Copyright

This document is Copyright © 2025 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors are listed below. This document may be distributed and/or modified under the terms of either the GNU General Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later. All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors

To this edition

Peter Schofield

For previous editions

Agnes Belzunce, Bernard Siaud, Christian Kühl, Daniel Carrera, Dave Barton, Florian Reisinger, Frédéric Parrenin, Gisbert Friege, Hazel Russman, Ian Laurenson, Janet M. Swisher, Jean Hollis Weber, Jochen Schiffers, Laurent Balland-Poirier, Michele Zarri, Olivier Hallot, Peter Kupfer, Peter Schofield, Rafael Lima, Regina Henschel, Roman Kuznetsov, T. J. Frazier.

Feedback

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Note

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Publication date and software version

Published April 2025. Based on LibreOffice 25.2 Community.
Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.

Using LibreOffice on macOS

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions used in this document. For a detailed list, see LibreOffice Help.

Windows or Linux	macOS equivalent	Effect
Tools > Options	LibreOffice > Preferences	Access setup options
Right-click	Control+click, Ctrl+click, or right click depending on computer setup	Open a context menu
Ctrl or Control	⌘ and/or Cmd or Command, depending on keyboard	Used with other keys
Alt	⌥ and/or Alt or Option depending on keyboard	Used with other keys
F11	⌘+T	Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar

MathML format

In addition to exporting documents as PDFs, as described in the Getting Started Guide, LibreOffice offers the possibility of exporting formulas in the MathML format. This allows you or another person to insert formulas into documents that were created in other software, for example, Microsoft Office or an internet browser.

Note

Some internet browsers do not fully support the MathML format and your formula may not display correctly.

If you are working on a Math document, go to File > Save as on the Menu bar or use the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+S to open the Save as dialog. Select MathML from the list of available file formats in File type to save your formula as MathML.

If you are working in another LibreOffice component, right-click on the formula object and select Save copy as from the context menu to open the Save as dialog. Select MathML from the list of available file formats in File type to save your formula object as MathML.

In Math you can also import MathML formulas. Use Tools > Import MathML from clipboard on the Menu bar.

Microsoft file formats

To control how formulas in Microsoft format are imported and exported using LibreOffice, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > Microsoft Office on the Menu bar and select or deselect the options for MathType to LibreOffice Math or reverse.

[L]: Load and convert the object
[S]: Convert and save the object

[L]: Load and convert the object

Select this option if Microsoft OLE objects are to be converted into the specified LibreOffice OLE objects when a Microsoft document is opened in LibreOffice. For formulas, any embedded MathType objects must not exceed the MathType 3.1 specifications to be successfully loaded and converted. Information on MathType format can be found at https://docs.wiris.com/en/mathtype/office_tools/microsoft_office.

If a document containing OMML formulas has been saved in .docx format and then converted to the older .doc format, then any OMML objects are converted into graphics, which will be displayed in LibreOffice as graphics.

[S]: Convert and save the object

Select this option if LibreOffice OLE objects are to be converted and saved in Microsoft file format. LibreOffice converts any formulas into a format that can be read and modified by Microsoft Equation Editor and MathType.

When this option is not selected, the formula is treated as an OLE object on conversion into a .doc format and remains linked to LibreOffice. A double-click on the object in Microsoft Office will attempt to launch LibreOffice.