The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 26.8, a major update to its free and open-source office suite, for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows systems. The update includes improvements across all core applications – Writer, Calc, Math, Impress, Draw, and Base – focusing on enhanced functionality and compatibility.
LibreOffice Writer, the word processing component, now features the Paragraph Composer, a new text layout algorithm designed to balance word spacing. It also supports OpenType font variations and automatically detects paragraph direction when opening or pasting content. New documents default to start alignment instead of left, and baseline grid alignment now functions correctly within frames. Table row and column index information is now reported according to ARIA standards, improving accessibility for screen readers. The special character selector is now fully keyboard navigable, and the application opens large, image-heavy documents more quickly.
LibreOffice Calc, the spreadsheet program, introduces Calculated Fields to pivot tables and support for relative font sizes in cell styles. A Shuffle command randomizes cell order, and the border toolbar button now remembers the most recently used style. Data validity now silently rejects invalid entries. Improvements also include better handling of line breaks in referenced XLSX cells, the display of form control elements in the Navigator, editing of table styles (now stored in XML format instead of binary), and automatic right-to-left cell direction setting.
LibreOffice Math now supports named functions and operators for the N’Ko and Adlam scripts, along with left-pointing vectors and harpoons for right-to-left formulas. It also resolves font names in languages different from the interface language. LibreOffice Chart gains basic round-trip support for newer chart types found in Microsoft Office OOXML files, including box-and-whisker, funnel, Pareto, sunburst, treemap, and waterfall charts.
LibreOffice Base preserves SQL comments when switching to Design View and supports filtering on date, time, and timestamp columns using the embedded Firebird database. Finally, LibreOffice Impress and Draw now support multiple page sizes within a single document, presentation sections for slide organization, custom slide names displayed alongside slide numbers, and conversion of numbered lists to bulleted ones. The update also includes several embedded templates in both 16:9 aspect ratio.
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