LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer 5.1 with Breeze toolbar icon set
Developer(s)	The Document Foundation
Stable release	"Fresh" version: 5.1.2 (April 7, 2016[1]) [±] "Still" version: 5.0.5 (February 15, 2016[1]) [±]
Development status	Active
Operating system	Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows
Type	Word processor
License	GNU LGPLv3[2]
Website	www.libreoffice.org

LibreOffice Writer is the free and open-source word processor component of the LibreOffice software package and is a fork of OpenOffice.org Writer. Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect, with some identical features.^[3][4]

LibreOffice Writer is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.^[5]

As with the entire LibreOffice suite, Writer can be used across a variety of platforms, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Features

Writer is capable of opening and saving documents in a number of formats, including the Open Document Format 1.2 Extended (ODT is its default format), Microsoft Word's DOC, DOCX, RTF and XHTML.^[6]

Writer provides a number of features, such as the inclusion of a word completion mechanism for predictive writing and the ability to export to PDF format.^[6]

Features include:^[7]

• Templates and styles
• A spelling and grammar checker (Hunspell)^[7][8]
• Word and character count^[9]
• Support for autofilter per sheet: It is now possible to set autofilter per sheet without manually creating named database ranges prior to setting autofilter^[10]
• Page-layout methods, including frames, columns, and tables
• Embedding or linking of graphics, spreadsheets, and other objects
• Built-in drawing tools
• Java text rendering replaced by native text rendering which greatly improves readability^[10][11]
• The preexisting Java dialogs have been replaced with simpler native dialog boxes.^[12]
• Support Color and line styles for the columns and footnote separator lines. This is improving the compatibility of LibreOffice with ODF^[10]
• Master documents—to group a collection of documents into a single document
• Change tracking during revisions
• The ability to import and edit PDF files.^[13]
• Significantly improved file compatibility when dealing with Microsoft Word as compared to OpenOffice^[12]
• Database integration, including a bibliography database
• Export to PDF, including bookmarks
• MailMerge^[14]
• Equation editor (LibreOffice Math)^[15]
• Scriptable and Remote Controllable via the UNO API
• Indexing
• AutoCorrect
• AutoComplete
• Selection of non-consecutive items in Add Mode^[16]

Release history

Versions for LibreOffice Writer include the following:

Date Released	Version	Comments
25 January 2011	3.3	Import of MS Works documents now possible. SVG import into Writer is now possible. Many WordPerfect import improvements.[17]
3 June 2011	3.4	New gradient / drop-shadow to highlight writer pages, with configurable colors in the options. Text rendering has been improved as text is now drawn via Cairo with the same subpixeling options as other Cairo-using apps.[18]
14 February 2012	3.5	Better user interface for header/footer handling. Easily add header or footers.[19] Faster built-in grammar checking.[19] Custom Shapes import was greatly enhanced, many bugs were fixed and new presets implementation added.[19] Import filter for Microsoft Visio documents.[19]
12 August 2012	3.6	Support for contextual spacing Support for importing Smart Art Word count (whole document and selection) in status bar Shows Text Boundaries depending on the choice of display unprintable characters[9]
7 February 2013	4.0	Support for comments to text ranges in Writer Import ink annotations from DOCX and RTF documents Various DOCX improvements[20]
25 July 2013	4.1	Images embedded in writer can now be rotated easily in 90 degree increments Embedding fonts in a Writer document Writer textframes now support having a gradient as background[21]
30 January 2014	4.2	format one or more characters with a border Writer can now create DOT files DOCX Interoperability: Numerous significant improvements to interoperability with Microsoft Word's DOCX format[21]
30 July 2014	4.3	Character limitation raised from 65,535 to 2,147,483,647[22] Minor user interface improvements Ability to print comments in margins
29 January 2015	4.4	Substantial user interface improvements Ability to digitally sign PDF files during the exporting process AutoCorrect improvements Improved track changes functions[23][24]
5 August 2015	5.0	Windows 10 compatibility Emoji and in-word replacement support Style previews in the sidebar Microsoft Word compatible text highlighting Crop an image with mouse Improved displayed page number calculation Additional table management features Toolbar improvements File import improvements (.doc, .rtf, improved support for OOXML documents) Image drag and drop on Mac OS X Optional RSIDs Additional LibreLogo features[25][26]
10 February 2016	5.1	User interface improvements Additional improvements to proprietary document format inter-operability Improvements to remote file access Embed mail/merge data source into document Changes to Widow/Orphan and speller dialogue defaults Hide whitespace option (in single page view) Jump to desired page in print preview mode[27][28]

See also

• Comparison of office suites
• Comparison of word processors
• List of word processors

References

1. "Release Notes". The Document Foundation. April 7, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
2. The Document Foundation (n.d.). "GNU LGPL License". Retrieved 21 June 2011.
3. Elena Opris (January 8, 2014). "LibreOffice Writer Review". Softpedia. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
4. Jon L. Jacobi (June 27, 2013). "Review: LibreOffice 4 liberates you from Microsoft Office". IDG Consumer & SMB. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
5. "LibreOffice License. Official website.".
6. The Document Foundation (n.d.). "Writer, a Word Processor for Every Kind of Document". Retrieved 15 June 2011.
7. The Document Foundation (2012). "Chapter 1 – Introducing Writer" (PDF). Retrieved 1 February 2013.
8. The Document Foundation (2011). "Checking Spelling and Grammar". Retrieved 15 June 2011.
9. "LibreOffice Release Notes 3.6". wiki.documentfoundation.org. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
10. The Document Foundation (n.d.). "3.4 New Features and Fixes". Retrieved 15 June 2011.
11. djwm (June 2011). "LibreOffice 3.4.0 arrives for power users and early adopters". H On-line. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
12. Proffitt, Brian (June 2011). "Review: Hands on LibreOffice 3.3". Linux.com. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
13. Linton, Susan (June 2011). "The New Features in LibreOffice 3.3". Linux Journal. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
14. The Document Foundation (2013). "Chapter 11. Using Mail Merge. Form letters, mailing labels, and envelopes" (PDF). Retrieved 1 February 2013.
15. The Document Foundation (2012). "LibreOffice Version 3.5. Math Guide. Using The Equation Editor" (PDF). Retrieved 1 February 2013.
16. "LibreOffice Writer".
17. The Document Foundation (2011). "3.3 New Features and Fixes". Retrieved 1 February 2013.
18. The Document Foundation (2011). "3.4 New Features and Fixes". Retrieved 29 July 2011.
19. The Document Foundation, 3.5 New Features and Fixes, undated
20. "LibreOffice Release Notes 4.0". wiki.documentfoundation.org. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
21. "LibreOffice Release Notes 4.1". wiki.documentfoundation.org. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
22. "LibreOffice Release Notes 4.3". wiki.documentfoundation.org. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
23. "LibreOffice 4.4, the most beautiful LibreOffice ever". The Document Foundation. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
24. "LibreOffice 4.4 Release Notes". LibreOffice Wiki. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
25. "LibreOffice 5.0 Release Notes". The Document Foundation. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
26. Italo Vignoli (August 5, 2015). "LibreOffice 5.0 stands out from the office suite crowd". The Document Foundation. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
27. Italo Vignoli (February 10, 2016). "The Document Foundation annouces LibreOffice 5.1". The Document Foundation. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
28. "LibreOffice 5.1 Release Notes". The Document Foundation. Retrieved April 30, 2016.

External links

• Features page at LibreOffice.org
• User's Guide downloads for all versions from LibreOffice.org
• Regular expression tables from ICU-project.org