LibreOffice has announced the release of its updated user guides for the entire productivity suite, covering Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, and Math for version 25.2, a huge task led by Jean Weber, who wrote the Writer guide, Olivier Hallot for Calc, and Peter Schofield for Impress, Draw, and Math.
This timing feels anything but coincidental. It seems pretty clear that LibreOffice is trying to court Windows and Office users who feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was just weeks ago that The Document Foundation was talking about the "real costs" of upgrading to Windows 11, including hardware obsolescence and being locked deeper into Microsoft's cloud.
The organization has been actively encouraging people to test Linux on something like a new partition, and now the newly published guides feel like the next logical step, offering a helping hand to anyone considering the jump.
The guides go into detail about how to use the software, but they also highlight what you get that you will not find in Microsoft Office. For example, Calc has a REGEX function for finding and replacing text using powerful patterns, something Excel just does not have. The Calc guide is even upfront about it, noting that if you need to share files with Excel users, you cannot fully use this feature because Excel will not understand it.
As for the changes that version 25.2 brings: UI tweaks, new privacy features for scrubbing personal data from files, better interoperability with things like improved font fallback for Microsoft's DOCX files, and more. The most recent beta, 25.8, goes even further to reach feature parity with Microsoft's suite by adding powerful spreadsheet functions like TEXTSPLIT and VSTACK.
Besides the coordinators, the guides saw contributions from Dione Maddern, Celia Palacios, Ed Olson, and several others who helped polish and update the content. The Document Foundation also noted that it has shortened the gap between the release of the software and the publication of these guides.
The good thing about LibreOffice is that you do not have to be a Linux user to try it out, since it is a full-fledged office suite available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, which you can download from our Software Stories page.
The guides for Calc, Writer, Math, Draw, and Impress are available now for free in both PDF and ODF formats. A print edition will also be available soon via Lulu Inc.
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