After waiting for almost half a year, The Document Foundation has finally pushed the first point release for LibreOffice 6. The latest update LibreOffice 6.1 is important in the sense it packs a plethora of big features.
The update brings performance improvement when loading proprietary Microsoft formats. It has a new graphics manager and an improved image lifecycle that makes image loading in documents better. The background image dialog has been redesigned to make it easier to use.
Among various other visual changes, considerable improvements have been made to LibreOffice Online to make it more visually appealing and more consistent with its desktop sibling. The online version of the open source office suite also has improvements in all the modules.
The revamped online help pages have now been enriched with text and example files to help users with new features. Also updated is the EPUB export filter which now gives more options for customizing metadata.
It comes with the new icon theme called Colibre which is based on the Microsft’s guidelines, designed to give users a Windows-ish feel. While Colibre is the default on Windows, there is another icon style called Karasa Jaga.
LibreOffice’s data management software Base has also received a major update which is currently available in experimental mode only. It has ditched its HSQLDB database engine for the new Firebird engine.
As we know, LibreOffice is driven by the developer community and the case of LibreOffice 6.1 is no different. Around 72% of all commits are from developers working in Colabora, Red Hat, CIB, Pardus, etc. The rest 28% contribution comes from individual volunteers.
You can download LibreOffice 6.1 for Windows, Linux, and macOS using this link.
