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OpenProject 16.2: New header and sidebar with improved navigation and design

Published by Corinna Günther July 16, 2025 Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

OpenProject 16.2 has been released and this version introduces new features and improvements again. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on the latest updates. Please take a few minutes to learn what changes for you. We will summarize the most important changes in this blog article and, as always, please see our release notes that contain all changes, features and bug fixes.

In this blog article, we will focus on the design updates and briefly summarize some more important features. Here is a quick navigation to all feature descriptions:

New header and sidebar with improved navigation and design

The most striking change from 16.1 to 16.2 is the more modern design and improved user experience of the sidebar and header navigation. The reason for these changes is to give the application a more contemporary look and to ensure compatibility with the openDesk application. It is important to us to provide the best possible user experience in openDesk when navigating between the different applications within openDesk.

The updates in OpenProject itself also follow familiar logic. For example, the project navigation has moved consistently into the sidebar. Here’s an overview of what’s new in OpenProject 16.2, regarding header and sidebar navigation:

The hamburger sidebar toggle has moved from the header to the sidebar.
The default sidebar color in light mode is now brighter.
The search and create buttons have a new, more intuitive position in the header.

Please note that these changes will not affect your already customized designs.

See a comparison between OpenProject version 16.1 (top) and 16.2 (highlighted below):

Home Page in OpenProject in comparison: Version 16.1 and Version 16.2 with updated header and sidebar

What do you think of these updates? As with any change, it may take some time to get used to the new navigation, but we hope that it will provide you with a better user experience in the long run and a more intuitive start for new users.

Other design updates in OpenProject 16.2

The changes to the header and sidebar weren’t the only design changes: as part of the ongoing updates to the Primer design system, the user interface and process for creating a new project or copying an existing one has also been improved. For example, when you create a project based on a template, you can now immediately select which modules and parts you want to copy and which you want to skip.

Also, in the Relations tab of a work package, the + Relation dropdown now uses second-level navigation: Only the first relations are shown directly, others are displayed when clicking on “Other relations”.

Seamless integration of open source applications with a SCIM API (Enterprise add-on)

While this is a rather technical update, the newly added SCIM API can be a huge benefit for seamless integration with other open source applications. It allows your identity provider (IdP) to automatically provision and de-provision users in OpenProject, based on the open SCIM standard.

This reduces manual work for administrators, ensures your user data stays in sync across systems, and improves overall security.

The SCIM API is available as an Enterprise add-on in the Corporate plan. Administrators can configure SCIM clients directly in OpenProject, generate secure system tokens, and see which users are managed by which client – all within the authentication settings.

Screenshot of the OpenProject administration to add a new SCIM client

This is particularly valuable for organizations looking to connect OpenProject to other open source tools such as Nextcloud or Keycloak, supporting a fully sovereign and integrated digital workspace.

See our system admin guide to learn more about authentication methods for OpenProject.

Non-Latin languages and emojis supported in PDF exports

We’re especially happy about this update, because it makes OpenProject even more international and inclusive: PDF exports of work packages now fully support non-Latin scripts and emojis, so languages like Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and many others appear exactly as intended. This means your multilingual project data and even your favorite emojis are displayed correctly in your exported documents.

PDF export extract from an OpenProject work package that contains emojis, symbols and non-Latin characters

Option to disable keyboard shortcuts for better accessibility

Here comes another step in improving accessibility across OpenProject. Users can now disable all keyboard shortcuts in their personal settings. That’s not only helpful for people working with screen readers or other assistive technologies, but also for anyone who prefers to avoid unintended shortcut actions.

OpenProject account settings on interface options, with highlighted option to disable keyboard shortcuts

Tip
Have you noticed? We recently also updated the font on our website to make it easier to read. While improving the OpenProject application is our main focus, we are also aware of accessibility issues on our website and in our documentation, and we are working to address them.

Smoother experience with Custom fields, Meetings, and My time tracking

Apart from the already mentioned feature updates, OpenProject 16.2 includes many small improvements that make everyday work just a bit smoother.

When creating custom fields or project attributes, you can now pick the field type right at the start — saving clicks and making the setup process clearer.

For meetings, OpenProject is now listed as the organizer in calendar invitations instead of the person who created the meeting. This means everyone can freely accept or decline without accidentally canceling the event for all participants.

And in the My time tracking module, weekly views now collapse future days, helping you stay focused on what matters today.

OpenProject 16.2: Migration, installation, updates and support

Follow the upgrade guide for the packaged installation or Docker installation to update your OpenProject installation to OpenProject 16.2. We update your hosted OpenProject environments (Enterprise cloud) today, July 16, 2025.

You will find more information about all new features and changes in our Release notes or in the OpenProject Documentation.

If you need support, you can post your questions in the Community Forum, or if you are eligible for Enterprise support, please contact us and we are happy to support you personally.

New to OpenProject? To test all features of OpenProject 16.2 right away, create a 14 days free trial instance for our OpenProject Enterprise cloud.
Prefer to run OpenProject 16.2 in your own infrastructure? Here you can find the Installation guidelines for OpenProject.
Want to upgrade from a Community version to try out the Enterprise add-ons? Get a 14 days free trial token to test the Enterprise add-ons (all plans).

Credits

A very special thank you goes to City of Cologne, Deutsche Bahn and ZenDiS for sponsoring released or upcoming features. Your support, alongside the efforts of our amazing Community, helps drive these innovations. Also a big thanks to our Community members for reporting bugs and helping us identify and provide fixes. Special thanks for reporting and finding bugs go to Michael Lathion, Jason Culligan, Sven Kunze, and Gábor Alexovics.

Last but not least, we are very grateful for our very engaged translation contributors on Crowdin, who translated quite a few OpenProject strings! This release we would like to particularly thank the following users:

William, for a great number of translations into Chinese Traditional.
rmiyata, for a great number of translations into Japanese.
rubenpedrolopez, for a great number of translations into Spanish.

Would you like to help out with translations yourself? Then take a look at our translation guide and find out exactly how you can contribute. It is very much appreciated!

As always, we welcome any feedback on this release. 💙