Office software

[mJayk]

Hello all,

Quick question, I mainly use latex for word processing. For some uses however an office suite would be nice, I know Libre office is included and I have no dislike to the package I just want to know what else is out there / what peoples thoughts on different office packages are.

Cheers

Matt

TL:DR ; what other office suites are there apart from libre / whats best iyo.

[Lars Noodén]

There is also Abiword for word processing and Gnumeric for spreadsheet. I would recommend LibreOffice over either. There is also the whole Koffice suite. That is well worth looking at and it has many specialities not found in other suites. It's been a few years since I've used Koffice so I can't say one way or another about it other than to recommend looking at it.

[cwsnyder]

Apache OpenOffice.org is still available, and some people like it better than LibreOffice, but others don't like its Apache license.

Personally, I like Abiword/Gnumeric, although it isn't a complete, integrated office environment.

Google Docs and Zoho Office are available on the web, and Microsoft's own offerings are usually targeted for early assimilation on WINE.

[weasel fierce]

There's a whole KDE office package, but I don't have a lot of experience with it.

On a slower machine, Abiword all the way. It does all the basics, without being overly painfull. For day to day stuff (writing, exporting PDF's with images etc), libreoffice is pretty solid, and broadly supported.

[MisterGaribaldi]

Meh. None of these apps is as good as MS Word, I hate to say, both in terms of doing research papers for college or for document and formatting compatibility. I hope that, one day, this will not be the case anymore.

[weasel fierce]

Not everyone cares about MS office compatibility mate.

edit: and to be honest, I don't remember the last time an office document didn't open correctly. I don't use excel so I might be oblivious to stuff there.

[Lars Noodén]

Not everyone cares about MS office compatibility mate.

edit: and to be honest, I don't remember the last time an office document didn't open correctly. I don't use excel so I might be oblivious to stuff there.

Actually libreoffice does a better job of opening different versions of MS Office documents than MS Office itself. MS Office is not really fully compatible with itself, especially across versions. It was the Mac version of MS Office that drove me to evaluate alternatives and at the time OpenOffice turned out to be much better quality and more useful than MS Office. I think it is now LibreOffice with the lead, but as mentioned time has passed and Koffice has improved a lot so it is time for another evaluation. Koffice has some really nice tools. I guess it's now called Calligra (http://www.calligra.org/)

[monkeybrain2012]

Meh. None of these apps is as good as MS Word, I hate to say, both in terms of doing research papers for college or for document and formatting compatibility. I hope that, one day, this will not be the case anymore.

I don't know what college you are talking about and what discipline, but in the science departments of most reputable universities nobody uses MS office to do research or write papers. Latex rules. In the humanities probably, but I doubt that you have to use MS words to write a paper on human sexuality or some such and there is no replacement:)

[monkeybrain2012]

Not everyone cares about MS office compatibility mate.

edit: and to be honest, I don't remember the last time an office document didn't open correctly. I don't use excel so I might be oblivious to stuff there.

I have had large csv files being screwed up by excel but Libreoffice opens it fine. I think as long as you stick to open formats the compatibility issue would not arise.

P.S. I agree re poor MSO compatibility across versions. I know someone who has switched to Mac but still keeping his old laptop because he said the Mac version of MSO cannot display some of his old files. Well I suspect that LibreOffice would work but the guy said he doesn't know how to install it and I haven't got a chance to take a look. :)

[weasel fierce]

Oh goodness yeah. At work they're transitioning from XP to 7, and we have something like 3 versions of office in use throughout the building. It's a nightmare :)

[mJayk]

Not to mention anyone actually doing any form of actual research uses tex.

Was more interested in a package for "powerpoint" applications, slide shows etc.

Ive tried using latex addons for that but I just feel atm I'm to slow with it.

Just started using Libre Impress and can say am quite impressed, pardon the pun.

Last time I used an office suite in linux it was openoffice was surprised to see the switch.

Thanks for all your views, been interesting reading them so far.

[neu5eeCh]

The 2012 Softmaker Office Suite is a vast improvement over 2010 (in terms of MS Office compatibility) but I didn't update to 2012 and I've uninstalled 2010. My main gripe is that there's no auto-correct and it's lacking some basic refinements - like the ability to adjust the vertical toolbar using, well, the vertical toolbar. One has to do it through the menu. Still, you can test drive it and see what you think.

[Irrelevant Comment] Other than that, I'm still a fan of WordPerfect (a nearly extinct breed). It's light years ahead of MS Office in terms of ability to format a document. Unfortunately, none of the Wine derivatives, like Crossover, give a rat's butt about WP. It works on Crossover, but just a little attention would make it feel almost native. [/Irrelevant Comment]

[forrestcupp]

Not everyone cares about MS office compatibility mate.

edit: and to be honest, I don't remember the last time an office document didn't open correctly. I don't use excel so I might be oblivious to stuff there.

LibreOffice opens MS documents just fine. But it doesn't save them worth a crap, if you're saving in the new xml formats. The old Office 2003 formats work just fine, but unfortunately, Office now defaults to the new xml formats, which don't work well with LibreOffice.

@OP, I know this probably isn't what you're looking for, but MS Office works great with Wine.

[azangru]

LibreOffice opens MS documents just fine. But it doesn't save them worth a crap, if you're saving in the new xml formats. The old Office 2003 formats work just fine

Open in xml and save in the old Office format then? :)

[monkeybrain2012]

LibreOffice opens MS documents just fine. But it doesn't save them worth a crap, if you're saving in the new xml formats. The old Office 2003 formats work just fine, but unfortunately, Office now defaults to the new xml formats, which don't work well with LibreOffice.

@OP, I know this probably isn't what you're looking for, but MS Office works great with Wine.

Export to pdf or odf then (MSO can open odf now or so they say). I can see the need to open MS documents but I don't know why you would want to save in MS formats which is closed, incompatible to anything else including maybe even other versions of MSO.

[MisterGaribaldi]

LibreOffice doesn't seem to have any useful way to add sources and then call them up, do in-text citations, generate a Works Cited / References / etc. page, and so forth.

I agree that, if my college used foo instead of MS Word, then foo would be the more compatible solution. But, guess what: that's not the case. Sorry. So, I'm going to do what I need to do so as to ensure, when I write a paper for a class, my professor can take possession of that document with NO issues.

[Lars Noodén]

LibreOffice doesn't seem to have any useful way to add sources and then call them up, do in-text citations, generate a Works Cited / References / etc. page, and so forth.

I agree that, if my college used foo instead of MS Word, then foo would be the more compatible solution. But, guess what: that's not the case. Sorry. So, I'm going to do what I need to do so as to ensure, when I write a paper for a class, my professor can take possession of that document with NO issues.

You won't get "NO issues" even with MS Office, especially with different versions or on different machines with different Windows. The closest you will get to a format with no rendering issues will be to use PDF. In that case, LibreOffice and the others beat MSO hands down.

[dniMretsaM]

There is Apache OpenOffice (used to be OpenOffice.org). I prefer LibreOffice, though, because of licensing and other things. The Calligra Suite, which rose out of the ashes of KOffice, is quite nice. It's my suite of choice, although it doesn't have all the features of LO yet. There is also FocusWriter, the GnomeOffice collection of software, etc.

[monkeybrain2012]

LibreOffice doesn't seem to have any useful way to add sources and then call them up, do in-text citations, generate a Works Cited / References / etc. page, and so forth.

I agree that, if my college used foo instead of MS Word, then foo would be the more compatible solution. But, guess what: that's not the case. Sorry. So, I'm going to do what I need to do so as to ensure, when I write a paper for a class, my professor can take possession of that document with NO issues.

Well I got issue with MS EXCEL when I was a TA for some courses. Prof sent me a grading sheet in EXCEL and I opened it with a different version of EXCEL and the formatting was all screwed up. I went to talk to him and suggested to use OpenOffice instead because unless he paid for it he shouldn't assume I have MSO. He smiled and agreed that I had a point so OpenOffice it was.He switched to OOO himself too :) (That was before LibreOffice and the Document Foundation)

[llanitedave]

LibreOffice opens MS documents just fine. But it doesn't save them worth a crap, if you're saving in the new xml formats. The old Office 2003 formats work just fine, but unfortunately, Office now defaults to the new xml formats, which don't work well with LibreOffice.

@OP, I know this probably isn't what you're looking for, but MS Office works great with Wine.

And the other problem is that MS Word refuses to translate ODF documents correctly, even though it is perfectly capable of being able to.

The attitude that created the Word Perfect and Netscape sabotage has not yet disappeared.

[treesurf]

The 2012 Softmaker Office Suite is a vast improvement over 2010 (in terms of MS Office compatibility) but I didn't update to 2012 and I've uninstalled 2010. My main gripe is that there's no auto-correct and it's lacking some basic refinements - like the ability to adjust the vertical toolbar using, well, the vertical toolbar. One has to do it through the menu. Still, you can test drive it and see what you think.




Anyone else have any feedback on Softmaker? I'm curious about it.

[forrestcupp]

Open in xml and save in the old Office format then? :)That's exactly what I have done for my own personal files. ;)

I do that because on one computer, I use LO, and on another computer I have to use MSO.


Export to pdf or odf then (MSO can open odf now or so they say). I can see the need to open MS documents but I don't know why you would want to save in MS formats which is closed, incompatible to anything else including maybe even other versions of MSO.For one thing, once you export to pdf, you can't edit it anymore.

But why would someone want to save in an MS format? Because most of the rest of the world uses MS Office. If I only cared about myself, odf would be fine. But anyone who ever wants to share with most other people actually needs MS formats.

[monkeybrain2012]

For one thing, once you export to pdf, you can't edit it anymore.

But why would someone want to save in an MS format? Because most of the rest of the world uses MS Office. If I only cared about myself, odf would be fine. But anyone who ever wants to share with most other people actually needs MS formats.

Then save in MSO 2003, everyone with MSO should be able to open and edit them.Why go to an even more restricted format unnecessarily and then complain that LO doesn't have good compatibility? It is not really LO's responsibility to be compatible with MircoSoft's closed formats.

[Bucky Ball]

Meh. None of these apps is as good as MS Word, I hate to say, both in terms of doing research papers for college or for document and formatting compatibility. I hope that, one day, this will not be the case anymore.

I've just completed a degree and am now doing honours and have used ONLY Open/Libreoffice throughout with the Zotero plugin for references (that's nearly six years now). Problem free. I can do everything I ever did in Word/Office. Suits my purposes but perhaps not for everyone's. ;)

[mastablasta]

wife wrote an e-book in old ms word 2003. we then moved it into libre since it has better support for certain things (for example PDF export made a much smaller file). at firts we considered moving it to word 2007 or 2010, but libre was a better choice.

anyway...

KOffice branched of into what is now Caligra suite. http://www.calligra-suite.org/
Caligra still has issues with some spreadsheets and its database, but development is going fast, bugs are being patched. interface is a bit different than libre and is ment to be more simplistic and show/use functions most users need.

there was a review in Distrowacth - but they fixed quite a few things since then and some new stuff added: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20120430

edit: there is also web based office software: such as Office 365 and Google Docs/Drive/Office whatever :-)

[kurt18947]

And the other problem is that MS Word refuses to translate ODF documents correctly, even though it is perfectly capable of being able to.

The attitude that created the Word Perfect and Netscape sabotage has not yet disappeared.

I fear that's part of MS' DNA. It's rather humorous though that MSO file formats have problems between recent issues but WordPerfect files more recent than 6.0 (I think) can switch between versions with NO issues provided a feature is supported in a given version. It's a good thing the technically superior products always triumph:rolleyes:. Not that WordPerfect doesn't have its issues (Unicode support, for one). But I suspect if 5% of the R&D $ that have gone into MSWord had gone into WordPerfect and MS were honest, the word processor landscape might be different.

[Bucky Ball]

But I suspect if 5% of the R&D $ that have gone into MSWord had gone into WordPerfect and MS were honest, the word processor landscape might be different.

I believe that if large corporations hadn't had a stranglehold on technology hard/software for the past decades the whole landscape would be different, period! ;)

[kurt18947]

I believe that if large corporations hadn't had a stranglehold on technology hard/software for the past decades the whole landscape would be different, period! ;)

That's probably true. Do you remember when MS Office was given away for free when you bought Windows? Free, even if it's less than perfect is pretty compelling and a good way to build a user base. Plus, the O.S. and office suite were from the same company so there were less finger pointing opportunities when things made smoking holes.

[cwsnyder]

I believe that they were unbundled because of competitor's in the Office marketplace brought suit for anti-competitive practices. The same as Netscape did when IE was bundled with Windows.

[samsom63]

Then save in MSO 2003, everyone with MSO should be able to open and edit them.Why go to an even more restricted format unnecessarily and then complain that LO doesn't have good compatibility? It is not really LO's responsibility to be compatible with MircoSoft's closed formats.

I had lots of compatibility issues between LibreImpress and Power Point. No later than last week, I saved my lecture in odt format at home, then opened it at work for the lecture with Power Point and 3/4th of the slides did not show up...Exporting as PDF works fine, but no editing is a huge problem when you are involved in a collaborative process.

[azangru]

I believe that they were unbundled because of competitor's in the Office marketplace brought suit for anti-competitive practices.

I wonder why bundling LibreOffice with Ubuntu doesn't make it anticompetitive :)

[cwsnyder]

Simply because nobody is paying for either OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice, and the reason for the bundling is that LibreOffice is released under GPL, as most of Linux (including the Kernel) is, while OpenOffice is now released under Apache license and was released under an even more restrictive license. Politics.

[Bucky Ball]

The fact that Openoffice, and for that matter Evolution, both of which used to be defaults, are both a nightmare to install now could be considered to make Ubuntu, Evolution or Openoffice anti-competitive, perhaps to the detriment of each other. Not sure how you would unravel that one ...

My wife refuses to use 12.04 because of the state of Openoffice and Evolution in it, both of which she's been using since 8.04 LTS and beyond. They are now c**p and barely an option, unless you fancy jumping through hoops attempting to tweak it to functionality. And failing, as I have. Don't have that time to waste.

[cwsnyder]

@Bucky Ball: When you aren't on the mailing lists, some changes come as a surprise. When a package is 'deprecated' and most of the maintainers agree, no one bothers to keep the packages and dependencies straight.

As an example: I have been trying for some time to 'fix' a problem which has bitten me in Bodhi Linux (which I keep in a VirtualBox guest to keep track of how it works) and it looks like several others here. Xrandr only returns a value of default when queried by entering xrandr by itself to identify what value to enter as the display to address to fix a problem when your installation does not fully use the maximum resolution of your display. When that shows up, I just discovered that it may be because the full package x11-xserver-utils is not installed, which now includes xgamma, which is required to set the display gamma setting, required when your display EDID is inadequately read. If you don't have the right dependencies, which full dependencies may have broken, then you may never fix the requirements to install your wanted package.

[Bucky Ball]

Sorry, I don't follow how this relates to what I mentioned about Openoffice and Evolution ...

[mastablasta]

...Exporting as PDF works fine, but no editing is a huge problem when you are involved in a collaborative process.

editing of PDF is done in Libre office Draw. but it is not so good.

what about IBM Lotus Symphony ?

[cwsnyder]

Sorry, I don't follow how this relates to what I mentioned about Openoffice and Evolution ...
The package maintainers are no longer maintaining all of the updates on the OpenOffice and Evolution packages, instead they are encouraging you to use LibreOffice. The reason why OpenOffice & Evolution are such a bear to add to your installation may be because some dependencies are 'left out' or not properly included in the build when the dependencies are updated to make sure they work properly with the rest of the system.

[forrestcupp]

Then save in MSO 2003, everyone with MSO should be able to open and edit them.Why go to an even more restricted format unnecessarily and then complain that LO doesn't have good compatibility? It is not really LO's responsibility to be compatible with MircoSoft's closed formats.That's exactly what I do. I save everything as .doc and .xls. And it kind of is LO's responsibility to be compatible, because they've taken that responsibility upon themselves. I'm definitely not saying it's their fault. They've done a great job with what they have to work with. But the truth is that the xml format compatibility just isn't up to par.


That's probably true. Do you remember when MS Office was given away for free when you bought Windows?I've bought every desktop version of Windows from 3.11 to Win7, and it never once came with MS Office. In fact, I went a long time without ever using Office because it was so expensive. If you were lucky, maybe you bought a higher-end PC that was bundled with Office, but you paid a premium for it. Maybe you're thinking of MS Works. For a long time, about every PC you bought had Works on it.



what about IBM Lotus Symphony ?Symphony is pretty nice in some ways, but there are some things I just don't like about it. Mainly that every part of Symphony uses the same window.

[samsom63]

editing of PDF is done in Libre office Draw. but it is not so good.

what about IBM Lotus Symphony ?

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try :)