Have you heard of Libre or Abiword?

webecedarian · 29 Apr 2015, 05:20 AM

Someone just mentioned these to me. They are word processing alternatives for people who hate Microsoft.

Berenburger · 29 Apr 2015, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

Someone just mentioned these to me. They are word processing alternatives for people who hate Microsoft.

Yes. There's also Openoffice. Libre is officially named LibreOffice and is the most successful at the moment.

webecedarian · 1 May 2015, 04:57 AM

By Libre being the most "successful," do you think that's because they're easiest to use, offer the most features, have the best PR, or what?

I'm always fascinated by so much that's available that's completely under the radar for most people.

FredOnline · 1 May 2015, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

By Libre being the most "successful," do you think that's because they're easiest to use, offer the most features, have the best PR, or what?

Because it's free?

OpenOffice/LibreOffice have been around for a quite a while.

caulfield87 · 2 May 2015, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

By Libre being the most "successful," do you think that's because they're easiest to use, offer the most features, have the best PR, or what?

I'm always fascinated by so much that's available that's completely under the radar for most people.

Because it's fully functional, a great alternative and ethical. I've been using it for years now and had no problem whatsoever with it.

janusz · 3 May 2015, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by caulfield87

Because it's [....] ethical

How to tell ethical software packages from unethical ones ??? Only recycled electrons used, or what ?

kijinbear · 3 May 2015, 02:37 PM

OpenOffice and LibreOffice are similar. They used to be the same project before they split up, and they still share a lot of code. LibreOffice seems to have more people backing it, so it gets new features faster.

Both LibreOffice and OpenOffice can read and write MS Word file formats (.doc and .docx) in addition to their native format (.odt). But when it comes to advanced features like tables, graphs, and annotation, there are subtle differences, and some features simply might not work. Also, they seem to render things slightly differently, so a 10-page document can end up as an 11-page document or vice versa. If it's important to you that your document looks exactly as you intended (e.g. it's your resume), you should not exchange files between Libre/OpenOffice and MS Word. Instead, use the PDF export function.

Abiword is a completely different program with its own file format, and has fewer features than the others. But it's very lightweight, so it's perfectly suitable if you just want to write some things and format it a bit, especially on an older computer.

Adrian Bell · 3 May 2015, 09:22 PM

Give these a try:-
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/...ffice_portable
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/abiword_portable

janusz · 4 May 2015, 02:08 AM

I had the pleasure (?) of working with "proper" MS Office documents in OpenOffice (Windows and Android). It was ok with straightforward text, but MS graphics and more complicated tables were rendered incorrectly (to use the family-friendly language) in OO.
I don't know whether LibreOffice would do any better.

soromak · 6 May 2015, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janusz

I had the pleasure (?) of working with "proper" MS Office documents in OpenOffice (Windows and Android). It was ok with straightforward text, but MS graphics and more complicated tables were rendered incorrectly (to use the family-friendly language) in OO.
I don't know whether LibreOffice would do any better.

Well, it depends a lot of the MS Office version. Try to prepare fancy formatting with Office 2013 and then try to edit it with an older version (eg. 2003) of MS Office. LibreOffice will do a bit better

somdcomputerguy · 7 May 2015, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soromak

Try to prepare fancy formatting with Office 2013 and then try to edit it with an older version (eg. 2003) of MS Office.

Sometimes Microsoft themselves can't deal with their own proprietary (and not standard) stuff..

janusz · 7 May 2015, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soromak

Try to prepare fancy formatting with Office 2013 and then try to edit it with an older version (eg. 2003) of MS Office

It's nice to know that before I open a document in OpenOffice I need to pass it through two versions of MS Office...

popples · 14 May 2015, 03:46 PM

I use Open Office. I find that Writer and Calc (the alternatives to Word and Excel respectively) work well.

One of the problems with Writer, is that it doesn't do a good job of handling images pasted into a document. Otherwise it works well, and is a good alternative to Word.

One of the problems with Calc, is that copying and pasting tables from a webpage into a spreadsheet doesn't work properly (like it does with recent versions of Excel). Otherwise it is very good. The layout is more like Excel 2003. It shares many of the same functions, but uses a semi colon instead of a comma for separating input values in these functions.

Here is a list of free alternatives to Microsoft Office, on the list making site L-Lists.

janusz · 14 May 2015, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popples

One of the problems with Writer, is that it doesn't do a good job of handling images pasted into a document.].

That's my experience too.

kijinbear · 14 May 2015, 08:26 PM

Ever tried to open a PowerPoint file in LibreOffice Impress, or an Impress presentation in PowerPoint?

It's like trying to use a modern website with Internet Explorer 3.0

Despite lofty claims of compatibility, both of them are just plain retarded.

29 Apr 2015, 05:20 AM	#1
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 479	Have you heard of Libre or Abiword? Someone just mentioned these to me. They are word processing alternatives for people who hate Microsoft.

1 May 2015, 04:57 AM	#3
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 479	By Libre being the most "successful," do you think that's because they're easiest to use, offer the most features, have the best PR, or what? I'm always fascinated by so much that's available that's completely under the radar for most people.

3 May 2015, 02:37 PM	#7
kijinbear Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: ~$ Posts: 652	OpenOffice and LibreOffice are similar. They used to be the same project before they split up, and they still share a lot of code. LibreOffice seems to have more people backing it, so it gets new features faster. Both LibreOffice and OpenOffice can read and write MS Word file formats (.doc and .docx) in addition to their native format (.odt). But when it comes to advanced features like tables, graphs, and annotation, there are subtle differences, and some features simply might not work. Also, they seem to render things slightly differently, so a 10-page document can end up as an 11-page document or vice versa. If it's important to you that your document looks exactly as you intended (e.g. it's your resume), you should not exchange files between Libre/OpenOffice and MS Word. Instead, use the PDF export function. Abiword is a completely different program with its own file format, and has fewer features than the others. But it's very lightweight, so it's perfectly suitable if you just want to write some things and format it a bit, especially on an older computer.

3 May 2015, 09:22 PM	#8
Adrian Bell Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Darlington, UK Posts: 938	Give these a try:- http://portableapps.com/apps/office/...ffice_portable http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable http://portableapps.com/apps/office/abiword_portable

4 May 2015, 02:08 AM	#9
janusz The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: EU Posts: 4,944	I had the pleasure (?) of working with "proper" MS Office documents in OpenOffice (Windows and Android). It was ok with straightforward text, but MS graphics and more complicated tables were rendered incorrectly (to use the family-friendly language) in OO. I don't know whether LibreOffice would do any better.

14 May 2015, 03:46 PM	#13
popples Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2014 Posts: 0	I use Open Office. I find that Writer and Calc (the alternatives to Word and Excel respectively) work well. One of the problems with Writer, is that it doesn't do a good job of handling images pasted into a document. Otherwise it works well, and is a good alternative to Word. One of the problems with Calc, is that copying and pasting tables from a webpage into a spreadsheet doesn't work properly (like it does with recent versions of Excel). Otherwise it is very good. The layout is more like Excel 2003. It shares many of the same functions, but uses a semi colon instead of a comma for separating input values in these functions. Here is a list of free alternatives to Microsoft Office, on the list making site L-Lists.

14 May 2015, 08:26 PM	#15
kijinbear Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: ~$ Posts: 652	Ever tried to open a PowerPoint file in LibreOffice Impress, or an Impress presentation in PowerPoint? It's like trying to use a modern website with Internet Explorer 3.0 Despite lofty claims of compatibility, both of them are just plain retarded.