Robert Irvine recommends new programs that won’t cost you a thing
OFFICE SUITE LibreOffice 7.6
www.libreoffice.org
What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, macOS or Linux
LibreOffice has received a major update that further cements its status as our favourite free office suite.
There are new options and improvements for all the main LibreOffice tools, as well as tweaks to its interface. For example, the Recent Documents list you access from the File menu now shows the most recent items for the current module first. This means that if you’re using Writer, text documents you recently opened in that application will be listed above spreadsheets from Calc and presentations from Impress.
Word processor Writer gets the most attention in this release, with several welcome additions. The most useful is a new Page Number Wizard, which makes it much easier to insert page numbers in your documents. Simply click the Insert menu, select Page Number and specify where you want the numbers to appear – at the top or bottom of the document, and left, right or centre-aligned.
The ‘Accessibility Check’ option, which lets you ensure documents can be read by visually impaired people who use screen readers, is now in a prominent place on Writer’s right-hand sidebar. Click this to check for missing information and poor formatting that could cause confusion.
Spreadsheet tool Calc now checks the validity of formula inputs to help solve ‘invalid value’ errors. Click the Data menu, select Validity and use the options on the Criteria tab to adjust the formula of the problem cell. Calc also now deletes empty sheets without prompting you to confirm, and lets you retain your print preferences when you copy sheets to a new document.
LibreOffice’s presentation tool, Impress, has a new navigation panel that lets you quickly switch slides when viewing a presentation. To enable it, select Slide Show Settings in the Slide Show menu and tick the ‘Show navigation panel’ box. We’ll be covering other tips and tools for LibreOffice 7.6 in our Make Office Better section (page 46) over the next few months.
1 The new Page Number Wizard in LibreOffice Writer makes inserting page numbers much easier. You can mirror their position on even-numbered pages, and include a total – so the first page in a five-page document is labelled ‘1/5’.
2 Writer’s ‘Accessibility Check’ option has been moved to its right-hand sidebar. Click its button, or press Ctrl+Alt+7, to detect and fix problems that could affect people who use screen readers, such as missing text or confusing formatting.
3 Spread
