LibreOffice has introduced the discharge of its up to date consumer guides for the whole productiveness suite, overlaying Author, Calc, Impress, Draw, and Math for model 25.2, an enormous job led by Jean Weber, who wrote the Author information, Olivier Hallot for Calc, and Peter Schofield for Impress, Draw, and Math.

This timing feels something however coincidental. It appears fairly clear that LibreOffice is attempting to court docket Home windows and Workplace customers who really feel caught between a rock and a tough place. It was simply weeks in the past that The Doc Basis was speaking in regards to the “actual prices” of upgrading to Home windows 11, together with {hardware} obsolescence and being locked deeper into Microsoft’s cloud.

The group has been actively encouraging individuals to check Linux on one thing like a brand new partition, and now the newly printed guides really feel like the subsequent logical step, providing a serving to hand to anybody contemplating the soar.

The guides go into element about tips on how to use the software program, however in addition they spotlight what you get that you’ll not discover in Microsoft Workplace. For instance, Calc has a REGEX perform for locating and changing textual content utilizing highly effective patterns, one thing Excel simply doesn’t have. The Calc information is even upfront about it, noting that if it is advisable to share recordsdata with Excel customers, you can’t absolutely use this function as a result of Excel won’t perceive it.

As for the adjustments that model 25.2 brings: UI tweaks, new privateness options for scrubbing private knowledge from recordsdata, higher interoperability with issues like improved font fallback for Microsoft’s DOCX recordsdata, and extra. The newest beta, 25.8, goes even additional to succeed in function parity with Microsoft’s suite by including highly effective spreadsheet features like TEXTSPLIT and VSTACK.

In addition to the coordinators, the guides noticed contributions from Dione Maddern, Celia Palacios, Ed Olson, and several other others who helped polish and replace the content material. The Doc Basis additionally famous that it has shortened the hole between the discharge of the software program and the publication of those guides.

The advantage of LibreOffice is that you simply do not need to be a Linux consumer to strive it out, since it’s a full-fledged workplace suite accessible for Home windows, macOS, and Linux, which you’ll be able to obtain from our Software program Tales web page.

The guides for Calc, Author, Math, Draw, and Impress can be found now totally free in each PDF and ODF codecs. A print version will even be accessible quickly through Lulu Inc.