Free office suites
Discuss office suites at http://www.facebook.com/webusermagazine 13 - 26 November 2019^51
hat we liked:
Compared to most office
software, LibreOffice
now feels quaintly old
fashioned. Eschewing
many of the leaps to
odernisation that other
office products have
attempted, such as Microsoft’s ribbon
bar, LibreOffice sticks with the old
design of standard toolbars and menus
we’ve used for years.
It operates as a traditional suite of
tools with a variety of individual
programs, including a word processor,
spreadsheet, database, presentation
tool and drawing program. This is a
more comprehensive collection than
that offered by Google, so it’s the better
option if you want the extras.
By default, files you create in
LibreOffice are saved in the Open
Document Format, which is fine if you’re
creating files for yourself but likely to
confuse other people if you share them.
However, with a few extra clicks,
LibreOffice will save files as Microsoft
documents and can also do fancy things
such as saving PDFs.
hat we liked:
If you’re solidly on board
with the way Windows 10
integrates with OneDrive,
you might prefer to use
Microsoft’s online office
ite, which has strong links
with the company’s paid-for
Office software but is free to use and
surprisingly capable.
The suite provides Word, Excel,
Powerpoint and OneNote, which should
cover most of the tools required by the
home user. Like Google’s offering, it also
neatly bridges the divide between your
desktop and the cloud, working online
when you need it but neatly syncing
your files offline if you have Windows 10
set to operate in conjunction with
OneDrive.
A further benefit is that, being
Microsoft, its files are Office-compatible
by default, so if you work and share files
with other people and organisations
that use Microsoft’s tools (which is
almost everyone), then you’ll have
perfectly compatible files without even
having to think about it.
How it can be improved:
The Excel Spreadsheet component has
a modern ribbon bar, which brings it in
line with Microsoft’s paid-for software.
However, the Word and PowerPoint
tools are lagging behind, with simplistic
menus and buttons, and need updating.How it can be improved:
There’s nothing innovative about
LibreOffice – if anything, the OpenOffice
software it sprang from has done more
to change and improve its tools. Sure, if
it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but LibreOffice
can feel a bit bleak and utilitarian.OUR VERDICT
LibreOffice’s old-school menus and
buttons, and its traditional blueprint
of individual Windows-based office
tools accessed from a launcher may
seem dowdy compared to Google’s
online offering, but it has more
sophisticated office features.OUR VERDICT
Microsoft Office continues to rule
paid-for office software, which
lends its free online suite some
gravitas. It’s the sensible option
if you need Microsoft Office
compatibility but it’s less coherent
than our other award winners, with
some tools lacking updates.WPSOffice
http://www.wps.com
WPS Office has four main
components to its office suite:
a word processor, a spreadsheet,
a presentation tool and a PDF
editor. You have to sign up for an
account to
use the free
service, but it
comes with
a generous
1GB of online
space for
storing and
syncing your files. It feels more
modern than LibreOffice but holds
back some of its best features for
paying customers.OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org
OpenOffice is LibreOffice’s big
brother and also needs installing
on your PC. With both being
developed
from the
same base
software,
there’s a lot of
similarity
between the
two, though
OpenOffice
isn’t updated as often. It also
doesn’t come with the Charts tool,
which you may not need but it’s
good to have the option.Apple iCloud
http://www.icloud.com
Apple has its own suite of software
that it gives away to Mac users for
free, though it’s not available on
Windows. However, you can use its
online tools for free if you sign up
for an Apple account. These are a
poor relation to Google and
Microsoft’s tools, though, unless
you’ve bought into Apple’s
hardware. Even then, you’re
probably still better off looking at
our award-winners instead.LibreOffice| http://www.libreoffice.org| BEST OF THE REST
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