What is LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is a freely available, fully-featured office productivity suite. Its native file format is Open Document Format (ODF), an open standard format that is being adopted by governments worldwide as a required file format for publishing and accepting documents. LibreOffice can also open and save documents in many other formats, including those used by several versions of Microsoft Office.

LibreOffice includes the following components.

Writer (word processor)

Writer is a feature-rich tool for creating letters, books, reports, newsletters, brochures, and other documents. You can insert graphics and objects from other components into Writer documents. Writer can export files to HTML, XHTML, XML, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), and several versions of Microsoft Word files. It also connects to your email client.

Calc (spreadsheet)

Calc has all of the advanced analysis, charting, and decision making features expected from a high-end spreadsheet. It includes over 300 functions for financial, statistical, and mathematical operations, among others. The Scenario Manager provides “what if” analysis. Calc generates 2D and 3D charts, which can be integrated into other LibreOffice documents. You can also open and work with Microsoft Excel workbooks and save them in Excel format. Calc can also export spreadsheets in several formats, including for example Comma Separated Value (CSV), Adobe PDF and HTML formats.

Impress (presentations)

Impress provides all the common multimedia presentation tools, such as special effects, animation, and drawing tools. It is integrated with the advanced graphics capabilities of LibreOffice Draw and Math components. Slideshows can be further enhanced using Fontwork special effects text, as well as sound and video clips. Impress is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint file format and can also save your work in numerous graphics formats, including Macromedia Flash (SWF).

Draw (vector graphics)

Draw is a vector drawing tool that can produce everything from simple diagrams or flowcharts to 3D artwork. Its Smart Connectors feature allows you to define your own connection points. You can use Draw to create drawings for use in any of the LibreOffice components, and you can create your own clip art and then add it to the Gallery. Draw can import graphics from many common formats and save them in over 20 formats, including PNG, HTML, PDF, and Flash.

Base (database)

Base provides tools for day-to-day database work within a simple interface. It can create and edit forms, reports, queries, tables, views, and relations, so that managing a relational database is much the same as in other popular database applications. Base provides many new features, such as the ability to analyze and edit relationships from a diagram view. Base incorporates two relational database engines, HSQLDB and PostgreSQL. It can also use dBASE, Microsoft Access, MySQL, or Oracle, or any ODBC compliant or JDBC compliant database. Base also provides support for a subset of ANSI-92 SQL.

Math (formula editor)

Math is the LibreOffice formula or equation editor. You can use it to create complex equations that include symbols or characters not available in standard font sets. While it is most commonly used to create formulas in other documents, such as Writer and Impress files, Math can also work as a standalone tool. You can save formulas in the standard Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) format for inclusion in web pages and other documents not created by LibreOffice.

Advantages of LibreOffice

Here are some of the advantages of LibreOffice over other office suites:

• •No licensing fees. LibreOffice is free for anyone to use and distribute at no cost. Many features that are available as extra cost add-ins in other office suites (like PDF export) are free with LibreOffice. There are no hidden charges now or in the future. 
• •Open source. You can distribute, copy, and modify the software as much as you wish, in accordance with the LibreOffice Open Source licenses. 
• •Cross-platform. LibreOffice runs on several hardware architectures and under multiple operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. 
• •Extensive language support. The LibreOffice user interface, including spelling, hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries, is available in over 100 languages and dialects. LibreOffice also provides support for both Complex Text Layout (CTL) and Right to Left (RTL) layout languages (such as Urdu, Hebrew, and Arabic). 
• •Consistent user interface. All the components have a similar “look and feel,” making them easy to use and master. 
• •Integration. The components of LibreOffice are well integrated with one another. 

• –All the components share a common spelling checker and other tools, which are used consistently across the suite. For example, the drawing tools available in Writer are also found in Calc, with similar but enhanced versions in Impress and Draw. 
• –You do not need to know which application was used to create a particular file. For example, you can open a Draw file from Writer. 

• •Granularity. Usually, if you change an option, it affects all components. However, LibreOffice options can be set at a component level or even at document level. 
• •File compatibility. In addition to its native OpenDocument formats, LibreOffice includes support for opening and saving files in many common formats including Microsoft Office, HTML, XML, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and PDF. 
• •No vendor lock-in. LibreOffice uses OpenDocument, an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file format developed as an industry standard by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). These files can easily be unzipped and read by any text editor, and their framework is open and published. 
• •You have a voice. Enhancements, software fixes, and release dates are community-driven. You can join the community and affect the course of the product you use. 

You can read more about LibreOffice and The Document Foundation on their websites at http://www.libreoffice.org/ and http://www.documentfoundation.org/.

Minimum requirements

LibreOffice 5.2 requires one of the following operating systems:

• •Microsoft Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows Server 2012, or Windows 10.  

• •GNU/Linux Kernel version 2.6.18, glibc2 v2.5 or higher, and gtk v2.10.4 or higher 
• •Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or higher 

Administrator rights are needed for the installation process.

Some LibreOffice features (wizards and the HSQLDB database engine) require that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is installed on your computer. Although LibreOffice will work without Java support, some features will not be available.

For a more detailed listing of requirements, see the LibreOffice website, http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/.

How to get the software

Versions of LibreOffice for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X can be downloaded free from http://www.libreoffice.org/download. You can also download the software by using a Peer-to-Peer client, such as BitTorrent, at the same address.

Linux users will also find LibreOffice included in many of the latest Linux distributions; Ubuntu is just one example.

Mac OS X users can also get two versions of LibreOffice from the App Store: LibreOffice Vanilla (free) and LibreOffice-from-Collabora (an enterprise-ready version; small fee).

How to install the software

Information on installing and setting up LibreOffice on the various supported operating systems is given here: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/install-howto/.

Extensions and add-ons

Extensions and add-ons are available to enhance LibreOffice. Several extensions are installed with the program and you can get others from the official extensions repository, http://extensions.libreoffice.org/. See Chapter 14, Customizing LibreOffice for more information on installing extensions and add-ons.

Starting LibreOffice

In general, you start LibreOffice the same way you start any other program on your computer.

On computers with Windows or Linux operating systems, a menu entry for LibreOffice and each LibreOffice component appears in the system menu of your computer. On computers operating Mac OS X, only a menu entry for LibreOffice is added to the Applications menu.

Clicking on the LibreOffice menu entry, desktop icon, or tile opens the LibreOffice Start Center (Figure 1) from where you can select the individual components of LibreOffice. You can also select to open an existing file or use a template.

Opening an existing document before starting LibreOffice

You can start LibreOffice by double-clicking the filename of an ODF document on the desktop, or in a file manager such as Windows Explorer or the Mac’s Finder. The appropriate component of LibreOffice will start and the document will be loaded.

You can also open files stored in remote servers running Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS). CMIS, like OpenDocument Format, is an OASIS standard. When using CMIS servers, the service will ask you for the necessary credentials for file access.

Figure 1: LibreOffice Start Center

If you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer, or if Microsoft Office is installed but you have associated Microsoft Office file types with LibreOffice, then when you double-click on the following files, they open in LibreOffice:

• •A Word file (*.doc or *.docx) opens in Writer. 
• •An Excel file (*.xls or *.xlsx) opens in Calc. 
• •A PowerPoint file (*.ppt or *.pptx) opens in Impress. 

If you did not associate the file types and Microsoft Office is installed on your computer, then when you double-click on a Microsoft Office file, it opens using the appropriate Microsoft Office component.

For more information on opening files, see “Opening existing documents” on page 16.

Quickstarter

When LibreOffice is installed on computers running Windows or Linux, a Quickstarter feature may also be installed. When Quickstarter is activated, the necessary library files are loaded when the computer system is started, resulting in a shorter startup time for LibreOffice components.

Computers with a Mac operating system do not have a Quickstarter.

Activating Quickstarter

On computers operating a Linux or Windows operating system, the default installation of LibreOffice does not set the Quickstarter to load automatically. To activate it:

1. 1)  Open LibreOffice. 
2. 2)  Go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Memory on the Menu bar and select Load LibreOffice during system start-up (if using Windows) or select Enable systray Quickstarter (if using Linux). 
3. 3)  Close and restart LibreOffice to have Quickstarter appear. 

Using Quickstarter on Windows or Linux

After Quickstarter has been activated, is installed into the system tray at the bottom of the display. Quickstarter is then available at all times, whether LibreOffice is open or not. 

To start a LibreOffice component directly by using Quickstarter:

1. 1)  Right-click the Quickstarter icon in the system tray to open a pop-up menu. 
2. 2)  Select the LibreOffice component you want to open to create a new document, or select From Template to open the Template Manager, or select Open Document to open an existing document. 

Figure 2: Quickstarter menu in Windows

Disabling Quickstarter

To temporarily close Quickstarter on a computer using a Windows operating system, right-click on the Quickstarter icon in the system tray and select Exit Quickstarter in the pop-up menu. However, when the computer is restarted, Quickstarter will be loaded again.

To prevent the Quickstarter from loading during system startup, do one of the following:

• •Right-click on the Quickstarter icon and deselect Load LibreOffice during system start-up on the pop-up menu (on Windows) or select Disable systray Quickstarter (on Linux). 
• •Go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Memory on the Menu bar and deselect Load LibreOffice during system start-up (on Windows) or deselect Enable systray Quickstarter on Linux. 

Reactivating Quickstarter

If Quickstarter has been disabled, you can reactivate it by using the instructions given in “Activating Quickstarter” above.