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A worthy GNU alternative to proprietary office softwareLibreOffice is being used selectively in the organization based on licenses we have for proprietary software (Microsoft Office 365) and some computers which are not part of our secure network, used mostly in presentations. LibreOffice is a good alternative for us because, as a charity, we like to support community-based projects such as LibreOffice and also because it helps keep our IT licensing costs contained.,The text word processing (Writer) has come a long way and, if you are able to install your corporate fonts, there is basically nothing LibreOffice cannot handle. It works very well with document reviews and comments, and it can save in a variety of formats, making it compatible with the likes of Microsoft Word or Google Docs. The spreadsheet software (Calc) can also handle most of the common tasks you may need, link various sheets, and perform some automated functions quite well. It is, I must say, somewhat less complete than the word processing side (Writer). The Draw program allows you to do organizational charts and basic publications very well. It was a deficit in the past, but not anymore.,One of the areas which are not yet as good as some proprietary software is charts within the Calc spreadsheet program. The graphs are basic, and manipulation is not as intuitive as it could be. LibreOffice Impress Presentation software does not import PowerPoint successfully, especially when converting fonts you may not have. The Draw and Base programs have fewer features than proprietary competitors. But you are relying on a team of mostly volunteers and it gets the job done if you are not a power user.,9,Being a free GNU-based software, it is ideal for computers used outside the company's network or for users which do not require online collaboration tools. Importing and exporting word processing documents is easy. PDF functionality is adequate and works very well. You will probably need to invest in fonts if, for example, most of your company is using Microsoft Word fonts, which may be proprietary. In our case, we paid for a few key fonts; installation in the system was simple but done through IT, not the user. For complex graphs and presentations, LibreOffice may not be the best alternative.,Microsoft Office 365,Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive, Prezi, Hootsuite Pro, NetvibesHeads above G Suite, but a few feet short of Microsoft OfficeLibreOffice was reviewed within my company as a possible replacement to Office 365 (namely the desktop applications Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Whereas LibreOffice is an excellent program, ranking well above applications like Google Docs, it still isn't exactly a pop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. My disclaimer here is that I found LibreOffice to be excellent and would very much enjoy using it, if only it had an Outlook and OneNote application, or at least integrated with replacements for those smoothly elsewhere. Alas, the world of open source can be a little too open sometimes. The aim was to replace Microsoft Office and not have to rely on Google Docs. We initially found LibreOffice to be very easy to use and incredibly user-friendly. The problems came when we needed (see: expected) to be able to just swap out Word or Excel for Writer or Calc. The default font settings, for example, are not the same between Word, Writer, and Google Docs. This led to confusion among users, despite it being configurable. We then had issues with the way Calc works versus Excel, and transitioning our spreadsheets over would have required reworking several of our formulas in large documents. We ultimately didn't make the switch to LibreOffice due to the learning curve and nuances but are intending to review it again.,It's free, which is the biggest difference between Office. It definitely feels like a full-fledged office suite of software for no more than the cost of an optional donation. Lots of templates exist out on the internet for Writer and Impress (the Word and PowerPoint equivalents in LibreOffice). The open source community really likes to support one another in their usage of each other's software. It works smoothly on almost every OS out there, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux.,It's a step up from Google Docs, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of Microsoft Office. This might simply be because if you grew up using Microsoft Office, the nuances add up spread across the multiple pieces of software. There is no Outlook or OneNote equivalent in the LibreOffice suite. They recommend some alternative apps, and you can find suggestions on the internet, but nothing works or integrates as smoothly as the entire Microsoft Office Suite does. Though lots of templates exist, it's clear that this software is mostly supported by developers and Linux users, which doesn't number a lot of graphic designers in comparison to MacOS or Windows.,6,We ultimately didn't go with LibreOffice as our Microsoft Office replacement, but if we did, for our small company, we would've saved approximately $600/yr.,Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Office 2016 and G Suite,G Suite, Microsoft Office 365Opensource office suite programIt's very helpful for us because we are a very large corporation and we needed an open-source free solution to use as an office suite. We use LibreOffice as an office suite. We edit, create, and print documents with it. We use it also to manage large files with data, like we would do with Excel.,It runs very well on a lot of laptops and computers, even if they're old. It has a very good document editor very similar to Microsoft Word. It's open source and free. It does not consume a lot of resources of your computer. It's very fast and reliable.,The compatibility when switching the file format could be a little bit better. Sometimes it crashes and you lose all your data. It's a good alternative to Microsoft Office but it's not quite the same. We miss some features and tools.,8,It allows me to save a lot of money, because LibreOffice is open source and free software. By having many computers, it allows us to not spend money on licenses and invest this money in salaries.,Apache OpenOffice and Microsoft Office 365,Box, TrelloBest open Office suiteIt's used by all the organization to write all documents and to make spreadsheets. We use it because we want to have all documents in an open format that we know it will be maintained for multiple years. Also their price is lower so it helps the organization to save costs by avoiding the need of multiple licenses for an Office software.,It's lightweight, it opens fast and doesn't consume a lot of resources. Helpful for older computers. Real multi-platform, I can use the same software on Windows, Linux and MacOS. I can compose a document on my MacOS laptop and the open it at my linux machine without any problems. Also workers can use any OS without losing compatibility with OpenOffice. Great compatibility with other offices suites, it can open any document format so we don't have to worry about formats. One click export to PDF, we can quickly creates PDF by exporting with a single click.,UI is outdated, it feels like an Office suite from a decade ago. Some tools are not intuitive, I have to search documentation or online guides to do some tasks. Their Microsoft compatiblity is not enough,10,A lot of ROI because their license price, 100% of return. Sometimes we lose time finding how to do things, lowering a little bit of productivity. We need to spend on training for employees because most people only know how to use Microsoft Office,Microsoft Office 2016,Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ubuntu Linux,Yes,Price Product Features,By checking all the features that LibreOffice has and seeing their compatibility with other document formats.,Creating index table on LibreOffice Writer is simple to use. LibreOffice Impress is easy to create any kind of slides, there's no initial learning barrier, you can start using it right away. LibreOffice Writer lets you edit images quickly and even edit them with an external tool.,Changing slide's background at Impress is hard to do and not intuititve. Edit styles at LibreOffice writer is hard, editing them and saving them requires a lot of steps and if you change document you can't migrate config.,No,6Handy and inexpensive software: LibreOfficeLibreOffice is a useful software for my research as I am using the Linux platform. It seems like the alternative of Microsoft office. I have been using it for writing my manuscript, solving difficult calculations and making high-quality presentations. LibreOffice is being used by our research group. LibreOffice is free of cost where other alternatives cost you money. Overall, we are satisfied with the LibreOffice.,Statistical calculation Presentation making Manuscript write-up,Low-quality figure Not easy to use for beginners Major functions are missing in Libre presentations,7,Inexpensive Not user-friendly Best for Linux system,Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Office 2016,Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Office 2016, Adobe Acrobat DC, Google Drive, Google Forms, Skype, TeamViewer, Dropbox, Ubuntu Linux, Zoom Video Webinar
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48 Ratings
Score 8.3 out of 101
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LibreOffice Reviews

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LibreOffice
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Javier Schwersensky profile photo
January 14, 2019

LibreOffice Review: "A worthy GNU alternative to proprietary office software"

Javier Schwersensky
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
LibreOffice is being used selectively in the organization based on licenses we have for proprietary software (Microsoft Office 365) and some computers which are not part of our secure network, used mostly in presentations.

LibreOffice is a good alternative for us because, as a charity, we like to support community-based projects such as LibreOffice and also because it helps keep our IT licensing costs contained.
  • The text word processing (Writer) has come a long way and, if you are able to install your corporate fonts, there is basically nothing LibreOffice cannot handle. It works very well with document reviews and comments, and it can save in a variety of formats, making it compatible with the likes of Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
  • The spreadsheet software (Calc) can also handle most of the common tasks you may need, link various sheets, and perform some automated functions quite well. It is, I must say, somewhat less complete than the word processing side (Writer).
  • The Draw program allows you to do organizational charts and basic publications very well. It was a deficit in the past, but not anymore.
  • One of the areas which are not yet as good as some proprietary software is charts within the Calc spreadsheet program. The graphs are basic, and manipulation is not as intuitive as it could be.
  • LibreOffice Impress Presentation software does not import PowerPoint successfully, especially when converting fonts you may not have.
  • The Draw and Base programs have fewer features than proprietary competitors. But you are relying on a team of mostly volunteers and it gets the job done if you are not a power user.
If you have basic or intermediate use of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, LibreOffice is a free alternative to other more expensive programs. The features and documentation are more than adequate and you will be supporting open software, which, depending on your line of work, may also align with corporate and institutional values.

If your organization is more cloud-based or is using online collaboration, then LibreOffice offers fewer features and it is by far a lot less user-friendly than its proprietary competitors such as Office 365 or Google Docs.
Read Javier Schwersensky's full review
Christopher Boyd profile photo
January 01, 2019

LibreOffice Review: "Heads above G Suite, but a few feet short of Microsoft Office"

Christopher Boyd
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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LibreOffice was reviewed within my company as a possible replacement to Office 365 (namely the desktop applications Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Whereas LibreOffice is an excellent program, ranking well above applications like Google Docs, it still isn't exactly a pop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. My disclaimer here is that I found LibreOffice to be excellent and would very much enjoy using it, if only it had an Outlook and OneNote application, or at least integrated with replacements for those smoothly elsewhere. Alas, the world of open source can be a little too open sometimes.

The aim was to replace Microsoft Office and not have to rely on Google Docs. We initially found LibreOffice to be very easy to use and incredibly user-friendly. The problems came when we needed (see: expected) to be able to just swap out Word or Excel for Writer or Calc. The default font settings, for example, are not the same between Word, Writer, and Google Docs. This led to confusion among users, despite it being configurable. We then had issues with the way Calc works versus Excel, and transitioning our spreadsheets over would have required reworking several of our formulas in large documents.

We ultimately didn't make the switch to LibreOffice due to the learning curve and nuances but are intending to review it again.
  • It's free, which is the biggest difference between Office. It definitely feels like a full-fledged office suite of software for no more than the cost of an optional donation.
  • Lots of templates exist out on the internet for Writer and Impress (the Word and PowerPoint equivalents in LibreOffice). The open source community really likes to support one another in their usage of each other's software.
  • It works smoothly on almost every OS out there, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
  • It's a step up from Google Docs, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of Microsoft Office. This might simply be because if you grew up using Microsoft Office, the nuances add up spread across the multiple pieces of software.
  • There is no Outlook or OneNote equivalent in the LibreOffice suite. They recommend some alternative apps, and you can find suggestions on the internet, but nothing works or integrates as smoothly as the entire Microsoft Office Suite does.
  • Though lots of templates exist, it's clear that this software is mostly supported by developers and Linux users, which doesn't number a lot of graphic designers in comparison to MacOS or Windows.
If you are working in a Linux environment, then LibreOffice is an excellent choice for you, if not the best choice.

If you don't need to collaborate with people often or the documents you are working on don't need to adhere to strict style guidelines, then you really can't beat the quality for the price (free) of LibreOffice.

However, don't expect the fluidity or integration choices you have with Microsoft Office or Google Docs. LibreOffice is built as standalone software, and whereas tools, apps, and workarounds exist, if you are used to the bells and whistles of the other office suites out there, then LibreOffice will require some patience and extra work.
Read Christopher Boyd's full review
Laura Gatius profile photo
November 02, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "Opensource office suite program"

Laura Gatius
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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It's very helpful for us because we are a very large corporation and we
needed an open-source free solution to use as an office suite. We use LibreOffice as an office suite. We edit, create, and print documents with it. We use it also to manage large files with data, like we would do with Excel.
  • It runs very well on a lot of laptops and computers, even if they're old.
  • It has a very good document editor very similar to Microsoft Word.
  • It's open source and free.
  • It does not consume a lot of resources of your computer. It's very fast and reliable.
  • The compatibility when switching the file format could be a little bit better.
  • Sometimes it crashes and you lose all your data.
  • It's a good alternative to Microsoft Office but it's not quite the same. We miss some features and tools.
It is a good free software that has several programs very similar to MS Office. The text editor offers all the basic features needed to write, edit, and print text files. It allows you to save it in different formats as the word does. The archives of different softwares are also compatible, such as Word's .docx. It has no extension limitations and this makes your life much easier when it comes to editing documents. Other programs are also good, such as the spreadsheet. The only negative aspect that I find is that it is not visually pleasing and it is a bit more difficult to understand the menus and the options. But other than that, it's pretty good editing software.
Read Laura Gatius's full review
Miguel Useche profile photo
October 29, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "Best open Office suite"

Miguel Useche
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
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It's used by all the organization to write all documents and to make spreadsheets. We use it because we want to have all documents in an open format that we know it will be maintained for multiple years. Also their price is lower so it helps the organization to save costs by avoiding the need of multiple licenses for an Office software.
  • It's lightweight, it opens fast and doesn't consume a lot of resources. Helpful for older computers.
  • Real multi-platform, I can use the same software on Windows, Linux and MacOS. I can compose a document on my MacOS laptop and the open it at my linux machine without any problems. Also workers can use any OS without losing compatibility with OpenOffice.
  • Great compatibility with other offices suites, it can open any document format so we don't have to worry about formats.
  • One click export to PDF, we can quickly creates PDF by exporting with a single click.
  • UI is outdated, it feels like an Office suite from a decade ago.
  • Some tools are not intuitive, I have to search documentation or online guides to do some tasks.
  • Their Microsoft compatiblity is not enough
It's a great suite for organization where they can't spend a lot of money on licenses. I recommend it when employees have multiple operating systems and want to use a single office suite.

I don't recomend it if all your bussiness platform is managed by Microsoft software.
Read Miguel Useche's full review
Md Shahinuzzaman profile photo
February 02, 2019

Review: "Handy and inexpensive software: LibreOffice"

Md Shahinuzzaman
Score 7 out of 10
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LibreOffice is a useful software for my research as I am using the Linux platform. It seems like the alternative of Microsoft office. I have been using it for writing my manuscript, solving difficult calculations and making high-quality presentations. LibreOffice is being used by our research group. LibreOffice is free of cost where other alternatives cost you money. Overall, we are satisfied with the LibreOffice.
  • Statistical calculation
  • Presentation making
  • Manuscript write-up
  • Low-quality figure
  • Not easy to use for beginners
  • Major functions are missing in Libre presentations
LibreOffice is well suited where you do not need in-depth functionality of the software. As a beginner, If you want to do simple things like making demo presentations and noting down key points, then it is a very good software use. On the other hand, the functionality, ease of use are major problems in LibreOffice. However, by using LibreOffice, you will gain more knowledge and can be an expert in the future.
Read Md Shahinuzzaman's full review
Igor Neumann profile photo
September 18, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "The best open source office suite available"

Igor Neumann
Score 10 out of 10
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I currently have Microsoft Office and LibrefOfice installed in my computer and use LibreOffice way more often for a couple of reasons... Mainly my job requires me to manipulate .csv files and Excel does a very poor job of opening it (it always assumes the delimiter character is ";" while I never saw it being used in my life, everyone - and their dogs - use "," as a delimiter), so you need to rename it to .txt in order for Excel to ask you), while LibreOffice always open it correctly. The other reason is its interface. Call me a dinosaur, but I'm still not a fan of the "ribbon" interface of MS Office, while LibreOffice's interface resemble the "legacy" (pre 2003) MS office interface.
The only program that I still prefer the MS option for is for presentations, but I still find PowerPoint BAD, so LibreOffice's Impress is even worse. (For context sake, I'm a designer used to Adobe Creative Cloud programs so it's natural to feel limited by presentation programs.) Im currently testing other alternatives for that.
Apart from that, LibreOffice offers some programs that are way superior to MS Office's options such as "Draw" (way better than Visio), its equation editor "Math" (way better than MS Office equation editor) and "Charts". So basically LibreOffice made most of its programs "as- ood" as MS alternatives (except Impress) and took some small MS Office features (Visio/equation editor/charts) and made them into full features programs as differential.

It does miss a key feature though... the CLOUD.

If you don't use Office365 Cloud features, PowerPoint isn't your main application, and aren't in love with the MS ribbon interface, LibreOffice is likely an as good (or better) option for you.
  • Work with CSV files (MS is reeeeally bad at this and it's very important for my job).
  • Diagrams.
  • Formulas.
  • Its interface (but hey, its a question of taste on this one).
  • Format compatibility (they use Open Document Format, NOT a proprietary format as MS and are fully compatible with MS ones).
  • Impress, I'm very unimpressed by it! (see what I did there?)
  • But to be fair, I also consider MS Office's alternative BAD. (from a designer's standpoint)
  • Cloud Integration (that could be a deal-breaker for O365 users).
  • It could be prettier (its UI feels dated, but please don't copy the Ribbon interface).
Very well suited to edit CSV files, its text editor and spreadsheet editor are top notch, less appropriate if you use/need cloud integration to share (or edit) a document between many users, also its presentation program is really lacking, so it's a great suite for the "usual" office user, with text editor and spreadsheets as its main programs, but wouldn't recommend it as a presentation software nor for shared documents, you can have way better options on the cloud (Google? Microsoft? Zoho?) and also some specific presentation programs (Focusky, Prezi).
Read Igor Neumann's full review
Jerry Janes profile photo
November 24, 2018

Review: "LibreOffice: Open Source, Free, Functional. Cut the proprietary cord!"

Jerry Janes
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I have been using, and introducing/supporting clients to use, LibreOffice for over ten years. I began using OpenOffice over a decade ago and continued once it became LibreOffice a few years ago. I also shared it with my students over a decade of teaching, as I worked in poor, rural communities where proprietary solutions like MS Office were simply not viable.
  • It converts MS Word very well. This is a strength for the same reasons I mentioned in my summary - LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite but most importantly, it provides identical functionality to MS' version, empowering those who otherwise cannot afford it. More than MS Word, it opens almost any word processing format
  • It also does a great job of opening/editing spreadsheets, also virtually any format.
  • For those of us who are using Linux OSs, this is your go-to Office alternative.
  • The Impress Presentation application does not open all MS PowerPoint files well. It seems it cannot translate the applied themes, at times. It DOES open them, and you can navigate slides well enough, but once opened, it often loses enough quality that you would not want to share as-is in an actual presentation (I've found using Google Docs to convert is more effective here).
As mentioned, for cost-effectiveness and Linux users, it is a staple suite of apps. As also mentioned, it is less appropriate for sharing former PPT presentations with clients or anyone else where quality is paramount.
Read Jerry Janes's full review
David García Caballero profile photo
September 18, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "Free and functional office suite"

David García Caballero
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I have used LibreOffice as a free alternative office suite, used it to create my
documents and presentations without any worry about licenses or payment.
  • Compatible with most office documents and formats.
  • Easy and lightweight installation.
  • It's a free and fully functional package.
  • It has a lot of resources, and it's a solid and powerful tool.
  • Sometimes its not as stable as other office suites.
  • Some menus in the options can be confusing.
  • The user interface can be improved to be more attractive.
LibreOffice is a pretty functional package, it gives all the necessary tools for daily, professional and personal work, with total and free availability. I think that it can fit perfectly in a PC of a business that needs to read and write administrative and office documents, even for any home PC and students for school and university docs.
Read David García Caballero's full review
Jesús Noehi Posada Navarro profile photo
September 18, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "A great Office suite alternative"

Jesús Noehi Posada Navarro
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use LibreOffice across the whole organization. Thanks to being free, it helps you to save money without losing any functionality while working with all kinds of Office files, like Docs or Sheets for example, which we use on a daily basis.
  • Full compatibility with other Office suites, thus avoiding any problem derived of compatibility issues.
  • You can get it for free from its website. This way you can save money!
  • Allows you to add more features using extensions that can be found on the internet
  • Thanks to being open source, it has a great and big community behind fixing problems and updated the suite.
  • It would be good update the UI for a more modern one, it wont make It work worse, but it's a bit dated.
  • Sometimes it consume more system resources than I would like, they can improve in this.
  • The Sheets function needs an update to make it more intuitive to use for people not used to work with Sheets
If you need to work with docs and sheets it will work great, but with presentations it can be a bit confusing if you are not used to working with them.
Read Jesús Noehi Posada Navarro's full review
No photo available
January 31, 2019

LibreOffice Review: "A Viable Alternative"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I have used LibreOffice (and its code predecessors, StarOffice and OpenOffice) since 2000. Compatibility with MS Office has improved over the years. I used to maintain an MS Office license to interact with documents in their native format, but I have not longer found it necessary to do so.

All of our internal documents, including user manuals with images, tables of contents, and indexes are produced with LibreOffice. We have found it to be as stable, reliable, and versatile as any other office software product.

If we ever move, as an organization, to MS Office, it will be due to other needs beyond just document creation and editing. In the meantime, we will continue to use and donate to LibreOffice.
  • Excellent document features.
  • Stable.
  • Excellent legacy document compatibility.
  • Help documents could be improved. But, there are often online sources that are readily available.
  • UI is not tablet and touch screen friendly.
LibreOffice is well suited to be the main office suite for internal company use and for generating PDF documents from the source docs. The environment is close enough to other office suites that users will find it easy to adopt.

If you interact heavily with outside organizations that rely on MS Office for native documents, you might find LibreOffice ill suited.
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Linda Sasenick profile photo
March 27, 2018

Review: "LibreOffice - "free" your office from software subscriptions!"

Linda Sasenick
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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We use LibreOffice for all of our word processing and spreadsheet needs, as a free, open-sourced substitute for Microsoft Office. It also offers a full "suite" of services, including presentations, drawing, and database, and most importantly, we've had very few problems converting from and to other vendors' formats with LibreOffice. For us, it is a low cost (free!) solution for written communications, data management (we primarily use the spreadsheet), and other spreadsheet functions.
  • LibreOffice does a remarkably good job of converting files in other vendors' formats, generally with little loss of function or format (e.g., opening and manipulating other .doc or .docx files from Microsoft Office).
  • Just because it's free doesn't mean its functionality is limited! I can't think of any Office function or feature which isn't also available from LibreOffice.
  • Have a variety of users, devices and operating systems? No problem, LibreOffice is a "cross-platform" suite, available for Linux, Windows, Mac, tablets and Androids.
  • There are some quirks, and finding the solution isn't always easy. For example, spreadsheet files in CSV format can be tricky to open if specifics about the "delimiter" (tab, comma, etc.) are provided in detail. I've had to play "guess the delimiter" and use trial and error to open a number of popular CSV export formats (particularly when exporting/importing contacts between programs).
  • LibreOffice's extended functionality is expanded by "extensions," however, some of these extensions either fail in the installation or don't work (in particular, the grammar extension).
  • It's a minor thing, but it would be great if the spell check would prompt with the correct spelling, instead of just the red underline.
LibreOffice is by far, from my experience, the best, budget-friendly (free!) office suite out there, well-suited for any business with "average" written communication, presentation and data management needs (again, a working grammar check function is something that needs improvement). If your work requires highly individualized or specialized functions -- such as custom fonts -- or if you commonly download or exchange complex and customized documents with others, I'd stick to whatever software is in common use for that application.
Read Linda Sasenick's full review
Glen Mehn profile photo
March 27, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "Steep learning curve & dire interface but better fundamental functionality than others"

Glen Mehn
Score 8 out of 10
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It's a replacement for MS Office. It was used across the organisation, particularly for internal collaboration and documents in a mixed (Windows/Mac/Linux) environment. Once we got finance to start using it they actually preferred it to Excel (had some statistical features) though there was a learning curve. It's particularly handy because it's free and able to be downloaded and avoids the upgrade/version compatibility cycle that we have had with MSO.
  • Calc has better statistical tools built in
  • Ability to map macros (i.e. ctrl-K for inserting links) to whatever you want
  • Cross platform better than windows/mac
  • Works on Linux
  • Interface is actually dire - 20 years out of date. It's like Word 2000, or maybe 98.
  • The PowerPoint analogue leaves a LOT to be desired. You have to spend quite a lot of time making stuff up for it.
  • There's no real analogue to Project.
  • The Visio analogue is Draw, which is really not as easy to use.
If it works people like it. It's very well suited for fairly straightforward collaboration - if you need advanced features you'll need to either map macros or spend a lot of time hunting. In some cases it's handier than the MS version.

It's less well suited for going back and forth between MS and Office docs - particularly things like version control and it hasn't handled .docx/.xslx/.pptx files as well as the older alternatives (though that is getting better). Also doesn't handle SmartArt from Word.

It's *much* more stable particularly with BIG spreadsheets and documents (having known an author who lost ~120K words of a novel to Word and refuses to use it ever again)
Read Glen Mehn's full review
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June 11, 2018

Review: "LibreOffice Calc - Great for working with data"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I use LibreOffice for data cleaning in Calc. The portable version of this app is very useful for spot-case use where you don't want to fully install or use across multiple devices. This app is being used for data processing, cleaning, and ETL for databases and comma separated file/tab separated file manipulation.
  • Native support for Regular Expression
  • Easy interaction with CSV documents
  • Supports Excel formats
  • Upgrade the user interface, it is looking very mid-2000s
  • Support for structured references
I always recommend LibreOffice for data cleaning practices since Excel tends to have some hiccups that can really hurt your data cleanliness. I do not recommend LibreOffice for standard reporting/charting in corporate environments where Excel is king since there is not 100% support of all features. I find LibreOffice to be more suited for the IT/Web crowd instead of Finance/Supply Chain.
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March 27, 2018

LibreOffice Review: "Hard to Beat at the Price Point"

Verified User
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
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I have used LibreOffice throughout my undergraduate degree, and later as the main offline office productivity suite on my Linux desktop. LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite that includes applications for spreadsheet creation, word processing, presentations and database design. I use it to read documents, prepare presentations, and edit invoices.
  • Free to use, includes many core office applications including CAD
  • Relatively mature offerings and full featured software; applications such as Calc and Writer support macro functionality
  • Easy to get started with using if you're familiar with older versions of the Microsoft Office suite
  • Stability of the applications is a concern. It has improved over the years but expect at least a couple of crashes a month in Writer or Calc.
  • Does not support VBA scripts if importing documents from Microsoft Office
  • Weird formatting and rendering inconsistencies with switching between file formats or importing from MS Office.
LibreOffice is your best bet if you appreciate working on documents offline and want to keep storing them locally. It is perfect for students. For Linux systems it's one of the best native offerings you'll get, short of spinning up a Windows virtual machine and paying for a MS Office suite license. A bit more effort will be required if you want to create Word documents or presentations that look slick, professional, and modern - so if presentation and time are important to you, go for other office suites instead. LibreOffice is free, so there's no harm in trying it out and seeing if it's sufficient for your needs.
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March 27, 2018

Review: "LibreOffice (Open Source Office Suite on Window, Macintosh, and Linux)"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
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I choose to use LibreOffice because of a few reasons. I like to support the Open-Source Community - yes LibreOffice is free. You can however make a donation to the project if you choose to show support for their efforts in continuing the project and making it better and better. I also like LibreOffice because it works across platforms. It will run Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. I use Windows and Linux both and they have the same product on both platforms; [this] is a big plus to me. For mobile devices, it is my understanding that they have a viewer for Android and the ability to edit on Android is still an experimental feature. Hope to see a full Android version someday. So, if you like LibreOffice and want to see it more robust on mobile devices, I would suggest letting them know and by making a donation for supporting the efforts.
  • LibreOffice is a full suite of office use solutions. Those include: Writer (to work with documents - .doc, docx, and even .pdf). Calc which is a full-featured spreadsheet tool, Impress which is to do presentations and slideshows, Draw which is as it sounds - a drawing tool, Math for working with formulas, and Base which is for working with databases.
  • There are templates for a number of items that you may need to create from time to time.
  • It works well with most items created in Microsoft Office and the other way around.
  • There a number of extensions that can be installed to be used to make it work for a specific purpose. Such as Code Highlighter so that code will be colored based on the syntax. I believe that plugins support some 350 or so programming languages. This is just one of the many extensions available. I just happen to like this one personally.
  • When saving a Word file (document) you have to be careful to save it as an MS Word DOCX file or it will by default save it as an ODT file.
  • I would like Draw to be more feature rich. But, for documents, it is very sufficient. So, I guess I can't expect it to be PhotoShop, since that it not its real purpose. But, some of those types of features sure would not be frowned upon :)
It quite simply, in my opinion, the best open-source office suite out there. It will perform most all of your tasks you need to do on a daily basis.
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February 06, 2018

Review: "LibreOffice is THE Office Suite for almost everybody unless you require Excel macros or pivots"

Martin Malec
Score 8 out of 10
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It is being used by whole organization and it is still being used as the main office suite. Recently we purchased Office 365 and are gradually moving to MS Office being part of the O365 subscription. But anyway in the last 4 years the whole organization was using almost exclusively the LibreOffice suite, most of the company's documents are saved in OpenDocument format (.ods, .odt etc.) and these files tend be difficult to be converted to MS Office formats. LibreOffice is being used as a text editor (Writer) and table processor (Calc) mostly, with only exceptional use of Impress for presentations and Base for connecting to a MySQL database and doing some edits there via forms.
  • Writer is very good at defining styles for paragraphs, characters, tables, pages etc., and this concept is more clear than in MS Office. Writing a document with well-defined styles makes it easier for future changes.
  • Good typographical features of Writer when using supported OpenType fonts such as kerning and ligatures make it easier to produce almost-DTP-quality documents. Embedded PDF export with a lot of features complements this really well.
  • Both Writer and Calc support doing elegant operations using regular expressions for example for a sophisticated find and replace, or in Calc in formulas.
  • The Office suite is perfectly cross-platform and has binaries available for all three major desktop operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux. Native support for Linux allows working in a mixed environment with zero compatibility issues. Lack of support of MS Office on Linux makes it complicated to collaborate between Win/Mac users and Linux users if one party repeatedly saves and opens the document in MS Office and the second one in LibreOffice, creating compatibility issues all the time.
  • Calc lacks Macro recording feature, or has it in an unusable state, compared to a very useful Macro recorder in MS Excel.
  • Incompatibility and a more difficult syntax of Basic especially useful in Calc. Writing the same macro in Excel is much easier than in Calc and converting macros from Excel to Calc or vise versa is complicated if not impossible. Most tutorials on how to achieve various tasks are written for Excel only and cannot be reused for Calc.
  • Calc should add the feature of dynamic previews of Pivot tables, instead of the need to generate one, delete it and try another time if the settings were not perfect. Excel shows the example how this could be done. More users can start using Pivot tables if the barrier to understand the concept is lowered.
  • There should be much more visually reasonable formatting templates for Calc tables. The current list is absolutely impractical and visually very suboptimal. Several colours, odd/even stripes should be added, as Google Sheets or MS Excel has.
Individuals who need to make some nice text documents, easier tables without macros, or presentations, should use LibreOffice instead of buying or subscribing to commercial office suites, because it is mostly a waste of money in such scenarios. Libreoffice can do 90% of tasks perfectly for most home users. Even smaller companies that don't absolutely require the functionalities of Excel (mostly macros, dynamic pivot tables, PowerPivot etc.) could save a lot of money by using Libreoffice.

Power users that know very well recent versions of MS Office and rely on some of its advanced features may, however, find LibreOffice subpar and their productivity may go down when trying to use Libreoffice and re-learn how to achieve the results they already know how to achieve in their former office suite. Then it may not be a good idea to spend this time to re-learn to this new office suite.
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November 10, 2017

Review: "LibreOffice - An affordable alternative to Microsoft"

AK Cyrway
Score 8 out of 10
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I use it primarily on my own desktop at work, as an offline office suite to meet my needs. I use it primarily for word processing and spreadsheets, though on the occasion utilise the database functions as well. It is an affordable, open source powerhouse to Microsoft Office and is easy to pick up regardless of what office suite used in the past.
  • Intuitive menus recognisable by long-time computer users - functionality over aesthetics.
  • Easy to understand tutorials - the help menus are built in, offline, and detailed.
  • Offline programme - does not rely on an internet connection to fully function.
  • Menus, while functional, do tend to have a clunky, dated look.
  • Some formulae in the spreadsheet programmes do not translate well from XLS or Google Sheets.
  • No online back up unless saving to a programme such as Dropbox or Google Drive (that I have found).
LibreOffice is an affordable powerhouse contender to the likes of Microsoft Office; it is perfect for startup businesses, non-profits, schools and other educational facilities, and personal use. I've used LibreOffice in my own novel/script writing, writing business proposals, building spreadsheets and cost estimators, and compiling customer and distributor data.
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January 16, 2018

Review: "LibreOffice - The low to no cost alternative to Microsoft Office"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
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We deploy LibreOffice to dozens of users that don't need a full, paid office suite and just need the basic functionality. If someone does not need the full MS Office suite LibreOffice is a great alternative and at a great price. Even businesses that don't need the full MS Suite or Outlook, in particular, can benefit from LibreOffice.
  • Low cost
  • Ease of use
  • Universal compatibility
  • More name recognition
It's well suited for home users that don't need a business office suite.
It's less suited for someone who needs MS Outlook specifically.
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August 14, 2017

User Review: "LibreOffice Free an Useful"

Curt Dickman
Score 10 out of 10
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This review is primarily directed to small businesses. I own a small auto repair business and use LibreOffice to generate all documents not created by my invoicing program. It is easy to use for making letters, labels, business cards - anything I need to produce. I have used it to view PowerPoint presentations, and it worked trouble free. I really like the export as pdf function. Whenever I need to attach a document to an email this ensures compatibility.

My wife is a nurse and is required to use state provided forms in one of the Microsoft formats. LibreOffice has worked well with these documents.
We both use fully encrypted Linux installs, so I am unable to compare with Microsoft Office. I don't use spreadsheets or databases, so I can't comment on their use. I have read some of the documentation on their use, and they appear to be quite functional.

For a small business that doesn't want to spend the money on Microsoft Office, give LibreOffice a try.
  • Open and save Microsoft formats, I have not run into any issues with compatibility.
  • Export as PDF ensures I can provide a digital document that is usable
  • Easy download and install in Windows
  • It would be nice to have larger font sizes available for some items
LibreOffice has worked for every task I needed. I am sure there are areas where Microsoft Office has it beat. The best I can say is to try it to see if it will fulfill all your needs.
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LibreOffice Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (48)
8.3
Likelihood to Renew (1)
9.0
Usability (3)
7.7
Availability (1)
10.0
Performance (1)
6.0
Support (2)
7.5
Implementation (1)
9.0
Product Scalability (1)
7.0

About LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an open-source Office Suite from The Document Foundation.
Categories:  Office Suites

LibreOffice Technical Details

Operating Systems: Unspecified
Mobile Application:No