OpenOffice instead of LibreOffice

[Ulelebe]

About every linux distro out there comes with LibreOffice as default.
However, I have found that OpenOffice (and certainly the new 4.1.6) handles Microsoft Office files better than Libre does.

I could just remove Libre Office and install OpenOffice instead. However, I've read here and there that it is not recommended.
And I probably wouldn't get automatic updates, right ?

So, go ahead with this ?
The reason I'm asking is for my wife. She really needs that MS Office compatibility and LibreOffice doesn't go far enough...

[Zizi64]

The reason I'm asking is for my wife. She really needs that MS Office compatibility and LibreOffice doesn't go far enough...

The LibreOffice has a higher level of compatibility with the foreign, obsolete, and never standardized fileformats like the MS binary .doc, .xls. And the LibreOffice can save into the OOXML file formats, but the AOO can not.

ALWAYS store your important documents into the native, international standard ODF file formats - if you want work efficiently with the AOO and LO.

[RoryOF]

OpenOffice can read (to an extent) the MS Office docx, xlsx and pptx files, but cannot write them. LibreOffice can both read and write these formats. However, with any change in format of a file there are often irregularities, so do not expect 100% accuracy in rendering with such transfers in either direction.

OO (and LibreOffice) can read and write the older MS Office formats - .doc. xls, etc - with reasonable accuracy.

If I have (rarely) to transfer a file for editing to an MS Office user, I will use the older three letter extension formats.

OO never did automatic updates - it is (by report) more stable than LibreOffice, with less bells and whistles. I use OO for its stability - it does what I want, and I am used to it. LibreOffice interfaces seem to be in a state of flux between differing releases. For me, OO is not broken, so I don't need to fix it, and I also won't change horses midstream.

[esperantisto]

You don’t need to remove LibreOffice. You can have both LO and AOO in your computer and choose which one better suits your needs.

She really needs that MS Office compatibility…

You (she) have to give more details. Even various versions of MS Office are not fully compatible each with another.

[Villeroy]

LibreOffice is many years ahead particularly when it comes to Microsoft compatibility.

[Lupp]

(On what OS should the program run? We have the term "linux distro" at the one hand and "Win 10" in the signature of the questioner.
Anyway, if Linux, Wine might be an option - concerning the PortableApps packages which only are available for Win-32.)

For anybody considering a decision concerning LibreOffice vs. Apache OpenOffice I would suggest to try both for a while based on portable versions. I personally use LibreOffice for years now and have it installesd under Win 10 (some recent stable version and sometimes a dev version in parallel). To be able to compare and to investigate about questions concerning AOO specifically I have about a dozen portable versions of LibO and one of AOO. In my case they are all from the respective .paf.exe self-extracting archives available from http://downloadarchive.documentfoundati ... ffice/old/ for all versions of LibO and from https://portableapps.com/apps/office for recent AOO (currenzly 4.1.5).

[RoryOF]

In cases of users complaining of Win10 crashes, I mention that linux is an alternative. It is their choice whether to try it out or not - it may be too big a jump for most.

I use the term linux distro as there are so many different distributions of linux; the choice of which particfular one is the User's.

[Villeroy]

If the layout of foreign file formats does not match it may be due to missing fonts.

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

adds the usual MS fonts (Arial, Times New Roman etc.) to my Ubuntu system. It is a script showing an EULA before actually installing the font packages.