LibreOffice 6.2: Release Notes

    From The Document Foundation Wiki


    Writer

    • Reimplementation of hiding tracked changes: Edit ▸ Track Changes ▸ Show no longer severely impacts performance in documents with many tracked changes. The document view is now capable of hiding the tracked changes, so they do not have to be rearranged in the document model to be hidden. The dialog advising users of the performance impact has been removed tdf#113479 (Michael Stahl - CIB)
    • Native copy & paste of spreadsheet data in Writer tables. tdf#37223 (László Németh – NISZ) Previously, you could paste a copied table as image, object, plain text, and as RTF; the latter resulting in a new table in Writer. In 6.2 you can paste directly in an existing table.
    • Remove CopyGraphic tdf#105262 (Xisco Faulí)
    • Previous table-size actions were distribute column/row size equally and optimize (which acted like minimize), so a true minimize action was added and optimize was changed. Optimize row now acts similar to distribute where each row is given the same height based on the tallest row. Optimize, however, is based on the minimum height of the row with the most content. In addition, optimize ensures that the table size will not shrink (but it will grow if necessary). Optimize column now acts like minimize except that the width of the table will not change. Any leftover space is distributed proportionately, with thin columns growing slightly, and wide columns growing much wider. tdf#64242 (Justin Luth, SIL)
    • Advanced menus to add/modify header/footer menus can be disabled now at Insert ▸ Header and Footer ▸ Use header/footer menu (enabled by default) tdf#118621 (Heiko Tietze)
    • UTF-8 and UTF-16-encoded text may now be saved without BOMWikipedia logo v3.svg. tdf#44291 (Martin van Zijl)
    The option is available from GUI (using Text - Choose Encoding (.txt) export filter in Save As dialog with Edit filter settings checked), in the filter settings dialog:
    as well as from command line, as in
    soffice --convert-to \"txt:Text (encoded):UTF8,CR,,,false\" *.doc
    where "UTF8" is the text encoding; "CR" is line ending setting (also "LF" and "CRLF" are valid options); third and fourth empty parameters are unused for export; and "false" is to suppress output of BOM ("true" is the default to output the BOM).
    • HTML export has an opt-in mode to write the ReqIF subset of XHTML blog post (Miklos Vajna - Collabora)
    • Various small UNO API improvements blog post (Miklos Vajna - Collabora)
    • LibreLogo, programming interface for graphic design and education has got unit testing, IDE and compiler fixes and improvements, see blog post (László Németh – FSF.hu Foundation)
    • Autocorrect capitalization of the English i'mI’m, i'll to I’ll etc.: now correction of the ASCII quotation mark to the typographical one (’) capitalizes the preceding single lowercase i, too, as in MSO, if the language of the text is English. tdf#108423 (László Németh – NISZ) ( Since LibreOffice 6.2.4 )
    • AutoCorrect English word i' -> I’ using capitalization and replacing the ASCII apostrophe tdf#108423 (László Németh, NISZ) ( Since LibreOffice 6.2.4 )

    Calc

    • Signature Lines are now available in Calc too (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB) tdf#117903
    • Data Validation now supports custom formulas (Marco Cecchetti - Collabora) tdf#96698
    • Now it is possible to do multivariate regression analysis using the regression tool (Data ▸ Statistics ▸ Regression). In addition, many more statistical measures are now available in the analysis output. For example, it shows confidence intervals for all the estimated parameters. (Dennis Francis - Collabora) tdf#109042 tdf#114092 blog entry

    New spreadsheet functions

    • REGEX to match text against a regular expression and optionally replace text. (Eike Rathke (Red Hat, Inc.)) tdf#113977


    Changed spreadsheet functions

    • LARGE and SMALL now support an array as Rank argument, in which case they return an array of ranked numbers. This to comply with ODF 1.2 OpenFormula and interoperability with other spreadsheet applications. (Takeshi Abe) i#32345

    Impress & Draw

    Related to Animation Editing:

    • Fix named object display of the animation entry. tdf#90243 (Mark Hung)
    • Update display of the animation entry when object renames. tdf#45178 (Mark Hung)
    • Display actual paragraph grouping level in Text Animation tab. tdf#47995 (Mark Hung)
    • Prevent animation removed when setting as "As One Object" tdf#67611 (Mark Hung)
    • Dispose old motion path so that new path works when changing the motion path type. tdf#33022 (Mark Hung)
    • Allow changing the motion path by dragging its control points. tdf#53993 (Mark Hung)

    UI:

    • "Next" is disabled on the presenter console when the last slide is reached (arrow right goes ahead to the "end of presentation" slide) (Heiko Tietze) tdf#118443
    • Couple of text-related drawing styles were added (Heiko Tietze) tdf#94369
    • Table-size actions for Minimize and Optimize were added and Distribute Rows changed to set equal row height based on the tallest row, similar to Writer. tdf#117721 (Justin Luth, SIL)
    • Added Table submenu to menu Format in Draw tdf#120540 (Justin Luth)
    • Drag and drop Impress animations in sidebar to reorder them. tdf#37483 (Brian Fraser)
    • Various small improvements to SmartArt import from PPTX blog post (Miklos Vajna - Collabora)

    Miscellaneous:

    • Use ODF layer attributes draw:display and draw:protected to make LibreOffice conform to specification. tdf#101242 (Regina Henschel)
    • Bug fixes in regard to user defined layers in Draw. tdf#119392, tdf#67248, tdf#119956 (Regina Henschel)
    • Increase accuracy of circle shape. tdf#121305 (Regina Henschel)

    Base

    • Support for Base files using embedded Firebird RDBMS becomes non experimental in this release.
    • Get rid of the MySQL C++ Connector as an extension and replace it with MariaDB C connector, which is LGPL licensed ( Tamas Bunth - Collabora )

    Chart

    Math

    BASIC

    • Access2Base basic library, bundled with the 6.2 release, adds full support for Firebird RDBMS.

    Core / General

    • Signature Lines can now be signed with an image of your handwritten signature (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB) tdf#118568
    • When SuggestedSaveAsName is set, it is now displayed in the frame title instead of "Untitled x" (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB) tdf#121537
    • Send document as email now prefers OOXML over the binary MS formats (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB) tdf#99122
    • Infobar added to show how to Get Involved and how to Donate (Jan Holesovsky, Heiko Tietze) Patch tdf#120643 tdf#120271 tdf#120643

    Fonts

    • Source Serif Pro font added (Heiko Tietze) tdf#79022
    • Liberation fonts updated (Heiko Tietze) tdf#121676

    LibreOffice Help

    • The browser-based help system now has faster filtering of index keywords, which highlights your search term as you type and displays results based on the selected module. tdf#119415 (Ilmari Lauhakangas)

    Filters

    Improvements in EMF+ vector images import (used by .doc, docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt file formats)

    • EMF+ Add support for Underline and Strikeout for String Drawing tdf#55058 tdf#106084 (Bartosz Kosiorek)
    • EMF+ Correct displaying of DrawString record without StringFormat tdf#113624 (Bartosz Kosiorek)
    • EMF+ Add rotation support for String drawing tdf#55058 tdf#106084 tdf#114738 (Bartosz Kosiorek)

    Improvements in OOXML charts filters

    • OOXML Export Chart shapes area fill properties tdf#108078 (Balazs Varga)
    • OOXML Import: Fix disappeared Hatch Background Color tdf#94231 (Balazs Varga)
    • Add support for exporting OOXML gradient, bitmap and pattern properties for chart tdf#114174 (Bartosz Kosiorek)

    Improvements of PPTX import/export filter:

    • Related to Animation PPTX Export:
      • Fix put on the brake animation. tdf#118768 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix motion path offsetting to upperleft corner. tdf#118806 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix Grow-shrink animation. tdf#118836 (Mark Hung)
      • Rotation animation no longer corrupt pptx file. tdf#118783 (Mark Hung)
      • Color transform no longer corrupt pptx file. tdf#118835 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix animation motion path. tdf#118825 (Mark Hung)
    • Related to Animation PPTX Import:
      • Fix underline letter-by-letter animation. tdf#113822 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix put on the brake animation. tdf#50499 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix Grow-shrink animation. tdf#98477 tdf#118890 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix swivel animation. tdf#113818 (Mark Hung)
      • Fix import delay between letter-by-letter animation. tdf#119118 (Mark Hung)

    Improvements of PPT import/export filter:

    • PPT import of swivel animation. tdf#118080 (Mark Hung)

    Improvements of animation rendering:

    • Fix text disappearing of "Put on the brakes." animation. tdf#108435 (Mark Hung)
    • Fix RTL text positions of animation. tdf#55361 (Mark Hung)

    Document Encryption

    • Implement OOXML agile encryption. OOXML Agile encryption can use AES-256-CBC encryption algorithm with SHA512 hash function. (Tomaž Vajngerl - Collabora)
    • HMAC verification (when saving an encrypted document) is now supported as well, which verifies that the document is bit-exact as when it was saved. (Tomaž Vajngerl - Collabora)
    • Change the default for OOXML to use AES-256-CBC and SHA512, which is supported by all recent Microsoft Office and LibreOffice versions. (Tomaž Vajngerl - Collabora)

    GUI

    Notebookbar

    • The new Tabbed UI is ready for release! Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw have complete Tabbed UI versions. It has been moved out of experimental. Try it out by selecting it in (View ▸ User Interface). (Andreas Kainz)
    • The New Groupedbar Compact UI is also ready for release! Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw have complete Groupedbar Compact UI versions. It has been moved out of experimental. Try it out by selecting it in (View ▸ User Interface). (Andreas Kainz)

    Classic Toolbars

    • Standard toolbar presents now the enhanced widget for special characters by default (Rizal Muttaqin, Heiko Tietze) tdf#118539,tdf#118993
    • Standard toolbar layout updates, context toolbars have now the same commands at the same place at all apps (Andreas Kainz)
    • Track Changes toolbar now has Accept All Changes and Reject All Changes by default (Rizal Muttaqin) tdf#121187

    Icon Theme

    • LibreOffice ships with three SVG based icons styles. This includes the SVG variants of Breeze, Colibre and Elementary.
      • These icon sets are considered an experimental feature, therefore LibreOffice still defaults to PNG icon styles on all platforms, even in HiDPI environments.
      • The SVG variants are select-able in the Icon style combo box found in Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ View with an "(SVG)" suffix indicator.
    • elementary got huge update and much improved (Rizal Muttaqin) tdf#115986, tdf#111950, tdf#120108, tdf#120135, tdf#120185, tdf#120192, tdf#120300, tdf#120831, tdf#94878
    • elementary now get 32px icon theme support (Rizal Muttaqin)
    • Karasa Jaga also get update (Rizal Muttaqin)

    Dialogs

    • Added Minimum and Maximum labels for some conditions in Conditional formatting dialog (Roman Kuznetsov) tdf#117719
    • Added Font Features dialog to access font features, which is available via Feature button in the Character dialog, or the Format cell dialog of Calc (Tomaž Vajngerl) tdf#58941

    Personalization

    • Thanks to many improvements on the user interface and under-the-hood, LibreOffice's personalization dialog (Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Personalization) is now much faster, efficient, and stable. (Muhammet Kara, Pardus)

    Context Menu

    Misc

    Support for AdoptOpenJDK added.

    Online

    Mobile

    • improve comment rendering on zoom (Marco Cecchetti, Collabora)
    • simplified Mobile UI, cleaner toolbars (Marco Cecchetti, Collabora)
    • disable 'pull to reload' gesture (Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)
    • add context toolbar (Henry Castro, Collabora)
    • copy/paste floating options (Henry Castro, Collabora)
    • improve response when pinch/zooming (Tor Lillqvist, Collabora)
    • on-screen keyboard, text input and cursor improvements (Tor Lillqvist, Henry Castro Collabora)
    • hide ruler, scroll-bars, status bar, document name (Henry Castro, Collabora)
    • scroll / pan of mobile dialogs (Henry Castro, Collabora)
    • larger, circular shape sizing handles (Victor Walker)
    • Android chrome text input improvements (Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)

    HiDPI

    • improve slide previews when necessary (Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)
    • enable scale factor for rendering of dialogs (Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)

    Performance

    • significant latency reduction work (Tamás Zolnai, Collabora)
      • track client's visible area in WSD
      • push tile changes avoiding round-trip invalidate / re-render
      • manage network usage and tiles in flight
    • reduce unnecessary animation (Ashod Nakashian, Collabora)
    • avoid repeated re-layout of comments & red-lines (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • improved, custom pre-initialization hooks (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • significantly smaller and simplified chroot jails (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • avoid loading l10n framework for very short lived pages (Andras Timar, Collabora)

    Document signing

    • Vereign compatible authentication & document signing (Tomaž Vajngerl, Collabora)
    • new LibreOfficeKit signing & certificate APIs (Tomaž Vajngerl, Collabora)
    • configuration to enable/disable (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
    • signing infobar (Tomaž Vajngerl, Collabora)

    Integration

    • Insert remote graphic from integration (Henry Castro, Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)
    • enable convert-to API for existing hosts (Tamás Zolnai, Collabora)
    • add configurable time-limit for document conversion (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • add hosting/capabilities endpoint to list online features (Tamás Zolnai, Collabora)
    • install sample webserver config snippets (Andras Timar, Collabora)
    • Service-root - make it easy to re-locate the services' path (Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)

    Misc

    • Improved allowed frame ancestors (domains which are allowed to embed the LibreOffice Online iframe) 296aba1beae64a65e4e86631a9c1458073ec8c2e (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB)
      • Beforehand, any host could embed the iframe as the Referer was always allowed.
      • Now, only the loolwsd and the WOPI host are allowed to do that.
      • Additionally, a config option has been added to add more allowed hosts (see <frame_ancestors> in loolwsd.xml)
    • Add postMessage methods to show/hide toolbar buttons: Hide_Button, Show_Button c0d0ad736839260667c98aa0cf08feb5630e0b87 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB)
    • Add custom http header when saving before document is cleaned up from memory: X-LOOL-WOPI-IsExitSave 2e9af9da16a7ed42bde4b6294f7970c00be9c566 (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB)
    • Open pdf file in new tab instead of asking to download (Pranav Kant, Collabora)
    • Improved cache handling (Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)
    • Disk space and session handling improvements (Ashod Nakashian, Collabora)
    • Zooming improvements (Tamás Zolnai, Collabora)
    • Make track changes options more configurable (Ashod Nakashian, Collabora)
    • Mac / Alt key handling improvments (Tor Lillqvist, Collabora)
    • improve scroll-wheel behavior (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • jail improvements around PDF, DNS, signing (Andras Timar, Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)
    • improved docker parameter passing via environment (Andras Timar, Collabora)
    • implement testbed gtk+ app re-using Online (Tor Lillqvist, Collabora)
    • configurable, anonymized logging (Ashod Nakashian, Jan Holesovsky, Collabora)
    • signal safe logging improvements (Ashod Nakashian, Collabora)
    • threading improvements to SocketPolling (Ashod Nakashian, Collabora)
    • detect SSL data on non-ssl sockets and respond / warn (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • cursor handling simplification (Michael Meeks, Collabora)
    • New shape insertion toolbar (Pranav Kant,Collabora)
    • open internal port only on loopback interface (Andras Timar, Collabora)
    • enable debug by pressing 'd' in the About dialog (George Wood)
    • add missing configuration defaults (YiiChang Yen)
    • cleaner and more attractive 404 error reporting (George Wood)
    • implement client websocket masking (Michael Meeks, Collabora)

    Localization

    Incorporation of other languages

    • Brand-new UI translation into Lower Sorbian (dsb). Kudos to our volunteer translator, Michael Wolf, for undertaking this effort.
    Note pin.svg

    If you speak an endangered language and want to help us to achieve our goal of providing free tools for every single person on Earth, please join us.

    Improvements to proofing tools and language support

    • Breton. The spelling dictionary was updated to version 0.16 from 0.15 (Denis Arnaud - An Drouizig)
    • English. The spelling dictionary was updated to version 2018.04.16 from 2017.08.24. (Marco A. G. Pinto)
    • French. The spelling dictionary was updated to version 6.3 from 6.0.3. (Olivier R. - Grammalecte)
    • Galician. The spelling dictionary was updated to version 18.07 from 12.10. (Adolfo Jayme Barrientos)
    • Indonesian. A new hyphenator was introduced. (Ali Ahmadi)
    • Norwegian. The spelling dictionary was updated to version 2.2 from 2.1. (András Tímár - Collabora)
    • Slovenian. The thesaurus was updated to version 1.9.19001 from 1.8.18500 (Martin Srebotnjak - OdprtiTezaver)
    • Spanish. The spelling dictionary and hyphenator were updated to version 2.4 from 2.3. (Ricardo Palomares - rla-es)
    • Turkish. New integration of spelling dictionary and affixation rule sets, sourced from hunspell-tr (1.2.0). (Muhammet Kara)

    Feature removal / deprecation

    General

    The KDE4 VCL backend is deprecated and will be removed in the next version.

    The GTK+2 VCL backend is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.

    Platform Compatibility

    Mac

    Version 6.2 requires at least macOS 10.9. The next version will require at least macOS 10.10.

    Windows

    - Digital signing now uses the CNG API instead of legacy CryptoAPI, finally allowing usage of ECDSA keys on Windows blog post (Miklos Vajna - Collabora)

    Linux

    Binary Linux x86 (32-bit) releases will be demoted. There will be no Linux x86 builds produced by TDF after 6.2. This does not mean that Linux x86 compatibility will be removed.

    KDE 5 + Qt5

    Two new VCL plugins (qt5 and kde5) have been implemented (with the KDE5 plugin extending the Qt5 one) to provide integration into KDE Plasma 5 and other Qt5-based desktop environments, mainly implemented by Katarína Behrens (CIB) and Jan-Marek Glogowski (City of Munich).

    If the kde5 and the gtk3_kde5 plugins are installed, the desktop detection will now prefer the kde5 one. The qt5 plugin must be explicitly selected via SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=qt5, as it's never selected automatically.

    Currently implemented features include:

    • Native widget rendering
    • Native Plasma file and folder picker
    • Native menus including Plasma global menu integration
    • Dual screen support
    • System clipboard integration
    • Basic native drag'n'drop
    • Basic accessibility support (Samuel Mehrbrodt, CIB)

    Bugs and missing features are tracked via the KDE meta bug tdf#102495.

    Technical note: The qt5 plugin implements two rendering paths: an experimental QPainter based one and the Cairo based one, which is also used by all other Unix plugins. The kde5 plugin uses only the Cairo rendering path. The qt5 plugin defaults to the QPainter rendering path, but it's possible to force the Cairo path using the environment variable SAL_VCL_QT5_USE_CAIRO.

    API changes

    UNO API changes

    Configuration changes

    SDK changes

    Android Viewer

    New Features

    Bug fixes/improvements