LibreOffice is a free and open-source Office Suite from The Document Foundation, presented as the successor to OpenOffice.org. The suite includes Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing).
$0
free and open source under the Mozilla Public License v2.0
Prezi
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Prezi’s advantage over static slides is that its interactive, zoomable canvas shows the relationship between the big picture and the fine details. The vendor’s value proposition is that this puts ideas in context, and makes them more likely to resonate, motivate, and be remembered.
If you are looking for a well-rounded, GNU-licensed product that will encompass word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and database then LibreOffice is probably all you need.
For online collaboration, links with cloud storage, and more …
Microsoft Office 2016 is the premium option for word processing, but in my line of work the content is more important than the presentation. I am mostly content to work in Google Docs unless working with documents of a sensitive nature. Then I use LibreOffice.
Other solutions for presentations all fall on the typical slideshow paradigm. So far, only Prezi walked away from this path. Its expanding canvas and freeform path are refreshing in this scenario. In this sense, Prezi is unique in its style of presentation, which makes …
If you're working with numbers, LibreOffice doesn't get in your way and try to make changes as it sees fit, forcing you to repeatedly go back and undo processes you didn't want, didn't ask for, and that have no place in the document you are trying to produce. All I want to do is assemble the data, process it for the task at hand, and then print it for distribution. LibreOffice allows me to do that.
When you have to present complex hierarchical structures, and if your audience would require navigation in and out of the hierarchy, then Prezi is a good candidate for you. But be prepared, Prezi is not as intuitive as a standard presentation tool, and it may take some time to get used to.
Linux support is non-existent. With Android/Chrome OS being based on the linux kernel but also with lots of tech-savvy and influencers using non-Windows and non iOS platforms, I feel a pariah.
As far as I know for Android phones and tablets you can only present but not edit prezis in its native app. Again an Android users, it is a sub-par experience the app in general is lacking functionality.
Using the browser version (because I have no other alternative) uploading multiple images is very buggy
Having a version history would be great when you are editing a large presentation over several days
We use it consistently and have a lot of documents in the OpenDocument format so it will be necessary to use LibreOffice or a compatible product such as Openoffice in the future to be able to open these files. Because the license fee for Libreoffice is zero it is not very costly to keep using it - the costs are mostly for keeping it installed on the office PCs and regularly updated, and solving employee issues with the user support.
For all of the reasons in the foregoing evaluation. Its menus are clean, intuitive and straightforward. Any function I need to use can be accessed via keystrokes, without having to stop, move my hand to the mouse, deal with it, and then get back to the keyboard to proceed. It helps me keep my mind on my work and not worry about dealing with the mouse all the time.
Learning to use Prezi and create new presentations is very simple and easy to do. It does not require new skills or a long training process, since in general the use is quite intuitive (and if you have any questions there are many videos on how to use it). Its operation in both the browser version and the app is very good and fluid, managing to perform all the tasks you want properly.
Libreoffice is a desktop app not requiring any server part so it is always available when the PC is working normally. Installing it on another machine if one PC fails is very quick and easy. This is a non-issue.
For big/imported tables or text documents with images loaded from the internet it is sometimes getting very slow, RAM and CPU intensive, and sometimes even hangs due to some memory leaks or other bugs. This is a long-term problem and is still not resolved perfectly.
Support is not officially offered. However, you can find answers to any usage questions or trouble-shooting online easily, typically starting with a Google search. (I believe that all forums / tips for OpenOffice apply equally to LibreOffice, and vice versa.) While Microsoft Office, for example, officially includes support, I find that typically you end up going to a Google search in any case. So, this is not really a downside. However, in all these cases, you end up doing a lot of figuring things out for yourself.
It is a modern and easy-to-use tool (after a while) that allows you to make dynamic and trained presentations without the need to be an expert user. It has allowed me to improve the attention and motivational processes of my students. In addition, it has many [community users] who make videos and teach the many uses that you can use Prezi. And because, despite the restrictions of the free version, everyone can access and make use of Prezi and thus improve their boring ppt and inject some vitality into them.
Generally easy to perform, issues are how to ensure regular automatic updates on Mac OS X. Fortunatly we have only a few machines with OS X run by management and we can do these updates manually occasionally. Windows updates are quite easy with the support of third party software such as Ninite or Chocolatey, and Linux updates are super-easy thanks to the package manager (apt-get).
If you are looking for a well-rounded, GNU-licensed product that will encompass word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and database then LibreOffice is probably all you need.
For online collaboration, links with cloud storage, and more robust support, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Docs are probably what you or your organization needs.
LibreOffice is at its best for regular document creation and spreadsheet management. It is more cumbersome when it comes to fonts but also when it comes to linkages with cloud-based services. It is there, but you need some more computer knowledge to make it work.
There are other free alternatives, most notably Apache Open Office, which is also a very good alternative if you do not like LibreOffice.
Having said that, I honestly think off-line computers or laptops used off-site can certainly benefit from having LibreOffice installed.
Other solutions for presentations all fall on the typical slideshow paradigm. So far, only Prezi walked away from this path. Its expanding canvas and freeform path are refreshing in this scenario. In this sense, Prezi is unique in its style of presentation, which makes difficult to establish comparisons based on costs. The still ongoing migration to Prezi Next has been a bit troubled, according to some old users, but it seems the company is working to give Prezi Next the same flexibility that Prezi Classic. And Prezi already has a huge user base that do not want to go back working with the limits of slides.
With more users using it in the company there are more cases when a simultaneous editing of the same document is needed and this feature is lacking in Libreoffice even though the files concerned are shared and synced by some solution (we use ownCloud). Google Docs or MS Office365 via Sharepoint/Onedrive offer a better function for this.
I am able to quickly create and edit word processing documents and spreadsheets which are for all intents and purposes equivalent to documents I could create and edit in other tools such as Microsoft Office and Google Docs/Sheets.
Lack of an online portal for sharing documents necessitates the use of Google Sheets for automation/integration. Ideal would be an all-in-one solution.
Having open-source software that provides common functionality eliminates the need for expensive licenses.
Lack of dedicated support is negligible. Most issues can be resolved using online search.
Prezi provided us with a unique selling factor when it came to pitching our services to new prospects.
While creating a presentation from scratch might be time-consuming, Prezi allows you to easily reuse and utilize old designs to create new presentations with a different vibe and content.
An easy way to impress upper management and stakeholders, especially when presenting to the management of our clients.
