A productivity suite is defined as two or more applications bundled together
and used for creating documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and databases.
Other applications that might be included in such a bundle are email clients,
calculators/formula editors, and illustration or drawing software. Commonly,
they are all tied together with a common look and feel, which makes sticking
to one particular suite much easier. Because Ubuntu uses LibreOffice as its
standard office suite, we introduce you to that first. We also take a brief look
at some of the other Linux-based productivity applications.
PRODUCTIVITY FOR THE TYPICAL USER
For the majority of users of productivity suites, LibreOffice should fulfill
most, if not all, requirements. However, the first hurdle is not whether it
can do what you require of it but rather whether it can successfully import
and export to proprietary Microsoft formats at a standard that is acceptable
to your needs. Most of the time, LibreOffice should import and export with
minimal hassle, perhaps getting a bit stuck with some of the more esoteric
Microsoft Office formatting. Given that most users do not go much beyond
tabs, columns, and tables, this level of compatibility should suffice.
However, you are strongly advised to round up a selection of documents
and spreadsheets that seem the most likely to be difficult for the
import/export filter and test them thoroughly (of course, keeping a backup
of the originals). A system administrator who has deployed a new
productivity suite does not want to suddenly get users complaining that
they cannot read their files. This would quickly destroy any benefits gained
from the other useful functions within LibreOffice and could even cause a
return to proprietary formats and expensive office suites.
On the positive side, LibreOffice supports a huge array of file formats and
can export to nearly 70 types of documents. Such a variety of file formats
means that you should be able to successfully use LibreOffice in nearly any
environment, including formats no longer used by currently produced and
maintained software, so it may be able to open some old files and
documents you had once given up for lost.Introducing LibreOffice
LibreOffice contains a number of productivity applications for use in creating
text documents, preparing spreadsheets, organizing presentations, managing
projects, and so on. The following components of the LibreOffice package are
included with Ubuntu:
Writer—This word processing program enables you to compose, format,