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Office 365 vs. Libre Office for Mac - UPDATED Login/Join 
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Appaently MS ended support for Office 2011 for Mac and it looks like the most reasonable solution is to upgrade to Office 365.

Before I do this I was researching other options and there seems to be a lot of love for Libre Office (a few reorts of crashing on Macs) but I do not know anyone personally that uses it.

Anyone here with any mac specoific libre experience?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kevmo,
 
Posts: 3987 | Location: Peoria, AZ | Registered: November 07, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I have used Libre, I worked for a small consulting firm that had a bring your own device culture, its very good. If you work solo and don't share your work get it and call it a day. If you have to share or collaborate - its can be a PIA based on what everyone else is using and O365 seems cheap at that point.....
 
Posts: 1017 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: September 26, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by bjor13:
I have used Libre, I worked for a small consulting firm that had a bring your own device culture, its very good. If you work solo and don't share your work get it and call it a day. If you have to share or collaborate - its can be a PIA based on what everyone else is using and O365 seems cheap at that point.....


Good to know...my time is split between working solo and having to share docs and spreadsheets with a team that will also need to work with them so if i am reading this correctly there might be some cross platform compatabulity )which is why I dont use Pages and Numbers)?
 
Posts: 3987 | Location: Peoria, AZ | Registered: November 07, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Optimistic Cynic
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Sharing the data files isn't the issue. LibreOffice does a better job of handling MSOffice files than MSOffice does. It is my goto when MSOffice declines to open a "corrupt" file. Most often LO finds no fault with it, and will write out a copy with which MSO finds no fault. I'd keep LO around for this purpose even if it had no other value.

The issue is less of an opportunity to share knowledge and experience. Because they two packages do things slightly differently (mostly in the user interface), the person with who you are interacting will have a different perspective on what the software can do, and how to make that happen. Some of it can be rediculous, ala: "I can't find Save As... on the menu, all I see is Save a Copy." But for much of the user community, this seems to be a real issue.

One thing I haven't yet explored is LO's ability to access documents in Azure (Microsoft's "cloud" product), something MSO365 (and the locally-hosted version MSO2016) does by default. I'd suspect this is intentionally-crippled so MS can maintain market share. I personally don't care, I have many ways to share files other than Azure, but in a corporate environment, where there is a desire to maintain homogeneity, this can be important.
 
Posts: 6455 | Location: NoVA | Registered: July 22, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by architect:
Sharing the data files isn't the issue. LibreOffice does a better job of handling MSOffice files than MSOffice does. It is my goto when MSOffice declines to open a "corrupt" file. Most often LO finds no fault with it, and will write out a copy with which MSO finds no fault. I'd keep LO around for this purpose even if it had no other value.

Thanks, this makes sense. I do not work in corporate world and most of my sharing is just done via having to make sure the same things can open seamlessly on multiple computers without losing formatting or fonts.

For the sake of not listening to my wife and daughter bellyache when they have to learn a new interface I might just break down and spend the $9.99/mo so i dont create headaches for myself though

The issue is less of an opportunity to share knowledge and experience. Because they two packages do things slightly differently (mostly in the user interface), the person with who you are interacting will have a different perspective on what the software can do, and how to make that happen. Some of it can be rediculous, ala: "I can't find Save As... on the menu, all I see is Save a Copy." But for much of the user community, this seems to be a real issue.

One thing I haven't yet explored is LO's ability to access documents in Azure (Microsoft's "cloud" product), something MSO365 (and the locally-hosted version MSO2016) does by default. I'd suspect this is intentionally-crippled so MS can maintain market share. I personally don't care, I have many ways to share files other than Azure, but in a corporate environment, where there is a desire to maintain homogeneity, this can be important.
 
Posts: 3987 | Location: Peoria, AZ | Registered: November 07, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Old, Slow,
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Kevmo says,
"For the sake of not listening to my wife and daughter bellyache when they have to learn a new interface I might just break down and spend the $9.99/mo so i don't create headaches for myself though."

Which is true wisdom on display!

Libre Office is far from the only alternative to using the crippled version of MS Office. I vowed to never pay MS another dime when I bought a used Apple MAC a few years ago.

The one I bought had been used in a successful businessman's home office to keep his personal financial records. Before offering the 'puter for sale, his son removed the original HD and replaced it with a large new SSD and then downloaded only the necessary Apple OS, so I had to research and get the needed word processor, spreadsheet program, etc.

After trying Libre Office and two or three other options, I settled on Apache Open Office suite. I have found the program to be remarkably good, and it has no problems at all switching back and forth between various iterations of MS Office programs.

You might want to look into it as a possibility... and it's FREE open source software to boot


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Posts: 3418 | Location: Spokane, WA | Registered: March 15, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Try LibreOffice. If you don't like it, you can get your money back.



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Posts: 30647 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by V-Tail:
Try LibreOffice. If you don't like it, you can get your money back.


I have an old windows laptop at home that is pretty much a burner....I might load Libre on there and see how everyone likes it.
 
Posts: 3987 | Location: Peoria, AZ | Registered: November 07, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Optimistic Cynic
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Thank you dsmack for reminding us that of the current offerings derived from the oldish Open Office dot org code, that AOO is probably the most viable option at this time.

In the beginning, there was OpenOffice.org. this open source code was adopted by the LibreOffice group and ported to be more Mac-like. Over time these projects diverged, and LibreOffice was taken (semi-)commercial. The guys who were developing the mainline OO decided to use Apache's code repository, and renamed their project. AOO is still open source, and freely redistributable, available for Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows, and probably other OS's.
 
Posts: 6455 | Location: NoVA | Registered: July 22, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Why not use Office 2016 for Mac? I work remotely but have to interface with (mostly) PC peeps with Word/Excel/PP/Outlook.

I was on Office for Mac 2011 for many years, but migrated to Office 2016 last year- works fine and almost zero learning curve.
 
Posts: 1480 | Location: Montana - bear country | Registered: March 20, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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If you want a more Mac centric interface, NeoOffice is the way to go.



Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. -Epictetus
 
Posts: 8214 | Location: Utah | Registered: December 18, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
If you want a more Mac centric interface, NeoOffice is the way to go.
I have been using LibreOffice for a couple years, very satisfied with it, but due to your post I just took a look at the NeoOffice website.

I see a couple of negative points for NewOffice. Negative for me, anyway, they might not bother other people.
  • NeoOffice is based on Open Office and LibreOffice. Those two are free, NeoOffice is fifteen bucks. Not much, but since it's based on the free products, I don't see any reason to pay for this.

  • There doesn't seem to be any "try before you buy" option. If there is one, either it's very well hidden, or I am not braining very well today, as I could not find it.

  • I could not find any contact information on the NeoOffice website. No email address, no phone number, no "Contact Us" web page. Looking at the Support page, it appears that you pays your money, and then you're on your own to figure things out if there's a problem.
With those points going against NewOffice, I'll stick with LibreOffice.



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Posts: 30647 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
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quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
Try LibreOffice. If you don't like it, you can get your money back.

This ^^^^^



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
If you want a more Mac centric interface, NeoOffice is the way to go.
I have been using LibreOffice for a couple years, very satisfied with it, but due to your post I just took a look at the NeoOffice website.

I see a couple of negative points for NewOffice. Negative for me, anyway, they might not bother other people.
  • NeoOffice is based on Open Office and LibreOffice. Those two are free, NeoOffice is fifteen bucks. Not much, but since it's based on the free products, I don't see any reason to pay for this.

  • There doesn't seem to be any "try before you buy" option. If there is one, either it's very well hidden, or I am not braining very well today, as I could not find it.

  • I could not find any contact information on the NeoOffice website. No email address, no phone number, no "Contact Us" web page. Looking at the Support page, it appears that you pays your money, and then you're on your own to figure things out if there's a problem.
With those points going against NewOffice, I'll stick with LibreOffice.


The biggest pull for NeoOffice is that it integrates the OS services like a native app. If that is not important, then I’d certainly stick with LibreOffice. Overall NeoOffice feels and looks like a Mac app. Honestly, though, I think I’d be happy running WordPerfect 5.1 in a DOS shell. I’m getting old.



Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. -Epictetus
 
Posts: 8214 | Location: Utah | Registered: December 18, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The biggest pull for NeoOffice is that it integrates the OS services like a native app.
I'm not sure what you mean by that, and I'm not going to shell out fifteen bucks to find out (I don't see any "try before you buy" option for NewOffice).

Can you give a brief explanation?

Maybe my question is too much like the one on the final exam: "Define the universe in 25 words or less. Give three examples."



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Posts: 30647 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I have used pages and numbers for as long as I can remember. They work fine for me and are cheap. No reason for me to change, no chance of them being dropped.
 
Posts: 1795 | Location: Spokane, WA | Registered: June 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by Stlhead:
I have used pages and numbers for as long as I can remember. They work fine for me and are cheap. No reason for me to change, no chance of them being dropped.
Last time I tried Numbers, I was not able to define a print range. Don't know if the capability is there and I missed it, or is this just something that is not built into Numbers.



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Posts: 30647 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I'm Different!
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Originally posted by V-Tail:
Last time I tried Numbers, I was not able to define a print range. Don't know if the capability is there and I missed it, or is this just something that is not built into Numbers.


It's not built in to the app. The only work around I've found is to select the cells & then copy & paste into either Pages or Preview to print.



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Posts: 4139 | Location: Middle Finger of WV | Registered: March 29, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by mrbill345:
quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
Last time I tried Numbers, I was not able to define a print range. Don't know if the capability is there and I missed it, or is this just something that is not built into Numbers.
It's not built in to the app. The only work around I've found is to select the cells & then copy & paste into either Pages or Preview to print.
That sounds like a royal pain in the anatomy.

I routinely have to print a range of cells, need to do it two "pages" to a sheet of paper, and I need to control the page breaks. Simple enough with Excel or LibreOffice, sounds like a mess with the copy & paste method.

Kind of strange that Apple would leave this capability out of Numbers.



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Posts: 30647 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
Originally posted by mrbill345:
quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
Last time I tried Numbers, I was not able to define a print range. Don't know if the capability is there and I missed it, or is this just something that is not built into Numbers.
It's not built in to the app. The only work around I've found is to select the cells & then copy & paste into either Pages or Preview to print.
That sounds like a royal pain in the anatomy.

I routinely have to print a range of cells, need to do it two "pages" to a sheet of paper, and I need to control the page breaks. Simple enough with Excel or LibreOffice, sounds like a mess with the copy & paste method.

Kind of strange that Apple would leave this capability out of Numbers.


Makes no sense to me either. I searched Apple's Numbers user guide as well the Apple Numbers Community (forum) & that is a topic that comes up & has yet to be addressed by Apple.



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Posts: 4139 | Location: Middle Finger of WV | Registered: March 29, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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