Microsoft Excel to Open Office

Kernow666

i am limited to what websites i can access at work so am asking this question here

i use MS Excel at work but at home i dont have it but can download for free Open Office

would i be able to use Excel here and then save it email it home and then open it on Open Office

lindabea

Yes - OO is compatible with Excel documents, but you should install LIBREOFFICE. Same architecture as OO, but I don't think OO is supported any longer.

Fightsback

I'd also say get Libreoffice as it's better maintained than openoffice.

Kernow666

awesome thanks guys for the answers will install Libreoffice later when i get home

grumbler

lindabea wrote: »

Yes - OO is compatible with Excel documents

AFAIK, it's not a full compatibility, especially in terms of macros.
Excel document with macros is likely not to work in OO.

nomoneytoday

Does your work take part in the home use scheme?

bod1467

nomoneytoday wrote: »

Does your work take part in the home use scheme?

Quite. I've recently purchased Office 2013 for about £10 under a HUP agreement.

Timalay

Kernow666 wrote: »

awesome thanks guys for the answers will install Libreoffice later when i get home

A little tip with Libreoffice. Make sure you save the default save formats to that of a Microsoft ones. To do this open up LibreOffice, go to Tools, Options, Load/Save, go to the Default File format section, and change each default to that of a Microsoft one.

jamesd

OpenOffice is maintained and the most recent release was in October 2014, with IBM's developers apparently continuing to do a lot of the work. These days it's called Apache OpenOffice because it's now managed by the Apache Software Foundation. It's hugely popular, with something around 73,000 downloads on slow days and around 119,000 on busy ones, around 144 million since that counter started back in May 2012.

Neither Apache OpenOffice nor LibreOffice provide anything remotely close to full Excel compatibility. If your work is simple and not using much in the way of cooperation features you may well be fine. No harm to try but don't expect perfection. In many ways Apache OpenOffice or the LibreOffice fork are best used by primarily Excel users as viewers, not for editing, so that things don't get lost in the conversions.

It's worth checking your work license. It may allow a home copy. If not, it's often possible to buy the real thing very cheaply for home use. That's the route I'd suggest if you want things to just work perfectly in both directions. If your use is for work, you might see if your employer will provide a home copy license for you.

There used to be something called OpenOffice.org and that site is still there, linking to its new name. Some people didn't like the way that things were done there and split off to form LibreOffice, eventually fully leaving the OpenOffice.org project because of the conflict of interest involved in developing a competing program. The original thing after the transfer to the Apache Software Foundation is now called Apache OpenOffice. The name change these days seems to be used by fans of LibreOffice confuse potential users of OpenOffice by making false claims that OpenOffice is no more. As a fork, LibreOffice continues to routinely take source code from its OpenOffice upstream version. The reverse isn't possible because LibreOffice chose to use an incompatible license, blocking moves in that direction. The Borg version of OpenOffice I suppose - one way assimilation.

bod1467

Another option or two ... Google Docs or Office Online?

System

Hi

If you could use a USB stick, then perhaps consider

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/libreoffice_portable

as well as LibreOffice.