LibreOffice 3.6.0 Beta 1 Released [Ubuntu 12.04 PPA]

LibreOffice 3.6.0 beta 1 has been released with many new features and improvements, including contextual spacing for Writer, DOCX import improvements, support for importing Smart Art, label / business card wizard improvements, widescreen format for Impress slides and more.

Changes in LibreOffice 3.6.0 beta:

• Writer: support for contextual spacing
• Writer: DOCX import now handles GetExpression and SetExpression fields
• Writer: RTF/DOCX import/export now handle the document zoom setting
• Writer: Word count (whole document and selection) in status bar
• Support for importing Smart Art
• Label / business card wizard improvements
• Calc: New option to specify a custom sheet name prefix in new documents
• Calc: Export conditional formatting to xlsx
• Calc: Improved CSV file import
• Calc: Support field items in cells
• Calc: Allow sorting of data from the autofilter menu
• Calc: Quickly allow pasting only text, value, or formula from the context menu
• Impress: Added widescreen format for impress-slides
• Misc: Import filter for Corel Draw documents
• Misc: PDF Export with Watermark option
• Misc: Rulers are now much cleaner and more light-weight
• Misc: GTK themes are now able to render background gradient
• Performance improvements

A list of complete changes can be found HERE.

Install LibreOffice 3.6.0 Beta 1 in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

LibreOffice 3.6.0 is still in beta so you'll find bugs in both the actual application and in the packaging (I've wrote how to fix some of the packaging issues below). Install it for testing purposes only!

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin users can upgrade to the latest LibreOffice 3.6.0 beta 1 using the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-prereleases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you have the official LibreOffice PPA added on your system (it might also occur with the LibreOffice packages from the Ubuntu 12.04 repositories, I'm not sure), you'll probably encounter an error like the one below after trying to install LibreOffice 3.6.0 beta 1:

dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-gtk_1%3a3.6.0~beta1-0ubuntu1~precise1~ppa2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/gconfbe1.uno.so', which is also in package libreoffice-gnome 1:3.5.4~rc2-0ubuntu1~ppa1

Fix it using the following commands:

- 32bit:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-gtk_1%3a3.6.0~beta1-0ubuntu1~precise1~ppa2_i386.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

- 64bit:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/libreoffice-gtk_1%3a3.6.0~beta1-0ubuntu1~precise1~ppa2_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

If, after installing LibreOffice, there are no icons for Calc, Impress, Writer, etc., run the following command in a terminal:

sudo sed -i 's/Icon=/Icon=libreoffice-/g' /usr/share/applications/libreoffice*

After running the above command, wait for a few seconds and check if the icons are displayed. If not, try to log out and log back in.

And finally, for experimental GTK3 support, also install the following package (if LibreOffice doesn't work after installing it, simply remove the package):

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-gtk3

Download LibreOffice 3.6.0 beta 1 for Linux, Windows or Mac OSX.