LibreOffice 7.2 Released

... ding and writing to Microsoft Office file formats, such as .docx and .pptx, remains a key question of this open source office suite, and something that millions of users rely on on a daily basis. Every entry in the LibreOffice suite gets speed improvements with this enhancement, with Calc opening and scrolling through large .xlsx files a notable highlight.

But enough about interoperability. LibreOffice 7.2 (aka "LibreOffice 7.2 Community Edition") naturally comes with a set of small changes that add up to a big impact. There are even some important new features in LibreOffice 7.2 designed to improve document quality and productivity.

For me, the main functionality of this update is the new HUD command ("Display Screen").

This tool is available in each of the individual components of the LibreOffice suite. It allows you to search and run commands, just like the HUD did in Ubuntu's Unity desktop. You can access LibreOffice HUD from the Help> Search Commands menu item, or by pressing the shift + esc shortcut:

Some other important general improvements include a scrollable style selector in the NotebookBar (which is still optional and is not enabled by default); the ability to access Fontwork options in the sidebar; and find the LibreOffice templates in the Templates dialog box as a list, rather than a collection of thumbnails.

Fans of dark mode will be delighted to know that this release includes a new LibreOffice dark mode color scheme. This ID is designed to complement the dark theme enabled by your system. To enable it, go to Tools> Options> LibreOffice> Application Colors, select the "LibreOffice Dark" option and hit Apply.

The Writer application now supports background fills (beyond margins) for entire pages; adds the ability to set gutter margins for page styles; and enter RDF metadata in the Style Inspector. The bibliography entry fields also get tooltips and, quite helpfully, clickable links in the generated bibliography section.

The Calc application can now filter by color in AutoFilter and display captions for the HTML tables listed in the External Data dialog. The application also includes an improved "Paste Special" dialog, which should make it a bit easier to transpose data from one source to another.

Impress gains 5 new presentation templates, adds support for multiple column text boxes; and surfaces access the scale factor in the status bar:

Finally, LibreOffice 7.2 is available natively for Apple Silicon. Don't get too excited; is an early stage development preview that The Document Foundation emphasizes "should not be used for any critical purpose at this stage."

Check out the LibreOffice 7.2 release notes for even more changes.

You can download LibreOffice 7.2 for Windows, macOS, and Linux from the LibreOffice website.