Looking for some "free" Office software
Any recommendations?
Libre Office is good, I've used it to work on Microsoft Office originated word docs and it coped well.
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Google Docs?
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Office online is pretty good. Just a cut down full Office but plenty powerful enough for most jobs.
If you want installed software then Libre Office is where it's at.
I've used open office for years. Very happy with it. Have heard libre is a slightly improved version but it wouldn't download when I set the wife's laptop up so she has open office too. I use Google docs too but much prefer open office unless I'm specifically sharing the file
Ok.
Libre and Open are forks of the same product. The short answer is that if you're a home user, Libre is the one you want. The long answer is, well, long.
Just switched to open office from Microsoft works on my new PC.
Hardly notice any difference tbh.
Used both, Open for many years, Libre more recently. Libre seems slightly ahead at the moment and seems to have less incompatibility issues with Microsoft Office, although these are fairly minor in either case. Given the cost saving either is a no brainer.
Spend a bit of cash and get Office. The available alternatives are light years behind.
I love open source, however!! I got soooooo fed up of OO, Libre and Google docs causing me a headache with .docx and .doc formatting for my uni work I gave into M$. It pains me to say it, but........... It works well. The inbuilt Harvard referencing tool is ninja skillz. Grrrrrrrr, makes me feel angry the fact I'm enjoying using M$ stuff.
Not had cross compatibility issues for a long time now, I use Libre saving to docx (though MS Office supports open doc format now) and despite the warning it turns out as it should (though to be fair beyond some tables I don't really do anything complex with it).
I just don't get on with the 2010 toolbar, I know I really should move with the times but Libre is just more intuitive to me. And I own a copy of MS Office.
Spend a bit of cash and get Office. The available alternatives are light years behind.
Most users would have no idea what Office can now do that is so much better. This is largely because most people don't want, need nor use most of the functionality. It's beyond what they need, so they could buy it and never ever use it.
For most users, Libre or Open has what they need and then some.
"ninja skillz"? Obviously the MS spell checker isn't working.
Libre Office here, it's an excellent product. I ditched MS Office a couple of versions ago and the only minor problem that I've had has been editing Excel spreadsheets
When I format date cells (for example) to change my input 19/3/15 to 19th March 2015 automatically and then save as an Excel spreadsheet again, it "loses" that formatting. When re-opened in Libre it appears as 19/3/15. If I save as an open document (*.ods) then it's fine
No issue with open office on the home laptop, it does look a bit different to MS office but only takes a few hours to get used to it.