The collaborative and open-source office suite OnlyOffice has just been updated to version 8.2. On the menu, performance optimizations and improvements for all editing modules.
After a major change in January 2024, with the transition to version 8.0, the excellent OnlyOffice office suite continues to improve regularly, with the arrival of the second “minor” update of the year, the version 8.2. Without being revolutionary, this intermediate version brings its share of optimizations, improvements and welcome new features, which make OnlyOffice ever more complete, efficient and pleasant to use.
Update 8.2 was deployed a few days ago for OnlyOffice Docs, the web version of the different editing modules, which are found in more and more services cloudlike those of Swiss supplier Infomaniakor in the news French collaborative suite Hexagone. As for OnlyOffice Desktop Editors, the desktop version of the different editors, version 8.2 was distributed yesterday via the update utility integrated into the application.
OnlyOffice 8.2: a refined interface and increased performance
As for the changes brought by version 8.2, let’s start with those common to all modules of the application. First of all, the GUI continues to be gently tweaked, with the appearance of a new style for the tabs (underlined rather than filled) and the ability to use the toolbar color as tab background. These new options are accessible via the menu Files > Advanced Settings > Appearance.
A new global theme also appears: Gray. This allows you to use a title and tab bar without color, but without using dark mode, for a particularly clean and professional look.
In terms of performance, the publisher announces that it has significantly improved the opening of files, “optimizing loading scripts”. Thus, opening text documents would be up to 21% faster, and that of slideshows up to 17%. The document modification history window has been redesigned, and it is now possible to add custom information fields to file metadata. Finally, all editors are enriched with three new types of charts: histogram, waterfall and funnel.
OnlyOffice 8.2: improvements for all publishers
All editing modules are entitled to small new features and improvements. The PDF editor now allows real-time co-editing of forms and documents, with comments and version tracking, as in the other modules. The web version of the PDF editor also allows you to insert digital signatures in the form of images, and should integrate the real electronic signature soon. Note that these two types of digital signatures are already available in the desktop version.
The word processor has a function of dynamic fields in the form of code, the content of which updates automatically, which is very useful for inserting information such as the date, time or the name of the author . It’s also possible to insert text from external sources, such as other files or URLs, and version history now has an option to easily recover text deleted by other writers of the document.
The spreadsheet is optimized with smoother vertical scrolling, which makes reading spreadsheets with rows containing a lot of data much more enjoyable. The tab Pivot Tables is now hidden by default, and is only displayed when a table of this type exists in the workbook. Furthermore, an option in the Advanced settings allows you to define a maximum number of iterations for calculating formulas, and a button Comma style was added in the tab Welcometo enable thousands separator in numbers with just one click.
Finally, the presentation editor is enriched with a tool Digital pen to draw freehand on the slides, and a new mode now allows you to chain the slides with random transition effects.
Localization improvements are also included in this new version, such as support for left-to-right writing in the spreadsheet, updating dictionaries, and enriching the spell checker. And in general, the various menus, panels and drop-down lists are subtly and gradually reorganized to be more ergonomic.
Ascensio System, the company behind OnlyOffice, therefore continues to improve and enrich its application at a sustained and very appreciable pace. Faced with the juggernaut Microsoft Office, this office suite therefore becomes over time an ever more credible and complete alternative, alongside the venerable LibreOffice.
Each of the open source solutions also offers a different approach and the two complement each other wonderfully, LibreOffice favoring the richness of functions and backward compatibility with old file formats, and OnlyOffice emphasizing the user-friendliness of the graphical interface and real-time collaboration.