14 DAY TRIAL // LibreOffice continues to be the number one alternative to Microsoft Office, and The Document Foundation rolls out massive improvements every once in a while.
But at the same time, the dev team is also working on a brand-new version that is projected to launch this summer as LibreOffice 7.0. And this week, TDF rolled out the very first alpha build of LibreOffice for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
This very-first version of LibreOffice was shipped as the organization started the first bug hunting session. This allows users to try out the newest build of the productivity suite and share any issues they come across with the dev team, essentially helping them polish the app from these very early development stages.
Top alternative to Microsoft Office
LibreOffice 7.0 is projected to launch in August with massive improvements for every single app that is included in the productivity suite.
While all details are mentioned in the wiki here, one notable refinement concerns the DOCX import and export filter, which polishes the compatibility with Microsoft Office documents.
“DOCX now saves in native 2013/2016/2019 mode instead of in 2007 compatibility mode. So this mainly benefits Word users - where documents can use more features and Word’s bugfixes since DOCX 1.0 can be applied. Although this means Word 2010 users lose out a little, Microsoft has done the same to them since 2013, and it is end-of-life before 7.0 reaches stable status. Word 2010 users should upgrade to LibreOffice,” TDF mentions in the release notes of the new LibreOffice version.
The new LibreOffice update will also come with an improved UI, as the dev team is adding a new Sukapura icon theme. It will be the default theme on macOS and will make the productivity suite overall feel more modern in all apps included in the suite.