Download LibreOffice 5.3

The Document Foundation has released version 5.3 of LibreOffice. This open source office package originated as an offshoot 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 5.3 adds formatting options for tables in Writer and asks Impress at startup which template to use. Detailed information about the changes in version 5.3.0 can be found on this page are being found. Here are the main ones made in Writer, Calc, and Impress:

writer

Go to Page Dialog

• Writer has a new dialog for quickly jump to another page that is available through
  Edit > Go to Page and Ctrl+G. tdf#83054

Table Styles

Table styles were implemented in Writer:

• The “Table Autoformat” feature was extended from one-time formatting only to a full-featured table style: now when the table uses a table style, the style is preserved with edits in the table, including adding and deleting rows / columns / data .
• Import and export of ODF table styles.
• Table styles can be created and assigned to tables in the Styles & Formatting sidebar deck.
• UNO API for working with table styles.
• Undo and Redo support for table styles.

For detailed code changes, see this blog entry.

Arrows Toolbox

• New drawing tools were added (that were previously available only in Draw and Impress). tdf#101390

Improvements in the toolbar

• It’s now possible to set the small capitals character property via a toolbar button. blog entry.

Borderless padding is displayed

• Spacing to contents for pages/paragraphs/characters/headers/frames/images will now affect layout even if borders are not defined, allowing for compatibilty with other ODF-producing software.
• The ability to define borderless padding will come in version 5.4. tdf#41542

Navigator

• Now it’s possible to select multiple headings simultaneously and promote or demote their levels in the Navigator window in Writer. To do this, you need to toggle “Content Navigation View”, and use the SHIFT or CTRL key for multiple selection.

calc

Arrows Toolbox

• New drawing tools were added (that were previously available only in Draw and Impress). tdf#101390

Option settings

• In new installations the default setting for new documents is now Enable wildcards in formulas instead of regular expressions. tdf#88581
  • This is for better interoperability with other spreadsheet applications and a better experience for users who are not familiar with regular expressions. Wildcards are more widespread and the large set of regular expression metacharacters often makes queries too complicated for casual users.
  • See also ReleaseNotes 5.2 for wildcards.

New spreadsheet functions Changed spreadsheet functions

• The UI name of EFFECTIVE was changed to EFFECT to be the same as in other spreadsheet applications. tdf#100641

Compatibility with ODF 1.2

ISOWEEKNUM and WEEKNUM_OOO

Releases prior to 5.1 saved WEEKNUM wrongly as ISOWEEKNUM to ODF. Release 5.3 resolves the interim solution introduced with release 5.1 (see ReleaseNotes/5.1#Compatibility_with_ODF_1.2).

• When importing ISOWEEKNUMif the call uses one parameter it is kept as the correct ISOWEEKNUM.
• If the call uses two parameters it is determined if the second argument mode is a literal numeric value unequal to 1 in which case it is mapped to ISOWEEKNUM with one argument, as the old WEEKNUM function implemented exactly that for those modes.
• If the second argument is something different, ie a numeric value 1 or an expression, the call is mapped to the WEEKNUM_OOO compatibility function introduced in LibreOffice 5.1.
  • WEEKNUM_OOO is now saved as ORG.LIBREOFFICE.WEEKNUM_OOO which releases 5.1 and 5.2 can read.

Number Format

• Fraction Number Formats
  • any or #, ? or 0 can be used for any of integer, numerator or denominator format string.
  • For instance # ?/#00 will display 3.5 as 3 1/02 and PI as 3 16/113 tdf#100755 tdf#31449

• any string can be used as delimiter between integer and fraction:

#” plus fraction “?/? will display PI value as 3 plus fraction 1/7 tdf#100834

• more accurate representation of fraction with a new algorithm tdf#99996
• new default formats with forced denominator tdf#100592
• if denominator has less digits than places, it is now left aligned tdf#102507: with format # ?/??? value 3.5 is displayed as

3 1/2 (with two spaces after fraction), instead of 3 1/2 (old behavior)

• format options available through UI dialog Format > Cells > Numbers and Sidebar

Default Cell Styles

• Default cell styles are loaded from a file in the user profile
  • Syntax is based on ODF and loaded through orcus
  • Defining own default cell styles is now easy
• New and improved default cell styles, tdf#90937

pivot tables

• Median is added to functions available in pivot tables, useful for data fields and for row/column fields (subtotals) tdf#61700
  • Only ODS file format is supported to save/load such pivot tables.

Other

• Merge non empty cells Format > Merge cells > Merge cells brings a new option: tdf#30456
  • before LibO 5.3, if content was detected, it was possible to move it as text in first cell. If not content was just hidden but not removed.
  • from LibO 5.3, a new option is available: empty hidden cell so that formulas referring to these cells will be updated.
• Functions ( Insert > Function ) can now be searched from the available list tdf#67974.

Impress

• Images inserted via Insert > Media > Photo Album can now be linked instead of embedded in the document. tdf#65356
• Slide properties content panel in sidebar for master slide mode. tdf#89466

Template Selector

When launching Impress, a Template Selector allows you to choose a Template to start with

Templates

• Two new default templates: Vivid and pencil
• All existing templates have been improved