News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
For LibreOffice users who are sticking to the native .deb packages, the Ubuntu packaging team finally made the packages through PPA.
LibreOffice 25.2 was released 2 months ago with custom theme support, automatic sign document in “Save as” dialog, import/export connections.xml in OOXML, read and write support for ODF 1.4, and many other new features. See HERE for more.
though the announcement is not ready yet at the moment. 
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.
Other changes in LibreOffice 7.5 include:
See short video about new features of LibreOffice 7.5:
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.
sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.libreoffice.LibreOffice.flatpakref
Option 4: AppImage
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.
Just grab the package from the official website:
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.
For the LibreOffice PPA package, open terminal and run command:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa
It will remove the PPA repository and downgrade the office suite to the pre-installed version.
For the Flatpak package, run the command below to remove it:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.libreoffice.LibreOffice
For other two, either uninstall via Ubuntu Software or just remove the package file.
For those prefer native .deb packages, LibreOffice 7.4 is finally available to install via LibreOffice Fresh PPA.
Major release packages always take longer time to be published into PPA. And it’s been almost one month for this new 7.4 release.
Features of LibreOffice 7.4 include:
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.
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.
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
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:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa
This command will first install ppa-purge tool, and use it to purge the PPA which also downgrade all installed packages from that repository.
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.
The software is available to install as Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage. Though, I recommend the classic .deb package via its official PPA repository.
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.
For Ubuntu 18.04 and some Ubuntu based systems, user needs to manually update system package cache by running command:
sudo apt upgrade
Finally install the office suite via command:
sudo apt install libreoffice
Or upgrade the software package using Software Updater utility:
To revert back the original office version, run command in terminal to install ppa-purge tool and purge the PPA repository.
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa
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:
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:
To remove the PPA repository, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software and remove the relevant line.
or run command in terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:libreoffice/ppa
You can alternatively purge the PPA, which also downgrade LibreOffice to the pre-installed version:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa
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.
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!
For any reason, you can restore the office suite to the original pre-installed version, by running command in terminal to purge the PPA:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa
