LibreOffice 26.2: Faster, Markdown Support, and Better Office Compatibility

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The Document Foundation has released the free office suite LibreOffice in version 26.2. The new version brings numerous performance optimizations, long-awaited Markdown support, and improved compatibility with Microsoft Office formats. LibreOffice is available as open-source software free of charge for Windows, macOS, and Linux and supports over 120 languages.

Among the most important new features is the support for Markdown documents: Users can now import Markdown files directly – both via file selection and by clipboard – and export documents in the popular format. This significantly improves interoperability, especially for technical documentation and content management systems.

Noticeable Performance Improvements

Furthermore, LibreOffice 26.2 now runs faster in several areas. EPUB export is significantly faster and now shows a progress bar. In Calc, scrolling behavior in spreadsheets with many hidden columns has noticeably improved. Processing large tables with many shapes, removing duplicate entries, and rejecting tracked changes also run faster. SVG export with many bitmaps has been optimized, as has the rendering of 3D charts and pattern fills under Linux.

Better MS Office Compatibility and New Features

The developers have also improved compatibility with Microsoft Office formats with this update. Among other things, Writer can now split Floating Tables into multiple Floating Tables, which optimizes DOCX export. Change Tracking has been revised and now better preserves old formatting in ODT files. Calc now supports the Biff12 clipboard format from Excel 2007 and later, allowing larger amounts of data to be copied from Excel. Excel 2010+ is now the default format when saving as XLSX.

New features of interest to professional users include connector support in Calc for data flow diagrams, improved sorting options with Natural Sort, and the option to enter matrix formulas more easily with F2 and then Shift+Ctrl+Enter. Writer now offers start and end paragraph alignment for RTL languages such as Arabic or Hebrew and automatically adjusts text direction. Line height handling has been improved for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean DOC/DOCX documents.

Security and Data Protection in Focus

A new encryption mode called ODF Wholesome Encryption uses AES-GCM for authenticated encryption and Argon2id for memory-intensive key derivation. This offers higher resistance against brute-force attacks and reduces information leakage by better hiding metadata. All information about the new features can be found in the Release Notes.

“LibreOffice 26.2 shows what happens when software is built around users, not business models, and how open-source software can deliver a modern, mature productivity suite without compromising user freedom,” says Florian Effenberger, Executive Director of The Document Foundation, about the new release.

LibreOffice 26.2 will receive updates until its end-of-life status on November 30, 2026. For long-term support, companies can rely on certified L3 providers who offer commercial support beyond the official end-of-life status. The suite is intended for schools, authorities, and companies as well as end-users and offers itself as an alternative to proprietary office packages.

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