LibreOffice 24.8: Best New Features

Learn about the new features of LibreOffice 24.8 which brings considerable update across its base modules.

The document foundation released the final release of 2024, i.e. LibreOffice 24.8 a few weeks back. This release brings the usual updates to its core components such as Writer, Calc, Impress and a few additional updates to the core modules.

LibreOffice 24.8 will be supported until June 12, 2025 after its final minor release, 24.8.7.

Let’s round-up the best new features of this version.

Writer

LibreOffice 24.8 brings improved performance when rendering text in CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) writing systems with font fallback. This enhancement, addresses the issue of slow text rendering in these languages when font fallback is required.

The release also introduces an adjustable width for the Comment panel, thanks to the work of Samuel Mehrbrodt from allotropia. This feature allows users to resize the panel according to their preferences, providing more flexibility in managing comments. Additionally, bullets used in the document can now be selected directly from the bullets dropdown, further streamlining the formatting process.

Collabora has contributed several improvements to Writer. Support for multipage floating tables has been enhanced. Legal numbering in Writer now supports DOC and RTF formats, with further information available in another blog post. An issue with shape positioning in DOCX import for right-to-left (RTL) paragraphs has been fixed. Continuous endnotes are now based on sections and enabled by default for all DOCX, DOC, and RTF documents.

The developers also implemented a change that treats formatting characters independently of fields when toggling non-printable characters (Pilcrow / Ctrl + F10). This change respects the settings under Tools > Options > Writer > Formatting Aids and visualizes all formatting characters in blue.

The Character Properties dialog has been streamlined by removing the Hyperlink tab. Users are now directed to use the dedicated Hyperlink dialog instead, providing a more focused experience when working with hyperlinks.

A new formatting aid has been introduced, allowing users to enclose selected text with parentheses, square brackets, curly braces, or quotation marks by pressing the respective opening character. This feature can be configured under Tools > Options > Writer > Formatting Aids > Enclose with characters, offering a convenient way to apply these formatting elements.

The Style Spotlight feature now only applies to styles that are actively used in the document, providing a more focused view of the relevant styles.

Table formatting has been enhanced with the ability to change Table Alignment and Left/Right spacing directly from the Sidebar, thanks to the work of Oliver Specht from CIB.

Hyperlink names now display as tooltips, improving the user experience when working with hyperlinks.

A new “Find” deck has been added to the Sidebar, listing the results of a quick search along with their context. This feature is assigned the shortcut Alt + 9 for easy access.

The Navigator (for Writer) has received a significant enhancement that allows users to insert various types of cross-references by dragging and dropping items from the Navigator directly into the document. This action prompts a list of options specific to the content type, streamlining the process of creating cross-references. This feature replaces the previous “Drag mode” button, which only offered limited options like “Insert as Hyperlink/Link/Copy”. It’s important to note that for unsaved documents, this feature currently supports only Bookmarks and Sections.

Managing footnotes and endnotes has become more convenient, as users can now delete them directly from the Navigator.

When sorting headings alphabetically in the Navigator, they now display in a flat structure, improving the overall organization and readability.

Additionally, the Navigator now includes an indicator for images with broken links, making it easier to identify and address any issues related to missing or invalid image sources.

LibreOffice Writer now offers an ODF-compliant solution to exclude specific words from hyphenation in hyphenated paragraphs without losing spell checking or locale-dependent text layout. This feature can be accessed through Format > Character > Position > Exclude from Hyphenation, providing a convenient way to disable hyphenation for selected words.

Hyphenated words have received a new context menu item called “No Break,” which allows users to disable hyphenation for a particular word using the new “Exclude from hyphenation” character formatting.

Calc

LibreOffice 24.8 Calc introduces the ability to define ranges when exporting sheets to PDF.

The sheet protection dialog now operates asynchronously, providing a smoother user experience.

Several new functions have been added to Calc, including FILTER, RANDARRAY, SEQUENCE, SORT, SORTBY, and UNIQUE. The LET function and the XLOOKUP function have also been introduced. Furthermore, the XMATCH function has been added.

Copy and paste operations between Calc and Google Sheets have been improved.

Threaded calculation performance has been enhanced through lockless number formatting and optimized reference counting, contributed by Collabora. Additionally, redraw performance after a cell change has been optimized by minimizing the area that needs to be refreshed.

In multi-window view of a spreadsheet, users can now enable spell-checking in one window while disabling it in another, providing greater flexibility.

Comments can now be deleted directly from the Navigator’s right-click menu.

AutoFill functionality can now be accessed via UNO commands without requiring mouse input.

The comment indicator in Calc has received improvements, including the ability to set a fixed size for the indicator using the expert setting NoteIndicator with values above 1.

Finally, the cell focus rectangle has been visually separated from the cell content, enhancing the overall user experience.

Support for importing and exporting OOXML pivot table (cell) format definitions has been added, allowing direct formatting of pivot table cells.

The AutoFilter feature now includes a Lock checkbox, preventing the loss of an unapplied selection when searching.

Displaying comment authorship metadata is now optional, providing users with more control over the information displayed.

Data validity can now be made case-sensitive, enhancing the accuracy of data validation rules.

Comments can be edited directly by right-clicking them in the Navigator, streamlining the comment management process.

The cell cursor has been made more accessible to color-blind users, improving the overall accessibility of the application.

The Sheet > Insert Cells feature now allows adding more than one row or column at a time, increasing efficiency when working with large datasets.

A new option has been introduced to denote with a background color when the active cell is in Edit Mode. This setting can be found under Tools > Options > LibreOffice Calc > View > Edit Cell Highlighting, providing a visual cue for users.

Impress

Notes are now available as a collapsible pane under the slide in Normal view. This feature can be enabled through View > Notes Pane.

By default, the running Slideshow Presentation is immediately updated when applying changes in EditView or in PresenterConsole, even on different screens. This live-mode slideshow editing can be toggled on or off using Slide Show > Slide Show Settings > Live-mode slideshow editing.

The text formatting toolbar is now shown when editing a text box in the second toolbar row, improving the editing experience.

The default number of slides per row displayed in the Slide Sorter (View > Slide Sorter) can now be set in the Expert Configuration (Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced > Open Expert Configuration) by searching for the SorterSlidesPerRow property. Previously, this number was hard-coded.

A new dialog has been added for jumping to a specific slide or page in Impress and Draw.

Pressing Enter in an empty list item now ends the list, providing a more intuitive behaviour.

Scrolling between slides is now possible in Normal view, enhancing navigation capabilities.

PPTX files with heavy use of custom shapes now open faster, thanks to performance optimizations.

Draw, Base and Math

Support for tiling patterns in imported PDF files has been added, thanks to the work of David Gilbert.

When hovering over a layer’s tab, the objects it contains are now highlighted, improving visibility and usability.

For Firebird databases, saving of data is now done automatically, enhancing the user experience.

An issue with data loss when updating or editing data using the Data Beamer window or Dataform in ODT/ODS files upon closing has been resolved for Firebird databases.

Connectivity to MS Access MDB files has been improved by introducing support for the “ACE.OLEDB.12.0” provider.

There are no much update seen on the Math module in version 24.8.

Common updates

The “Special Characters” dialog now allows typing the Unicode (U+NNN) to filter the matching glyphs, providing a more convenient way to find and insert special characters.

The recent document list will now only show documents for the current module, making it easier to find the desired file. For example, Writer will only display text documents, while Calc will only show spreadsheets.

Users will now be notified of the need to reload the document when the Macro Security Level is changed, ensuring that the new security settings are applied correctly.

A new “Sinusoid” shape has been added to the Basic Shapes category, expanding the available options for creating diagrams and illustrations.

An option has been introduced to disable active content and OLE Automation in the Security Options and Warnings settings, providing enhanced security for users who do not require these features.

Buttons that control Font, Highlight, and Background colors now retain their values between sessions, improving consistency and saving time for users.

Improvements have been made to WebDAV/HTTP UCP and CMIS UCP authentication with Microsoft SharePoint, depending on the server configuration, enhancing compatibility and user experience.

The MAR-based automatic update available on TDF Windows builds is no longer limited to experimental mode, making it easier for users to keep their software up-to-date.

Objects can now be searched in the Gallery sidebar deck, streamlining the process of finding and inserting images and other media.

The legacy Fontwork command in Impress and Draw has been renamed to Text along Path, providing a more descriptive and intuitive name for the feature.

The label “Structure:” in the Function Wizard dialog has been changed to “Content:”, improving clarity and user-friendliness.

The “Organizer” section in style dialogs has been renamed to “General,” simplifying the terminology and making it more accessible to users.

For developers

Rhino has been updated to version 1.7.14 for JavaScript scripting. With this change, the Rhino JavaScript Debugger window has been removed.

In the Basic IDE macro editor, a new Color Scheme dialog has been introduced, allowing users to pick one of six syntax highlighting color schemes independently from the current Application Colors. This can be accessed through View > Color Scheme.

The current line in the Basic Editor now has a highlight color for better visibility, making it easier to track the line being edited.

The visibility status of the UI elements Object Catalog, Watched Expressions, and Call Stack (which can be toggled in the View menu) is now remembered after closing and reopening the Basic IDE, preserving user preferences.

Clicking the line number in the status bar will now open the Go to Line dialog, providing a convenient way to navigate to specific lines of code.

A command has been added for toggling code block commenting, streamlining the process of commenting and uncommenting sections of code.

Advanced Python IDEs like PyCharm or VSCode utilize type hints to offer autocomplete suggestions during code writing by analyzing type annotations and combining them with the code context. Type hints, also referred to as type annotations, are comments embedded in the code specifying the data types of variables, parameters, and return values. Python scripts may now benefit from the support of type hints when using the ScriptForge API.

For Impress files, the –show parameter can now take an optional ={slide-number} to specify at which slide the slideshow should start. For example, users can start a slideshow directly at the fifth slide with the command: libreoffice –show=5 presentation.odp.

Download LibreOffice 24.8

If you want to download a fresh copy of LibreOffice, visit the official page.

How to Upgrade?

If you are using Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora and others, you should have already receive this update. However, if you want to upgrade now, use the below guide:

• How to upgrade to the latest LibreOffice in Linux

Windows users must uninstall and re-install this version, since there is no upgrade path. Refer to the below guide:

• How to install LibreOffice on Windows

MacOS users can follow the below guide for installation.

• How to install LibreOffice on macOS

Additional resources:

How to install LibreOffice by downloading packages

Closing Notes

Overall, it is a fairly good release, considering the features in the change log, not so much on Base or Draw. In addition, a bunch of bug fixes definitely make it a more stable office suite.

Via change log