What to choose: LibreOffice and OpenOffice. Compatibility of Linux office suites with Microsoft Office

Some already significant time ago, the space of my psychological growing up reached computers and gadgets. I mean, down to the software on them. The problem, in general, is clear to everyone. The difficulty is that it is not close. But I had to grow up and I started legalizing.

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, it turns out that commercial software, without which you seem to be without hands and which cannot be adequately replaced with free analogues - in fact, the cat cried. I only have 4 such programs, and all of them are small and inexpensive utilities. (On a tablet/phone it’s even easier - there programs cost an average of $2, and it’s not even clear how much of a redneck you have to be to steal them. And shares on Google Play Store happen all the time: if you just wanted to use only licensed software, everything would work out without really straining or spending too much money.) And secondly, the working DreamSpark from Microsoft solves all the problems with the software of the Redmond giant. Or rather, all but one - our DreamSpark does not include Office.

And now I don’t have a single broken program on my machine. But something needs to be done with the Office, especially since I really need it for work. I looked at the prices for Microsoft Office - and this is a complete robbery. Behind home version(it's enough for me) they want $105 for a license for one car. But there are also parental laptops... Well, what the heck, this price is far from reasonable, in my opinion.

I went to look at the free analogues. To be honest, there’s 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 everything else with Oracle, in general. So that leaves only LibreOffice. Therefore, I decided to drive it in “combat” conditions to understand whether it could be adequate for me replacing Microsoft Office.

Firstly, word processor. In Microsoft Office it is Word, in LibreOffice it is Writer. I use a word processor most often - fonts, colors, alignment, tables, inserting illustrations, that's all. And my impressions of LibreOffice Writer are quite positive. It can do everything I need; on my DOC files it has full compatibility with Word in both directions. There are some minor problems, but overall everything is fine here. Summary - test.

Secondly, presentations. In Microsoft Office it is PowerPoint, in LibreOffice it is Impress. I worked with him a lot for a month and... I was not at all satisfied. In principle, all problems can be solved, but general impression- many small tedious problems and even bugs. After this month of agony, I made a PowerPoint presentation this week for comparison (I have one at work), and it was like a breath of 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 to even say about PPTX files, the entire LibreOffice works poorly with the new X-formats, 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 very bad. A resume is no credit.

Third, spreadsheets. In Microsoft Office it is Excel, in LibreOffice it is Calc. Here I just can’t say anything, because I myself have no spreadsheets I don’t do it because it’s unnecessary, I just read/fill out ready-made files that are sent to me at work. I can only say one thing: everything that was sent to me at work opens in Calc and is displayed correctly, but there are no even somewhat complex formulas or macros there. Just tables with a minimum of automation. Well, everything is ok with them, but you have to understand that this doesn’t mean anything. The collective Internet claims that from the point of view of compatibility with Microsoft Office, the situation in Calc is the worst in all of LibreOffice: formulas and macros are more or less complex - and Calc raises its paws to the top. The resume is a test, but we keep it in mind low level my requirements for him.

There was no need to compare the rest of the big Office: instead of Outlook, I have been using it for a long time and with pleasure Mozilla Thunderbird, and Access and Visio are available via DreamSpark.

General impression: Microsoft Office, of course, is head and shoulders above LibreOffice, no matter how much you would like the opposite. In some places the difference is already small, but in others there is still an abyss. In my case, everything would have been fine if not for the presentations. In general, I think that the office problem remains unresolved for me.

I 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. So yourself family subscription it turns out. Friends, do any of you use it? Tell us about your impressions, please. Otherwise I'm still thinking.

U office packages the two named companies have a lot in common, although there are significant differences

For a long time, it was considered a recognized leader among manufacturers of office suites. Microsoft company with its Office, but now it has another opponent that deserves attention - LibreOffice.

It’s safe to say that the office suites of the two companies mentioned have a lot in common, although there are also significant differences. LibreOffice's package is compatible with big amount operating systems including Windows, OS X and Linux, while a new version Microsoft Office is only suitable for Windows 7 and Windows 8. The question is not whose office suite is “better” or which package has “more features.” The question is what suits you best, what do 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, 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 the functions they perform. Writer duplicates all the main ones Word functions: Features include an amazing grammar editor, reliable system automatic saving, support for a huge variety of formats and much more. Changing one editor to another will not be any problem, they work and look the same. And if you are just learning 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 unrivaled strengths included rich editing and tracking. changes made. However, today Writer has the same functionality. With the help of the latter you can track changes, edits and everything like that.

Tables: Excel vs Calc

Creating tables is one of the main functions of the office suite. Microsoft Excel, and company for a long time was a recognized leader in this area. However, most users may well be satisfied with the features offered LibreOffice Calc. However, if you work with tables 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 that are not complicated mathematical calculations and form tables different formats. However, if you use a lot of macros and multitask in Excel, then you will have problems when switching to Calc.

The thing is that Calc has own language macros, 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 easy to read Excel language(not vice versa): if you forward tables to your friends or colleagues, you can be sure that the LibreOffice Calc office suite will be sufficient for these purposes.

Presentation Software: PowerPoint vs Impress

Even the word “PowerPoint” itself has long been considered almost synonymous with the word “presentation”, and for good reason: it is high-quality software that allows you to create presentations that are superior to any other visual representations. The presentation software from LibreOffice is called Impress; it has quite a lot of functions, but the company's employees did not set out to convince users of other programs of their superiority - it is a simple and convenient thing.

To date the main problem for Impress users is that sometimes problems arise when working with presentations created in PowerPoint. When working with such presentations, some fonts may disappear and other rendering problems may arise. However, if you're creating presentations from scratch, Impress will help you make them very well, albeit without all the "conveniences" that PowerPoint offers. Although, according to by and large, the only “inconveniences” of Impress include the lack of some slide animation capabilities and support for the video export function. Impress also lacks the ability to create animated charts and does not allow group collaboration on presentations.

However, Impress also has its advantages. This software is capable of exporting presentations in the most various formats, which makes life much easier for 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 none of them will magically bring us an Oscar for the presentation we create, it should be noted that both programs are quite easy to learn how to work with.

Database Software: Access vs Base

The last major piece of software in both office suites is the database management system. Database Management Application Microsoft Access has long been installed on computers by default, but the LibreOffice Base application today is a worthy competitor to it.

The main difference between Base and Access is their compatibility with operating systems. Access app is compatible with Windows only, 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 more advanced multi-level work.

Both application packages have "smart" and intuitive interface, and they are very similar in use. As you can see, the majority LibreOffice programs created by analogy with programs from Microsoft. Only, perhaps, there is nothing similar to Outlook in the LibreOffice package. But LibreOffice is always free. The rest is up to you.

By default, applications in the LibreOffice office suite are configured to be saved in the OpenOffice format - ODF and similar ones, which may make them inaccessible to users of older Microsoft Office office suites (versions released earlier version 2007).

To force LibreOffice to save in the format you need (for example, Microsoft Word 2003), you need to do the following:

1. Open Options; to do this, in any program from the LibreOffice package, select the “Tools” menu item, and in it the “Options” sub-item.

3. Now we have to select for each LibreOffice application the format in which we need to save documents.

For backward compatibility with older Microsoft versions Office 97, 2000, XP, 2003, you should select:

Editing a Configuration File

If you need to install LibreOffice on large quantities computers (for example, in an enterprise), then this approach to configuration can be tedious. In this case, there is the following way:

1. Create a text file and copy the following there:

And save it under the name registrymodifications.xcu.

2. Copy this file at the following address: %appdata%\LibreOffice\4\user(for thirds LibreOffice versions the address will be different - %appdata%\LibreOffice\3\user). Now current user will by default save documents in Microsoft format Office.

3. In order for this to apply to all new users, do the following: go to the directory " %HomeDrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User\Application Data", and create a folder there " LibreOffice", in it the directory " 4 "(for the third version of LibreOffice we create a directory " 3 "), and in it we create a directory " user". Move your file there registrymodifications.xcu.

As a result, the path to the file should look something like this: " C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Application Data\LibreOffice\4\user\registrymodifications.xcu".

Your file saving settings will now be applied to all new users.

Configuration via group policies

You can also configure the format of saved files via group policies. About how to do it.

Earlier I already described the situation with . In short, if you desperately need Word, then the only adequate solution is virtual machine. But is it necessary? After all, Linux has several native office suites.

Linux? No, have not heard…

In this article we’ll talk about this: are the office suites available on Linux compatible with MS Office, and if so, to what extent? I’ll make a reservation right away - I’m interested first and only working with texts, so everything below will mainly concern word processors- Word and its Linux analogues.

I would be happy to write something about presentations and table processors, but I’m not good at them. On the other hand, my work is closely related to texts, and almost every day a dozen text files pass through me, often containing, in addition to text, drawings, both made directly in Word and inserted from outside, tables, formulas, and often complex formatting. In general, the conditions for testing are very good.

When I moved to Linux, it became obvious that most important aspect local office packages for me - the ability to open any created in Word document and how much of it appearance will match how the document appears in Word. Having discussed this topic on forums and in social networks, I came to the conclusion that this is precisely the point that worries many.

This is exactly what I will talk about below, of course, telling a little about each office package as a whole.

Let me start with the fact that initially I planned to create a kind of “synthetic test” - a page in Word, with different formatting elements, pictures, formulas, etc. However, it immediately became clear that the idea was not the best, since it poorly reflected real situation of things. Therefore, I chose a different tactic - for two weeks I watched how this or that program opens created in Word text files, and I already mentioned above that I view an average of ten of them a day. Two weeks have passed, and now I have something to tell you.

Our test subjects are four office suites - two in currently are well known - Libre Office and WPS Office. And two less often mentioned are Softmaker Office and Calligra Suite.

Libre Office

I’ll say right away that if you need to open a document created in Word, and there is a need for it to look exactly as intended by the author, this is not about Libre Office. The main problems that caught my eye include the fact that it does not “pick up” some of the text formatting, and also has problems with drawings and diagrams made directly in Word. Some of them are distorted beyond recognition. Also, for some reason, Libre Office Writer did not correctly “pick up” the page margin settings in all cases, as a result of which the text looked anything but like in Word. On the other side, if you basically need to open a document, then Libre Office is “ahead of the rest.” While in other products some elements are simply not displayed, Libra will try to show everything, albeit a little askew. In other words, the package has its own interface, and does not copy anything. It vaguely resembles older versions of MS Office, but only remotely. Working with Libre Office is convenient and pleasant. Mostly on Linux I use this office suite and these lines are typed in Libre Office Writer.

I also cannot help but note that a new version of Libre Office is currently being prepared for release, which has many changes, including those aimed at increasing compatibility with MS Office formats. So the situation described above may soon change. Also, as far as I know, work is underway on a “ribbon” interface in the style Microsoft products. I don’t know how, but I’ve already gotten used to this interface, and I think that it is very convenient, especially in the context of a text editor. So we wait.

WPS Office

On forums, WPS Office is often referred to as “fully compatible with MS Office,” so I installed it with particular interest. Indeed, there is some measure of compatibility. Let's not forget that we are currently only working with the alpha version, so everything is still to come, as they say.

Meanwhile, we can already safely say that most documents in WPS Writer look the same as in Word, and this is more of an achievement! For myself, I noted problems with many formulas that WPS, unlike Libre, does not show at all. He doesn't want to show some raster images, pasted into text files. Moreover, I was unable to identify any pattern. Some show up, some don't. The problem doesn't happen often, but it does pop up. Among other things, several other minor problems can be noted, for example, markers are not always displayed correctly in bulleted lists and so on.

WPS Office has two interface modes, one more like Word 2003 and one more like modern versions. Unfortunately, "tape" modern interface, in my opinion, not very well designed. However, in any case, the presence of an office suite that, even at the alpha testing stage, provides such a high degree of compatibility with MS Office is very pleasing. Although for everyday work WPS, subjectively, is still “damp”.

Softmaker Office

The third product I want to talk about is Softmaker Office (). Version 2016 for Windows is available on the developer’s website, but only version 2012 is available for Linux so far. For some reason, I didn’t take this office seriously. And in vain. Oddly enough, it is the word processor included in this package that, in my opinion, provides the best compatibility with Word. Problems arose only with formulas for which a formula editor other than the “native” Word one was used. Everything else was just great.

Of course, there was a fly in the ointment. Softmaker Office - paid product. Full version costs 80 dollars. There is a free version, which includes a number of restrictions - if we talk about text editor, then this is the inability to save files in DOCX formats and PDF - only DOC and “native” format, as well as a number of other restrictions. However, if the office suite is not the main working tool for you, then paid version quite enough. Here, by the way, it is important to note that it is free, including for commercial use.

Otherwise, everything is very good, the program looks serious, the interface, however, is similar to Word 2003, but in the paid version it is quite flexibly customizable. Although, for those who are accustomed to the “ribbon” interface, this may be a small minus.

Calligra Suite

The last thing we will discuss is Calligra Suite. Unfortunately, the discussion will be short. Direct disadvantages include the worst compatibility with Word (do not forget that the article is not about office suites themselves, but about compatibility).

I won’t even describe all the aspects in which Calligra “sucks” in terms of compatibility, there are too many of them. In addition, I personally was not at all impressed by the original interface of the program - all the toolbars in it are located to the right of the text. And although this may be very appropriate on modern wide-format “rectangular” monitors, it turned out to be difficult to get used to, although this is subjective.

Summarize

Behind last years The situation with office suites in Linux has improved radically. At a minimum, there is already Libre Office, which will really easily cover the lion's share of the needs of the average user.

If you need compatibility with Word, you should pay attention to Softmaker Office; the developing WPS Office is at least worth a look - that's for sure.

Calligra Suite, unfortunately, gives the impression of a bent product. From what I've read online, this seems to be the case.

Well, if you need “final and irrevocable” compatibility with Word, a virtual machine with Windows and MS Office is your choice.

Office technologies, which is understood as a set of information products tools that allow you to optimize work with text, tables, presentations, images and formulas are needed today not only by managers, journalists, accountants and other specialists whose professional activity directly related to the above actions. used by schoolchildren and students, table processor suitable for planning a personal budget, and database management systems allow you to systematize large amounts of information of various kinds.

Price latest version the most popular office suite Microsoft programs Office 2016 costs about six thousand rubles for one computer. This fact makes many users look for free alternatives. These are the software packages LibreOffice or OpenOffice.

Composition of office software packages

Similar paid software products are MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio for image editing and Access - a database editor.

LibreOffice or OpenOffice are cross-platform software products; applications run on both the most common Windows and Linux or Mac OS X. In addition, LibreOffice is developing versions of editors for mobile iOS and Android.

Interface and functionality of software products

If you don’t know what kind of product is installed - LibreOffice or OpenOffice - you won’t be able to tell the difference between the interface at first glance. On the toolbar there are the same “File”, “Edit”, “View”, “Insert”, “Format”, “Table”, “Tools”, “Window” and “Help”, in one form or another characteristic of MS Office, and for Google online service Docs. All the main elements are available right there: printing, scale, font style and size, layout, and so on.

LibreOffice (OpenOffice wins the comparison here, but its competitor's customizable features fill the gap) does not have a sidebar toolbar that is convenient to use on widescreen screens, otherwise the interface and functionality of graphic editors are similar. By the way, in LibreOffice last option is included in the “experimental capabilities”, so it is quite possible that the developers will eventually introduce sidebar to default display.

Comparing OpenOffice / LibreOffice and a macro by user name is also equivalent: scripts are created in a similar way, no significant differences are observed.

Compatible with MS Office formats

Microsoft Office is installed on 85% of devices, and the “native” .doc or .docx format (or .xls and .xlsx for tables, .pptx for presentations, respectively) is ubiquitous, so it’s impossible to consider the compatibility of the compared software packages not possible with MS.

Documents prepared in LibreOffice or OpenOffice are most likely to be viewed in standard MS Office, so correct display is essential. The leading position in this matter (besides, of course, the recognized MS Office) is LibreOffice, which can directly edit files from Word or view documents from Visio. OpenOffice opens .doc or .docx, but when saving it offers to change the extension to its own format or save the file in the old MS Office extension.

In the case of presentations, everything is somewhat more complicated: there are no problems with static slides, while dynamic ones can be distorted when opened in a different format. So before the presentation, it is still better to double-check that the presentation is displayed correctly in another editor.

LibreOffice vs OpenOffice: Unique Features

Despite their external identity, the programs differ in some ways unique features. More precisely, LibreOffice is distinguished by solutions that, unfortunately, are not found in its direct competitor. For example, LibreOffice has a function for dynamically displaying the number of words and characters, while a competitor office program displays only the current page number in the bottom menu.

In addition, LibreOffice supports built-in fonts. This means that the style and other text attributes or styles applied when creating or editing source file, are saved when you open a document on a computer where the font you are using is not installed. Text file will not be distorted, which is not provided in OpenOffice.

Performance of software products

Small advantage of OpenOffice over a competitor lies in speed. In tests carried out on personal computer with three gigabytes of memory and operating Windows system 7, the office program is slightly ahead of LibreOffice in terms of speed of saving, opening a file or converting a document to another format.

Average OpenOffice Writer and Calc are 20-23% faster than a similar product from the LibreOffice package. Certainly, this fact is not decisive when choosing a package office programs, but quite important in conditions when it is necessary to urgently send a report or make changes to a previous version of a document.

Popularity of office software packages

OpenOffice is usually the first product people switch to in the search process. Microsoft alternatives Office. Thus, in the first quarter of 2010, this particular office software package was installed on 21% of devices of German users (counted as individuals using Current Package, as well as commercial organizations, public foundations, administrations and other government departments). In Russia, the product is used by Rostelecom, federal Service bailiffs and the Pension Fund.

However, by 2011, mass migration to LibreOffice began from French, Spanish and Italian users, residents and companies of Denmark, the Italian military departments and the city administration of Valencia. In 2014 (due to the introduction of sanctions), the Russian metallurgical and mining company Evraz began the transition to a freely distributed office software package.

How are things going today in the LibreOffice vs OpenOffice confrontation? Without taking into account a similar product package from Microsoft, we note that it is LibreOffice that occupies a leading position in terms of prevalence both among individuals and in the corporate segment of users.

Development speed and new versions

Today, as mentioned, the difference between LibreOffice and OpenOffice is negligible, but over time this may change. The speed of developing new versions and eliminating the shortcomings of previous versions of the program is higher in LibreOffice, while the OpenOffice developers have slowed down the pace for code auditing, which is also not bad. It can be expected that the disadvantages previous versions programs will be eliminated, but also new ones functionality You shouldn't hope too much.

According to experts, LibreOffice will develop more actively in the near future, so perhaps users who work a lot in text, spreadsheet or graphic editors, as well as with databases, the choice should be made on this software.

So which is better - LibreOffice or OpenOffice?

We've looked at the advantages and disadvantages of software packages, but as they say, it's better to see once than hear a hundred times. And it’s even better to test it, because there is a clear answer to the question: “LibreOffice or OpenOffice - which is better?” It’s quite difficult to give without trying both products. Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are in free access, so on personal experience check usability, functionality, performance and compatibility software products with other common formats it is not difficult. This is the only way to finally decide free analogue recognized market leader.