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#16
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite— 2019 Edition
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Hash: SHA256 Ken Blake wrote: On 12/4/2019 2:50 PM, David wrote: According to the article ..... Here are the MS Office alternatives at a glance: Google Docs LibreOffice Office Online Apple iWork WPS Office Calligra Office DropBox Paper Details he https://fossbytes.com/best-alternati...rosoft-office/ Would you recommend one of the above for use with Windows 10 or would you suggest Open Office? https://www.openoffice.org Several points: 1. I have only very little experience with LibreOffice or OpenOffice, but they are fairly similar. And as I understand it, LibreOffice is the best of the Microsoft Office compatible suites. Yeah, LO was forked off of OO when (IIRC) Oracle got their hands on it (possibly by purchasing whoever owned it beforehand -- Sun maybe?). Changed the licensing, and a lot of the "community devs" didn't like that. 2. I don't know all of these, but as far as I know, none of them provide compatible alternative to all the Microsoft Office components. For example, I think an Outlook-compatible program is missing from all of them. Quite so. In addition, where they are compatible (e.g. LO Writer -- MS Word), one will experience hurdles similar to two differing MS Office versions (e.g. Office 365 -- Office 201x). I think the only thing that is an absolute "no" is the use of MS Office / VBA macros. 3. It's only one component of any office suite, but to most people, the word processor is the most important component. And as far as I'm concerned, Corel WordPerfect is far better than either Microsoft Word or any of the compatible word processors. I see your wordperfect, and raise you LaTeX. (Well, for some cases, LaTeX has been a real savior -- although I haven't actually *needed* its typeset / mathematics features in a decade now). [... snip 4 as I addressed it in 2 ...] 6. Personally, I don't try to stick with all the programs in a single suite. I dislike the whole concept of a suite, and try to use what I think are the best programs of each type without regard to what suite This is a really good point. Find the specific program that does the specific task best. Also helps keep you from getting stuck in that "But in $program, $thing works in this way" rut. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQEzBAEBCAAdFiEEBcqaUD8uEzVNxUrujhHd8xJ5ooEFAl3pBw kACgkQjhHd8xJ5 ooFefAf5AcK3LGYidEFjvNX9btI7rO0v80u+8qmRv5uIhYLDpg 2vxXISg8EZrp8+ W6hrbrLzpVyUc8B0V+ELHRx39M9DHUskedbmX0x37vbPJfYbx7 rJadBgtxWCv7gO 7yr+Y2Lwj/cUT0QLXwHam962BSO7pqDIrF8xFFY6lrohT0FTayCpRZVfGhKp j2y8 0r7QFTh49AyKK7bxg0EoLij6dlzirAw/8bt1r2/83R9prUkEfXRdSzu8zmU/g1M3 8LHEDWrlf/8nOfzUoTDeO2hrRapCqjvc38OcM8s6Bo+lFJxHyWXywZBSKaLC ISAN LA17PIkPkUApmjhrxfG3zyB/7vHtAg== =REsj -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- |_|O|_| |_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert |O|O|O| PGP: 05CA 9A50 3F2E 1335 4DC5 4AEE 8E11 DDF3 1279 A281 |
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#17
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
"Nicodemus" wrote
| First thing get off w10 and ditch that microsoft habit, the internet will | survive without microsoft The Internet will but business won't. It's the same with Adobe. The two companies have such successful monopolies that their overpaying customers hardly even know that they're using the products. In business there are no other products. The woman I live with supervises grade-school teacher trainees. Everyone wants to send her Google docs. Which is not a doc but a spyware website. She insists on a file. They send MSO X-files. She has MSO 2000 and Libre Office. So she needs LO for most things. These people don't understand how to save a docx as doc. Last night and this morning she struggled to remove the background colors (ink waste!) from a techer's schedule table made as a PPTX and then print it. Various problems came up. Finally the solution was to export as PDF. (Not SaveAs, mind you. The OSS people have a religious dictum that all program menus must have a File - Export item where all useful file formats are hidden, breaking decades of software menu tradition over format arrogance.) It was no small project. LO couldn't handle printing what it was showing. The woman who sent the PPTX probably has no idea it's a PPTX. She just took some course on how to appear as an official office person with official office person skills. (And apparently she has HP stock. Her giant, multi-page schedule table has different color backrounds in each cell. So if you think MS and Adobe are going to collapse then you'll have to start by telling millions of people who work in offices and graphics shops what Microsoft and Adobe are. They really don't know. Most don't even know they're using Windows. (They do know if they're using Mac but that's only because they paid twice what it's worth to show off the logo.) | you must endure for the best | is yet to come. | Oh? What would that be? The massively bloated LO that can't install only one program, no longer supports XP, includes Java crap, uses about 1/2 GB of disk space and still can't support MSO files properly? Or are you perhaps thinking of the 25 year old GIMP that's still not worth wrestling with and last time I checked still didn't have a real MDI GUI workspace? OSS will never reach maturity until it has a reason beyond geeks who want to impress their friends with their coding prowess and resentment of Microsoft. Jealousy is not a good motive for creating good software. And top quality OSS will never come from people who subscribe to the myth of cross-platform compatibility. If you can't write it in native code then let someone else do it. Don't try to fudge it with gobs of Java, Python, and god-knows-what-else that don't really work. |
#18
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
On Thu, 5 Dec 2019 08:54:49 -0500, "Mayayana"
wrote: "Nicodemus" wrote | First thing get off w10 and ditch that microsoft habit, the internet will | survive without microsoft The Internet will but business won't. It's the same with Adobe. The two companies have such successful monopolies that their overpaying customers hardly even know that they're using the products. In business there are no other products. The woman I live with supervises grade-school teacher trainees. Everyone wants to send her Google docs. Which is not a doc but a spyware website. She insists on a file. They send MSO X-files. She has MSO 2000 and Libre Office. So she needs LO for most things. These people don't understand how to save a docx as doc. Last night and this morning she struggled to remove the background colors (ink waste!) from a techer's schedule table made as a PPTX and then print it. Various problems came up. Finally the solution was to export as PDF. (Not SaveAs, mind you. The OSS people have a religious dictum that all program menus must have a File - Export item where all useful file formats are hidden, breaking decades of software menu tradition over format arrogance.) It was no small project. LO couldn't handle printing what it was showing. The woman who sent the PPTX probably has no idea it's a PPTX. She just took some course on how to appear as an official office person with official office person skills. (And apparently she has HP stock. Her giant, multi-page schedule table has different color backrounds in each cell. So if you think MS and Adobe are going to collapse then you'll have to start by telling millions of people who work in offices and graphics shops what Microsoft and Adobe are. They really don't know. Most don't even know they're using Windows. (They do know if they're using Mac but that's only because they paid twice what it's worth to show off the logo.) | you must endure for the best | is yet to come. | Oh? What would that be? The massively bloated LO that can't install only one program, no longer supports XP, includes Java crap, uses about 1/2 GB of disk space and still can't support MSO files properly? Or are you perhaps thinking of the 25 year old GIMP that's still not worth wrestling with and last time I checked still didn't have a real MDI GUI workspace? OSS will never reach maturity until it has a reason beyond geeks who want to impress their friends with their coding prowess and resentment of Microsoft. Jealousy is not a good motive for creating good software. And top quality OSS will never come from people who subscribe to the myth of cross-platform compatibility. If you can't write it in native code then let someone else do it. Don't try to fudge it with gobs of Java, Python, and god-knows-what-else that don't really work. I'm a simple guy. No macros, just typed words and a spell checker. Maybe a copy and pasted image or two. I use Atlantis for any personal docs, configured to save as RTF by default. Free version he https://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/lite.htm There's a full version too, but it takes up a lot of space, and it's expensive(irony intended). []'s PS I also have LibreOffice portable v5.4.7.2(with Java disabled) and the latest portable OpenOffice. But I tend to use them only for "viewing" stuff. -- Don't be evil - Google 2004 We have a new policy - Google 2012 |
#19
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
In article , Mayayana
wrote: The woman I live with supervises grade-school teacher trainees. Everyone wants to send her Google docs. Which is not a doc but a spyware website. She insists on a file. They send MSO X-files. She has MSO 2000 and Libre Office. So she needs LO for most things. These people don't understand how to save a docx as doc. Last night and this morning she struggled to remove the background colors (ink waste!) from a techer's schedule table made as a PPTX and then print it. Various problems came up. there's no need to print a powerpoint presentation, but if you must, the background can be disabled to minimize ink usage. Finally the solution was to export as PDF. (Not SaveAs, mind you. The OSS people have a religious dictum that all program menus must have a File - Export item where all useful file formats are hidden, breaking decades of software menu tradition over format arrogance.) format conversions are different than saving, thus it being placed in a separate export menu. So if you think MS and Adobe are going to collapse then you'll have to start by telling millions of people who work in offices and graphics shops what Microsoft and Adobe are. They really don't know. Most don't even know they're using Windows. they know, although not necessarily which version. (They do know if they're using Mac but that's only because they paid twice what it's worth to show off the logo.) nonsense. prices are comparable for similar specs. | you must endure for the best | is yet to come. | Oh? What would that be? The massively bloated LO that can't install only one program, no longer supports XP, includes Java crap, uses about 1/2 GB of disk space and still can't support MSO files properly? xp is obsolete and 1/2 gig is nothing these days, but you're correct on not properly supporting office files and java crap. Or are you perhaps thinking of the 25 year old GIMP that's still not worth wrestling with and last time I checked still didn't have a real MDI GUI workspace? mdi is limiting, particularly on larger displays. OSS will never reach maturity until it has a reason beyond geeks who want to impress their friends with their coding prowess and resentment of Microsoft. Jealousy is not a good motive for creating good software. mostly true. And top quality OSS will never come from people who subscribe to the myth of cross-platform compatibility. If you can't write it in native code then let someone else do it. Don't try to fudge it with gobs of Java, Python, and god-knows-what-else that don't really work. very true, and it doesn't require 'gobs of java'. cross-platform code can at best be the lowest common denominator of all of the platforms because nobody wants to re-implement the differences each platform has to offer. typically, it works fine on one platform (whatever the original authors prefer) and poorly on the rest. this is particularly true when they use non-native ui elements to avoid learning every platform, making it feel wrong and very obvious that it's a bad port. it's possible to do it well, but that's the exception, not the rule. |
#20
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite - 2019 Edition
On 12/5/19 3:12 AM, Mick Finnlay wrote:
David wrote: According to the article ..... snipped Details he https://fossbytes.com/best-alternati...rosoft-office/ Would you recommend one of the above for use with Windows 10 or would you suggest Open Office? https://www.openoffice.org I am amazed that nobody so far has mentioned SoftMaker and their free (yes, real FREEWARE!) FreeOffice: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/ I've used this (mostly the text and spreadsheet components) for many years and it has been (and still is) stellar. Like all non-MS office packages it doesn't support VBA macros but it does have its own fully-fledged macro language. In my experience FO is at least as good in opening all sorts of MS document formats as the various MS Office versions (it was already mentioned that MS Office is not always compatible with itself... which is true). Another big advantage (for me) is that FreeOffice is also available natively for Linux (ie not running under Wine). It also supports portable installs. Check its features, it's worth a look or two. You beat me to this, Mick. I use the paid version, 2016. Current it 2018. I simply like it. It's fully cross platform now, IMO, as there's also a Mac version. Everyone advertises MS compatibility, but it varies. I really fell in love with a processor called Papyrus, also from Germany. I used it on the Atari systems. It's supposed to be very MS compatible. https://www.papyrusauthor.com/ They want you to join the beta team, and I did this for a short time. I was testing a lot of word processors at the time, because I wanted to know if they were worth recommending to others, and looking for something simple for beginners. None of the programs mentioned so far fall into the simple category. Like Word Perfect being geared for the legal profession, Papyrus is geared for the writer/novelist. But like Word Perfect, you can use it as just a plain word processor. One program I never got around to trying out is LyX Document Processor. It's free, and apparently recommended by many university science and math department. It's free. It's not for the beginner. -- Ken MacOS 10.14.6 Firefox 70.0.1 Thunderbird 60.9 "My brain is like lightning, a quick flash and it's gone!" |
#21
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
On 12/4/19 2:50 PM, David wrote:
According to the article ..... Here are the MS Office alternatives at a glance: Google Docs LibreOffice Office Online Apple iWork WPS Office Calligra Office DropBox Paper Details he https://fossbytes.com/best-alternati...rosoft-office/ Would you recommend one of the above for use with Windows 10 or would you suggest Open Office? https://www.openoffice.org TIA Personally, I would not use any of the online products. 1. I have no need to share docs between systems, and the very rare times I do, my systems here are networked. So no problems there. 2. I don't want my documents in the hands of someone else. But if you're a business, you may very well have a genuine need for this. 3. My impression, and it may be faulty, they are not as feature rich as client versions. Calligra is also an offshoot of Open Office/Libre Office. I didn't care for the UI, but that's no reason not to check it out, as that's a personal prefernce. Someone at Fossbytes needs to update their infoi. Apple iWork is gone, I think 2011 was the last version. It was also a paid for suite, and I have 2009. Did not care for the UI, again a persoinal choice. Apple split the programs apart, so they are no longer a suite. But, they are now free, available from the App Store. But they are Mac only. -- Ken MacOS 10.14.6 Firefox 70.0.1 Thunderbird 60.9 "My brain is like lightning, a quick flash and it's gone!" |
#22
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
On 04/12/2019 22:58, Big Al wrote:
On 12/4/19 4:50 PM, David wrote: According to the article ..... Here are the MS Office alternatives at a glance: Google Docs LibreOffice Office Online Apple iWork WPS Office Calligra Office DropBox Paper Details he https://fossbytes.com/best-alternati...rosoft-office/ Would you recommend one of the above for use with Windows 10 or would you suggest Open Office?Â* https://www.openoffice.org TIA LibreOffice +1 LibreOffice is OK. Fokke |
#23
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite - 2019 Edition
"Shadow" wrote
| I'm a simple guy. No macros, just typed words and a spell | checker. Maybe a copy and pasted image or two. I don't do much more. Business receipts and contracts. But I need to be able to deal with doc and docx when others send them. So despite my criticisms, I'm grateful for Libre Office. For me it's an adequate MSO replacement. I have a DOC estimate and receipt template. After a job I save that as PDF and I can email the PDF. Very professional looking. Most people don't want a paper receipt anymore. |
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite— 2019 Edition
On 2019-12-05, Mayayana wrote:
The Internet will but business won't. I've been in business for about 30 years and have never used Microsoft Office. However I'm not dealing with complex documents. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.) NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
#25
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
On 2019-12-05 09:44, Ken Springer wrote:
On 12/4/19 2:50 PM, David wrote: According to the article ..... Here are the MS Office alternatives at a glance: Google Docs LibreOffice Office Online Apple iWork WPS Office Calligra Office DropBox Paper Details he https://fossbytes.com/best-alternati...rosoft-office/ Would you recommend one of the above for use with Windows 10 or would you suggest Open Office?Â* https://www.openoffice.org TIA Personally, I would not use any of the online products. 1.Â* I have no need to share docs between systems, and the very rare times I do, my systems here are networked.Â* So no problems there. 2.Â* I don't want my documents in the hands of someone else.Â* But if you're a business, you may very well have a genuine need for this. 3.Â* My impression, and it may be faulty, they are not as feature rich as client versions. I personally don't use online apps either. I have used LibreOffice. I find it to be, in general, two or three steps behind MS Office. I find that it has serious problems round-tripping documents to MS Office, so that if I get DOCX or PPTX or XLSX files, especially large, complex, DOCX files, they may be mangled in the process of going to and from LibreOffice. I also find that LibreOffice doesn't like macros, which means that many Excel files break. If you don't need current MS Office features, if you don't do large or complex Word files, if you don't do macros, LibreOffice will work. Otherwise, you really need MS Office. Calligra is also an offshoot of Open Office/Libre Office.Â* I didn't care for the UI, but that's no reason not to check it out, as that's a personal prefernce. Someone at Fossbytes needs to update their infoi. Apple iWork is gone, I think 2011 was the last version.Â* It was also a paid for suite, and I have 2009.Â* Did not care for the UI, again a persoinal choice. It's now free. Apple split the programs apart, so they are no longer a suite.Â* But, they are now free, available from the App Store.Â* But they are Mac only. There is a free online version which is available to anyone who has an Apple account, and it is easy to get an Apple account. Pages is an acceptable word processor/layout app. Keynote is quite possibly better than PowerPoint. Numbers is very bad. The online version of Numbers is worse. There is no database app in iWork, if you need a low-end database you go with Access on Windows or FileMaker Pro on Mac. FileMaker Pro is considerably better than Access, but then it'd be difficult to be worse. |
#26
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
In article , Panthera Tigris Altaica
wrote: Apple split the programs apart, so they are no longer a suite.* But, they are now free, available from the App Store.* But they are Mac only. There is a free online version which is available to anyone who has an Apple account, and it is easy to get an Apple account. Pages is an acceptable word processor/layout app. it also handles most microsoft office documents, as does the included textedit app and many other apps. Keynote is quite possibly better than PowerPoint. more than possibly. it's a lot more capable. Numbers is very bad. The online version of Numbers is worse. it's fine for simple stuff. most people don't need complex excel spreadsheets. There is no database app in iWork, if you need a low-end database you go with Access on Windows or FileMaker Pro on Mac. FileMaker Pro is considerably better than Access, but then it'd be difficult to be worse. true, but still possible. |
#27
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite 2019 Edition
"Roger Blake" wrote in message
... | On 2019-12-05, Mayayana wrote: | The Internet will but business won't. | | I've been in business for about 30 years and have never used | Microsoft Office. However I'm not dealing with complex documents. | "Roger Blake" wrote: | On 2019-12-05, Mayayana wrote: | The Internet will but business won't. | | I've been in business for about 30 years and have never used | Microsoft Office. However I'm not dealing with complex documents. | I doubt it matters much. College students get initiated and move to office jobs. They don't know anything else. At one time I did a lot of work with some architects that had a small firm. One of them mentioned one day that he was going out to get new MSO for everyone. I questioned why he was spending all that money for virtually the same thing. His answer was essentially that if any business partners caught him using less than the current version it would look unprofessional. I suppose that happens in every field. There's the tool for the job and then there's the tool that will make others think you know what you're doing. |
#28
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite — 2019 Edition
On 5-Dec-2019 10:50 am, David wrote:
According to the article ..... Here are the MS Office alternatives at a glance: Google Docs LibreOffice Office Online Apple iWork WPS Office Calligra Office DropBox Paper Details he https://fossbytes.com/best-alternati...rosoft-office/ Would you recommend one of the above for use with Windows 10 or would you suggest Open Office?Â* https://www.openoffice.org TIA I'm trapped. Even with my limited knowledge of Visual Basic for Applications I find that my extensive use of macros is absolutely essential in order to maximise my productivity. I have over 20 years worth of macros for Excel and Word which I rely on. None of the applications listed above can deal with Microsoft VBA so I have no choice. Bad news! |
#29
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My thanks to all for their advice (was - 7 Best Alternatives ToMicrosoft Office Suite - 2019 Edition)
Early yesterday morning, my not-so-young neighbour called and asked if
it was OK to pop round to see me. I agreed. When I answered my doorbell's call, there was my pal Tim with a large laptop in his hands. It transpired that he had inherited it from a distant relative who had died earlier this year. It's a Hewlett Packard Pavilion G6, in bright and shiny maroon without a single scratch upon it - it looks, and feels, like new! See: https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-g6/specs/ Tim uses an Apple iMac and has no interest in computers themselves, only in the work which they can do. He had, though, switched on the laptop and noted that it was running Windows 7. He asked me if I could install Windows 10 on it for him. I did explain that the free upgrade offer had expired long ago but he said he was sure I'd find a way without spending lots of money! Armed with the help and advice I've had, and read, on the Windows 10 Usenet group, I first reset the laptop to it's original factory conditions. I then visited https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...s-10-for-free/ and, from there, went to Microsoft.com to download Windows 10. There was no charge for the installation. I have since updated the machine to Version 1909 (OS Build 18363.476). As Tim's wife may well be invited to use this machine (he's thinking of commandeering her Apple MacBook pro for 'business purposes'!) I thought it might be helpful to also provide something akin the Microsoft Office software, with which the dear lady would have been familiar before her retirement. Hence my request for help and advice. My thanks are extended to everyone who has provided an interesting and thoughtful response to my question. Your help is much appreciated. *THANK YOU*. :-D -- David |
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7 Best Alternatives To Microsoft Office Suite - 2019 Edition
On 05/12/2019 07:15, Zaghadka wrote:
(By the way, you used a non-ASCII long hyphen in the subject line and not all news readers handle it. I had to change the header to post to Eternal September.) Thank you for that 'gem' Zaghadka - I'd simply copied and pasted from the magazine article. I'll endeavour to be more careful in future! |
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