YOU’LL NEED THIS
A RECENT INSTALL OF LIBREOFFICE 24.2
Java Runtime Environment (For certain Base features)
LIBREOFFICE BEGAN its life in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice.org, which was itself an open-source fork of StarOffice. This productivity suite is developed and maintained by TDF (The Document Foundation), which remains loyal to its open-source roots. This means that unlike Microsoft Office, LibreOffice is cross platform as ports exist for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The suite consists of a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet software (Calc), presentation program (Impress), a vector graphics editor (Draw), an application for editing mathematical formulae (Math), and a database management program (Base). LibreOffice defaults to the OpenDocument Format when saving files, but can also open, edit, and save Microsoft formats like Microsoft Word (.docx).
The most recent release of LibreOffice (24.2.3) was made available in early May, and comes with some promising new features. While TDF doesn’t seek to emulate Microsoft Office exactly, LibreOffice does have very similar functionality, with the exception of offering a free online version in the vein of Office 365. Self-hosted solutions are available for ‘LibreOffice online’ for those with the time and patience to set up the suite on their own server.
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss the basics of setting up and customizing your LibreOffice install, as well as becoming familiar with the user interface of the principal apps.
