The free and open-source office suite OnlyOffice Docs has just been updated to version 8.0, with some interesting new functions, a refinement of ergonomics and an improvement in overall performance.
If the world of office applications is clearly dominated by Microsoft’s Office suite, there are many very serious and efficient alternatives to the Redmond firm’s famous tools. Among them, the OnlyOffice Docs office suite has been gaining momentum in recent years, thanks to solid arguments: a modern and friendly user interface, effective real-time collaboration tools and an open-source and multi-platform development model, which allows it to be deployed by many online service providers and to be available on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
Developed by the company Ascensio System SIA, located in Latvia, OnlyOffice Docs is an open-source office suite composed of five document editing modules, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation tool, a form creator and a PDF editor. All applications allow real-time collaboration on documents, thanks to a system for tracking changes and comments. The office suite can be used online through a browser, via the OnlyOffice DocSpace offer or that of another service provider. cloudand also has a desktop version called OnlyOffice Desktop that can be downloaded and installed for free.
Both plans have just been updated with version 8.0 of OnlyOffice Docs, which brings several notable improvements regarding performance, ergonomics and the functions of the different editors. To benefit from the online version, it is possible to create a free OnlyOffice DocSpace accountand the desktop version can be downloaded for free from the publisher’s official page.
OnlyOffice Docs 8.0: new functions for editors
The spreadsheet benefits from three new practical and interesting functions. A tool called Goal search appears in the toolbar. It allows you to find the input values to provide to a calculation formula based on the desired result.
When creating charts, a new window now appears to suggest suitable chart types based on the selected data and preview the result.
A function called Series now allows you to generate sequences of numbers and dates in a range of selected cells, according to user-defined series parameters.
Finally, three new practical options appear: the ability to generate a link to a range of cells when opening a read-only file, buttons to expand or collapse pivot table fields in the context menu and toolbar, and a setting to center the page vertically or horizontally when printing.
The PDF file editor is enriched with a date selector for forms containing fields to fill out.
On the side of the form creation tool, integrated into the word processor, tooltips appear to help the user in composing documents, and an option Radio Button appears in the taskbar to create the appropriate form controls.
In addition, forms generated with OnlyOffice Docs now adopt the DOCXF format for creation and editing, then are saved and exported in PDF format, instead of the OFORM format used previously. These new formats offer more possibilities for creating complex forms and guarantee better interoperability of forms when they are published.
Finally, the presentation editor now allows you to define a final color for chromatic change effects during animations.
OnlyOffice Docs 8.0: refined ergonomics and easier collaboration
In terms of real-time collaboration on documents, version 8.0 brings two minor but useful new features. First of all, it is now possible to add an avatar to each user working on the document, in order to identify them more easily within the team.
Then, to facilitate communication and tracking of changes, a button add a comment has been integrated into the header of the comments side panel, and the function Add a comment to the document has been moved to the menu Sorting and others of the same panel.
One of the strengths of OnlyOffice Docs is the integration of numerous extensions (plugins) allowing access to powerful functions, such as generating content with Chat-GPT or creating drawings and diagrams with Draw.io. To make it easier to work with multiple extensions simultaneously, the user interface has been improved. The different extensions in use now appear in the sidebar to the left of the applications, to easily switch from one to the other.
An excellent point, the screen reader, which was until now available in beta version, becomes accessible to users in full version. This tool allows visually impaired people to work on documents much more easily and the arrival of this accessibility option can only be warmly welcomed. The option can be activated in the general settings of the office suite.
Perhaps less expected by French-speaking users but still useful as well, the start of RTL support, for Right-to-Left. This option allows you to adapt the different applications of the office suite to languages that are written from right to left. Its operation is not yet perfect and its integration is still in the beta phase. It can be activated from OnlyOffice advanced settings.
OnlyOffice 8.0: improved performance
Last but not least of this new version of OnlyOffice, the execution speed of applications seems to have been significantly improved. In the previous version, opening documents could sometimes take a little time, especially with the heaviest and most complex documents.
For version 8.0, the editor announces significant performance gains when creating and opening files:
- Creating an empty file: up to 15% faster
- Opening a normal file: up to 20% faster
- Opening a large file: up to 15% faster
After a few tests carried out on our side, and to have a little experience of the file creation and opening speeds on the previous version of OnlyOffice, we can confirm that these gains seem very real and are noticeably felt when use of applications.
Without being revolutionary, all these changes, additions and improvements prove to be really practical and provide greater comfort in the daily use of OnlyOffice Docs. They also mark the seriousness of Ascensio System SIA in the maintenance and development of its product, and confirm that OnlyOffice is becoming an increasingly solid alternative, which only improves and improves over time, to behemoths that are Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.