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LibreOffice
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LibreOffice
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Digital Signatures
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(cid:81)(cid:3)T(cid:3) ext Documents
(cid:81)(cid:3)S(cid:3) preadsheets
(cid:81)(cid:3)P(cid:3) resentations
(cid:81)(cid:3)D(cid:3) atabases
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W W W . L I N U X - M A G A Z I N E . C O M
EDITORIAL
Welcome
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The brilliant and highly motivated developers of the open source community have
created an amazing menagerie of free tools for doing things that computer users
around the world used to have to pay for: video editors, photo processors, web
browsers, and development platforms. The centerpiece of this ambitious collection
is the versatile LibreOffice office suite – an enterprise-ready toolset for composing
and managing word-processing documents, databases, spreadsheets, presentations,
and much more.
LibreOffice runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and, if you don’t already have it,
you can download it for free or install it from the DVD attached to this issue. The
LibreOffice user interface is very intuitive, and most users just see the edges of it.
They start it up and learn what they need to know for a few common tasks. But
there is so much more! If you’re ready to explore the possibilities, get productive,
and dial up the quality of your documents, this single-volume special edition will
serve as your guide!
Read on for tutorials on all the core tools of the LibreOffice suite:
Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math. You’ll also find
insightful articles on working with LibreOffice extensions,
templates, and macros, as well as bonus articles on
advanced layout, migration, digital signatures, and
XML scripting. If you’re new to LibreOffice, or if you
are ready to take your LibreOffice skills to another
level of power and efficiency, look inside!
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LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL – 2020 EDITION
LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL
LibreOffice
Dive deep into the
world’s greatest
free office suite
Get Started
8 Introducing LibreOffice 28 L ibreOffice Impress
Why pay for an office productivity suite? Need to impress your boss with the latest
LibreOffice is totally free, and it runs on sales stats? Or just show off some holiday
Windows, macOS, and Linux. photos in an eye-catching format? Impress is
the tool you need.
14 LibreOffice Writer
Writer, LibreOffice’s word-processor 34 L ibreOffice Draw
component, is more than just a text editor. With LibreOffice Draw, you can create
With its powerful styles system, you can attractive and informative vector-based
build detailed and elegant documents for drawings.
business and personal use.
40 L ibreOffice Base
20 LibreOffice Calc We show you how to set up a database in
LibreOffice Calc offers the functionality of LibreOffice Base and search it with SQL
Excel with added benefits. queries embedded in forms.
Service
46 L ibreOffice Math
The LibreOffice
3 W elcome Math package lets
you display simple
6 D VD
and complex
98 M asthead
formulas.
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LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL – 2020 EDITION
LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL
Get Productive
50 Open Document Format 66 L ibreOffice Typography
The Open Document Format standard is LibreOffice Writer is a serviceable desktop
an important reason for the success of publisher with more typography features
LibreOffice. than most users imagine.
53 LibreOffice Extensions 70 Digital Signatures
You can extend the power of LibreOffice By adding a digital signature, you can
with over 350 useful extensions. boost your document’s security.
56 LibreOffice Templates 74 O DF XML
LibreOffice templates can save you time You may have heard that LibreOffice
(cid:90)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:80)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:74)(cid:3)(cid:92)(cid:82)(cid:88)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:71)(cid:82)(cid:70)(cid:88)(cid:80)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:86)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:82)(cid:162)(cid:92)(cid:82)(cid:88)(cid:3) files “are XML-based” or “use XML,”
can focus on the important stuff. but when you try to open a Writer
document in a text editor, you only
60 LibreOffice Macros see a binary blob. Learn how to access
LibreOffice packs a built-in Basic-like and modify the hidden XML content
scripting language that can be using scripts.
used to automate
repetitive tasks and 82 Hidden Gems of LibreOffice
extend the suite’s Discover some hidden
default and lesser known
functionality. LibreOffice features.
Community
88 LibreOffice Community 92 Get Involved
Who makes LibreOffice? How Join the LibreOffice community
Li(cid:69)reO(cid:73)(cid:180)ce
does everyone work together? and help to improve the
And what are they working on? software. You don’t need to be 7.0.2
Here’s an update on what’s a programmer; there are lots of
I(cid:81)(cid:86)ta(cid:79)(cid:79)ati(cid:82)(cid:81) (cid:180)(cid:79)e(cid:86) (cid:73)(cid:82)r
happening in the global ways to dive in and build your
LibreOffice community. skills! Linux, Windows,
and macOS
Lots of extras inside!
■ Clip Art
■ Extensions
■ Handbooks
■ Templates
■ Videos
5
LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL – 2020 EDITION
SERVICE
On the DVD
On the DVD
LIBREOFFICE INSTALLATION FILES
The DVD attached to this issue includes installation
files for setting up the full version of LibreOffice on
the following systems:
(cid:81) 64-bit Windows
(cid:81) 32-bit Windows
(cid:81) 64-bit macOS
(cid:81) 64-bit Linux for deb systems
(cid:81) 64-bit Linux for RPM systems
Installation packages for the latest version are
included in separate files/ directories. Consult the
documentation for your package manager or see
“Introducing LibreOffice” on page 8 of this issue
for more on installing LibreOffice.
LOTS MORE!
As an extra bonus, this DVD also includes a collection
of other valuable resources to help you extend and
learn about LibreOffice. Look inside for:
(cid:81) Handbooks – the complete set of LibreOffice Hand-
books with hundreds of pages of help and refer-
ence in PDF format
(cid:81) Extensions – the top 20 LibreOffice extensions
available online, including several language
dictionaries, spellcheckers, icon and gallery
collections, and a barcode generator
(cid:81) Templates – 100+ ready-made presentation templates
covering all kinds of presentation situations
(cid:81) Clip Art – an Openclipart library containing
thousands of clip art graphics for any occasion
(cid:81) Videos – Take a video tour of new LibreOffice
features, and learn about the LibreOffice project
and personal success stories from top project
leaders and volunteers
Defective discs will be replaced.
Please send an email to [email protected].
Although this Linux Magazine disc has been tested and
is to the best of our knowledge free of malicious software
LIBREOFFICE 7.0.2 DOWNLOAD LINK
and defects, Linux Magazine cannot be held responsible,
and is not liable for any disruption, loss, or damage to
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/
data and computer systems related to the use of this disc.
download/?version=7.0.2
6
LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL – 2020 EDITION
GET STARTED
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I ntroducing
L i(cid:69)reO(cid:73)(cid:180)ce
Why pay for an office productivity suite?
LibreOffice is totally free, and it runs
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By Mike Saunders
A
complete, feature-rich office suite, compatible The reason it is free is simple: It’s made by a worldwide
with Microsoft documents, and totally free – community, driven by volunteers, who are passionate about
such a thing can’t really exist, right? There high-quality productivity software that’s free for everyone to
must be a catch somewhere! Well, no. There’s use. LibreOffice’s goal is to bridge “digital divides,” making
no catch. No hidden costs. Nothing to be suspicious about. powerful tools available to everyone, regardless of their in-
LibreOffice [1] is indeed a complete suite of office tools, for come, location, or language. Indeed, LibreOffice’s user inter-
zero cost, and it doesn’t make money through adverts or face has been translated into over 100 languages, making
selling your data. the software usable for many people in countries where
other software vendors don’t have a
presence.
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Now, that’s not to say that all Li- (cid:82)
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breOffice developers work on the (cid:68)
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software for purely philanthropic (cid:72)
(cid:39)
reasons. There are many “certified (cid:3)
(cid:81)
(cid:76)
developers” [2] who have custom- (cid:68)
(cid:80)
(cid:82)
ers using LibreOffice (such as com-
(cid:39)
(cid:3)
panies or local government depart- (cid:70)
(cid:76)
(cid:79)
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ments) and are paid to provide (cid:88)
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support packages, fix bugs, and (cid:79)(cid:3)
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implement new features. LibreOf- (cid:85)
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fice itself is (and will always be) (cid:81)(cid:76)
(cid:56)
completely free, but it still sup- (cid:3)
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ports a viable commercial ecosys- (cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:17)
(cid:19)
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tem around it.
(cid:38)
(cid:3)
If LibreOffice really is totally free (cid:72)
(cid:74)
(cid:68)
(yes!) and compatible with Micro- (cid:80)
(cid:44)
(cid:3)
soft Office (indeed!), then why (cid:71)
(cid:68)
(cid:72)
Figure 1:(cid:3)(cid:43)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:173)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:58)(cid:85)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:90)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:83)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:86)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:161) hasn’t the whole world moved (cid:47)
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over to it? Why is MS Office still the origins of what is today called Li- (Figure 6). StarWriter was a commer-
around? There are various reasons for breOffice, you have to go back to the cial word processing application, cre-
this, such as: 1980s, to a program called StarWriter ated by German programmer Marco
(cid:81) F amiliarity: Lots of people still aren’t
aware that LibreOffice exists. The
Document Foundation, the non-
profit entity behind it, is working to
improve this through marketing and
events, but more needs to be done
to spread the word.
(cid:81) R esistance to change: Even when
people discover LibreOffice, they’re
often reticent to change, especially
if they’ve already paid for another
office suite. LibreOffice is familiar
but looks and works slightly differ-
ently in places, and some more con-
servative users aren’t in a rush to
switch over.
(cid:81) F eatures: LibreOffice has the vast
majority of features that everyday
users need, and indeed even more Figure 2:(cid:3)(cid:161)(cid:90)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:38)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:83)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:71)(cid:86)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:72)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:82)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:17)
than MS Office in some areas [3].
But some specific workflows de-
signed for MS Office require macros
or special feature sets that don’t
quite match up with LibreOffice.
Still, with new LibreOffice releases
arriving every six months, this
changes quickly, and LibreOffice
often takes the lead with rolling out
new features that haven’t appeared
in MS Office yet.
The LibreOffice suite includes several
tools, including:
(cid:81) W riter – the word processor (Figure 1)
(cid:81) C alc – the spreadsheet (Figure 2)
(cid:81) I mpress – the presentation tool
(Figure 3)
(cid:81) D raw – for diagrams, flowcharts,
leaflets, etc. (Figure 4) Figure 3:(cid:3)(cid:47)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:50)(cid:73)(cid:73)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:70)(cid:79)(cid:88)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:68)(cid:3)(cid:83)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:3)(cid:83)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:74)(cid:85)(cid:68)(cid:80)(cid:3)(cid:70)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:44)(cid:80)(cid:83)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:86)(cid:17)
(cid:81) B ase – for databases (Figure 5)
(cid:81) M ath – to create formulae
Over the next few pages, I’ll provide a
bit more background on LibreOffice and
the community behind it, and I’ll show
you how to install it. If you’re really
itching to begin, skip ahead to the in-
stallation section – but don’t forget to
come back here later and discover more
about the suite! By learning about its
history and background, you can help
advocate for LibreOffice and spread the
word to other potential users.
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LibreOffice came to life in 2010, but
its history actually goes back many
years before that. Indeed, to explore Figure 4:(cid:3)(cid:39)(cid:85)(cid:68)(cid:90)(cid:3)(cid:70)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:3)(cid:69)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:88)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:71)(cid:76)(cid:68)(cid:74)(cid:85)(cid:68)(cid:80)(cid:86)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:90)(cid:70)(cid:75)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:87)(cid:86)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:3)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:72)(cid:87)(cid:86)(cid:17)
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improvements, and submit them back
to the developers. Open source is a
large collaborative effort, where the
whole world can learn from it and make
a difference, in contrast to closed-source
programs like MS Office, where very
few people can actually look inside it
and improve it.
Sun was observing other open source
projects gaining momentum, such as
the GNU/L inux operating system and
the Mozilla web browser (which lives
on today in the form of Firefox, perhaps
the most well-known open source app).
In response, Sun decided to make the
StarOffice code open for everyone to ex-
plore in a new project named OpenOf-
fice.org. Yes, this meant that the world
Figure 5:(cid:3)(cid:37)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:47)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:50)(cid:73)(cid:73)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:173)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:71)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:68)(cid:69)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:17) now had a fully free office suite – free
as in zero cost, but free as in everyone
Börries, and it was made available for impressive $73.5 million. The reason- could study its workings, make im-
the 8-bit and 16-bit home computers ing behind this? Many speculated that provements, and share them.
at the time (such as the Amstrad CPC for Sun, which had over 20,000 em- After a couple of years of develop-
and PCs running MS-DOS). Over the ployees at the time, buying Star Divi- ment, OpenOffice.org 1.0 was released
next few years, Börries created a small sion was a cheaper way of equipping in 2002. It wasn’t the prettiest of re-
company called Star Division to over- all its workers with an office suite than leases, with a few rough edges and
see the development of his program, buying MS Office licenses. Others spec- less-than-stellar performance, but it
adding additional tools such as a ulate that Sun was eager to get more was nevertheless a major milestone.
spreadsheet and drawing program. In involved in the home/ personal com- Linux users in particular were happy to
1992, StarOffice 1.0 for MS-DOS was puting space. have a fully-featured, open source of-
released, followed two years later by In any case, this suddenly meant that fice suite that was provided by default
StarOffice 2.0, which supported Win- StarOffice had a much bigger company with their operating system. A small
dows and macOS. behind it – more resources and develop- update, OpenOffice.org 1.0, followed a
StarOffice was relatively unknown ers were available to work on it. In year later, and then OpenOffice.org 2.0
compared to the mighty MS Office, but 2000, Sun released StarOffice 5.2 as a arrived in 2005 with many perfor-
it was popular enough that new re- free download for personal use; the mance improvements.
leases were made throughout the suite was also provided on many maga-
(cid:55)(cid:43)(cid:40)(cid:3)(cid:37)(cid:44)(cid:53)(cid:55)(cid:43)(cid:3)(cid:50)(cid:41)(cid:3)(cid:50)(cid:39)(cid:41)
1990s. Then something massive hap- zine cover discs. Microsoft suddenly
pened: Sun Microsystems, a major ven- had a lot more competition, and many Version 2.0 also used the OpenDocument
dor of high-end servers and worksta- people found StarOffice more than good Format (ODF) [4] as its default format
tions, bought Star Division for a pretty enough for their daily tasks. (Figure 7). Documents, spreadsheets,
Then another and drawings are stored on your com-
major change oc- puter as chunks of computer-readable
curred. The Free data. At the time, Microsoft documents
and Open Source were stored in strange proprietary blobs
Software move- of complicated, obfuscated data that was
ment was gaining very difficult for other programs to read.
a lot of traction at ODF was created as an alternative:
the time, promot- The data was structured in an open and
ing the benefits of standardized way, built on XML, so
software for that files saved in OpenOffice could
which the source easily be opened and understood by
code (the human- other programs as well. Users who save
readable recipe) is their work in ODF format can guaran-
freely available. tee that they’ll be able to read the files
With open source in the future, by other tools, regardless
programs, anyone of whatever happens to OpenOffice.org.
Figure 6:(cid:3)(cid:54)(cid:87)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:58)(cid:85)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:82)(cid:73)(cid:3)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:81)(cid:3)(cid:47)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:50)(cid:73)(cid:73)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:3) can tinker “under (Years later, Microsoft created its own
(cid:11)(cid:76)(cid:80)(cid:68)(cid:74)(cid:72)(cid:29)(cid:3)(cid:48)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:38)(cid:38)(cid:3)(cid:37)(cid:60)(cid:16)(cid:54)(cid:36)(cid:3)(cid:22)(cid:17)(cid:19)(cid:15)(cid:3)https:// tinyurl. c om/ y 7qbj47h(cid:12)(cid:17) the hood,” make pseudo-standard called “OOXML,” and
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LIBREOFFICE SPECIAL – 2020 EDITION
