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EnglishWhat Is LibreOffice and What Does It Include?
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LibreOffice is a free, open source office suite developed by a global community and available at no cost to users. It bundles six applications — Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math — covering word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, databases, and formula editing. It is a good fit if you want a full productivity suite you can download, use, and inspect without paying for a license, and if you value community-driven development and broad language support.
The six tools in the suite
The official site describes LibreOffice as "one suite. Six tools," each aimed at a distinct kind of work:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Writer | A word processor for everything from quick notes to full-length books |
| Calc | A spreadsheet for analyzing data, crunching numbers, and creating visuals |
| Impress | Multimedia presentation creation |
| Draw | Diagrams through to complex 3D illustrations |
| Base | Database management: tables, forms, queries, and reports in one place |
| Math | Formula writing via a visual editor or plain text |
Each tool has a guide book linked from the site, so you can read documentation for a specific application before committing to it.
Why people choose it
The project's stated reasons center on access and openness:
- No cost. The site says LibreOffice provides "unfettered access to our office productivity tools, at no cost to you."
- Open source. Anyone can study how the software works and contribute improvements.
- Community-driven. It is developed by hundreds of contributors worldwide, and the community encourages translation, documentation, and maintenance in all of the world's languages.
- Broad language coverage. The download page lists dozens of interface languages, including Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese (traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and many more.
Who develops and maintains it
LibreOffice is created "by you, for you" — that is, by its user and contributor community rather than a single vendor. Development is open to all, and the project explicitly welcomes new talent and ideas. The software is tested and used daily by a large, devoted user community.
If you want to get involved rather than just use it, the site lists contribution areas including Design, Localisation, Marketing, Documentation, Development, Infrastructure, and Quality Assurance. The project recommends scheduling an orienting interview with TDF mentor Ilmari Lauhakangas before you start contributing.
How to get started
- Go to libreoffice.org and use the Download link.
- Pick your platform and the interface language you want from the list on the download page.
- Install it and open whichever of the six tools matches your task — Writer for documents, Calc for spreadsheets, and so on.
- If you get stuck, the site's Get Help section and the per-tool guide books are the intended starting points.
The current release highlighted on the site is LibreOffice 26.8. The site also offers a Donate option for users who want to support the project financially, though the software itself is presented as free to use.
When LibreOffice is the right choice
Choose it if you need a complete office suite at no cost, want open source software you can examine and improve, or need interface and documentation support across many languages. If your work depends on tight integration with a specific proprietary format or vendor ecosystem, evaluate that compatibility against your own files before switching — the site's feature descriptions cover the six tools and their general capabilities, not format-by-format guarantees.