The Document Foundation does not stop even at Christmas. The organization responsible for the development of LibreOffice continues to constantly improve its office suite in order to stand up to Microsoft and steal users from it. The release of version 7 of this program was one of the largest, at least in terms of compatibility with Microsoft formats and functions. However, it is not enough. And now, 4 months after the arrival of this version, we can finally test the Release Candidate of the new version 7.1 of this suite. A version that brings you one step closer to your rival.
The Alpha version of LibreOffice 7.1 saw the light of day last October, while the beta arrived in November. Now, after more than 200 code changes, we users are finally one step closer to the final version of this new suite. Taking advantage of the fact that the year is coming to an end, and that many people have a little more free time at this time, The Document Foundation has released the first Release Candidate of LibreOffice 7.1.
Changes and improvements in LibreOffice 7.1
Obviously, this new version is not going to bring changes as big as the previous version, since it is, basically, a revision within version 7.0 of the program. But we are going to be able to find interesting changes that will improve the suite even more.
Writer , for example, has received a new content organization system called “outline folding mode.” If we activate it (it is deactivated by default) we will be able to group the content of each block or headline and hide it, thus having a new, more organized point of view to work with large documents. New formulas for tables and general performance improvements have also been included.
In Calc , Spreadsheets, general program enhancements, a cell fill feature, and general changes have been made to improve the performance of large sheets. And finally, Impress and Draw have included new arrows, new symbols, and a physics-based animation system.
We can consult the complete list of changes in this link .
Download and availability of the final version
Any user interested in testing the improvements and news of this new version can download it from the following link . Although LibreOffice 7.1 has already gone through Alpha and Beta versions, and is quite advanced, it can still have serious bugs that affect the way we work, and we may even lose data due to an unexpected shutdown. Therefore, it is recommended to use this RC1 for testing purposes only .
If all goes well, next January 2021 we will surely see a new Release Candidate , the RC2. We may even see an RC3, depending on the stability of the new version. These will bring minor fixes detected by developers and users and will lead to the final version. Thus, in February 2021, we will be able to see the final version of LibreOffice 7.1, a version that will be available to everyone, of course, completely free of charge.
LibreOffice 7.2 is already under development, although it is still in a very early stage of its development and all the news that it will bring is not known.
Finally, remember that a week ago (with the release of LibreOffice 7.0.4), branch 6.4 of this office suite reached the end of its life cycle. This means that, if we still use it, we should know that from now on we will not receive any more updates or support. It is advisable to upgrade to branch 7 of this suite in order to continue enjoying all its improvements.
