New Goodies Coming in LibreOffice 4.2

The next significant release of LibreOffice is coming at the end of January 2014 and some of the new features are already apparent. The bug hunting session went really well and the next TDF Board elections are about to commence. So, let's take a sneak peek at some of the upcoming changes.

A new default Writer template has been deployed for LibreOffice 4.2. The new design was based on feedback from discussions to better guide the new user. One will be able to embed images into HTML files and the Spellcheck popup menu will now track changes allowing "previous change, next change, accept change and reject change operations." Select-All will work even when the document begins with a table. Users will be able to put borders around just one character (or more) as well. Writer can now create .dot files (should you need to).

A random number generator and statistics function has been added to Calc for 4.2 for data analysis. A new "visual clue" has been added to Impress to indicate a transition or animated slide as well as a new Custom Animation toolbar. The internal PDF code has been replace by Poppler. A new application menu is integrated for use in GNOME 3 and native dialog boxes have been added for the MATE and XFCE desktops. And a "about:config" (or Expert configuation) function has been added to the Options configuration tool. This is just some of the new and improved features coming in LibreOffice 4.2 and we'll look when the release candidate is released next week or so. But for now, one final tease: the LibreOffice smiley face now actually smiles.

In other LibO news, word has it that three times as many bugs were filed and fixed in the 4.2 beta than in previous versions. In addition, TDF Board Elections 2013 voting starts tomorrow.