Getting Started Guide 7.4

PrefaceCopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2022 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors arelisted below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General
Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative
Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
To this edition
Skip Masonsmith

Kees Kriek

To previous editions
Jean Hollis Weber
Leo Moons
Andrew Jensen
Dan Lewis

Peter Schofield
Steve Fanning
Amanda Labby
Dave Barton

Kees Kriek
Paul Figueiredo
Cathy Crumbley
Simon Quigley

Jorge Rodriguez
Valerii Goncharuk
Olivier Hallot
Lera Goncaruk

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s
forum at https://community.documentfoundation.org/c/documentation/loguides/ (registration isrequired) or send an email to: loguides@community.documentfoundation.org.

Note
Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any otherpersonal information that is written in the message, is publicly archived andcannot be deleted.

Publication date and software version
Published November 2022. Based on LibreOffice 7.4 Community.
Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/Contents
Copyright..........................................................................................................................2
Contributors................................................................................................................................2
Feedback....................................................................................................................................2
Publication date and software version........................................................................................2

Who is this book for?......................................................................................................4
What’s in this book?........................................................................................................4
What is LibreOffice?........................................................................................................4
Writer (word processor)..............................................................................................................4
Calc (spreadsheet).....................................................................................................................4
Impress (presentations)..............................................................................................................5
Draw (vector graphics)................................................................................................................5
Base (database).........................................................................................................................5
Math (formula editor)..................................................................................................................5

Advantages of LibreOffice..............................................................................................5
Minimum requirements................................................................................................... 6
How to get the software.................................................................................................. 7
How to install the software............................................................................................. 7
Extensions and add-ons................................................................................................. 7
Where to get more help...................................................................................................7
Help system................................................................................................................................7
Other free online support............................................................................................................8
Paid support and training............................................................................................................9

What you see may be different.......................................................................................9
Illustrations..................................................................................................................................9
Icons...........................................................................................................................................9

Using LibreOffice on macOS........................................................................................10
What are all these things called?.................................................................................10
Frequently asked questions..........................................................................................11
What is new in LibreOffice 7.4 Community?...............................................................12

Preface | 3

Who is this book for?
Anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly with LibreOffice will find this Getting Started Guidevaluable. You may be new to office software, or you may be familiar with another office suite.

What’s in this book?
This book introduces the main components of LibreOffice:• Writer (word processing)• Calc (spreadsheets)• Impress (presentations)• Draw (vector graphics)• Base (database)• Math (equation editor)
It also covers some of the features common to all components, including setup andcustomization, styles and templates, macro recording, and printing. For more detail, see the user
guides for the individual components.

What is LibreOffice?
LibreOffice is a freely available, fully-featured, open source office productivity suite that iscompatible with other major office suites and is available on a variety of platforms. Its native fileformat is Open Document Format (ODF), and it can also open and save documents in manyother formats, including those used by several versions of Microsoft Office. For more information,
see Appendix B, Open Source, Open Standards, OpenDocument.
LibreOffice includes the following components.

Writer (word processor)
Writer is a feature-rich tool for creating letters, books, reports, newsletters, brochures, and otherdocuments. You can insert graphics and objects from other components into Writer documents.
Writer can export files to HTML, XHTML, XML, Portable Document Format (PDF), and EPUB;
and it can save files in many formats, including several versions of Microsoft Word files. It also
connects to your email client.

Calc (spreadsheet)Calc has all of the advanced analysis, charting, and decision making features expected from ahigh-end spreadsheet. It includes over 500 functions for financial, statistical, and mathematicaloperations, among others. The Scenario Manager provides “what if” analysis. Calc generates 2D
and 3D charts, which can be integrated into other LibreOffice documents. You can also open andwork with Microsoft Excel workbooks and save them in Excel format. Calc can also export
spreadsheets in several formats, including for example Comma Separated Value (CSV), Adobe
PDF and HTML formats.

4 | PrefaceImpress (presentations)Impress provides all the common multimedia presentation tools, such as special effects,
animation, and drawing tools. It is integrated with the advanced graphics capabilities ofLibreOffice Draw and Math components. Slideshows can be further enhanced using Fontwork
special effects text, as well as sound and video clips. Impress can open, edit, and save Microsoft
PowerPoint presentations and can also save your work in numerous graphics formats.

Draw (vector graphics)
Draw is a vector drawing tool that can produce everything from simple diagrams or flowcharts to
3D artwork. Its Smart Connectors feature allows you to define your own connection points. You
can use Draw to create drawings for use in any of the LibreOffice components, and you cancreate your own clip art and then add it to the Gallery. Draw can import graphics from many
common formats and save them in many formats, including PNG, GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, SVG,HTML and PDF.

Base (database)Base provides tools for day-to-day database work within a simple interface. It can create and edit
forms, reports, queries, tables, views, and relations, so that managing a relational database ismuch the same as in other popular database applications. Base provides many new features,such as the ability to analyze and edit relationships from a diagram view. Base incorporates two
relational database engines, HSQLDB and Firebird. It can also use PostgreSQL, dBASE,
Microsoft Access, MySQL, Oracle, or any ODBC compliant or JDBC compliant database. Basealso provides support for a subset of ANSI-92 SQL.

Math (formula editor)
Math is a formula or equation editor. You can use it to create complex equations that include
symbols or characters not available in standard font sets. While it is most commonly used tocreate formulas in other documents, such as Writer and Impress files, Math can also work as astandalone tool. You can save formulas in the standard Mathematical Markup Language(MathML) format for inclusion in web pages and other documents not created by LibreOffice.

Advantages of LibreOffice
Here are some of the advantages of LibreOffice over other office suites:• No licensing fees. LibreOffice is free for anyone to use and distribute at no cost. Many
features that are available as extra cost add-ins in other office suites (like PDF export)
are free with LibreOffice. There are no hidden charges now or in the future.
• Open source. You can distribute, copy, and modify the software as much as you wish, in
accordance with the LibreOffice Open Source licenses.
• Cross-platform. LibreOffice runs on several hardware architectures and under multiple
operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Extensive language support. The LibreOffice user interface, including spelling,
hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries, is available in over 100 languages and dialects.
LibreOffice also provides support for both Complex Text Layout (CTL) and Right to Left
(RTL) layout languages (such as Urdu, Hebrew, and Arabic).
• Consistent user interface. All the components have a similar “look and feel”, making
them easy to use and master.
• Integration. The components of LibreOffice are well integrated with one another.

Advantages of LibreOffice | 5

– All the components share a common spelling checker and other tools, which are usedconsistently across the suite. For example, the drawing tools available in Writer are
also found in Calc, with similar but enhanced versions in Impress and Draw.
– You do not need to know which application was used to create a particular file. For
example, you can open a Draw file from Writer; it will open automatically in Draw.
• Granularity. Usually, if you change an option, it affects all components. However,
LibreOffice options can be set at a component level or even at document level.
• File compatibility. In addition to its native OpenDocument formats, LibreOffice includes
support for opening and saving files in many common formats including Microsoft Office,HTML, XML, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and PDF. See Appendix B for a list.
• No vendor lock-in. LibreOffice uses OpenDocument, an XML (eXtensible Markup
Language) file format developed as an industry standard by OASIS (Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards). These files can easily be unzipped
and read by any text editor, and their framework is open and published.
• You have a voice. Enhancements, software fixes, and release dates are communitydriven. You can join the community and affect the course of the product you use.
You can read more about LibreOffice and The Document Foundation on their websites athttps://www.libreoffice.org/ and https://www.documentfoundation.org/.

Minimum requirements
LibreOffice 7.4 requires one of the following operating systems:• Microsoft Windows: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, or Windows
10/11. Administrator rights are needed for the installation process.
• GNU/Linux: Kernel version 3.10 or higher and glibc2 v2.17 or higher.
•

macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or higher.

For a detailed list of hardware and software requirements, see the LibreOffice website,
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/.

Note regarding Java
Some LibreOffice features (wizards and the HSQLDB database engine) requirethat the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or, for macOS, the Java Development
Kit (JDK) is installed on your computer. If you do not want to use Java, you canstill use nearly all of the LibreOffice features.
Java is available at no cost. More information and download links to theappropriate edition for your operating system can be found at:https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp.
For macOS, you need to install Oracle’s Java Development Kit (JDK), not justthe Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Download links can be found at:https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/.
If you want to use LibreOffice features that require Java, it is important that thecorrect 32-bit or 64-bit edition matches the installed version of LibreOffice. See
the Advanced Options in Chapter 12, Configuring LibreOffice.

6 | Preface

How to get the software
Versions of LibreOffice Community for Windows, Linux, and macOS can be downloaded freefrom https://www.libreoffice.org/download. You can also download the software by using a Peerto-Peer client, such as BitTorrent, at the same address.
Linux users will also find LibreOffice included in many of the latest Linux distributions; Ubuntu isjust one example. Portable and other versions of LibreOffice are listed on the download page.
Linux, Enterprise, Online, and other versions may differ in appearance and functionality from thedescriptions in this book.

How to install the software
Information on installing LibreOffice on the various supported operating systems is given here:
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/install-howto/. After installation, you can change the default
settings (options) in LibreOffice to suit your preferences; see Chapter 12, Configuring LibreOffice.

Extensions and add-ons
You can add functionality to LibreOffice with extensions and add-ons. Several extensions are
installed with the program and you can get others from the official extensions repository,
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/ and from other sources. See Chapter 13, Customizing
LibreOffice, for more information on installing extensions and add-ons.

Where to get more help
This book, the other LibreOffice user guides, the Help system, and user support systems assume
that you are familiar with your computer and basic functions such as starting a program, opening
and saving files.

Help system
LibreOffice comes with an extensive online Help system. This is your first line of support.
Windows and Linux users can choose to download and install the offline Help for use when notconnected to the Internet; the offline Help is installed with the program on macOS.
To display the Help system, press F1 or select Help > LibreOffice Help on the Menu bar. If you
do not have the offline help installed on your computer and you are connected to the Internet,
your default browser will open the online Help pages on the LibreOffice website.
The Help menu also includes links to other LibreOffice information and support resources. The
options marked by a ‡ sign in the list below are only accessible if your computer is connected to
the Internet.
•

What's This? For quick tips when a toolbar is visible, place the mouse pointer over any of
the icons to see a small box (“tooltip”) with a brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a
more detailed explanation, select Help > What's This? and hold the pointer over theicon. In addition, you can choose whether to activate Extended Tips using Tools >Options > LibreOffice > General.

•

User Guides ‡ Opens your default browser at the Documentation page of the LibreOfficewebsite, https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/. There you willfind copies of user guides and other useful information.

•Show Tip of the Day Opens a small window with a random tip on how to use LibreOffice.

Where to get more help | 7

•Search Commands Opens a window where you can type a few letters or the name of a
Menu bar command, to quickly find where the command is located. Clicking on acommand in the resulting list may open a relevant dialog or have other effects.

•

Get Help Online ‡ Opens your default browser at the Ask LibreOffice forum of questions
and answers from the LibreOffice community, https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/.

•

Send Feedback ‡ Opens your default browser at the Feedback page of the LibreOfficewebsite, https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/feedback/. From there you can report bugs,
suggest new features and communicate with others in the LibreOffice community.

•

Restart in Safe Mode Opens a dialog where you can restart LibreOffice and reset thesoftware to its default settings.

•

Get Involved ‡ Opens your default browser at the Get Involved page of the LibreOfficewebsite, https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/. There you can choose a
topic of interest to help improve the program.

•

Donate to LibreOffice ‡ Opens your default browser at the Donation page of the
LibreOffice website, https://donate.libreoffice.org/. There you can choose to make adonation to support LibreOffice.

•License Information Outlines the licenses under which LibreOffice is made available.
More license information can be found at https://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/licenses.

•

Check for Updates ‡ Opens a dialog and checks the LibreOffice website for updates toyour version of the software.

•

About LibreOffice Opens a dialog and displays information about the version of
LibreOffice and the operating system you are using. This information will often be
requested if you ask the community for help or assistance with the software. (On macOS,
this item is under LibreOffice on the Menu bar.)

Other free online support
The LibreOffice community not only develops software, but provides free, volunteer-based
support. In addition to the Help menu links above, there are other online community support
options available, see the table below.
Free LibreOffice support
FAQs

Answers to frequently asked questions
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq

Mailing lists

Free community support is provided by a network of experiencedusers
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/

Free community assistance is provided in a Question & Answer
format. Search similar topics or ask a new question in
Questions & Answers
https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions
andThe service is available in several other languages; just replace
Knowledge Base/en/ with de, es, fr, ja, ko, nl, pt, tr, and many others in the web
address above.

Native language
support

8 | Preface

The LibreOffice website in various languages
https://www.libreoffice.org/community/nlc/
Mailing lists for native languages
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Local_Mailing_Lists
Information about social networking
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Web_Sites_services

Accessibility options

Information about available accessibility options
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/accessibility/

Paid support and training
You can also pay for support through service contracts from a vendor or consulting firm
specializing in LibreOffice. For information about certified professional support, see The
Document Foundation’s website: https://www.documentfoundation.org/gethelp/support/
For schools, educational and research institutions, and large organizations, see
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

What you see may be different
Illustrations
LibreOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems, each of which has several
versions and can be customized by users (fonts, colors, themes, window managers). The
illustrations in this guide were taken from a variety of computers and operating systems.
Therefore, some illustrations will not look exactly like what you see on your computer display.
Also, some of the dialogs may be different because of the settings selected in LibreOffice. In
some cases (mainly Open, Save, and Print dialogs), you can choose to use dialogs from yourcomputer’s operating system or from LibreOffice. To change which dialogs are used, go to Tools> Options > LibreOffice > General and select or deselect the option Use LibreOffice dialogs.

Icons
The LibreOffice community has created icons for several icon sets: Breeze, Colibre, Elementary,
Karasa Jaga, Sifr, and Sakapura; some are also available in a dark version. As a user, you canselect your own preferred set. The icons in this guide have been taken from a variety of
LibreOffice installations that use different sets of icons. The icons for some of the many tools
available in LibreOffice may differ from the ones used in this guide.
To change the icon set used, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View. In the Icon stylesection, choose from the drop-down list.

Notes
Some Linux distributions include LibreOffice as part of the installation and may
not include all the icon sets mentioned above. You should be able to download
other icon sets from the software repository for your Linux distribution if you wish
to use them.
The Galaxy, Oxygen, and Tango icon sets are no longer included as part of thestandard installation package. You can download and install them as extensions
from https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/.
Some of the previously included gallery sets are now available only as
extensions; see https://extensions.libreoffice.org/?Tags%5B%5D=49 or search for
specific ones.
For example, the People Gallery is available fromhttps://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/people-gallery

What you see may be different | 9

Using LibreOffice on macOS
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows andLinux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this book. For a
more detailed list, see the application Help.
Windows or LinuxmacOS equivalent

EffectTools > Options

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click and/or right-click
depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

Alt

⌥ (Option) or Alt, depending on
keyboard

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+ T

Open Styles deck in Sidebar

What are all these things called?
The terms used in LibreOffice for most parts of the user interface (the parts of the program you
see and use, in contrast to the behind-the-scenes code that actually makes it work) are the same
as for most other programs.
A dialog is a special type of window. Its purpose is to inform you of something, or request input
from you, or both. The technical names for common controls are shown in Figure 1. In mostcases the technical terms are not used in this book, but it is useful to know them because theHelp and other sources of information often use them.

Figure 1: Dialog showing common controls
1) Tabbed page (not strictly speaking a control).
2) Radio buttons (only one can be selected at a time).
3) Checkbox (more than one can be selected at a time).
10 | Preface

4) Spin box (click the up and down arrows to change the number shown in the adjacent text
box, or type in the text box).
5) Thumbnail or preview.
6) Drop-down list from which to select an item.
7) Push buttons.
In most cases, you can interact only with the dialog (not the document itself) as long as the dialog
remains open. When you close the dialog after use (usually, clicking OK or another button saves
your changes and closes the dialog), then you can again work with the document.
Some dialogs can be left open as you work, so you can switch back and forth between the dialog
and the document. An example of this type is the Find & Replace dialog.

Frequently asked questions
How is LibreOffice licensed?
LibreOffice is distributed under the Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved Mozilla Public
License (MPL). See https://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/licenses/
It is based on code from Apache OpenOffice made available under the Apache License
2.0 but also includes software that differs from version to version under a variety of other
Open Source licenses. New code is available under LGPL 3.0 and MPL 2.0.
May I distribute LibreOffice to anyone? May I sell it? May I use it in my business?
Yes.
How many computers may I install it on?
As many as you like.
Is LibreOffice available in my language?
LibreOffice has been translated (localized for more than 80%, both UI and Help) into over46 languages, so your language probably is supported. Localization is well under way for
another 30+ languages (50-80%) and for another 50+ languages help is more thanwelcome. In addition, over 70 spelling, hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries areavailable for languages and dialects that do not have a localized program interface. The
dictionaries are available from the LibreOffice website at: www.libreoffice.org.
How can you make it for free?
LibreOffice is developed and maintained by volunteers and has the backing of several
organizations. LibreOffice also relies upon donations from its users. If you’d like to donate
you can do so here: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/.
I am writing a software application. May I use programming code from LibreOffice in myprogram?
You may, within the parameters set in the MPL and/or LGPL. Read the licenses:
https://www.mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
Why do I need Java to run LibreOffice? Is it written in Java?
LibreOffice is not written in Java; it is written in the C++ language. Java is one of several
languages that can be used to extend the software. The Java JDK/JRE is only required
for some features. The most notable one is the HSQLDB relational database engine. If
you do not want to use Java, you can still use nearly all of the LibreOffice features. For
more information, see “Minimum requirements” in Chapter 1, LibreOffice Basics.
How can I contribute to LibreOffice?
You can help with the development and user support of LibreOffice in many ways, andyou do not need to be a programmer. To start, check out this webpage:https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/
Frequently asked questions | 11

May I distribute the PDF of this book, or print and sell copies?
Yes, as long as you meet the requirements of one of the licenses in the copyrightstatement at the beginning of this book. You do not have to request special permission.
We request that you share with the project some of the profits you make from sales ofbooks, in consideration of all the work we have put into producing them.
Donate to LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

What is new in LibreOffice 7.4 Community?
LibreOffice 7.4 Community includes many changes including:
GENERAL•

Support for WebP images and EMZ/WMZ files•

Help pages for the ScriptForge scripting library•

Search field for the Extension Manager•

Performance and compatibility improvements

WRITER•

Better change tracking in the footnote area•

Edited lists show original numbers in change tracking•

New typographic settings for hyphenation

CALC•

Support for 16,384 columns in spreadsheets•

Extra functions in drop-down AutoSum widget•

New menu item to search for sheet names

IMPRESS•New support for document themes

A video summarizing the top new features in LibreOffice 7.4 Community is available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC8M4UzqpqEMore information is in the announcement:
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2022/08/18/libreoffice-7-4-community/ and in the
Release Notes: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.4.
This user guide has been updated from Getting Started Guide 7.3. It covers some of the newfeatures that are visible in the user interface, but not all; others are covered in the individualcomponent guides. Portions of this guide have been rewritten for clarity, and some topics not inprevious editions have been included.

12 | Preface