Free Office Software and MS Office

badger09

Probably a daft question

If person A is using MS Office and person B is using say Libre Office, can they exchange, read and edit each other's documents or spreadsheets?

I think the answer is probably 'no', (at least for person .

In which case question 2 - is MS Office 2013 much better than 2010 on Windows 8?

I understand a free Web version of MS Office is available but I'm not sure how practical that would be for me.

Timalay

badger09 wrote: »

Probably a daft question

If person A is using MS Office and person B is using say Libre Office, can they exchange, read and edit each other's documents or spreadsheets?

I think the answer is probably 'no', (at least for person .

The answer is yes you can.

Go to Tools, Options, Load/Save, General, Document Type. Then select each relevant document type i.e. Text Document, and select to Always save it as the relevant document type.
I think the Microsoft ..... 97/2000/XP/2003 is the best one. Covers the bases and most people can open those document types.

Jivesinger

badger09 wrote: »

In which case question 2 - is MS Office 2013 much better than 2010 on Windows 8?

I don't think there's anything in particular about Windows 8 that makes 2013 much better than 2010. Office 2010 is pretty good from what I've seen of it - if I had 2010 on my home PC I wouldn't bother with 2013.

badger09 wrote: »

I understand a free Web version of MS Office is available but I'm not sure how practical that would be for me.

There is - if you have a Microsoft Account you can get some free Skydrive space which will have Office web apps. They're getting better as Microsoft gradually add functionality, although if you go beyond basic features they tend to be limited. There's no harm in giving them a try though.

Google have a similar thing too.

esuhl

badger09 wrote: »

Probably a daft question

If person A is using MS Office and person B is using say Libre Office, can they exchange, read and edit each other's documents or spreadsheets?

I think the answer is probably 'no', (at least for person .

MS Office and LibreOffice are NOT fully compatible; however, most "mainstream" features are compatible and both office packages can open files written by the other office version.

So in practice, for "day-to-day" home use, you probably won't have any problems editing MS Office documents with LibreOffice (or vice versa). For more complex documents (e.g. Excel spreadsheets running VBA scripts), you are likely to run into problems.

There's a comparison of some of the features of both office suites here:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office

And a couple of articles that explain how the differences affect you in "real life" terms:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/libreoffice-vs-microsoft-office.html
http://lifehacker.com/battle-of-the-office-suites-microsoft-office-and-libre-1147940828

SailorSam

Have a look at the Kingsoft series of free office software.

badger09

Jivesinger wrote: »

I don't think there's anything in particular about Windows 8 that makes 2013 much better than 2010. Office 2010 is pretty good from what I've seen of it - if I had 2010 on my home PC I wouldn't bother with 2013.
There is - if you have a Microsoft Account you can get some free Skydrive space which will have Office web apps. They're getting better as Microsoft gradually add functionality, although if you go beyond basic features they tend to be limited. There's no harm in giving them a try though.

Google have a similar thing too.

Thanks Jivesinger
Currently using Word & Excel 2000 so I'm sure I'd notice a difference . I'll give the web apps a go though.

esuhl wrote: »

MS Office and LibreOffice are NOT fully compatible; however, most "mainstream" features are compatible and both office packages can open files written by the other office version.

So in practice, for "day-to-day" home use, you probably won't have any problems editing MS Office documents with LibreOffice (or vice versa). For more complex documents (e.g. Excel spreadsheets running VBA scripts), you are likely to run into problems.

There's a comparison of some of the features of both office suites here:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office

And a couple of articles that explain how the differences affect you in "real life" terms:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/libreoffice-vs-microsoft-office.html
http://lifehacker.com/battle-of-the-office-suites-microsoft-office-and-libre-1147940828

Thanks esuhl
I don't really need any advanced features - just the ability to read and edit MS Office docs & simple spreadsheets. I'll have a look at those links tomorrow.

SailorSam wrote: »

Have a look at the Kingsoft series of free office software.

Cheers SailorSam
I did see a description of the Kingsoft suite as a 'Chinese knockoff of MS Office'. As long at its legal, it might be just what I need. Have you used it?

prowla

Jivesinger wrote: »

I don't think there's anything in particular about Windows 8 that makes 2013 much better than 2010. Office 2010 is pretty good from what I've seen of it - if I had 2010 on my home PC I wouldn't bother with 2013.
There is - if you have a Microsoft Account you can get some free Skydrive space which will have Office web apps. They're getting better as Microsoft gradually add functionality, although if you go beyond basic features they tend to be limited. There's no harm in giving them a try though.

Google have a similar thing too.

I have Office 2010, and I haven't bothered to install 2013.

In terms of using Libre Office, I think that there are likely to be some areas where it behaves differently, and not all features may be 100% compatible (especially if cells have links to other Windows apps!).

So it depends upon the complexity of the spreadsheet.

Best advice is suck it and see.

macman

99% of users won't notice any incompatability.

prowla

macman wrote: »

99% of users won't notice any incompatability.

100% of users would immediately notice the difference of user interface; if the work to be done included instructions on how to do things in Excel, then it would cause difficulties in sharing spreadsheets.

Also, I don't know whether all of the formulae that you can embed in cells, colouring, etc. are 100% compatible. It's be a bad do to use the alternative product and then find strange things not quite working the same...

I searched "excel libre compatible", and got many pages of hits, eg.

http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/7301/compatibility-with-ms-excel/
http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/807

These may or may not be show stoppers in the particular instance, but it is wise to go into this with open eyes.

Me, I'm planning to shift off Windows as my main desktop OS, after the abomination that is Windows 8, but I can't see a viable way to lose MS Office at the moment.

macman

Since Libre Office is free, it costs nothing to try it first and find out. I've recommended it to several users who were about to rush out and spend £100+ on MS Office, and none (to my knowledge) has found it inadequate or incompatible for home use.

knightstyle

I use NeoOffice wnich is like LibreOffice for my Macbook and have no problems with normal docs. I always send in .docX and open in a variety of formats.