The office suites of the two named companies have a lot in common, although there are significant differences.
For a long time, the recognized leader among manufacturers of office suites was considered Microsoft company with her Office, but now she has another opponent that deserves attention - LibreOffice.
It is safe to say that the office suites of the two named companies have a lot in common, although there are significant differences. The LibreOffice suite is compatible with big amount operating systems, including Windows, OS X and Linux, while the new Microsoft version Office is only suitable for Windows 7 and Windows 8. The question is not whose office suite is “better” or which suite has “ more possibilities". The question is what suits you best, what you really need. Now that LibreOffice 4.1 has appeared, it makes sense to compare the office suites of the two companies.
Working with texts: Word vs. Writer
It's safe to say that LibreOffice Writer And Microsoft Word are among the best text editors. If you have used Microsoft Word before, then it will be easy for you to switch to Writer, and vice versa. And in many ways, Writer will even give Word a few points ahead.
Editors are incredibly similar in terms of what they do. Writer duplicates all major Word functions: These features include an amazing grammar editor, reliable system auto save, support for a huge variety of formats, and much more. Switching from one editor to another will not be a problem, they work and look the same. And if you are just learning how to use a text editor, it will be easier for you to learn how to use Writer, it is easier to learn and use.
For many years, Word's unsurpassed strengths have included multivariate editing and tracking of changes made. Today, however, Writer has the same features. With the latter, you can track changes, edits, and the like.
Spreadsheets: Excel vs. Calc
Spreadsheets are one of the main functions of the office suite. Microsoft Excel, and company long time has been a recognized leader in this field. However, for most users, the features offered by LibreOffice Calc may well be enough. However, if you work with spreadsheets at a professional level, or if you are already used to using Excel, Calc is not quite suitable.
Basically Calc and Excel work the same way. If you are a novice user, then most likely you will not notice much difference between them. Both Calc and Excel perform basic calculations, uncomplicated mathematical calculations and form tables different formats. However, if you use a lot of macros and multitask in Excel, then you will have trouble switching to Calc.
The fact is that Calc has its own macro language, and it is not always compatible with the format VBA Excel. This means that if you try to switch from Excel to Calc, you will have to redo a lot of your macros. However, Calc macros are well read by the Excel language (not vice versa): if you send spreadsheets to your friends or colleagues, you can be sure that the LibreOffice Calc office suite will be enough for you.
Presentation Software: PowerPoint vs. Impress
Even the word "PowerPoint" has long been considered almost synonymous with the word "presentation", and with good reason: it is a quality software that allows you to create presentations that are superior in their parameters to any other visual representations. LibreOffice's presentation software is called Impress, it has a lot of features, but the company's employees did not set themselves the goal of convincing users of other programs of their superiority - this is a simple and convenient thing.
To date the main problem for Impress users is that sometimes there are problems when working with presentations created in PowerPoint. When working with such presentations, some fonts may disappear, and other rendering problems may occur. However, if you're creating presentations from scratch, Impress will help you make them very well, albeit without all the "conveniences" offered by PowerPoint. Although, by by and large, among the “inconveniences” of Impress can only be attributed to the lack of some slide animation features and support for the video export function. Impress also lacks the ability to create animated charts and there is no way to group work over presentations.
However, Impress also has its merits. This software is capable of exporting presentations in the most various formats, which greatly simplifies the life of the user, since there is no need to look for a person who prefers PowerPoint. Despite the great similarity software Impress and PowerPoint, and remembering that neither of them will magically win us an Oscar for creating a presentation, it should be noted that in both programs it is quite simple to learn how to work.
Database Software: Access vs. Base
The last big piece of software in both office suites is the database management system. Database management application Microsoft data Access has long been installed on computers by default, but the LibreOffice Base application today is its worthy competition.
The main difference between Base and Access is their compatibility with operating systems. Access application is only compatible with Windows, while Base is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Otherwise, the applications are very similar: when connected to external bases data, they both create the necessary documentation, reports, structured query language and tables. Base is designed to work with small databases and doesn't run any processes on its own, so again, use Access for better layered work.
Both app packages have a smart and intuitive interface and are very similar in use. As you can see, most LibreOffice programs are created by analogy with programs from Microsoft. Only, perhaps, in the package from LibreOffice there is nothing similar to Outlook. But LibreOffice is always free. The rest is up to you to choose.
2016-07-07T16:52:50+00:00 admin Reviews Office Applications Ratings Articles LibreOffice,Software,Programs,Ratings,ComparisonsSimilarly, it contains a text editor, graphics, tools for working with databases, presentations, tables and formulas.
Apache OpenOffice is also a free package of similar programs. Appeared before and, in fact, LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice, designed to be more free and with less centralized management. Accordingly, both of these projects are similar in many respects.
Choosing which is better - LibreOffice or Openoffice - you need to pay attention to the composition of the proposed applications, their capabilities and the ability to correctly display MS Office files and vice versa.
The composition of the packages:
- text program Writer;
- analogue of Excel, Calc editor;
- graphic program Draw;
- formula editor Math;
- Base database tool.
As you can see, the composition of the programs is not inferior to the well-known Microsoft product. Even wins because latest versions Access is not included in the package, but is released as a separate product.
Both products are released on Windows, Mac and Linux, but Libre Office is also available for Android, and there is also Portable version, that is, it does not require installation.
System requirements
Open Office can run on computers that meet the following requirements:
- Windows XP, 2003, 2012, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Linux6 and above, OS X 10.7 and above;
- 256 megabytes random access memory, recommended 512;
- from 650 MB free space on a hard drive for Windows, 400 MB for other systems;
- Intel processor for OS X;
- graphics device with a resolution of 1024x768 or higher.
Requirements for Libreofis:
- Windows XP SP3, Vista, Server 2008, 7, 8, Server 2012, 10, Linux 2.6.18 or higher, OS X 10.8 or higher;
- 256 megabytes of RAM, 512 recommended;
- from 1.55 GB of free disk space for Windows and Linux, 800 MB for OS X;
- graphics device with a resolution of 1024x768 or higher;
- Intel processor for OS X, Pentium compatible for Linux (Pentium 3, Athlon and higher).
As you can see, the second option requires a little more system resources, but the differences are not significant.
Comparison
To determine whether to install a newer LibreOffice or choose the time-tested OpenOffice, you need to compare them on various indicators, determine which differences are important and which you should not pay attention to:
LibreOffice is more advanced in terms of compatibility, especially when it comes to text editor. It works great with doc and docx format, edits and saves. And OpenOffice will open them, but after editing they will offer to write them in their own format. Both packages have problems with files containing macros, complex design elements. Separately, it is worth mentioning the presentations. Made in free programs, they will open in PowerPoint without any problems, but the reverse process is not always successful. The fact is that PP is much more powerful and not all functions are present in free counterparts. The same can be said about the display of graphs and charts.
- Speed and convenience of work. LibreOffice is a more dynamic product that aims to compete with MS Office. It is more solid, easy to use and configure, thought out in detail. But it is more demanding on the system and, accordingly, works slower on older computers.
Some already significant time ago, the space of my psychological maturation reached computers and gadgets. I mean, to the software on them. The problem, in general, is clear to everyone. The problem is that it's not close. But it was necessary to grow up and I took up legalization.
In practice, it turned out that everything is much simpler than it seemed at first, and you just need to start paying all your attention to it. Firstly, at first it turns out that commercial software, without which you seem to be without hands and which cannot be adequately replaced by free analogues, in fact, the cat cried. I had only 4 such programs, and all of them are small and inexpensive utilities. (It’s even easier on a tablet / phone - programs there cost an average of $ 2, and it’s not even clear what kind of redneck you have to be in order to steal them. Yes, and shares in Google Play Markets happen all the time: it would just be a desire to use only licensed software- and everything will turn out without much straining and not spending too much.) And secondly, the working DreamSpark from Microsoft closes all the problems with the software of the Redmond giant. Rather, all but one - our DreamSpark does not include Office.
And now I do not have a single broken program on the machine. But something needs to be done with the Office, especially since I really need it for work. I looked at the prices Microsoft office- and this is a form of robbery. Behind home version(that's good enough for me) they want $105 for a one car license. But there is still parent laptops... Come on, this price is far from reasonable, in my opinion.
I went to look free analogues. To tell the truth, there is not much to look at - you have to choose from one libreoffice. This is a fork of OpenOffice, which, having passed into the hands of Oracle along with Sun, became ... Well, like Oracle, in general. So only LibreOffice remains. Therefore, I decided to drive it in "combat" conditions in order to understand whether it can be adequate for me. replacement for Microsoft office.
First, a word processor. In Microsoft Office it's Word, in LibreOffice it's Writer. word processor I use most often - fonts, colors, alignment, tables, inserting illustrations, that's all. And my impressions of LibreOffice Writer are quite positive. All I need, it can, on my DOC files, it has full compatibility with Word in both directions. There are some minor issues, but overall it's good. Summary - offset.
Secondly, presentations. In Microsoft Office it's PowerPoint, in LibreOffice it's Impress. I worked a lot with him for a month and ... I was not at all satisfied. In principle, all problems are solvable, but general impression- many small tedious problems and even bugs. After this month of torment, I made a PowerPoint presentation this week for comparison (I have one at work), and it's like a sip fresh air. Everything is clear, predictable, without glitches, and all these convenient little things are worth a lot. Alas, Impress also has compatibility problems - there’s nothing even to say about PPTX files, the whole LibreOffice with new X formats does not work well, but also with the correct opening / saving of regular PPT files big problems. It turns out that in addition to problems and bugs, Impress is also just a thing in itself, and this is already quite bad. Summary is not good.
Third, spreadsheets. In Microsoft Office it's Excel, in LibreOffice it's Calc. Here I just can’t say anything, because I myself don’t make any spreadsheets as unnecessary, but only read / fill out finished files sent to me at work. I can only say one thing: everything that was sent to me for work opens and displays correctly in Calc, but there are no at least somewhat complicated formulas and macros. Just tables with a minimum of automation. Well, everything is ok with them, but you need to understand that this does not mean anything. The Collective Internet claims that in terms of compatibility with Microsoft Office, Calc's situation in all of LibreOffice is the worst: more or less complex formulas and macros - and Calc raises its paws to the top. Summary - offset, but keep in mind to the limit low level my requirements for it.
There was no need to compare the rest of the large Office: instead of Outlook, I have been using it for a long time and with pleasure Mozilla Thunderbird, and Access and Visio are available on DreamSpark.
General impression: Microsoft Office, of course, is head and shoulders above LibreOffice, no matter how much you would like the opposite. Somewhere the difference is already small, but somewhere - as before, the abyss. In my case, everything would be fine if it were not for the presentations. In general, I think that the problem of the office remains unresolved for me.
Started thinking about Microsoft Office 365. There is a different form of payment - not a one-time fee, but a subscription, but our Ukrainian price looks very reasonable, and at the same time for this money you can install it on 5 computers at once. Such a family subscription is obtained. Others, do any of you use it? Tell us about your impressions, please. And I'm still thinking.
One day, Microsoft Office could hit your budget pretty hard. Or you may want to say goodbye to it for ideological reasons. In any case, you will need good editors to replace. But… ONLYOFFICE or LibreOffice?
We will try to make this choice easier: the main criterion should be the formats you use.
Shortest history of time formats
Previously, of the office formats, there were only completely closed binary ones - doc, xls and ppt from Microsoft. Nobody liked it. Apart from Microsoft themselves, of course.
Fortunately, the Jedi Knights open source communities have created an alternative - new formats based on XML. They were called OpenDocument format ( open format documents for office applications). The word "open" here means that source formats is open, and you can use them without restrictions. In addition, the formats turned out to be really good - Microsoft quickly realized this.
Based on the idea of open source developers, in 2007 Microsoft released new version of their office applications, which assumed the preservation in also developed with using XML OOXML formats ( Office Open XML) - docx, xlsx, pptx. The word "open" at that time did not mean any real openness, the formats were reliably protected by Microsoft patents. But if you do not take the moral side of the issue to heart, then the office turned out to be very high quality.
ODF and OOXML are incompatible
Although ODF and OOXML have much in common, they are not compatible with each other. This means that when you open a .docx file in ODF-based OpenOffice/LibreOffice, you risk losing the original formatting. This also works the other way around when you try to open odt in Microsoft Word.
In fact, no one wanted this compatibility - open source developers did not want to play by the rules of Microsoft and support proprietary software, while the corporation saw them as rebels or even rebels. But were the Rebels able to destroy the Death Star? Unfortunately no. Maybe because they just didn't have Luke Skywalker with them.
OOXML is more popular than ODF
Even with alternatives like OpenOffice and LibreOffice, Microsoft Office remains the most popular office suite in the world. Most of the documents are stored in Microsoft formats. Of course, old files are still stored in binary formats, but OOXML is catching up very quickly.
Of course, no scientific research about the popularity of OOXML and ODF has not been conducted. In addition, the document flow of the vast majority of organizations is closed. But luckily we have internet.
For example, Google Trends shows that docx is searched much more often than odt.
Googling with the filetype method shows the same results:
1 filetype:docx = 14,400,000 documents found.
1 filetype:odt = 388,000 documents found.
text filetype:docx = 1,020,000 documents found.
text filetype:odt = 28,100 documents found.
Does this mean that OOXML is better than ODF? Not necessary. Still, here we are not talking about quality, but about prevalence.
Are we trying to persuade you to use OOXML? Also no. The popularity of formats may have very little to do with your preferences.
Just choose according to:
- Formats that you personally like best.
- Formats popular with those you work with.
If Microsoft has been in your company for a hundred years, and during this time you have accumulated hundreds of gigabytes of documents in their formats, and the accountant Aunt Masha can only use Excel, trying to transfer everyone to LibreOffice, you will only fray your nerves and others. And, by the way, formatting that has gone is harmful not only for nerves, but also for work. Most likely, you will just lose a lot of time on this.
And vice versa, if in your environment all fans of open source, and you give them docx? You risk losing both formatting and reputation. If you don't believe me, just read the comments on Laura under any news about ONLYOFFICE and OOXML.
In general, decide on native formats and just download the desired office suite.
ONLYOFFICE for OOXML, LibreOffice for ODF
ONLYOFFICE is designed to work with docx, xlsx and pptx, and has maximum compatibility with MS Office formats. This literally means that all the objects that are in the ONLYOFFICE editors were created in accordance with MS Office standards. These are four volumes, more than seven thousand pages, if anything. We've already done a lot, but of course there's still a lot to be added.
If you look at the document as a set of objects, then object model ONLYOFFICE is fully OOXML compliant, while the Libre object model is ODF compliant.
ONLYOFFICE also works with ODF, but with the help of a conversion. That is, automatically converts ODF to OOXML when opened. You can later save the document to ODF, but keep in mind that this will mean one more conversion.
LibreOffice is good with ODF and also opens docx, xlsx and pptx. But with problems. Large. And this is quite natural, given the history of formats.
So, ONLYOFFICE or LibreOffice? Decide for yourself.
P.S. Another point you may want to consider when choosing an editor is co-authoring.
ONLYOFFICE was originally a web-based solution, so it has co-authoring by default. LibreOffice Online is about displaying an editor running on a server in your browser. If you are interested in this topic, read ours (because Collabora = LibreOffice Online code + new interface).
Hello reader! Have you ever migrated your office/school/institute/friends to Linux? Do you remember how long and hard you proved that this is the path of goodness and light? Do you remember the first problem, because of which you had to return everything back? Let me guess. The first document created in LibreOffice or OpenOffice refused to open correctly in MS Office? Tears, snot and pleas to leave Linux did not lead to anything? Wipe your nose, reader! Under the cut - about how to make LibreOffice 3.5 and MS Office 2010 friends so that everything opens the same way everywhere.
Root of all evil
I, if not immediately, very quickly reached the point that working with well-structured documents allows me to avoid many problems with their use in the future. All those heaps of spaces to shift text to the right and using the Bold button instead of using styles were foreign to me. Unlike many of my colleagues, I spent more time preparing the structure of the document than its content, but all my documents were neat and it was a pleasure to change them.When that beautiful day came when I switched from MS Office to LibreOffice, I noticed that the contents of many of my documents remained intact and were just as neatly formatted. Even then, I knew that documents should be distorted and broken when transitioning, but this only affected some of my documents (usually with vector graphics inside). My inner programmer demanded to explore this good experience. It turned out that if you follow some rules when formatting a document, it will be completely portable between LibreOffice and MS Office.
unit tests
To find out exactly which formatting elements “fly off” when transferring, I divided everything into minimal parts and groups. So, to begin with, it was necessary to consider the formatting of entire pages, then paragraphs, then letters, tables, lists, images, and so on. There were 10 groups in total, namely:- Pages
- Headers and footers
- speakers
- paragraphs
- Symbols
- Lists
- Images
- tables
- Peer review
Testing took place as follows. For each component, a separate file in LibreOffice 3.5, which installs some known value. For example, to test page formats, four files were created with the values of this component: A6, A5, A4, A3 - to test the width, one file with a width value of 10 cm. Each file had a unique name - a numeric identifier. A test log was also created - spreadsheet listing all tested components, their identifiers (it is this identifier that is written as the file name) and flags: passed the test or not in LibreOffice and MS Office. Next, each file was opened first in LibreOffice, then transferred to a Windows machine and opened in MS Office. All changes in component values were studied and recorded.
Looking ahead
The results were extremely interesting. It turns out that both of these editors coexist perfectly. With their help, you can create not only simple documents with spacing, but also entire contracts with chapter numbering and automatic numbering clauses of the agreement. I also found out that if you set a value as the value of a particular component in LibreOffice, save the document in doc, exit and reopen the document, this value can be reset to zero. This means that LibreOffice disables this component because it is not implemented in MS Office! So, for example, if you set text overlining and save the document as doc, then after re-opening in LibreOffice, this formatting will simply be reset. This is because MS Office does not have text underlining.A little about everything
Now briefly about each group and the design rules to ensure portability.Pages
All major page formats (A6-3) are perfectly portable between editors, but since A6 and A5 formats are not defined in MS Office, the page simply has a “Custom Size” corresponding to these formats.Width, height and orientation are just as well tolerated as page margins, which cannot be said about the colored background, and it’s not at all about MS Office (it perfectly displays the background color of the page selected in LibreOffice), oddly enough, the first one refuses to paint over page in the right color!
If you want to draw page borders, then there will be no portability problems, but you won’t be able to use indents, it’s better to replace them with margins.
It is necessary to mix book and landscape orientation? Dare! Use a page break for this and you won't have any portability issues!
Headers and footers
Nothing complicated if you follow four simple rules:- Always include headers and footers in a document, even if they are empty
- The height should always be set to 0.10 cm, use the Spacing component to set the height of the header
- Actual page margin height = margins + header spacing + 0.10 cm
- Do not use borders and margins in headers and footers
speakers
There are no problems with this, any number of columns, their width and spacing between them are transferred without problems.paragraphs
Padding, spacing, margins, colors, alignment and borders are portable, vertical alignment- no (line alignment relative to the central axis of the sentence), because MS Office does not have it.Symbols
Font formatting doesn't work with underlining and... nothing else! Everything else is well tolerated.Lists
The most difficult. It is extremely important here correct structure and the easiest way to achieve it is in LibreOffice. Bulleted and numbered lists are transferred normally, the problem is with the list levels, they are simply reset when transferred. The way out is to use the commands Level Down and Level Up in LibreOffice, as well as correct use windows Bullets and numbering. A bit of "white magic" and the lists are transferred perfectly.Images
Absolutely no difficulties, it is only important to remember that binding is possible only To a symbol or As a symbol, and it is better to leave one empty line before the image (otherwise they will swap places). I strongly advise against using the built-in vector editors better pictures ;)tables
In general, no problems, they are transferred cleanly.Peer review
Notes, deleting text, and adding text work fine when transferring. Also, both editors normally process the Cancellation and Acceptance of changes mechanisms.fields
I was able to create a Date field in a certain format, and that's it.Time to say good-bye
Finally, about the most important thing. good structure document - a guarantee of its portability! And some important tips:- Do not use spaces or tabs to move text to the edge, for these purposes there are indents, alignment or, in extreme cases, tables
- Use styles everywhere and always, this will allow you to change the document in the future in a couple of clicks
- Don't let others dig into your document by changing it. Ask to mark changes and change the document yourself, this will save the structure of the document from sweaty hands
- Try LibreOffice. Before this test, I was convinced that the only really a worthwhile decision MS (may the Linux gods save me from holivar) is their office, and how surprised I was that LibreOffice has more formatting components. Don't believe me - try it yourself!
- Don't use complex document generation. Need a colorful booklet - forget about portability. Editors just don't understand vector graphics each other
- Prepare all documents and check them in different editors in advance, this will save you nerves in the future
- PDF is perfectly displayed on any editors, LibreOffice and MS Office can export a document to this format. Do you understand the hint?
