LibreOffice is the successor project to OpenOffice(.org), which in turn was based on StarOffice, a proprietary office suite developed in the 1990s. Learn more about the history here! And let’s hear from Stefan Soyka, who worked on StarOffice from 1990 – 1992…

When did you join Star Division, and what did you work on?

I came from Berlin to Hamburg to work for Marco Börries in his Star Lab in spring 1990, together with my friend and study mate Stefan. Both of us joined the project more or less at the same time and shared the same first name, which caused some confusion at first.

The situation in Hamburg needs some explaining if you are new to it. The Writer application that is the foundation of what we use today is not the first Star Writer – but thesedays it is often referred to as Star Writer 6 or Star Writer Graphic. Marco’s company Star Division, based in rural Lüneburg not far from Hamburg, had developed and sold with considerable success a text processing application with the same name, that was an MS-DOS application based on a home-grown graphics framework. A team of freelance programmers was working on it under the lead of Sven-Ola Tücke.

This was also the tool we used to write the first drafts for specifications, by the way.

The old Star Writer had a solid fanbase and sold quite well even after Star Lab started in Hamburg. So it is fair to say that the money we burned in Hamburg was earned in Lüneburg.

Marco, however, had the right feeling that graphical user interfaces were already around and taking up speed. The future (that is the time we live in now) would belong to applications running on the main graphical user interface platforms at this time, being Microsoft Windows, the X Window System and macOS. Of course there were voices that argued that graphical user interfaces were only hampering productivity and real pros would always use the command line. That may sound a bit funny today, but I took it all in my heart.

When I arrived there, development had pretty much advanced in the compatibility layer named Star View, that allowed portable programming of both operating system functions and graphical user interfaces. There was, however, no application yet. Because I had worked on a C++/X Window System project on the ODA standard (ISO 8613, Open Document Architecture), I had some background on this and formed with some others the core of the Star Writer project team.

Tell us about the office location and team back then!

The offices of Star Lab at that time were at Heidenkampsweg, near Berliner Tor, in Hamburg in a quite modern building. I remember the adjacent gas station; many of us were heavy cigarette-smokers at that time, and I sometimes went there at night to get the next pack.

Dirk Bartels supervised the daily operations. He had a software company back in Berlin and he expected benefits from the Star View portability layer for his own products. His personal secretary was Marita, if I remember the name correctly, a lovely young woman, I think the only one in the project at that time. When I joined the team, there were about twenty people working there including administrative staff.

Andreas, a good-natured guy with intense freckles, managed the Star View project. Almost all the coding however, at least for the Microsoft platform, was completed by Thomas – a very young man who was incredibly well-organized and productive, the type of coder who writes a screen full of statements that compile instantly error-free. He also virtually lived in the offices. The staffing for this platform was good; the other platforms had fewer developers. I remember Dirk, a shy young man who did the Macintosh port. One day, he showed us that all output appeared like upside down. It turned out that the Macintosh uses a y-origin different from the Microsoft platform (top left, I think). That gave him certainly some headaches.

Michael, a freelancer from Lüneburg, sometimes visited Star Lab in his tiny, first generation Mazda MX-5, that he could barely fit into. He was the only engineer who contributed to both the “classic” Star Writer with Sven-Ola Tücke, and Star Lab. He introduced the first Star Basic macro language. For the Windows platform, it had been worth thinking about a Star Writer application programmers interface or component object model (OLE at that time, but was just emerging in 1991 with Word and Excel), but with portability above all, this did not come to pass.

The team at this time was Euro-centric at least – effectively most staff members came from nearby. Another great developer in the Star View team, however, was Eddy McGreal, an Irish guy, whom I saw by incidence recently in a software product presentation he held. Can’t stop hacking.

Armin kept the business in order. He was also working on internationalisation. When he married, he invited all mates to comes and celebrate. It was in a small town in the moors, I don’t remember the name, but we had a great time. When we went back to Hamburg in the morning – hopefully at least the driver was more or less sober.

In the Star Writer team, Jürgen was the most productive programmer, about two meters tall with a sad face. Playing handball was his first priority, if he was not hacking. He did incredible work under the hood, like importing exotic files from other text processors, and never complained or missed a deadline. I think we never gave him enough credit for what he achieved.

Despite all the good work, the Star Writer project did not meet the expectations in the time when I was there. Later, I spent many thoughts on why we were not more successful in the beginning, because it felt like a wasted opportunity to me. It was not for the lack of ambition: there are folders full of splendid concepts and intricate specifications. But none of us had a good blueprint of the best way to start this enormous, complex task, I believe.

What was the toolset and development process like back then?

The object-oriented programming paradigm had evolved into the first C++ standard and implementations. Before I came to Hamburg, a pre-compiler was used, on Sun Workstations at least, to generate standard K&R C code, that was fed into the platform native C-compiler. The result was not always predictable or free of errors, but luckily, at Star Division, we had the one-step Microsoft C++ compiler, so we were a step ahead at this point.

Star View, however, was a huge library and the Microsoft linker had a hard time (and needed a long time) to do the static linking. When it came to a code freeze, that is the integration of the stable versions of all projects, Stefan used an egg timer so that he didn’t miss the time when the linker had finished, to see if there were problems with the linking or not. It took so long, you could easily forget it. If it failed, it needed fixes and another round. The whole process needed much time, until Stefan one day found out that someone had tackled the problem with the Microsoft linker and had released a better implementation that did the job in a fraction of the time.

Another paradigm that came up at the time was the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. It says, in short: what you see is only a volatile transformation of the model. The controller, like someone typing text into the application or a report generator producing table data output into a document, changes the model, which in turn from time to time updates the view.

Many in the project and even in the management were not comfortable with this procedure, because it appeared to make a simple thing unnecessarily complex. The argument was like: “This is meant to be a WYSIWYG text processor, and we need nothing beyond what the user sees on the screen, so let’s store this”. Nobody wanted to look at a document any different from before, when he or she opened it again – maybe on a different machine were fonts were missing or the display had a different resolution. There was a lot to explain and no proof that either concept was superior. What’s more, nobody could tell reliably and by their own experience, what adopting the MVC pattern for a text processing application meant in practice, and how the code would look like.

Then, the Unicode standard was evolving and a controversial debate started about what that meant for our plans. Speaking of 16-bit Unicode only, two aspects were unsettling: the same document would need twice the memory compared to 8-bit characters (we had no concept for memory management then and kept the whole document in RAM all the time, which obviously still needed some reworking). At that time, the model was using zero-terminated C strings for text paragraphs for the comfort of using the standard C string libraries.

Turning to Unicode, we would have to say goodbye to that and rewrite the functions we needed. It probably had not yet dawned everyone, that C strings would not suit the requirements of text attributes and formatting anyway.

UTF-8 strings, on the other hand had the downside that it was complicated to find out, how many character positions the output would use. Building substrings from UTF-8 strings is also a delicate matter, because the string can not be cut at any position without creating invalid UTF-8 character sequences.

Most of the developers working on StarOffice later will certainly be surprised, what basic considerations were moving us at the start, but man, this was all serious stuff.

StarWriter 3.1 (screenshot courtesy of WinWorld) and modern LibreOffice

Do you still use LibreOffice today, and do you have any contact with old Star Division team members?

Sorry to say that I have no contact any more with my has-been workmates. I left Star Division somewhat frustrated because it took so long for the good concepts to materialize and also, because I felt, I was not the right man to promote that. But I also had a pregnant girlfriend (now my wife) in Berlin, which was even a better reason to say good-bye.

Frankly, I was relieved and amazed to see the first product. It was not free at that time. I don’t think it really paid for Marco before it went to Sun Microsystems – anyway there was no free download. With my Zyxel 14.400 baud modem, it had taken a long time anyway. I got versions on batches of CDs from time to time from my friend Stefan, though, who was still with the project.

I was not so happy with the application at first, because at that time it was a monolithic “desktop” with all applications in its belly (like Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw, I believe), which took ages on my machine to load. I would have loved to see more collaboration in it: at that time that would meant an e-mail client and calendar.

Sometimes I thought to myself, “If I had to decide …” but ended with a sigh :“There would be no Star Writer to this very day”. In fact, it would be another interesting story, which changes it took to finally make it happen.

I never had Microsoft Office for myself (I like Microsoft Publisher for the themes and the artwork that came bundled with it, but somehow Pokémon Druckstudio was an acceptable replacement). I had to buy a Microsoft licence for my children though, because teachers did not expect that someone would not have access to Microsoft Office, and I was hesitant to end my child’s learning career over this.

I use LibreOffice almost every day now. It has all I need, and probably much more.

I use LibreOffice for my everyday correspondence, and less often I use it to create PDF files for printing. I have a nice set of Star Basic macros, and a good document template I load all the formatting from, to create a good-looking A5 format book from a text file or a website, in no time at all. Creating PDF files is very easy in LibreOffice, yet it has some uncommon features that come in very handy at times, like the option to export also blank pages (that would usually be omitted). Believe me, you don’t want to go to print without the blank pages.

The E-books that I create from the same document (printing is a bit out of fashion) have no frills (they could have, of course) but they are nice to read. I confess that I find it very convenient to load them into my Kindle account, from which I can read them on any device that comes near to me.

Well, I’m not a young man anymore, I like to say that before anyone else does, and programming to empower users (with more luck in later projects) is still my passion to this day. The StarOffice project has been with me more or (sometimes) less all the way, a bit like a child I gave up for adoption at an early age.

TDF says: Thanks to Stefan for the insights into the early days of StarOffice – and we’re happy to hear that he’s still using LibreOffice today!

Marco Marega writes:

Hi, I’m Marco, an Italian translator and Member of The Document Foundation. Twice a year I take part in an event in Pordenone to promote LibreOffice within the stand “Linux Arena” of the PNLUG Linux User Group. It’s inside a local fair, part of which is dedicated to technology, makers, electronics and so on.

For the event from April 25 – 27 we had a LibreOffice stand with a 32″ monitor, showing an Impress presentation about LibreOffice on a loop. At the stand I met different interested people – some of whom I already know since they visit the fair regularly, while others I saw for the first time.

There is always curiosity about LibreOffice, and this time I noticed an increasing demand about AI integration and related plugins. The LibreOffice coffee/beer mats were very much appreciated by visitors to the stand.

The Pordenone Linux User Group invited other associations to share the stand, so there were also:

• Trieste Linux Users Group, with a nice game to learn bash commands while trying to deactivate a bomb
• Odoo group, presenting the ERP/CRM/…
• Bergamo Linux Users group presenting OpenWRT and some other projects (Emiliano Vavassori is one of them)
• A Blender expert
• Another member who uses openSUSE for multimedia production
• A corner where volunteers helped visitors to install Linux on their PCs, or to solve little problems

The next edition of the event will be on 22 – 23 November.

Over the course of its 20-year history, the ODF standard has been adopted, or at least recommended, by numerous supranational bodies and several countries on almost every continent. However, this does not necessarily mean that the ODF standard is used in accordance with these decisions, which are often laws in their own right, as Microsoft’s substantial lobbying and misinformation campaigns aimed at protecting its revenue of around $25 billion generated by the proprietary OOXML format (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX) encourage the use of the latter. This is despite the fact that the disadvantages for national systems, communities of citizens and individuals are very easy to demonstrate: loss of control over content, interoperability problems and dependence on the commercial strategies of a single vendor.

The information in this post is based on my research into sources relating to the adoption or recommendations for the use of ODF. I began compiling this collection of documents around 2010 and continue to update it annually. Over the last twelve months, I have also used artificial intelligence in my research, which has helped me find some articles.

Unfortunately, formal adoption or recommendation of ODF does not guarantee its actual use in accordance with the law. For example, the latest version of Italy’s Digital Administration Code explicitly prohibits the use of OOXML because it is not a standard, yet this decision is largely ignored by public bodies.

SOVEREIGN BODIES

NATO requires all 28 member countries to use ODF as the standard format for document exchange.

UN and NGOs: UN organisations favour standard and open formats to ensure that all documents remain accessible and do not depend on expensive or restricted tools. This is why ODF is used for reports, policy drafts, and collaborative documentation between teams.

European Commission: has taken a strong stance in favour of open standards and promotes the use of formats such as ODF in documents through its open source software strategy. The European Parliament, the European Commission and the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) have integrated LibreOffice and ODF into their internal workflows to ensure greater transparency and language neutrality.

EUROPE

Belgium: Since September 2007, all Belgian federal government departments have been required to accept and read ODF documents, and a memorandum has established ODF as the standard for the exchange of office documents within the federal public administration.

Denmark: From 1 April 2011, the Danish Parliament has mandated the use of ODF by state authorities for the exchange and archiving of documents, whereas previously agencies were only required to accept ODF documents. In recent weeks, articles have claimed that the Danish government will formally migrate to open-source software and, therefore, to ODF. We are, of course, seeking confirmation of this project.

Finland: The Ministry of Justice and other ministries have adopted ODF as the main document format.

France: The Référentiel Général d’Interopérabilité (RGI) recommends ODF as the preferred format for office documents in public administrations. Agencies are therefore encouraged to use ODF for creating and archiving text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Germany: The German Council for Information Technology Planning, representing the federal and state governments, has committed to making ODF the standard for document management in public administration by 2027. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several federal courts already use ODF exclusively. Several federal states and municipalities have also switched to ODF-compatible office suites, such as LibreOffice and Collabora Online. ODF is cited as a core element of Schleswig-Holstein’s digital sovereignty strategy.

Italy: The Digital Administration Code only allows ODF in its guidelines for public administration, as OOXML does not meet the open standard criteria contained in the document’s glossary.

Netherlands: The Dutch government mandates the use of open standards, including ODF, for all data exchanges in the public sector, and adoption is monitored by an active political community that supports implementation.

Slovakia: All public authorities must be able to read and use ODF for electronic communication and publication of documents, including those with electronic signatures.

Spain (Andalusia and Extremadura): These regions require government agencies to use ODF (or PDF/A for static documents) for communication with each other and with citizens.

Switzerland: Government agencies are recommended to use ODF for document exchange with citizens or other agencies.

United Kingdom: In 2014, the British government adopted ODF as the sole standard for sharing and collaborating on editable documents across the public sector. The Home Office has a formal ODF adoption plan and does not reject ODF documents from citizens or businesses.

AMERICA

Argentina (Province of Misiones): The use of ODF is mandatory within government administrative organisations.

Brazil: Since 2010, proprietary formats have been prohibited in the federal public administration and ODF has been the standard for all office documents. It is mandatory in federal IT policies and is widely used in ministries and state governments. SERPRO (the federal data management service) ensures that national document workflows comply with the ODF standard.

Uruguay: public documents must use ODF for editable files and PDF for fillable forms and non-editable documents.

Venezuela: all federal government organisations must use ODF 1.0 for editable documents.

ASIA

India: India’s policy on the adoption of open standards for e-governance includes ODF as the preferred format for all federal and state services, particularly where vendor neutrality is critical for affordability and scalability.

Taiwan: The Ministry of Education has introduced ODF-compliant tools in all schools, and local governments use LibreOffice for daily administration.

AFRICA

South Africa: South Africa’s MIOS (Minimum Interoperability Standards) policy aims to ensure a future-proof digital government and access for all. It promotes open standards and lists ODF as an accepted format.

CASE STUDY

Monaco: In 2013, the city of Monaco made headlines when it migrated 15,000 desktops to Linux and OpenOffice/LibreOffice, adopting ODF. Despite positive results and significant cost savings, the project faced strong political opposition backed by the Microsoft lobby. In 2017, part of the migration was cancelled. This case is emblematic because it highlights the complexity of vendor lock-in and demonstrates the pressure that public institutions face from proprietary vendors to maintain a monopoly that is detrimental to the institutions themselves and their citizens.

Regina Henschel writes:

Susanne Mohn asked on the German-language user’s mailing list how to create a colour wheel with LibreOffice. It was not about the colours themselves, but about the geometry. How do you create a circle or ring with equally sized sectors?

Very different solutions were proposed. Susanne Mohn, Harald Berger and I (Regina Henschel) have created a page in the LibreOffice Wiki so that these do not remain hidden in a thread. Due to the development process, some sample files are in German, but the page itself is in English.

Colour wheels can be used to create “doughnut charts” of data. Have fun exploring!

The Document Foundation and LibreOffice support the international campaign @endof10 https://endof10.org/

The countdown has begun. On 14 October 2025, Microsoft will end support for Windows 10. This will leave millions of users and organisations with a difficult choice: should they upgrade to Windows 11, or completely rethink their work environment?

The good news? You don’t have to follow Microsoft’s upgrade path. There is a better option that puts control back in the hands of users, institutions, and public bodies: Linux and LibreOffice. Together, these two programmes offer a powerful, privacy-friendly and future-proof alternative to the Windows + Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

The real costs of switching to Windows 11

The move to Windows 11 isn’t just about security updates. It increases dependence on Microsoft through aggressive cloud integration, forcing users to adopt Microsoft accounts and services. It also leads to higher costs due to subscription and licensing models, and reduces control over how your computer works and how your data is managed. Furthermore, new hardware requirements will render millions of perfectly good PCs obsolete.

This is a turning point. It is not just a milestone in a product’s life cycle. It is a crossroads.

The new path: Linux + LibreOffice

These two programmes form the backbone of a free and open computing environment based on open standards. For individual users, public administrations, schools and businesses, this combination offers more than enough: it is mature and secure, and is already in use worldwide for mission-critical workloads. Furthermore, using open standards protects users against any attempts by software developers to control them.

Here’s what this alternative offers:

1. A modern, stable and unrestricted operating system, accessible to all users thanks to intuitive distributions that allow each user to choose the configuration that best suits their needs. It also offers regular updates, long-term support versions and communities where people can help each other and develop their digital knowledge together.
   Unlike Windows 11, Linux works with all personal computers that ran Windows 10, meaning there is no need to replace your old PC. Those with even older computers can also find a suitable version of Linux, extending their useful life and reducing electronic waste.
2. LibreOffice is a complete office suite offering word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing and database tools. It respects freedom and data because it is based on an open, standard document format (ODF), and is compatible with Microsoft’s proprietary formats (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX). This gives users control, as Microsoft cannot decide to end support at any time, as it is doing with Windows 10.
   LibreOffice is supported by a global community of volunteers, consultants, and companies who provide free and paid professional support, ensuring the ongoing development of the software and the prompt resolution of security and operational issues. There are no licence fees, telemetry or vendor lock-in.
3. Both Linux and LibreOffice are based on transparency. This means that all documents saved in the standard format will always be available because the format is open, and all documentation is available online. They also do not require a user licence subscription that protects the software vendor more than the user, and which contains incomprehensible legal clauses.
   Both the operating system and the software are managed by foundations, not companies. All activities, including development, quality assurance, problem-solving and the release of new versions, take place in public because users have the right to control the quality of the digital tools they use and entrust with their content.

What does migration look like?

Replacing Windows and Microsoft Office is not as difficult as it seems, either at an individual or corporate level. Many organisations around the world have already done so, and many others are planning to do so right now, precisely because they no longer want to be subject to the commercial strategies of Microsoft and its partners.

These are the key steps:

1. Start by testing Linux and LibreOffice on a second partition of your PC (for individuals) or in less critical departments (for companies).
2. Check the compatibility of your software configuration with Linux and LibreOffice; most office tasks can easily be transferred or adapted with minimal effort.
3. Build documentation to learn how Linux and LibreOffice work and organise training if necessary.
4. Find a consultant who can help with the migration process, such as someone certified by the Linux Professional Institute or The Document Foundation (for LibreOffice).

This is not a radical change, but rather a gradual, tailor-made transition depending on user needs.

It is important to start immediately

Microsoft is forcing users’ hands, but it is also opening a door. Now is the time to challenge your assumptions and take back control of how your personal computers work, how long they last, and most importantly, how your content is managed.

Linux and LibreOffice are not just alternatives; they are superior choices that most users have not considered until now because they trusted Microsoft — perhaps too much. This trust has been betrayed by the decision to abandon a functioning operating system such as Windows 10, purely to sell more products and lock users in further, which cannot be justified by any technological assessment.

Here’s how to get started:

• Choose Linux: https://distrochooser.de/
• Try LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/
• Find events and support for Linux: https://endof10.org/

The end of Windows 10 does not mark the end of choice, but the beginning of a new era. If you are tired of mandatory updates, invasive changes, and being bound by the commercial choices of a single supplier, it is time for a change. Linux and LibreOffice are ready — 2025 is the right year to choose digital freedom!

The Document Foundation and LibreOffice support the international campaign @endof10 https://endof10.org/

LibreOffice stands out as a privacy-respecting open source office suite. Unlike proprietary alternatives, the software is designed with privacy, user control and transparency in mind.

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Introduction

Concerns about end user privacy in the digital world have grown significantly over the past two decades, with and increasing awareness of data collection, user tracking and online surveillance. Many proprietary applications, including office productivity tools, often collect vast amounts of user data, in most cases without clear user consent.

All this has been clearly documented by Shoshanna Zuboff in her book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which is defined as a new economic strategy that uses the activities and experience of the individual as a free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, profiling and selling.

In this context, open source software differs substantially because respect for the user and for privacy are part of the ethical principles that guide the development of all applications. And LibreOffice stands out as the only office suite – open source or not – that respects privacy. Unlike proprietary alternatives, LibreOffice is designed with privacy, transparency, and user control of content in mind. The software does not collect telemetry data by default, does not include intrusive tracking functions, and allows users to work completely offline.

The following is a list of LibreOffice features and settings which help ensure end-user privacy, making the software a preferred choice for individuals, businesses and government institutions that prioritise data security.

No data collection or telemetry by default

One of the most significant privacy benefits of LibreOffice is its lack of telemetry by default. Unlike proprietary office suites that constantly send usage data back to their developers, LibreOffice does not collect or send any personal data without the user’s consent.

1. There are no background processes that track document usage, keystrokes or user activity.
2. LibreOffice does not create a unique user ID or track document interactions like some proprietary office suites do.
3. There is no built-in cloud storage requirement, ensuring that files remain on the user’s device unless manually uploaded elsewhere.

Optional telemetry with user consent

LibreOffice offers an optional telemetry feature, but it is entirely opt-in and requires explicit user consent. The collected data will only be used to improve the functionality of the software and will never be shared with third parties.

Full offline functionality

Unlike cloud-based office suites such as Google Docs, Microsoft 365 or Apple iWork, LibreOffice is a fully offline suite.

1. No forced cloud storage: documents remain on the local computer, reducing the risk of unauthorised access.
2. No dependence on an Internet connection: users can work in completely isolated environments.
3. No third-party server involvement: documents are never stored on a corporate server unless explicitly uploaded by the user.

For security-conscious organisations such as government agencies, law firms and healthcare providers, this offline capability ensures that sensitive documents never leave the internal network.

Open Document Format (ODF) for privacy and transparency

LibreOffice uses the Open Document Format (ODF) as its default file format. Unlike proprietary formats such as Microsoft’s DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, ODF is an open standard, which means:

1. It does not contain hidden tracking elements or embedded metadata that can leak user information.
2. It guarantees the integrity of the data in the long term because the format is fully documented, and the documentation is publicly available. Furthermore, the documentation corresponds to the format currently used by the software, unlike what happens with Microsoft 365 where the documentation is stuck at 2008.
3. It does not contain proprietary encryption mechanisms that could be exploited for surveillance or unauthorised access.

Control over metadata

Metadata can contain sensitive information such as: author details, document history, and editing timestamps. LibreOffice allows users to remove all metadata before sharing a document to ensure that private information is not inadvertently shared with external parties.

Strong encryption and password protection

LibreOffice provides robust document encryption to prevent unauthorised access. Users can protect their documents with strong passwords and encryption settings. This prevents unauthorised users from opening or modifying the file.

In addition, LibreOffice supports GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) encryption for users who require public key cryptography to secure their documents.

No cloud lock-in: freedom to choose storage

Unlike Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, which force all users to store documents in their respective cloud ecosystems, LibreOffice allows full control over file storage. This flexibility ensures that no third party can access user data without explicit permission.

Users can:

1. Store files locally on their hard drive or external storage.
2. Use self-hosted cloud services such as Nextcloud or ownCloud for increased privacy.
3. Store files on USB drives, encrypted partitions or private network servers.

Macro security and malware protection

Macros are often used in office documents for automation, but they can also be exploited to deliver malware. LibreOffice includes robust macro security settings to protect users.

1. By default, LibreOffice blocks macros from untrusted sources.
2. Users can only enable macros if they are signed with a trusted certificate.
3. The security level can be configured to prevents malicious actors from using macros as an attack vector.

Transparency and open source code

One of the biggest privacy benefits of LibreOffice is its open source nature. Unlike proprietary office suites that operate as black boxes, LibreOffice’s source code is publicly available and regularly audited by the security community. This level of transparency and user control makes LibreOffice a trusted alternative to closed-source office suites.

1. No hidden spyware: because anyone can inspect the code, LibreOffice cannot contain hidden trackers or surveillance tools.
2. Independent security audits: governments, cybersecurity experts and researchers can verify LibreOffice’s privacy claims.
3. No forced updates: users have complete control over when and how they update LibreOffice, avoiding unwanted feature changes or telemetry settings.

Conclusion

LibreOffice is the most privacy-conscious office suites available today. With no telemetry by default, full offline functionality, strong encryption, metadata control and open source transparency, it provides users with a secure and private environment for document creation and collaboration.

For individuals, businesses and governments concerned about privacy and digital sovereignty, LibreOffice is a reliable, free and ethical alternative to proprietary office suites.

As privacy concerns continue to grow in the digital age, LibreOffice remains committed to ensuring that users retain full control over their data: a core principle that sets it apart from many commercial alternatives.

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or make a donation. Thank you!

With LibreOffice 24.8 close to end of life, all users are invited to update their free office suite to the latest release

Berlin, 6 June 2025 – The Document Foundation is pleased to announce the release of LibreOffice 25.2.4, the fourth maintenance release of the LibreOffice 25.2 family for Windows (Intel, AMD and ARM), MacOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux, available for download at https://www.libreoffice.org/download [1].

With LibreOffice 24.8 approaching the end of life, this release – which includes dozens of fixes and enhancements that further improve the suite’s performance, reliability and interoperability – is ready for production environments. We invite all users to update their installation as soon as possible.

LibreOffice 25.2.4 is based on the LibreOffice Technology, which enables the development of desktop, mobile and cloud versions – either from TDF or from the ecosystem – that fully support the two ISO standards for document formats: the open ODF or Open Document Format (ODT, ODS and ODP) and the closed and proprietary Microsoft OOXML (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX).

Products based on the LibreOffice Technology are available for all major desktop operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS), mobile platforms (Android and iOS) and the cloud.

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF recommends a LibreOffice Enterprise optimized version from one of the ecosystem companies, with dedicated value-added features and other benefits such as SLAs and security patch backports for three to five years.

English manuals for LibreOffice 25.2 Write, Impress, Draw and Math are available for download at https://books.libreoffice.org/en/. End users can get first-level technical support from volunteers on the user mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website: https://ask.libreoffice.org.

Downloading LibreOffice

All available versions of LibreOffice for the desktop can be downloaded from the same website: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/.

LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can support The Document Foundation and the LibreOffice project by making a donation: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate.

[1] Fixes in RC1: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/25.2.4/RC1. Fixes in RC2: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/25.2.4/RC2. Fixes in RC3: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/25.2.4/RC3.

At the beginning of May, we began a new Month of LibreOffice campaign, celebrating community contributions all across the project. We do these every six months – so how many people got sticker packs this time? Check it out…

This is a huge increase over the last campaign, in November, which had 301 winners. So that’s fantastic work, everyone! Hundreds of people, all across the globe, have helped out in our projects and communities. And those are just community contributions, not including the hundreds more from our ecosystem and certified developers!

We’re hugely thankful for the work – and, of course, everyone who’s listed on the wiki page can get a sticker pack, with the stickers shown above.

How to claim

If you see your name (or username) on this page, get in touch! Email mike.saunders@documentfoundation.org with:

• your name (or username) from the wiki page
• and your postal address

…and we’ll send you a bunch of stickers for your PC, laptop and other kit. (Note: your address will only be used to post the stickers, and will be deleted immediately afterwards.) If you contributed to the project in May but you’re not on the wiki page, please let us know what you did, so that we can add you!

There is one more thing…

And we have an extra bonus: ten contributors have also been selected at random to get an extra piece of merchandise – a LibreOffice hoodie, T-shirt, rucksack or snazzy glass mug. Here are the winners (names or usernames) – we’ll get in touch personally with the details:

• Takenori Yasuda
• koyotak
• Andrew Kopf
• HiTom
• bantoniof
• Dominick
• Jeremy Norvell
• skyandrews
• Johan van der Knijff
• Yashodhan Sawardekar

Congratulations to all the winners, and a big thanks once again to everyone who took part – your contributions keep the LibreOffice project strong. We plan to have another Month of LibreOffice in November, but everyone is welcome to see what they can do for LibreOffice at any time!

Xisco Fauli, Ilmari Lauhakangas and Mike Saunders from The Document Foundation, the non-profit organisation behind LibreOffice, discuss Quality Assurance (QA) in free and open source software . (This video is also available on PeerTube.)

Here’s our summary of updates, events and activities in the LibreOffice project in the last four weeks – click the links to learn more…

• We started May with a new Month of LibreOffice campaign! This is something we do every six months, to say thank you to contributors and encourage more people to join our project. We’ll post the final results here very soon…

• Throughout the month, we posted many sections from the 2024 Annual Report of The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice, including documentation, quality assurance, native language projects, marketing activities and websites, blogs and social media.

• Next, we reported back from the LibreOffice Community at FLISOL Brasilia 2025.

• This year’s LibreOffice Conference will take place in Budapest from 4 – 6 September, and the call for papers is now open. Submit a talk, and we hope to seeing you there!

• On May 8, we announced LibreOffice 24.8.7, the seventh and last minor release of the LibreOffice 24.8 family. After this, all users are strongly recommended to upgrade to the LibreOffice 25.2 branch.

• On Fridays during May, we posted about ODF – the Open Document Format, as used by LibreOffice and many other apps. We started with an ODF 20th anniversary video, followed by a detailed look at what exactly ODF is, why it’s important and how it compares to proprietary formats.

• Half-way through May, we announced the projects selected for LibreOffice in the Google Summer of Code 2025. We’re looking forward to seeing the results!

Keep in touch – follow us on Mastodon, Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and Facebook. Like what we do? Support our community with a donation – or join our community and help to make LibreOffice even better!

Design has been one of the major focus points of LibreOffice in recent years. The design/UX community has continued to support QA by evaluating user reports on Bugzilla, helping development with mockups, and mentoring volunteers and students in different projects.

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Besides a large number of fixed issues on macOS thanks to Patrick Luby, and continuous work on the Navigator by Jim Raykowski, we had many more improvements – here is just a small selection:

Improvements in LibreOffice 24.2

The column/row for active cells can be highlighted in Calc (implemented by Sahil Gautam)

Tools ▸ Options was complemented by a search feature (Bayram Çiçek)

Comment styles were introduced for quick and consistent formatting of all comments (Maxim Monastirsky) (depicted in the screenshot at the top of this post)

Improvements in LibreOffice 24.8

Bundled templates were refactored with localized placeholders (Laurent Balland)

New “Quick Find” deck in the Sidebar, which lists the search results along with their context (Khushi Gautam)

Formatting characters are now treated independently from fields and do not toggle with non-printable characters (Heiko Tietze)

“Keep Ratio” settings in the Position and Size dialogs are more intuitive now with a lock symbol and reference lines (Heiko Tietze)

Hovering over a layer’s tab in Draw highlights the objects it contains (Jim Raykowski)

Among many other improvements to the Basic IDE, a dialog was added that allows users to pick one of six syntax highlighting colour schemes (Rafael Lima)

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or make a donation. Thank you!

When we create or share a document – whether a simple text, complex spreadsheet or professional presentation – we make a choice that goes far beyond the file extension. This is because the format gives us, or takes away, control over the content.

This post compares the Open Document Format (ODF) with proprietary formats such as DOCX, XLSX and PPTX. The comparison is not just about compatibility, but also about freedom, security, costs, transparency, and our long-term digital future.

We have already discussed ODF, and we will continue to do so until its 10th anniversary as an ISO/IEC standard in May 2026, because it is the only open standard available to users. We hope that an increasing number of users will understand how important it is for them to use it to have complete and lasting control over the content they have created, i.e. for their digital freedom, rather than for those of us who support it.
ODF is the native format of LibreOffice and other programmes that use the LibreOffice Technology platform. These programmes offer the same functionality, flexibility, security, robustness and interoperability as applications that promote proprietary formats, but without the lock-in strategy.

Incidentally, even so-called open-source applications (read their AGPL licence to understand why we say “so-called”) handle documents in ODF format, yet continue to promote their own formats, preventing users from having full control over their content – because this would jeopardise their business strategy.

So, what are proprietary formats?

They are developed and controlled by a single company and are typically only fully supported within that company’s ecosystem. Common examples include .docx, .xlsx and .pptx (Microsoft), as well as .pages, .numbers and .key (Apple) and .gdoc, .gsheet and .gslides (Google). While the specifications for these formats may be public, this does not mean they are completely open, as support is always limited by what the provider allows or documents, and is dictated by their commercial strategies.

Comparison between ODF and proprietary formats

1. Control and vendor lock-in

ODF

• Completely open and standardised
• Anyone can implement or use it without legal restrictions
• The user, not the software provider, controls the documents

Proprietary formats

• Designed and controlled by a single provider
• File characteristics and behaviour may change without notice
• Users are often forced to update their software in order to access their documents

Example: If Microsoft changes how DOCX handles embedded fonts or custom styles, users of older versions of Microsoft software or compatible applications may have difficulty viewing or reading files.

2. Interoperability and compatibility

ODF

• Designed with interoperability in mind
• Promotes consistency in formatting and behaviour across different platforms and software
• Facilitates the development of a multi-vendor ecosystem

Proprietary formats

• Optimised for performance within the vendor’s software
• Third-party implementations often encounter compatibility issues
• File rendering may vary depending on the platform, particularly for advanced formatting

Example: A spreadsheet with complex macros in .xlsx format that works correctly with Excel may not work, or may lose functionality, when used with LibreOffice Calc or Google Sheets.

3. Transparency and trust

ODF

• The format is documented, and matches the documentation
• Data storage is also documented, and users control their files’ location
• There are no secrets or hidden metadata, and the XML file is user readable

Proprietary formats

• They may contain undocumented metadata or behaviour, and the XML file is not user readable
• The complex and opaque structure of the files can create security issues, and files’ location is not controlled by the user
• It is not always clear what information is embedded (e.g. edit history and comments)

Example: a DOCX file may contain residual metadata, such as the names of authors, the date and time of changes, and comments, even after they have been removed.

4. Digital preservation and long-term access

ODF

• Designed for compatibility, interoperability, and long-term archiving
• Recommended by governments (UK, Taiwan, the Netherlands and France) and supranational organisations (EU, NATO)
• Open and future-proof, with regular updates from a known Technical Committee overseen by OASIS

Proprietary formats

• Risk of format obsolescence (remember .doc, .wps and .wpd?)
• Require specific software versions to access older files

Example: a government archive using ODF can be confident that it will still be able to access documents in 20 years’ time, while this is not guaranteed by proprietary formats, which are closely linked to the lifecycles of corporate products.

5. Public sector and legal obligations

Governments and institutions around the world should switch to open standards to ensure data sovereignty and reduce dependence on specific suppliers.

• The UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Taiwan have all launched initiatives to promote ODF
• The European Union’s open-source strategy recommends using ODF in all public administrations
• Italy’s Digital Administration Code supports open formats for public documents to ensure long-term accessibility

Why? Because public data should be open and accessible, not locked behind corporate paywalls or licence terms.

6. Costs and licences

ODF

• Free to use and implement
• No licence fees, subscription costs or vendor lock-in

Proprietary formats

• Almost always tied to paid software (e.g. Microsoft 365)
• In some cases, access requires a cloud account and/or an active subscription
• There are often restrictions on redistribution and format conversion

Example: If a school switches from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice and adopts the OpenDocument Format (ODF), it can save thousands of euros in licence costs without sacrificing functionality for students.

7. Innovation and community support

ODF

• Developed transparently by a global community
• Supported by several applications, both open source and proprietary
• Open to improvements by anyone, under the Technical Committee overview

Proprietary formats

• Innovation is centralised and constrained by the company roadmap, and development is closed and not transparent
• Feature priorities are determined by revenue, and not by user needs

Example: Users can propose new features for ODF, contribute code, and fund development, all without having to wait for the company’s priorities to align with their own.

Conclusion: Why ODF matters

The choice of ODF is not linked to ideology or politics. It is a choice that offers users significant practical benefits: complete control over their data; independence from a single company’s tools, strategies and business model; the ability to access and share documents more reliably on any hardware platform or operating system; and support for an ecosystem where open standards drive progress rather than profit margins. ODF stands for transparency, freedom, and openness to the future. Try it, it’s easy and doesn’t cost anything. Download LibreOffice and you’re done.

By helping to translate and market LibreOffice around the world, native language projects bring enthusiasm and passion to the global community. Here’s what they did in 2024…

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

Armenian

In 2024, the Armenian translation of LibreOffice reached 100% thanks to the efforts of Tigran Zargaryan. The suite was offered in Armenian for the first time. In addition, he ensured that the strings in the LibreOffice UI-master, website, Android Viewer and Help also reached 100% translated.

In appreciation for Tigran’s work, TDF invited him to join the LibreOffice Conference 2024 in Luxembourg using the foundation’s travel support programme.

Czech

Throughout the year, Czech speakers worked on keeping the translation of LibreOffice’s UI complete, and the Help content around 95%. They presented the software at booths at two events: InstallFest in Prague in April, and LinuxDays in Prague in October.

They supported LibreOffice users on the Czech Ask site, and maintained social media accounts including X (Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. They also introduced a new Mastodon account.

Czech speakers produced many translated user guides in 2024, including the Getting Started Guide 24.8, Writer Guide 24.2 and Impress guide 7.5. And throughout the year they maintained the Czech LibreOffice website.

Danish

Speakers of Danish brought the user interface translation of LibreOffice up to 100%, while the Help content approached 100% (that goal was finally reached two months into 2025). They also translated the subtitles for LibreOffice videos covering features in new major releases.

Dutch

Dutch-speaking community members supported users by answering questions on the Ask LibreOffice website and mailing lists. They also translated the following guidebooks: the Calc Guide for LibreOffice 7.6 (translated and published in January); the Writer Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (March); the Calc Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (June); the Draw guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (July); the Impress Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (July); the Getting Started Guide for LibreOffice 24.2 (August); the Impress Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (October); the Draw Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (December); the Writer Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (December); and the Math Guide for LibreOffice 24.8 (December).

On Weblate, the community managed to keep up with the changes of the UI, maintaining it at 100% translated. Although the Help content kept growing they were able to maintain it at 100% translated.

Community members also set up a stand at the NLLGG in May 2024 – a conference of the Dutch Linux community. There, LibreOffice users could obtain information and ask questions about LibreOffice, whether or not in conjunction with a Linux operating system.

They also had a stand at the LocHal open source event in November 202 – another conference of the Dutch Linux community.

Finnish

There was ongoing translation of the LibreOffice user interface and (to a lesser extent) Help, along with ongoing recruitment of volunteers on the vapaaehtoistyo.fi online platform. In addition, there was translation of the upcoming LibreOffice website redesign.

French

Thanks to the French-speaking community, translations on Weblate were maintained at 100% for all versions of LibreOffice. There were also other translations: the new website (based on Hugo); Calc functions on the wiki; press releases and video subtitles for LibreOffice “New Features” videos; and release notes for all versions.

In terms of events, community members were present at Capitole du Libre (Toulouse) and Open Source Experience (Paris). There was also coordination with UBO University for LibreOffice guidebook translations by translator students.

German

In terms of translations and documentation, the German-speaking community continued their work on Weblate by translating LibreOffice’s user interface and Help content. They also translated the release notes for major updates of the software, blog posts from TDF’s English blog, and published videos in German showing and explaining various features in LibreOffice. In addition the German community updated the Base Guide for versions 24.2 and 24.8.

Development continued on the XRechnungs-Extension for the new German legal requirements (which became effective in January 2025).

Members of the German-speaking community attended various events throughout the year to promote LibreOffice and encourage more people to join the project, such as the Univention Summit 2024 in January, Chemnitz Linux Days 2024 in March, FrOSCon in August and 38c3 in December.

Finally, the community helped to raise awareness of the ongoing migration of 30,000 PCs to LibreOffice in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Japanese

The Japanese community had its local annual conference, LibreOffice Kaigi 2024 Online – which they reported about on their blog.

There were also Online Study Parties, held twice, where users shared knowledge and interacted with each other. And then there were 44 online hackfests throughout the year, where participants worked together in the community to make progress on tasks and transfer skills. They mainly checked the Japanese Ask LibreOffice website and tried to answer questions, but also did some UI translation, and occasionally bug triaging and bug reporting. All online events were held on Jitsi and streamed live on YouTube.

Meanwhile, there were in-person events every month in Awaji, Osaka City. They were held jointly with Open Awaji, an event themed around open data and the movement to open cities. Other activities at events included having booths and open source conferences (Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Tokyo, and Fukuoka). There was also the Kansai Open Forum 2024, an event for open source and IT communities in the Kansai region that has been held annually since 2002. Attendees talked about LibreOffice.

Japanese community members participated in the LibreOffice Asia Conference 2024 and COSCUP (Taiwan), along with the openSUSE.Asia Summit 2024 (Tokyo).

Six people from Japan participated in the LibreOffice Asia Conference 2024 in Taipei, two of whom gave joint presentations. Many members of the FLOSS community outside of the LibreOffice project who participated in COSCUP also attended the LibreOffice Community Party.

In terms of translations into Japanese, the user interface was 93% complete, and Help content 48% complete. There were also guidebook translations (Writer, Calc etc.) – Meguro-san translated using TexTra, a machine translation service provided by NICT, a Japanese government research institute.

On Japanese Ask LibreOffice, 101 questions or comments were added in 2024, while on the blog, community members posted 19 articles; these mainly consisted of translating the English TDF blog, especially the release announcements. And finally, on social media, the Japanese LibreOffice X (Twitter) account had: 2936 followers and 65 posts, while on Facebook there were: 624 followers and 23 posts. The Japanese community has created a Bluesky account but has not yet started using it fully.

Norwegian – Nynorsk

The Nyorsk project is led by one translator (Kolbjørn Stuestøl) who has maintained the user interface and Help content translations for LibreOffice at 100%.

Portuguese (Brazil)

One of the community’s key achievements was the publication of the Guia do Writer 7.6, a fully revised Portuguese translation of the Writer Guide 7.6, initially generated through machine translation and then carefully edited for linguistic accuracy and style. To streamline future translation efforts, the community launched a GitHub project utilizing the OmegaT computer-assisted translation tool, which integrates machine translation to reduce rework and improve quality control.

The local team — Tim Brennan, Tulio Macedo, and Olivier Hallot — successfully completed the full translation of both the user interface and Help content into Brazilian Portuguese. Rafael Lima contributed significantly by enhancing the Operations Research tools, commonly known as “Solver,” making them fully functional.

Weekly community meetings were held every Wednesday at 21:00 local time, providing a space to discuss all aspects of the LibreOffice environment and stay updated on developments from TDF.

The community also revamped the announcements for LibreOffice versions 24.2 and 24.8 with multimedia content tailored for Brazilian social media platforms, greatly expanding their reach — an effort led by Eliane Domingos.

Support and engagement remained strong across multiple channels, including active participation in the Brazilian Portuguese section of the Ask LibreOffice forum, two dedicated Telegram groups, Facebook and Instagram communities, and the ongoing translation of wiki pages, with notable contributions from Diego.

Spanish

Spanish speakers worked on updating their translation of the LibreOffice Base tutorial book (by Mariano Casanova), reaching 80% translation status. 31 articles were published on the Spanish blog, and community members worked on updating the LibreOffice UI translation (99%) and Help content (around 80%). They also published various guidebooks: Draw Guide 7.6 (in ODT, PDF and HTML formats); Calc Guide 7.5 (in ODT, PDF and HTML formats); and the Math Guide 7.3 (in HTML format).

Tagalog

The LibreOffice Tagalog localization project was relaunched in April 2024 after it was discovered that a previous effort had been abandoned years earlier. Motivated by the opportunity to complete the project for the benefit of both the global and local community, a new initiative was launched with the goal of finishing the translation within a year.

Working closely with the LibreOffice localisation support community, the project followed a consistent schedule of weekly and monthly progress updates. A key focus was integrating and automating translations using three different AI language tools, which included implementing verification processes, suggestions, and comments to ensure quality.

Technical workflows were developed to compile developer edition translations on a bi-weekly basis using Linux Mint, with results verified and shared through best practices posts on a US-based technology blog. The project also drew on the support of Filipino relatives to better understand and incorporate the nuances of various Filipino dialects, enhancing translation accuracy and cultural relevance.

The translation work was completed ahead of schedule in January 2025 – four months earlier than planned. Fine-tuning continued with the help of the l10n support team to correct inaccuracies, particularly in the LibreOffice menus. (The screenshot below shows TDF’s Weblate instance being used to translate LibreOffice into Tagalog.)

In a further step toward community impact, the project began outreach to local contacts in Manila to share tools and methods used in the localization process, aiming to support similar efforts in K–12 education and non-profit business software across the Philippines.

Thank you to everyone

These are just some of the native language projects in the LibreOffice community, who provided summaries for the Annual Report. But there are many more – so we at The Document Foundation would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who in the native language communities. Your work makes LibreOffice accessible to hundreds of millions of people around the world, and your passion is wonderful. Thank you so much!

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or make a donation. Thank you!

Consider the history of control over user files, whether for organisations or individuals

Think about all the documents you have created in your lifetime: School assignments. Work presentations and reports. Household budgets. Letters. Perhaps even a personal diary or your CV.

Now imagine this: a few years go by, and when you try to open one of those files, it doesn’t work. The software has disappeared. Or it has been updated and no longer supports that format. Or you have to pay to unlock it.

It’s not just frustrating. It’s a real problem. That’s why the Open Document Format (ODF) was created: it’s a file format that allows computers to save documents such as letters, spreadsheets and presentations. You can recognise these files by their extensions: .odt for text files, .ods for spreadsheets and .odp for presentations.

What makes ODF special is that it is an open, transparent format that doesn’t hide anything from users. This means that anyone can use it freely; no company owns or controls it; and it is designed to work with different software, even years later. In short, it gives you control over your documents.

Let’s look at some everyday situations in which ODF can be useful:

Long-term access: you write your memoirs or your family history. Ten years later, you want to read or share them. With ODF, you don’t have to worry about the software becoming unavailable or obsolete.

Barrier-free education: A teacher asks students to submit their assignments digitally. With ODF, there is no need to purchase expensive software, as you can use a free tool such as LibreOffice instead.

Job search and consulting: create your CV in an open format so that anyone, regardless of their operating system (Windows, macOS or Linux) or application, can open it without encountering any formatting errors. You don’t even have to buy the software.

Sharing files with other users: you can send a document to a colleague or family member and they can open it without any problems, regardless of the programme they use. This is the advantage of a format that does not “belong” to a single company.

Public services: official documents in an open format can be accessed by everyone forever without them having to purchase or update software.

Unfortunately, most people forego all this because they use formats such as .docx (Word) or .xlsx (Excel). These are proprietary formats exclusively owned by Microsoft and can change at any time depending on their business strategies. Microsoft may require a subscription fee for a specific version, as older files may not be compatible with newer ones.

Proprietary formats can also cause problems when documents are opened with a different version of the same application, as the text and images may move and the document may look different. Sometimes, files do not open because the format is not recognised. This is not only annoying, but also risky if the file is important.

This is known as ‘lock-in’, a strategy that prevents users from choosing the software they prefer because migrating to a different format could result in the loss of all their content.

ODF, on the other hand, means freedom of choice, no restrictions, reduced costs, privacy, openness to the future and trust in technology. You don’t need to be a technology expert to use it; you just need to understand why it was created and why it has continued to grow for 20 years. Using ODF is like saving your documents in your own safe: it won’t suddenly disappear or require you to pay a monthly fee.

ODF also means security and transparency. ODF files are ZIP containers that use simple XML syntax, which any user can understand. This makes security checks much easier, allowing for automation and integration with companies’ CMS/ERP systems.

The digital agenda has always emphasised open standards, interoperability, and data portability. ODF fits perfectly into this landscape, not only replacing .docx or .xlsx, but also rejecting software that treats user data as a product.

ODF gives users full control over their documents. This is not just a technical detail; it ensures that documents belong to their creators, not the software used to process them. ODF enables us to assert ownership of our documents.

In 2024, The Document Foundation and its global LibreOffice community undertook a variety of marketing initiatives aimed at increasing visibility, fostering community engagement, and driving adoption of LibreOffice

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

LibreOffice and Open Source Conference 2024 in Luxembourg

A major highlight of TDF’s 2024 marketing activities was the LibreOffice and Open Source Conference, held from October 10 to 12 in Luxembourg. The annual event brought together contributors from around the world, including developers, designers, documentation writers, translators, and marketers.

Marketing efforts for the conference included:

• A targeted social media campaign promoting the event’s location, speakers, and agenda.
• Outreach to local technology communities and universities in Luxembourg to boost participation.
• The creation of promotional graphics and materials highlighting the conference themes and goals.
• Live updates and content shared across LibreOffice’s social channels to engage a remote audience.

The conference acted as a vital showcase of LibreOffice’s progress, community strength, and future plans.

“Month of LibreOffice” Campaigns

Throughout May and November 2024, TDF organized its recurring “Month of LibreOffice” initiative. This campaign aimed to recognize and reward community contributors across various roles, including development, documentation, QA and marketing.

Participants who contributed during the campaign period were acknowledged through:

• Special edition badges awarded digitally.
• Public recognition via blog posts and social media.
• Incentives like stickers and merchandise shipped to selected contributors.

This initiative not only celebrated existing contributors but also attracted new participants interested in supporting open source software.

Launch of the LibreOffice Podcast Series

In November 2024, TDF launched its LibreOffice Podcast, a new platform to discuss topics related to LibreOffice and the wider world of open source software. The podcast aimed to:

• Share success stories from migrations to LibreOffice.
• Offer insights into FOSS marketing strategies.
• Feature interviews with developers and community leaders.
• Provide behind-the-scenes looks at the ongoing work within TDF.

The first episode focused on marketing strategies for FOSS, with discussions on how to engage institutions and governments in adopting LibreOffice.

Enhanced Social Media and Content Strategy

In 2024, TDF expanded and optimized its social media presence. Alongside its traditional platforms like Twitter (X) and Facebook, TDF increased its focus on:

• Mastodon: engaging the open-source community on federated social platforms.
• LinkedIn: Sharing professional success stories, including case studies on large-scale LibreOffice deployments.
• Regular posting of blog content, including release announcements, tutorials, and community spotlights.
• Short video clips and graphics to make content more accessible and visually engaging.

These efforts aimed to grow the project’s audience, particularly among decision-makers in public administration and enterprises.

Native Language Community Outreach

TDF placed a strong emphasis on supporting native language communities. The marketing team worked with volunteers worldwide to produce localized materials, including:

• Press releases for new LibreOffice versions.
• Social media templates and visual assets.
• Brochures explaining the benefits of LibreOffice in local contexts.

Several regions ran independent marketing initiatives, including:

• Nepal: workshops for students on using LibreOffice Writer to create professional resumes.
• India: local events demonstrating LibreOffice’s potential for government offices and educational institutions.

Workshops, Training and Community Events

Throughout the year, TDF organized workshops and training sessions aimed at onboarding new users and contributors. These included:

• Online training for translators and QA testers.
• Regional events offering hands-on experience with LibreOffice migrations.
• Webinars aimed at IT administrators exploring LibreOffice deployment in enterprise environments.

The Open Source Workshops helped public sector organizations understand the benefits of LibreOffice and how it can replace proprietary office suites.

Outreachy and Template Development

LibreOffice participated in the Outreachy program, with a focus on developing new templates for LibreOffice Writer. These templates included resumes, reports, and business documents aimed at improving the user experience and broadening appeal, particularly for users migrating from proprietary suites.

Marketing activities highlighted:

• How templates increase productivity.
• The contributions of new developers and designers participating in the Outreachy program.
• The availability of these templates through LibreOffice’s website and community channels.

Media and Press Relations

TDF continued its media relations work, distributing regular press releases covering:

• New LibreOffice releases and features.
• Major migrations by organizations and governments.
• Events such as LibreOffice Conference and Month of LibreOffice campaigns.

TDF’s press outreach focused on reinforcing LibreOffice’s position as a cost-effective, secure, and privacy-respecting alternative to proprietary office suites.

Download Statistics and User Adoption

The marketing efforts in 2024 yielded significant results:

• Download Milestone: by the end of 2024, LibreOffice surpassed 400 million cumulative downloads since its inception in 2011, with an average of 28.6 million downloads per year.
• Weekly Downloads: Weekly downloads approached 1 million, marking the highest figures since 2023.
• Public Sector Adoption: The German state of Schleswig-Holstein announced plans to migrate 30,000 PCs to LibreOffice, aiming for completion by 2026.

Conclusion

In 2024, through conferences, campaigns, podcasts, and media outreach, TDF advanced its mission of promoting free and open source software while making LibreOffice more accessible and trusted around the world. These marketing efforts not only amplified LibreOffice’s visibility but also demonstrated the value of community-driven open source projects in delivering professional-grade software solutions.

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or make a donation. Thank you!

An introduction to the Open Document Format

The documents we create today, whether reports, spreadsheets or presentations, are essential for communicating, sharing and storing knowledge. However, the format in which these documents are saved often goes unnoticed. This is where the Open Document Format (ODF) comes in. ODF is a technical standard and a tool that ensures documents remain accessible, editable and usable over time without being tied to a specific vendor or product.

Approved by OASIS as an open standard document format in May 2005 and by ISO/IEC in May 2006, ODF has been around for over 20 years. Despite 20 years having passed, most productivity software users are not familiar with the format and therefore do not use it, as it is not as widespread as its proprietary counterpart, Microsoft OOXML.

This means that a huge number of documents — equivalent to over 100 zettabytes of data in 2025 — are subject to the commercial strategies of a company and completely beyond the control of their authors. These authors may suddenly find themselves unable to manage their own content unless they use specific software.

This also means that the enormous wealth of information contained in these documents does not contribute to the growth of collective intelligence because they are limited in terms of interoperability due to being tied to a single, specific, proprietary software.

Furthermore, Microsoft’s touted backward compatibility feature prevents true innovation in document formats because the presence of proprietary elements from old binary formats, which are not included in the ODF standard, forces documents to remain with technologies that have long been obsolete and incompatible with future developments.

What is ODF?

ODF is an open standard for saving and exchanging office documents. It includes text files (.odt), spreadsheets (.ods), presentations (.odp), and other types of documents, such as drawings (.odg). Developed by OASIS, an organisation that promotes structured information standards, it was approved by ISO/IEC as the international standard ISO/IEC 26300 in 2006.

Put simply, ODF is a universal language for documents, ensuring they can be read and written by any compatible software without locking users into a single ecosystem.

To understand the importance of ODF, it is helpful to know how proprietary formats work. When a document is saved in a Microsoft format, such as .docx, or an Apple format, such as .pages, it is often designed to work best with that company’s software only. Over time, this can cause problems such as limited compatibility, vendor lock-in, and the risk of obsolescence if the proprietary format is abandoned or changed significantly, as older documents may become unreadable.

ODF avoids these problems. It is completely open and free, meaning that anyone can implement it in their software, and users can switch between tools without losing access to their files.

ODF is not limited to text documents, but includes a wide range of office document types, including .odt (OpenDocument Text) for text documents such as reports, letters and books; .ods (OpenDocument Spreadsheet) for data analysis, tables and financial models; .odp (OpenDocument Presentation) for presentations with visual content; .odg (OpenDocument Graphics) for diagrams and vector graphics, as well as documents containing text and images; and .odf (OpenFormula) for formulas used in ODS spreadsheets.

Each of these document types is structured in such a way as to allow maximum compatibility while maintaining formatting and advanced software features.

How does ODF compare with Microsoft document formats?

Feature	ODF	Microsoft (docx. xlsx, pptx)
Open Standard	Yes	No
Long Term Archiving	Solid Support	Risk of Format Changes Risk of Online Dependency
Offline Support	Fully Supported	Supported
Editable without Vendor Software	Yes	Limited

Common misconceptions about ODF

It is not as feature-rich as .docx or .xlsx

False. ODF supports complex formatting, styles, images, tables, charts, macros and more. Its feature set is robust and evolving thanks to contributions from a global community of developers and users.

No one uses ODF

This is also false. In fact, millions of users worldwide use ODF-compatible software every day. LibreOffice alone has tens of millions of active users worldwide.

It doesn’t work with my existing documents

ODF-compatible software, such as LibreOffice, can open, edit and export many formats, including .docx and .xlsx. Switching to ODF is easy and you won’t lose access to your existing files.

The future of ODF

The growing importance of digital documents in every sector, including education, public administration and business, is bound to impact the adoption of the ODF format because users cannot continue to use a format that disadvantages them in every way. Furthermore, the number of countries adopting policies based on open standards and demanding transparency and control over their data is growing all the time, and this can only lead to increased adoption of ODF in the long term.

Documents should belong to their authors, not to a software vendor through the file format used. In the case of a country, documents should belong to its citizens. ODF is the only effective way to regain control and ensure that data remains open, accessible and future-proof. ODF embodies the principles of digital freedom, collaboration, and user empowerment.

Whether you are an individual seeking control over your digital life, a teacher aiming to share knowledge using open tools to ensure its long-term availability to the community, a public official seeking long-term transparency, or a politician representing citizens’ interests, ODF is the smart, sustainable choice.

DISCLAIMER: Artificial Intelligence has helped in putting together background data in a matter of seconds, thus dramatically reducing the time needed to draft the article. I have over 4GB of background documents on my online storage, and although I have read most of them, it is impossible for my humble brain to retain all information. Here, Artificial Intelligence helps a lot, especially a 70 years old guy.

So we’re half-way through the Month of LibreOffice, May 2025. And already, 216 contributors have won cool LibreOffice sticker packs! Details on how to claim them will be provided at the end of the month, but if you don’t see your name (or username) on that page, it’s not too late to join…

How to take part

There are many ways you can help out – and you don’t need to be a developer. For instance, you can be a:

• Handy Helper, answering questions from users on Ask LibreOffice. We’re keeping an eye on that site so if you give someone useful advice, you can claim your shiny stickers.

• First Responder, helping to confirm new bug reports: Go to our Bugzilla page and look for new bugs. If you can recreate one, add a comment like “CONFIRMED on Windows 11 and LibreOffice 25.2.3”.

• Drum Beater, spreading the word: Tell everyone about LibreOffice on Mastodon, Bluesky or X (Twitter)! Just say why you love it or what you’re using it for, add the #libreoffice hashtag, and at the end of the month you can claim your stickers.

• Globetrotter, translating the user interface: LibreOffice is available in a wide range of languages, but its interface translations need to be kept up-to-date. Or maybe you want to translate the suite to a whole new language? Get involved here.

• Code Cruncher, contributing source code: The codebase is big, but there are lots of places to get involved with small jobs. See our Developers page on the website and this page on the wiki to get started.

• Docs Doctor, writing documentation: Whether you want to update the online help or add chapters to the handbooks, here’s where to start.

So, two more weeks to go! We’ll be posting more updates on this blog and our Mastodon, Bluesky and X (Twitter) accounts…

The LibreOffice Google Summer of Code projects have been selected for 2025.

• Adam Seskunas – Implement Report Builder in C++: replacing the current Java-based Report Builder with a new solution will improve maintainability and remove one of the last remaining dependencies on Java.
• Karthik Godha – New dialog to edit Table Styles: Writer and Calc have a feature called AutoFormat styles with the possibility to add custom styles. This project will make it possible to edit existing table styles.
• Devansh Varshney – BASIC IDE code auto-completion: rudimentary auto-completion for BASIC macro authors is already available, but this project will make the feature much more helpful.
• Manish Bera – Python code auto-completion: currently there is no support at all for Python auto-completion when developing scripts for LibreOffice, so this will be quite a welcome addition.
• Mohamed Ali Mohamed – Rust UNO language binding: last year LibreOffice received support for Lua and the latest .NET and now it’s time to make it possible to use the API with Rust.
• Ujjawal Kumar – Import Markdown files into Writer: Markdown is a rather popular markup language for quickly formatting text in blog content, comments, chats and more. Requests to support it have increased recently, so it makes sense to tackle it.
• Shardul Vikram Singh – Rework Impress slideshow to use DrawingLayer primitives: this is one of those projects that are incomprehensible to most users, but really important for the long term maintenance of the code.

Good luck to the contributors – we appreciate their work on these important features and improvements! And thanks to our mentors for assisting them: Thorsten Behrens, Stephan Bergmann and Sarper Akdemir (allotropia); Rafael Lima; Jonathan Clark, Heiko Tietze, Xisco Faulí, Michael Weghorn and Hossein Nourikhah (TDF).

Between August 25 and September 1, contributors will submit their code, project summaries, and final evaluations of their mentors. Find out more about the timeline here, and check out more details about the projects on this page.

Our two main websites are vital sources of information for The Document Foundation and the LibreOffice software. We also use our social media channels to raise awareness about our work, share information and encourage new contributors to join us

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

TDF website

The Document Foundation website provides general information about the foundation (overview, statutes, code of conduct, financials and reports) and its governance (board of directors, membership committee, members, advisory board, and engineering steering committee), and about LibreOffice certification, including a list of certified developers, and professionals for migrations and trainings.

During 2024, the foundation’s website was visited 98,499 times, with 146,456 page views – a slight reduction in visits but also a slight growth in page views from 2023. Continent-wise, the largest chunk of visits were from Europe (52%), followed by North America (24%) and Asia (16%). And regarding software: the most visits were from PCs using the Windows (65%) operating system, followed by GNU/Linux (10%) and macOS (8%) and devices uses Android (6.2%), while for browsers: Chrome had 39%, followed by Firefox (16%) and Microsoft Edge (15%).

LibreOffice website

The LibreOffice website provides information about the office suite and the document format, the various download options, how to get help, how to contribute to the project, events where users can get to know the LibreOffice community, and how to make a donation to support the project and the community.

In 2024, we continued to make improvements and tweaks to the website, updating the “Discover” and “New Features” sections of the site to reflect new versions of the software.

During 2024, the English-language LibreOffice website was visited 19,298,517 times (a 0.6% gain over 2023), with 46,065,236 page views (a 0.1% gain). Most visits were from Europe (52%), followed by Asia (20%), North America (15%) and South America (9%), from PCs using the Windows operating system (82%), followed by macOS (6%) and Linux (23%). Regarding web browsers, Chrome was the most popular (41%), followed by Microsoft Edge (29%) and Firefox (13%).

Blogs

TDF’s blogs (like this one) are essential for communicating activities inside and around the project, including new releases of LibreOffice, community events and support for other free and open source initiatives. In 2024, we used them to post regular interviews with community members and provide updates from team members about documentation, marketing, QA, design and more.

Blogs were also maintained by various native language communities including Japanese, Spanish, German and others. Thanks to the hard work of community members, we had press releases, tips and other articles translated into many languages, and picked up by local media organisations.

These native language blogs complement the information provided by the main blog in English, and by the two blogs managed by members of the design and the quality assurance projects, which provide updates about activities for the upcoming major releases.
In 2024, the blog had 100,180 visits and 131,174 page views – a drop in both cases of around 30% from the previous year. The press releases for LibreOffice 24.2 and 24.8 were the most popular posts, followed by the posts about the German state of Schleswig-Holstein moving 30,000 PCs from Microsoft Office/365 to LibreOffice.

Social media

In January 2024, our X (formerly known as Twitter) account (@LibreOffice) had 63,060 followers; by the end of the year, we had grown this to 68,870. Our most popular posts were for major releases of LibreOffice, and news about migrations to the suite. We posted customised images for “Community Member Monday” interviews with short quotes, encouraging more users to get involved with LibreOffice projects.

In addition, we focused not only on our own posts, but also retweeting announcements from the LibreOffice community members. We liked and reposted messages of support from end users – many of whom were surprised and thankful that a large project would show them support. To keep the content flowing, we reposted popular older tweets, and responded to individual messages.

On other social media platforms, we focused on growing our account on Mastodon, a Twitter-like open source, federated and self-hosted microblogging service. In 2024 we worked more on expanding our activities on our account @libreoffice@fosstodon.org, and from January to December, we grew our follower base from 25,440 to 29,326. We also joined Bluesky in late 2023 thanks to invites from a community member, and by December 2024 our follower count had reached 2,900.

Our Facebook page growth was smaller, from 63,348 page followers to 64,239. We’ve noticed a gradual reduction in activity on Facebook over the last few years, which reflects its changing audience, and the move towards other social media platforms. Nonetheless, Facebook still provides a good opportunity to interact with end users of LibreOffice, and every day we checked in to answer questions, get feedback, and post announcements/tips about the software.

YouTube channel

Our YouTube channel grew from 20,638 subscribers and 3,243,107 video views in January 2024 to 22,586 subscribers and 3,534,370 video views by the end of the year. The most popular videos were the “New Features” videos for LibreOffice 24.2 and 24.8, and we also added videos of talks, presentations and workshops from the LibreOffice Conference 2024.

At the end of 2024, we posted the first video from the new LibreOffice Podcast series, where Italo Vignoli and Mike Saunders from TDF talked about the challenges and opportunities in marketing free and open source software like LibreOffice. More podcasts are planned for 2025.

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or make a donation. Thank you!

Quality Assurance (QA) is a cornerstone of the LibreOffice project, thanks to the activity of a large number of volunteers and the feedback of many users who help in reporting bugs and regressions

(This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

QA team work

In 2024, the QA team triaged thousands of bugs, bisected hundreds of regressions, and answered questions from countless bug reporters. As one of the most visible groups directly responding to end users, the QA team must be nimble and able to adapt to changes. In addition, it must deal with specific requests for help from other teams.

The QA team meets regularly on IRC on the #libreoffice-qa channel, which is the best medium for discussing bugs and regressions. The IRC channel provides an excellent opportunity to remain in close contact with team members, and to tutor new members in the art and skill of LibreOffice QA. This is bridged to the Telegram group.

During 2024, 5351 bugs were reported by 2463 users, which means 103 new bugs were reported every week on average. The QA team prepared monthly reports about their activity and posted on the QA blog.

Top 10 bug reporters

• Eyal Rozenberg (211)
• Gabor Kelemen (193)
• Mike Kaganski (137)
• Telesto (86)
• Regina Henschel (85)
• Xisco Faulí (82)
• Stéphane Guillou (78)
• peter josvai (75)
• Rafael Lima (72)
• Heiko Tietze (54)

Triaging

During 2024, 5086 bugs were triaged by 328 people. The top 10 bug triagers were:

• Stéphane Guillou (stragu) (762)
• Buovjaga (684)
• m_a_riosv (499)
• Heiko Tietze (374)
• V Stuart Foote (241)
• Mike Kaganski (232)
• Julien Nabet (186)
• Xisco Faulí (175)
• ady (144)
• Dieter (144)

Bibisecting

Also, during 2024, the QA team performed 561 bibisects of regressions by 30 people. The top 10 bisecters were:

• raal (121)
• Buovjaga (111)
• Stéphane Guillou (104)
• Xisco Faulí (91)
• Gabor Kelemen (24)
• Aron Budea (23)
• Timur (14)
• zcrhonek (10)
• Mike Kaganski (9)
• Justin L (8)

Like what we do? Support the LibreOffice project and The Document Foundation – get involved and help our volunteers, or make a donation. Thank you!

On May 1st, 2005, the Open Document Format (ODF) become an OASIS standard. One year after, it became an ISO/IEC standard. After two decades, it is the only true open standard for document formats available on the market, and the only one protecting users from proprietary lock in and ensuring a full control over contents. The presentation provides an overview over ODF features and explains why ODF should be used versus Microsoft OOXML (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX).

PeerTube: https://peertube.opencloud.lu/w/2b9JeZw1M884V5BK21RioW

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z-Xo9v9-1YU (please note that once you leave this blog to access the video, a different set of privacy rules will apply)

Open Document Format (ODF) has been designed as a document standard for the next 20-50 years, to liberate users from the lock-in strategy built into yesterday’s and today’s proprietary formats and foster interoperability. On the contrary, OOXML – approved by ISO/IEC in 2008 in a version never implemented by MS Office – has been designed as a document pseudo-standard format to propagate yesterday’s document issues and lock-in strategy for the next 20-50 years, to the detriment of users and interoperability.

The philosophy behind the ODF standard document format was to design a mechanism in a vendor neutral manner from the ground up, using existing standards wherever possible. Although this means that software vendors had to tweak their individual packages more than if they continued down their original routes, the benefits for interoperability were important enough to justify this objective. The OOXML pseudo-standard document format was designed by Microsoft for Microsoft products, and to interoperate with the Microsoft environment. Little thought appears to have been exercised for interoperability with non-Microsoft environments, or compliance with established vendor-neutral standards.

Berlin, 8 May 2025 – LibreOffice 24.8.7, the seventh and last minor release of the LibreOffice 24.8 family of the free open source, volunteer-supported office suite for Windows (Intel, AMD and ARM), MacOS (Apple and Intel) and Linux, is available at www.libreoffice.org/download. LibreOffice is the only office suite that respects the privacy of the user, ensuring that the user is able to decide if and with whom to share the content they create. It even allows deleting user related info from documents. In addition, it has a feature set comparable to the leading product on the market.

The biggest advantage over competing products is the LibreOffice Technology engine, the single software platform on which desktop, mobile and cloud versions of LibreOffice – including those from ecosystem companies – are based. Products based on LibreOffice Technology are available for desktop operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS), mobile platforms (Android and iOS) and the cloud.
End users looking for manuals can download the LibreOffice 24.8 guides from the following link: books.libreoffice.org/.

For enterprise-class deployments, TDF strongly recommends the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners, with three or five year backporting of security patches, other dedicated value-added features and Service Level Agreements: www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

LibreOffice 24.8.7 availability

LibreOffice 24.8.7 is available from www.libreoffice.org/download/. Minimum requirements for proprietary operating systems are Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 (no longer supported by Microsoft) and Apple MacOS 10.15. Products for Android and iOS are at www.libreoffice.org/download/android-and-ios/.

LibreOffice 24.8 will reach its EOL (End of Life) in mid-June 2025. Users are encouraged to migrate to LibreOffice 25.2, which is now fully tested for all types of use in production. The current version is LibreOffice 25.2.3.

End users can get first-level technical support from volunteers on mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website: ask.libreoffice.org. They can support the project by donating at www.libreoffice.org/donate.

Join us in Budapest and tell us what you’re doing with LibreOffice!

The Document Foundation invites all members and contributors to submit talks, presentations and workshops for this year’s LibreOffice conference in Budapest at ELTE’s Faculty of Informatics, co-organized by FSF.hu Foundation. The event will take place from 4 to 6 September, with an informal community meeting on 3 September. Whether you are an experienced presenter or have never spoken in public before, if you have something interesting to say about LibreOffice, the Document Liberation Project, the Open Document Format or the ODF Toolkit, we want to hear from you!

Proposals should be submitted by 15 June 2025 to ensure they are considered for inclusion in the conference programme.

The conference programme will be based on the following tracks

a) Development, APIs, Extensions, Future Technology
b) Quality Assurance
c) Localisation, Documentation and Native Language Projects
d) Appealing LibreOffice: Usability, Design and Accessibility
e) Open Document Format, Document Liberation and Interoperability
f) Advocacy, promotion and marketing of LibreOffice

Presentations, case studies, workshops and technical talks will cover a topic in depth and last 30 minutes (including Q&A). Lightning talks will cover a specific topic and last 5 minutes (including Q&A). Sessions will be streamed live and recorded for download.

Please submit your proposal – including a short description of contents and a short biography of yourself – to https://events.documentfoundation.org/. If you would like to give more than one talk, please submit a separate proposal for each one. Only software based on the LibreOffice Technology platform will be allowed on stage, while slide decks will be shared using the ISO standard ODP and PDF file formats.

If you need a VISA, please contact the organising team at conference@libreoffice.org as soon as possible to receive an invitation letter.

If you are unable to travel to Hungary and prefer to present remotely, please include a note in your proposal to allow the organisers to schedule your presentation (and organise a test session beforehand).

If you do not agree to make the data for the presentation available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Licence, please specify your terms. In order to make your presentation available on the TDF YouTube channel, please do not make use of copyrighted material (music, images, etc.) for your slide deck.

Of course, this is only the Call for Papers, but everyone is welcome to attend the talks and events! We’ll post again soon when registration is open…

Thank you for your participation!