This is a beginner’s guide shows how to install (or Remove) the popular LibreOffice Office Suite in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
LibreOffice is a free open-source office suite, that works in Linux, Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation, vector graphics editor, math app, and database management program. And, it uses Open Document Format (ODF) as default file format, though most other major office file formats are also supported, including Microsoft Office DOCX, XML, XLSX, PPTX, and more.
The office suite is so popular that most Linux use it as default, including Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian.
However, Ubuntu 24.04 does NOT have it out-of-the-box if you installed the system with “Default selection” mode. Meaning you need to manually install the office suite afterward, for handling your spreadsheet, presentation, etc files.
For users who prefer native .deb package, LibreOffice 24.2 is finally available to install via Ubuntu PPA!
LibreOffice is the default office suite for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and many other Linux. And, the latest so far is LibreOffice 24.2.x release series that was released a month ago.
The office suite provides official packages for Linux through Flatpak, Snap, Deb/RPM, and AppImage.
However, for Ubuntu users who prefer the native Deb package format, the LibreOffice Fresh PPA maintained by Ubuntu Team members, is a better choice.
“OTOH, it is _way_ _better_ to use packages from this PPA than using the *.deb files that The Document Foundation provides upstream, which are intentionally build against a very old baseline for maximum compatibility. So, _if_ you want to be on the bleeding edge, do it here, not with upstream *.debs.”
And now the PPA finally is updated that contains LibreOffice 24.2.1 for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, and Ubuntu 24.04. While the Ubuntu 20.04 build is stuck at the last v7.6.5.
LibreOffice, the popular free open-source office suite, announced a new major release this Wednesday.
It’s LibreOffice 24.2.0, the first release introduced the new calendar-based numbering scheme (YY.M). Meaning it’s release in February, 2024.
The release added better support for Qt-based UI variants. It automatically switches to dark app color and dark icon theme for KDE Plasma when the desktop is set to dark style.
LibreOffice, the default office suite in most Linux, announced the new 7.5 feature release today!
The new release has greatly improved the dark mode support. It now has fully dark appearance, instead of leaving the document background white in dark mode.
LibreOffice 7.5 now has new icons for standard app shortcuts, MIME types, and macOS specific app shortcuts. App start center now includes a filter box for Recent Documents.
A better single-toolbar user interface is available under “View -> User Interface” menu, with context-aware controls and their customization support.
The “Writer” app gains new Plain Text content control and Combo Box content control. And, Content Control now supports titles and tags, as well as exporting to PDF.
For “CALC”, data tables are now supported in charts, the Function Wizard allows to search for descriptions. And, Impress & Draw gets a new set of default table styles.
Initial machine translation based on DeepL translate APIs
Ability to define a custom color for Grammar mistakes in the Application Colors dialog.
“Spell out” number formats in CALC.
Ability to crop inserted videos in the slide and still play them
Run presenter console can run as a normal window.
See short video about new features of LibreOffice 7.5:
How to Install LibreOffice 7.5 in Ubuntu Linux.
LibreOffice is available to install in 4 different package formats: Deb, Flatpak, AppImage, and Snap.
NOTE: User can install all of them side by side in same machine, meaning have duplicated app icons in start menu (‘Activities’ overview search results).
Option 1: Deb package
Libreoffice website offers official .deb packages, which is however built for supporting all Debian based systems.
For better integration, the LibreOffice Fresh PPA is HIGHLY recommended for Ubuntu Linux. User can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command to add it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
NOTE: The PPA so far contains LibreOffice v7.5 for only Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10
Then, run regular updates via Software Updater (Update Manager) app will update the pre-installed LibreOffice packages to the latest!
Option 2: Snap package
Snap is an universal package runs in sandbox. Ubuntu 20.04 and higher can easily search for and install LibreOffice as Snap from Ubuntu Software.
As mentioned, install LibreOffice Snap will cause duplicated app icons to the pre-installed package.
Option 3: Flatpak package
Flatpak is another universal package runs in sandbox. It’s a competitor to Snap. Users can run following commands one by one to install LibreOffice as Flatpak.
First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then run command to install Flatpak daemon:
sudo apt install flatpak
Next, install the office suite as Flatpak via command:
AppImage is an non-install package format runs in most Linux. It’s a good choice to try AppImage until the LibreOffice Fresh PPA updated for the new release packages.
Then, right-click and go file “Properties” dialog, add executable as program permission under Permission tab, and finally click run the AppImage to launch the office suite.
Uninstall:
For the LibreOffice PPA package, open terminal and run command:
The office suite offers official Flatpak, Snap, and Deb packages for downloading in its website. However, all of them will install another copy, which causes duplicated shortcut icons in Ubuntu.
For all current Ubuntu releases (Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04) and their based systems, the LibreOffice PPA is highly recommended. Since the PPA is maintained by Ubuntu community members, and it will upgrade the system built office packages instead of installing another ones.
1. Add the PPA
Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Upgrade LibreOffice
After adding the PPA, search for and launch “Software Updater” from Activities overview. Or, open ‘Update Manager’ (and refresh) depends on your system.
There you should see LibreOffice packages available to update. Just click install and wait until done.
For choice, you may run the command below in terminal to install or update to Libreoffice 7.4:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install libreoffice
How to Restore:
For any issue, you may restore the packages to stock version in system repository. To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command:
Ubuntu’s default LibreOffice office suite 7.2.5 was released today. User may install it from the official PPA in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu 21.10 and Linux Mint 20.x
LibreOffice 7.2.5 comes with 90 bug-fixes, including many crashes when recent files are not accessible, inserting hidden field over input field, one click and three TAB presses, saving a calc file after delete some columns, and more. See the release note for details.
How to Install the Latest LibreOffice in Ubuntu:
The software is available to install as Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage. Though, I recommend the classic .deb package via its official PPA repository.
1. Add LibreOffice PPA:
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, paste and run the command below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Update package cache:
For Ubuntu 18.04 and some Ubuntu based systems, user needs to manually update system package cache by running command:
sudo apt upgrade
3. Install/Upgrade Libreoffice:
Finally install the office suite via command:
sudo apt install libreoffice
Or upgrade the software package using Software Updater utility:
How to Restore:
To revert back the original office version, run command in terminal to install ppa-purge tool and purge the PPA repository.
LibreOffice office suite 7.1.2, the second bug-fix release for the 7.1 series, now is available to install in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20, Ubuntu 20.10 via its official PPA.
LibreOffice 7.1.2 comes with 61 bug-fixes. Here are some of them according to the changelog:
Paste sometimes deactivated in (context) menu even though text copied to clipboard and CTRL+V functioning.
Writer: wrong header/footer during export to DOCX.
LibreOffice text blurry on Retina displays on macOS 11.
Font rendering display error (skia) and some DejaVu fonts.
Cannot open .docx in writer – format openXML.
Orca no longer reads many options on the sidebar in Linux.
Autocorrect no longer works with Change Tracking enabled.
elementary: New Arrow Style for Undo and Redo.
Crash when importing docx file.
PDF export with buttons won’t work in Adobe Reader.
How to Install LibreOffice 7.1.2 via PPA:
1. Add the PPA.
LibreOffice Fresh PPA has made the packages for all current Ubuntu releases. You can add it to your system by launching terminal and run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. Install LibreOffice 7.1.2.
After adding the PPA, you can either update your system packages including the office suite via command:
sudo apt full-upgrade
or launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and select install the package updates:
Uninstall:
To remove the PPA repository, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software and remove the relevant line.
The official LibreOffice Fresh PPA finally made the LibreOffice 7.1 packages for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.10.
LibreOffice, Ubuntu’s default office suite, released version 7.1 almost a month ago. The new release features new Additions Dialog to better integrate extensions, new User Interface select dialog, new widget with styles preview in tabbed Notebookbar.
LibreOffice Math gets full support of HTML colors, and new examples in Element pane. The Writer application features faster find/replace, a new Style Inspector, and better detection of Unicode in documents. LibreOffice Impress gains new animation presets and adds “Pause/Resume” and “Exit” buttons.
How to Install LibreOffice 7.1 via Ubuntu PPA:
For Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Linux Mint 20, firstly open terminal and run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
After that, open Software Updater and you’ll see the package updates for office suite after checking for updates.
Just install all the updates and done!
How to Restore:
For any reason, you can restore the office suite to the original pre-installed version, by running command in terminal to purge the PPA:
LibreOffice office suite 7.0 was released a few days ago. For those sticking to the PPA .deb packages, you can now install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 19.x, and 20.
LibreOffice 7.0 release highlights:
ODF 1.3 document support
Skia graphics engine + Vulkan support.
Better Microsoft Office DOCX / XLSX / PPTX support.
remove Adobe Flash export support
HiDPI, import/export, and other improvements.
How to Install LibreOffice 7.0 via PPA:
1. Add the PPA.
LibreOffice 7.0.x specific PPA has been created hours ago contains the latest deb packages. You can add it to your system by launching terminal and run command:
For any reason you want to revert back to the Ubuntu stock LibreOffice version, instead of removing the PPA, run command to purge it which also downgrade all installed packages:
Export Calc files to PDF with all pages on a sheet as one page in the PDF.
Add ‘Remove Hyperlink’ to context menu in Impress
Add ‘Consolidate Text’ which combines multiple selected textboxes into one
Access2Base callable from Python
Doc, DocX, PPT, PPTX, Excel 2003 XML import/export improvements.
Draw MIME type icon overlay on thumbnails at the start center
Add new ‘Table’ sidebar panel to Writer
How to Install the Latest LibreOffice in Ubuntu:
Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run following commands one by one.
1.) Add LibreOffice Fresh PPA. It contains v6.3.4 at the moment, and v6.4 packages will be available in a few days.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
For enterprises, the mature “still” version (v6.3 so far) of LibreOffice is recommended. See HERE.
2.) Once the official PPA updated with the new packages, you’re able to upgrade the office suite through the Software Updater utility:
Uninstall:
You can either remove the LibreOffice PPA via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab,
or purge the PPA which also downgrade LibreOffice to the default pre-installed version via command:
