diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 7239ccbca..9e79bfb41 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Type: Package
 Package: openxlsx2
 Title: Read, Write and Edit 'xlsx' Files
-Version: 1.7.0.9000
+Version: 1.8
 Language: en-US
 Authors@R: c(
   person("Jordan Mark", "Barbone", email = "jmbarbone@gmail.com", role = "aut", comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0001-9788-3628")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c56b4cafd..7e89f6641 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# openxlsx2 (development version)
+# openxlsx2 1.8
 
 ## Maintenance