 does not detect the Oracle 1.8 JRE on my Macbook. Reverting to 5.0.4 fixed this. If you're on El Capitan and need LO Java functionality, spare yourself the trouble of upgrading until this is sorted out.