Microsoft Office vs LibreOffice | How to Make the Change

This goes over moving from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. There are certain compatibility changes you must make to retain compatibility with Microsoft Office. This tutorial goes over making all the required changes.

Needed Windows Fonts for Writing Documents:
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

[laletemanolete]

I used libreoffice during college, then I used it during my masters, I wrote my thesis on it. I'm a teacher now and I still use libreoffice. Yeah, it may not be eyecandy, but it delivers!

[fredc]

Been using it for years in my law practice. It checks all the boxes for me. Love it.

[swarnavasamanta]

On a slight note, NEVER set the default to docx format. It is so not recommended to save in docx format in libre office, IF you're going to edit it later. ALWAYS save in .odf format, BUT when you want to share the doc you can save it as .DOCX for sharing.

[alanwortman]

I've written and published a tabletop RPG (The Chronicles of Ember) with LibreOffice. I don't miss MS Office at all.

[aldanesh]

I've been using Libreoffice for years and I think it's great! I see no reason why anyone would think of going back to use Microsoft office

[Science_And_Facts_]

I use libre office version 6.1.6.3, i think that's the corporate version at the time. for most of my linux research and linux book summaries. all i can say is, for me, it works great. never had any issues with it, very stable too. thank you for sharing your knowledge.-Debian 9 user.

[Mega_Casual]

Thank you Chris for this tutorial. For Ubuntu Users: If you get an error that says the latest installer is already installed like I did (And still don't have the MS fonts), then you need to renew the license agreement by typing this:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer. Then ok the message and click YES to agree to EULA.

[GenialHarryGrout]

There are copyright reasons why LibreOffice doesn't look like MS Office or have some of it's features installed be default, out of the box.

[robertkopp]

Thanks. Timing of this upload is perfect for me, having installed Zorin OS last week as a new-to-Linux convert...

[lsatenstein]

I have both, and use both. I do not follow the rule that goes like this "when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail". I had 10 years of using MS Office and an a similar time 10 years with LibreOffice, I have no problems in using either.
You do need a bit of memory to remember word processing shortcuts. As for spread-sheets, I can load my complex sheets with either product and functionality is the same.

[guywittamic]

This video should be titled “how to make Libre Office work in a Microsoft Word world”

It definitely does not live up to its actual title

[SumedhaManabaranaKandy]

I switched to Libre Office from Microsoft Office, and found it amazing! I've used both of them, but you must break a bank to maintain MS Office. Thank you for this video.

[jimgreene]

It's a matter of age, I guess. I like the LibreOffice display because it looks like MS Office did when I started using it years ago: simpler, cleaner, and with the traditional universal menu system. It's one system for nearly all applications.

[VikasGupta-xguv]

I am student and I m switching to linux just because of you...wanted to say "THANKYOU"🤝

[TheCocoaDaddy]

Thanks for posting this video! Given all the years I've been using LibreOffice, I never enabled the experimental features. :) lol I have mixed thoughts about changing LibreOffice to look more like MS Office, but I can definitely understand the desire to do so. The main thing is people spend time to learn how much functionality LibreOffice really has. Calc doesn't support VB Script for macros, so I can understand that being an issue. However, Calc does provide a *ton* of features and functions similar to Excel. My dad is an Excel "power" user and does a lot with multi-sheet spreadsheets, including hiding rows, using formulas that span multiple sheets, and a bunch of other stuff I never knew Excel could do. lol I switch him to LibreOffice years ago and he'll have an occasional question about how to do something, and I've always found the answer by doing a little research. I just don't use spreadsheet applications with much frequency at all.


In any event, thanks for posting the video!

[benriful]

The default layout of LibreOffice is actually closer to the old MSO 2003 layout. New LO also comes with an option to turn on tabbed toolbars, effectively giving something similar to MSO 2007 (and later) ribbon interface.

The fonts is a definite must for formatting purposes, though there are licensing issues with some of them. Usually it doesn't open as garbage on either LO or MSO, but it attempts the closest matching installed font, else a default font. This tends to mean layout changes as character spacings differ between fonts. Most word processing uses standard character encodings like UTF or ASCII, so the most common letters would work perfectly fine no matter the font chosen (except when going for some weird font like Dingbats).


BTW, if you use styles in your documents (which really you should be doing even in MSO) then Libre's style manager palette is a much nicer way of working with them.
As for Calc, it really just feels like Excel 2003. Though I do miss auto table formatting and the filer buttons on table headers. I have run into one situation where Calc just doesn't work well - formatting numbers in engineering notation, it only has scientific, in Excel you can fiddle with some custom formatting options to simulate engineering notation.

As for VBA, yep that's a big problem. LO does have SBasic which is very similar and you do get translate tools which does a lot of the grinds to change VBA scripts to SBasic. But they're never perfect and you will have to tweak them. Else just stick to MSO for these things.

[hakanlarsson]

Seems more like the title would be MS Word vs Libre Writer

[HamBands]

Thank you Chris for this video. I am a user of LibreOffice. I use it exclusively. I have never really understood why Windows Office users always had some gripes about LibreOffice. Now my understanding of their issues has increase.

[Brockybearboy]

I ditched Microsoft Office five years ago and installed Libre Office on Mac, Linux and Windows 10. I have never looked back, my staff love it, I haven't felt like I am missing any features or usability.

[mrmusiclover]

I use it all the time, and for what I do, it works very well! I am not a business. I REFUSE to be held captive by Microsoft's scams where Office is concerned!