<p>The latest point revision of the popular OpenOffice.org fork, LibreOffice, is now available for download. Version 4.2 sports a good mix of improved existing features and some valuable new ones; here are some of the most crucial improvements and additions and what makes them stand out.</p><p>Better "round-trip" integration with Microsoft OOXML documentsA constant issue with LibreOffice and Microsoft Office has been the way documents saved in one program and edited in another get mangled because of differences in how the two interpret the OOXML format. (One item bit me quite often: the change-tracking flag in DOCX files.)</p><p>Fixing this ought to make it incrementally easier for LibreOffice to be used side-by-side with Microsoft Office in the same organization, since forcing an all-or-nothing switch between the two suites won't win a lot of support. The Document Foundation, LibreOffice's sponsor, offers advice for prospective converts and recommends moving to an intermediate document format like ODF (which Microsoft Office supports). But odds are any organization that's using Office to any degree will stick with OOXML, so having better interoperability is always a plus.</p><p>A new OpenCL-powered Calc engineMany math operations in LibreOffice's spreadsheet app, Calc, are now GPU-accelerated thanks to a rewritten interpreter for spreadsheet formulas that uses OpenCL. OpenCL serves as a neutral front-end for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs alike, so most late-model GPUs should work with it. Most of the boosts in performance will be visible for bigger spreadsheets, whenever a great deal of recalculation has to be executed in parallel.</p><p><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/open-source-software/libreoffice-42-better-bridges-the-gap-microsoft-office-235381">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/bigger-better-faster-libreoffice-4-2-7000025807/">Bigger, better, faster: LibreOffice 4.2</a> (ZDNet)</p><p><a href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/371024,libreoffice-steps-up-the-fight-for-microsoft-users.aspx">LibreOffice steps up the fight for Microsoft users</a> (iT News)</p><p><a href="http://hexus.net/tech/news/software/65585-libreoffice-42-focuses-upon-performance-interoperability/">LibreOffice 4.2 focuses upon performance and interoperability</a> (HEXUS)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d5N6535-j8j0wHM7zcjEW3-0mNzOM&authuser=0&ned=us">11 additional articles.</a></p>