Is libreoffice 100% compatible with MS Office

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,583
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I'm refurbing one or two cheap units for some friends and if it were me I'd stick Linux on 'em since they are free.

Friends need MS Office for work and are really resistant to change.

I only have rudimentary experience of Libre (I type the odd letter etc), how good are these free suites now and how compatible are they with Libre.

One deal breaker is if they can't load existing Office documents into Libre with all the correct formatting etc. It must look and behave exactly as the original document when it was created.
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  • alan1302alan1302 Posts: 6,336
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    It won't be 100% but would be pretty close.

    Surely if it's for work it's better to stick with MS Office?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,583
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    alan1302 wrote: »
    It won't be 100% but would be pretty close.

    Surely if it's for work it's better to stick with MS Office?

    Well that's what they tell me. Its not the main work unit. They will be home units that have a requirement to do work at home. So inter-changeability is required with documents.

    How close is pretty close though, that's the question.
  • alan1302alan1302 Posts: 6,336
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    Well that's what they tell me. Its not the main work unit. They will be home units that have a requirement to do work at home. So inter-changeability is required with documents.

    How close is pretty close though, that's the question.

    That's kind of the impossible question to answer - it will depend a lot on exactly what they are doing but personally if it's for work it's not worth the hassle of using something that may or may not work.
  • mountymounty Posts: 19,141
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    I don't know much about Libre Office, but I have tried in the past to get non techies onto using Open Office and they didn't appreciate it one bit. Ended up buying a new version of MS Office.
  • barky99barky99 Posts: 3,921
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    Well that's what they tell me. Its not the main work unit. They will be home units that have a requirement to do work at home. So inter-changeability is required with documents.

    How close is pretty close though, that's the question.
    it gets updates monthly so compatibility/stability improvements (among other tweaks) are coming all the time ... well coming until November 2014 anyway.
  • TheBigMTheBigM Posts: 13,125
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    With the requirement for complex formatting to be exactly right, there's only one option and that's MS Office.

    Unless it is very light editing in which case they can use the Office Web Apps for free which do preserve formatting.
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    mounty wrote: »
    I don't know much about Libre Office, but I have tried in the past to get non techies onto using Open Office and they didn't appreciate it one bit. Ended up buying a new version of MS Office.

    My mother inlaw loved it because it looked just like she used to use at work when MS office was "pre-ribbon".
  • mred2000mred2000 Posts: 10,050
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    If the software is for work use then they can put a copy of Office on there from work, this is allowed in the EULA. It doesn't matter that they're home computer units. Obviously, they're not then supposed to use the software for home use but no-one will come around to check. Heck, they could even have Libre Office on there as well, purely for home use. I'm on my mobile or I'd go into more detail. Your friends just have to get copies and serial numbers from their workplace.
  • LoobsterLoobster Posts: 11,680
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    One deal breaker is if they can't load existing Office documents into Libre with all the correct formatting etc. It must look and behave exactly as the original document when it was created.

    It depends how complex the documents are as regards formatting etc. If there are excel spreadsheets with a bunch of forumals the chances go up that there will be quirks (or it just be broken). Same with word formatting with customised tables etc.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,583
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    mred2000 wrote: »
    If the software is for work use then they can put a copy of Office on there from work, this is allowed in the EULA. It doesn't matter that they're home computer units. Obviously, they're not then supposed to use the software for home use but no-one will come around to check. Heck, they could even have Libre Office on there as well, purely for home use. I'm on my mobile or I'd go into more detail. Your friends just have to get copies and serial numbers from their workplace.

    The only issue is I would need to fork out for Windows OS licences.

    The items I am working on are, 1 old laptop which has no recovery partition (since the previous owner already wiped the drive), no recovery discs. The other unit is a desktop but has no HD in it, I am supplying one of my old ones.
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,410
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    The only issue is I would need to fork out for Windows OS licences.

    The items I am working on are, 1 old laptop which has no recovery partition (since the previous owner already wiped the drive), no recovery discs. The other unit is a desktop but has no HD in it, I am supplying one of my old ones.
    Do they not have CoA stickers for a suitable OS on them? If you can source the correct media you can use the existing key to avoid having to buy additional OS licences. Bear in mind you need Pro/Business versions to join a domain.
    mred2000 wrote:
    If the software is for work use then they can put a copy of Office on there from work, this is allowed in the EULA
    This is a very broad-brush statement and depends entirely on the licence agreement the company has.
  • Helmut10Helmut10 Posts: 2,431
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    Libre Office/Open Office is not 100% compatible. Whether it's 85% or 90% is irrelevent. Neither are they similar in use to recent versions of MS software.

    It's compatible enough for a casual Home User, but not for the work scenario.

    In the work scenario where they use MS Office, then that's what should be installed and used. That's as near 100% compatible as you can get.

    I have MS Office installed here on the Home PC for the very reason you are asking. MS Office is used for work related stuff.
    I have Open Office installed as well but it is used for personal trivial uncritical stuff.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,583
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    s2k wrote: »
    Do they not have CoA stickers for a suitable OS on them? If you can source the correct media you can use the existing key to avoid having to buy additional OS licences. Bear in mind you need Pro/Business versions to join a domain.

    This is a very broad-brush statement and depends entirely on the licence agreement the company has.

    One has xp pro coa but I don't have or know anyone that I can borrow discs from.

    There is no coa with the Desktop.

    Didn't realise they were that much incompatible. Looks like they need to stick with MS Office then.
  • mred2000mred2000 Posts: 10,050
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    s2k wrote: »
    This is a very broad-brush statement and depends entirely on the licence agreement the company has.

    True. How many different EULAs for Office are there? I've experienced two different ones regarding Office and they both allowed installation on a single home computer for work use.
  • Esot-ericEsot-eric Posts: 1,293
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    Even MS Office isn't 100% compatible with MS Office, especially between versions.

    Most times MS Office will be more compatible, but sometimes OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice will open files that MS Office can't.
  • s2ks2k Posts: 7,410
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    mred2000 wrote: »
    True. How many different EULAs for Office are there? I've experienced two different ones regarding Office and they both allowed installation on a single home computer for work use.
    Well the ones you are referring to would be retail editions. If you start looking at volume licensing I'd imagine we are talking tens, possibly even hundreds of different options. Put it this way, many organizations pay 3rd parties to go away and find the best agreements for them since they simply don't have the time or expertise to do it themselves.
    One has xp pro coa but I don't have or know anyone that I can borrow discs from.

    There is no coa with the Desktop.
    Unless the place you are building for has some kind of volume licencing agreement (which I doubt they would since it would also mean they would be likely to have in-house IT) then as a minimum you are going to need an OS for the desktop.

    You could download XP Pro OEM CD but the issue is finding a copy that hasn't been tampered with. Since there is less than a year of support left I'd say it would be better to just go down the Win7 Pro route on both.
  • mred2000mred2000 Posts: 10,050
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    s2k wrote: »
    Well the ones you are referring to would be retail editions.

    One was definitely retail. The other... not sure what it would be called. Basically I briefly worked for a reseller and support company and they had a master disc of everything MS related. We could have a copy of whatever we needed on our work machines as well as a copy on our home machines for work use.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,583
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    I wish I had bought more copies when Win 7 were going for 50 notes. I foolishly only bought one licence. Even if I didn't need I'd have been able to sell at a profit.
  • barky99barky99 Posts: 3,921
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    I've found documents created in ms office 2010 that often didn't work perfectly in openoffice of a year or 2 back now display flawlessly in current libreoffice .... perhaps there is some luck in that but seems places where ms office is still a 'must' are getting fewer .... save in doc/xls & ODF and files should display OK these days in either ... still a few wee niggles with docx/xlsx, yes, hear of problems with old versions of office struggling with them.
    have to admit, one of biggest plus marks for libreoffice for me is the classic non-ribbon interface & now that it copes better with even docx/xlsx I see no reason to downgrade to a newer version of office .... there are whole government depts in some countries using openoffice/libreoffice & unless you use plugins from other programs that demand ms office I think many private businesses could do likewise ... can depend how big they are, how paranoid they are ...
  • neo_walesneo_wales Posts: 13,625
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    Its not 100% compatible and if your using it for work then best stick with Office.
  • 1saintly1saintly Posts: 4,197
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    This..
    neo_wales wrote: »
    Its not 100% compatible and if your using it for work then best stick with Office.

    I Have been doing some CVs for somebody, set and layed them out, filled it in, using LibreOffce, thought great job well done :)

    But had a thought, best double check it, so sent it to e.mail and opened it using several versions of Microsoft Office.
    Tried all the comp settings etc, but no matter what i did, when Microsoft opened a LibreOffice Doc, it was all over the place.

    That wouldnt have impressed a HR Dept trying to read the CV :o
    So re did it using Mcrosoft Office.

    PS Nothing to do with Office. But they got the job :)
  • karma mechanickarma mechanic Posts: 254
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    For a CV I'd be sending it as a PDF. In LibreOffice just press 'export to PDF' and then you know that what the recipient sees is exactly what you see when you view or print it.

    Yes, Microsoft Office is poor at showing some docs, although that may be because LibreOffice supports ODF 1.2, while Office is lagging behind on 1.1.
  • scooby1970scooby1970 Posts: 2,797
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    We use it in our workplace, and share documents around the World with users of MS Office and never had any problems. As someone said, even MS Office is 100% compatible with itself on different versions, that's why we decided when opening a new office to stick exclusivley to Libre Office.

    It's a great package, and has not let our office down yet when opening Word or Excel files. I'd highly recommend it, it's a brilliant piece of free software.

    :) Mark
  • Magic CottageMagic Cottage Posts: 2,698
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    Stick with Office. I was curious about Libre and therefore recently downloaded just to see what the fuss was about. First thing I tried was my own CV [backups made first!!!]. What a mess. Uninstalled!
  • karma mechanickarma mechanic Posts: 254
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    Stick with Office. I was curious about Libre and therefore recently downloaded just to see what the fuss was about. First thing I tried was my own CV [backups made first!!!]. What a mess. Uninstalled!

    That's what you get for using Office. If you'd created the CV with something that adhered to standards it would work fine :D
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