ReleaseNotes/7.4

Writer

 * Menu item now updates the preview of OLE objects blog post (Miklos Vajna; Collabora)


 * Various border improvements around tables and paragraphs to make them more Word-compatible blog post (Miklos Vajna; Collabora)


 * Fixed Index or Table of Contents generation when is set to  in the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialogue . The generated entries start from the current chapter level, instead of the previously hardwired level 2  (Andreas Heinisch; Emanuele Gissi, CNVVF)


 * Writer now supports clearing breaks from Word for improvement layout fidelity blog post (Miklos Vajna; Collabora)


 * Accessibility check dialog is now rendered asynchronously  (Nick Wingate; Collabora)


 * For documents that are loaded read-only, Writer will now allow to view tracked changes, both via the dialog from and in the sidebar.  (Michael Stahl, allotropia)


 * Tracked footnote deletion and insertion are visible in the footnote area (László Németh, NISZ)




 * Handle the "hang" baseline OpenType property, allowing text of different sizes to align to the hagning baseline. (Mark Hung)


 * Writer now supports rich text and checkbox content controls from Word natively blog post (Miklos Vajna; Collabora)


 * Writer now also supports dropdown, picture and date content controls from Word natively blog post (Miklos Vajna; Collabora)

New typographic settings
Add new optional hyphenation settings to adjust paragraph-level text flow (László Németh)


 * Hyphenation zone (it's for limiting hyphenation, used especially with not justified paragraph alignment).


 * Minimum word length for hyphenation


 * Do not hyphenate the last word of the paragraph

Note: these features are part of CSS4 Text Module Level 4, DTP software and in the case of hyphenation zone, OOXML/MSO.



Calc

 * Calc now supports and uses 16384 columns (blog post) . (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)
 * Added COUNTA, PRODUCT, STDEV, STDEVP, VAR, VARP functions to drop-down autosum widget on Formula bar (Dhiraj Holden)


 * Put text in selected cell into hyperlink item Text when you use the Hyperlink dialog . If the user selects an entire cell by a single click, and inserts an URL via the hyperlink dialog, the entire content of the corresponding cell will be replaced instead of inserting a duplicate, or appending the URL. If the cell contains more than one URL or an URL including some additional text within the cell, the hyperlink dialog will only preselect the text field when opening. If this is not the case, it fill the URL field as well. (Andreas Heinisch)


 * The height of the formula bar is now stored into the document. (Samuel Mehrbrodt, allotropia)
 * Improve Move/Copy sheet dialog: OK button caption is changed according to the command chosen (Move or Copy). (Laurent Balland)
 * Automatic cell matrix expansion for formula expressions that return an array/matrix. For formula expressions entered into a cell that obviously return an array/matrix, the result cell range is expanded as if was used to close an array formula. The previous behaviour of only one cell being used to display only the top left element can still be forced by selecting/marking a single cell prior to input.  (Eike Rathke, Red Hat)
 * Add a new menu entry to get a new dialog to search for sheets names.  (Laurent Balland)

Performance

 * Improved performance when many columns contain data (blog post) . (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)
 * Improved performance of functions such as COUNTIF, SUMIFS and VLOOKUP, especially with unsorted data   (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)
 * Faster recalculation in some documents with many formulas (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)
 * A huge CSV file speed opening was improved (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)
 * Improved performance of Excel export filter     (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)
 * Improved performance when loading spreadsheets that require recalculation  (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)

Impress & Draw

 * Start of document themes in Impress: shape text blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)

Core / General

 * Added support for WebP images import/export (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)


 * Made dialog for naming a new color asynchronous (Nick Wingate, Collabora)


 * The configuration now remembers whether recent documents were opened read-only or editable, and opening via or the Start Center will open them in the same mode as the last time.  (Michael Stahl, allotropia)


 * Added support for EMZ/WMZ files (Paris Oplopoios)

Lighting of extruded custom shapes
Enhancements for lighting extruded custom shapes to make rendering more compatible with MS Office binary formats and interpret more ODF attributes. (Regina Henschel)


 * Wrong interpretation of the z-direction of lights is corrected. Especially a center lighting from observer to object works now. The position of specular high lights on rounded surfaces is same as in MS Office now.
 * The item "Metal" is replaced by items "Metal ODF" and "Metal MS compatible" in submenu "Surface" in toolbar "3D-Settings". The latter is not usable in strict ODF file format "ODF 1.3". In preset "Metal ODF" the specular color is Gray as specified in ODF. In preset "Metal MS compatible" the specular color is the shape fill color or the extrusion color respectively, similar to rendering in MS Office.


 * The service  in API is extended with a new attribute  . It has the value   or  . This attribute is used in surface preset "Metal MS compatible".
 * The ODF attribute  is interpreted now. This attribute is similar to the setting "Specular Intensity" in the "Material" tab of the "3D Effects" dialog of 3D objects. The attribute has no direct UI, but is available as attribute   in service   in the API.


 * The ODF attribute  is interpreted now. Only its default value "0%" is not interpretated, because already existing shapes have this attribute not set but expect a value of 100%. For existing shapes you can force to write the attribute to file by toggling extrusion off and back on. The attribute is used in preset surface "Metal MS compatible". The attribute has no direct UI, but is available as attribute   in service   in the API. A value smaller than 100% reduces the rendered brightness of the object.


 * The ODF attributes  and   are interpreted now. The lights are rendered soft by distributing parts of the light intensity to four light directions around the original light directions during rendering. The lighting presets in submenu "Lighting" in the toolbar "3D-Settings" set the attribute compatible to MS Office. The attribute has no direct UI, but is available as attribute   and   in service   in the API.


 * The implementation of ODF attribute  is adapted to the corresponding shape property in MS Office binary formats. This attribute corresponds to the setting "Specular Color" in the "Material" tab of the "3D Effects" dialog of 3D objects. Only that not abitrary colors but only variants of Gray are used. The attribute has no direct UI, but is available as attribute   in service   in the API. A value of "0%" forces the first light to be not specular, which produces a matte surface in rendering the object. That is used in surface preset "Matte".

Performance

 * Improved text layout performance for cases like PDF export, document loading and others, more info in the blog post. (Luboš Luňák, Collabora)

LibreOffice Help

 * Help pages for the ScriptForge scripting library (J.P. Ledure, A. Romedenne, R. Lima)


 * Help updates and fixes
 * E. Rathke
 * O. Hallot
 * M. Kaganski
 * R. Lima
 * A. Romedenne

DOCX import/export filters

 * DOCX: import textboxes (with tables, images etc.) in group shapes (Attila Bakos, NISZ)

Unlock protected change tracking by password verification
Unlock protected change tracking of DOCX documents by mandatory password verification  (László Németh, NISZ)


 * clicking on icon of Track Changes toolbar (or ) asks for password verification instead of showing only a warning message before unlocking without the password;
 * On page of  dialog window,  button accepts the correct password with disabling record changes instead of rejecting the correct password.

PPTX import/export filters

 * PPTX export: fixed export of embedded video files (Tünde Tóth, NISZ)
 * PPTX import: fixed import of linked media files. Linked media files were imported as images in documents created with Impress after PPTX export. (Tünde Tóth, NISZ)
 * PPTX: add "glue points" to some basic shapes (ellipse, triangle, right triangle, trapezoid, parallelogram, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon). Note: PPTX import doesn't import connectors connected to the glue points – only ODP export keeps them for the planned editing, i.e. moving the connected shapes without losing the connecting lines and arrows. (Tibor Nagy, NISZ)

RTF filter import/export

 * RTF filter improvements        (Vasily Melenchuk, CIB/allotropia)

PDF export

 * Improved PDF export options in the command-line blog post (Miklos Vajna, Collabora)
 * Field type of Numeric, Currency, Date and Time forms are exported to PDF (Xisco Fauli, TDF)

HTML export

 * Export encoding (character set) configuration is dropped from Options|Load/Save|HTML Compatibility, HTML is now always exported using UTF-8 encoding (Mike Kaganski, Collabora)

EMF/WMF import

 * Added support for Miter Limit for EMF+ format (Bartosz Kosiorek)
 * Added support for individual line endings for EMF+ format, (Bartosz Kosiorek)
 * Fixed holes in lines created with LINETO for EMF/WMF (Bartosz Kosiorek)
 * Added Z compressed graphic formats support for EMF/WMF (.emz and .wmz file formats) (Paris Oplopoios)
 * Use variable types according to EMF+ documentation (Bartosz Kosiorek)
 * Fix displaying EMF+ PathGradient fill  (Bartosz Kosiorek)

TIFF import

 * TIFF: import filter rewritten to import via libtiff in order to support many more variants (Caolán McNamara, Red Hat, Inc. and Julien Nabet)
 * Add support for OfficeArtBlip TIFF format (Bartosz Kosiorek)

GUI

 * The Navigator can now scroll to the item on selection. Enable this with the expert option NavigateOnSelect at org.openoffice.Office.Writer > Navigator (Jim Raykowski)
 * Start Center thumbnail rendering improved, , (Mike Kaganski, Collabora)


 * Search field for the Extension Manager (Samuel Mehrbrodt, allotropia)

New languages/locales with locale data
Available as default document language and for locale specific formatting.
 * Pennsylvania Dutch {pdc-US}. (Peter K. Zacharias, Pennsylvania Dutch Education Corporation; Eike Rathke, Red Hat)
 * Aranese {oc-ES}. (Javier Torres Fernández; Eike Rathke, Red Hat)
 * Dhivehi {dv-MV}. (Adam, M. A.; Eike Rathke, Red Hat)
 * English (Mauritius) {en-MU}. (Eike Rathke, Red Hat)

Improvements to proofing tools and language support

 * Added Central Kurdish (ckb) Spell Checker & Dictionary. commit 1, (jwtiyar nariman; Olivier Hallot, TDF)
 * Occitan since 2018 has several type variant language subtags in the IANA language-subtag-registry. Historically LibreOffice used oc-FR for Occitan Languedocien and oc-ES for Occitan Aranese as language tags. These were underspecified at least for oc-FR and are now augmented to be written as oc-FR-lengadoc and oc-ES-aranes, the previous oc-FR and oc-ES are still recognized and accepted as aliases. LibreOffice 7.3.5 will accept oc-FR-lengadoc and oc-ES-aranes as aliases for oc-FR and oc-ES for forward compatibility. (Eike Rathke, Red Hat)

The ScriptForge libraries
An extensible and robust collection of macro scripting resources for LibreOffice to be invoked from user Basic or Python scripts. (Jean-Pierre Ledure)

The libraries expose a total of 26 services each with a bunch of methods and properties.

New in LibreOffice 7.4:


 * The (new) Menu service, to describe a new menu to be displayed in the menubar. The menu may contain usual items, checkboxes or radio buttons. Each item can be decorated with icons and tooltips.


 * The (new) UnitTest service, a framework to setup testcases and testsuites for complex Basic modules and extensions.


 * The (new) Region service , to manage locales, timezones and daylight saving times. What time is it in Tokyo when it is 12am in Brussels ? Also to convert numbers to letters in any language.


 * Get the list of the available extensions and their install directories (filesystem service).


 * Run menu commands with arguments (ui, document services).


 * Manage a fallback language (l10n service).


 * Export sheet ranges as images or PDF files (calc service).


 * Erase rows or columns from sheet ranges based on filters expressed as formulas (default = erase all empty rows or columns) (calc service).


 * Create and place a pivot table (calc service).


 * Resize and/or center dialogs on a background window or dialog (dialog service).

The whole set of services (except when not relevant) is made available for Python scripts with identical syntax and behaviour as in Basic.

The English version of the documentation of the ScriptForge libraries (7.4) is fully integrated in the LibreOffice help pages (https://help.libreoffice.org/7.4/en-US/text/sbasic/shared/03/lib_ScriptForge.html?DbPAR=BASIC). Their translation into other languages is underway. (Alain Romedenne, Rafael Lima)

VBA Support

 * Added support for Application.WindowState, commit (Tomaž Vajngerl, Collabora)


 * Added support for Application.GetOpenFilename (Tomaž Vajngerl, Collabora)


 * Export VBA-Project using detected charset on import (Andreas Heinisch)


 * VBA Range.Sort expands a single cell range to Range.CurrentRegion (Eike Rathke, Red Hat)


 * Not case-sensitive support of VBA NumberFormat (Eike Rathke, Red Hat)


 * Support for referencing a Sheet by Name (Eike Rathke, Red Hat)

Feature Removal / Deprecation

 * FTP support is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.


 * In the SDK, the tools  and   (using the legacy type registry format) are deprecated and will be removed in a future version, in favor of   (using the incompatible new type registry format internally introduced in LibreOffice 4.1).


 * The C function  has been deprecated without a replacement, and calling it no longer has any effect.

Mac

 * LibreOffice 7.4 requires macOS 10.13 or newer to run.


 * Due to Apple's policy regarding C++ standard library features, the minimum macOS version requirement will be raised in the future like so:


 * release in Feb 2023 → 10.14 Mojave
 * release in Aug 2023 → 10.15 Catalina

API Changes

 * The service  in API is extended with a new attribute  . It has the value   or  . The attribute is not usable in file format "ODF 1.3". For implementation context see Lighting of extruded custom shapes.
 * The service SpreadsheetViewSettings has a new property  allowing to read/set the height of the Calc formula bar.  (Samuel Mehrbrodt, allotropia)

Jump Lists
Under Windows, it is now possible to customize the Jump Lists via UNO API. Documentation. (Samuel Mehrbrodt, allotropia)