The easist foss Office Suite for Microsoft Refugees?

brent

BuzzPCSOS A major problem with Libre Office is that the user needs to make a choice as to wether their edited MS document should be saved as an open office document. Doing so then means that they now have an outdated document with a MS Office extension and an up to date document with the same name and an open office extensio

I save .odt only if I know I'm not taking it to work. As I told Harvey and you are alluding to: the save as choices are critical and a PITA.

BuzzPCSOS r than fairly stock formatting. There are various solutions mentioned on the net including this suggestion from Libre Office.

First thing I do is get the MS-TTF 3rd party font pack in there. I am in love with Liberation Sans but my employer is not: TNR Roman only.
Thanks for that reply, buzz.

Pjol A few folks i know switched to OnlyOffice from many years of MS Office use and it made them feel right at home and your wife´s use case sounds similar enough so my vote goes to OnlyOffice.

she will try this next. I LOVE OnlyOffice and will install that for he next. I love it's simplicity, libre is Overkill, capital O.
My newest linux health kick is weaning myself off Flatpaks or I would've kept OnlyOffice.
Thank you.

valst Hi, I use TextMaker. I pay about 15 euros a year for it, I don't know why, apparently I'm rich. 🙂 I used to use FreeOffice and it worked for me - writing opinions, complaints, requests, contracts, etc. and elementary operations with Excel. Then I decided, I don't know why, to buy TextMaker. And I've been using it for several years, although I don't see it bringing greater benefits to my work than FreeOffice. It's just that my feeling is that by paying I have more stability, which may not be the case.

this is fascinating. I think paying, on some level, about guarantees stability and peace of mind. And if that's a several-year habit, it's hard to break. that's something to consider. thank you.

SOLUSfiddler

If I may add yet another comment:

I tested OnlyOffice, LibreOffice, Softmaker and WPS.
I keep coming back to LibreOffice because it's completely free of charge which is great (you can still support it financially)

it's a well-curated (but admittedly huge) package of an office suite which works astonishingly well
you don't have to use MS if you have to deal with their office formats
there is a huge community and many developers supporting LibreOffice which is great
it works flawlessly running linux
I began to hate the Softmaker suite after I found out that their default design looks like WIN NT (aarrrggh!) and is not free of charge (and having to pay doesn't mean stability!)
WPS is too Chinese - you don't know who builds it and who supports it/you when things go wrong
OnlyOffice is probably OK but I never turned back after having used the LibreOfficce suite for many, many years.
Do yerself a favour, Brent!

brent

SOLUSfiddler Do yerself a favour, Brent!

I get it, it's easy, world-renowned. and it's right under my nose and soon-to-be-her nose. LibreOffice would be the simplest solution. And thank you Fiddler it's going in that direction.

Axios Then under tools and customize to add remove stuff on what ever toolbar you are using
(Make sure you select the correct toolbar)
Like on the pic I have standard selected so thats the one I want to customize.

I played with those options until I broke it. That's a great thing. Thanks for getting back. View user Interface I never paid attention ever.

Thank you all!! I have direction.

LAST QUESTION and I will close this thread. They are chasing all the employees off their hard drives and into the cloud. Said the tech to me:
"She has the O365 A1 license, so yes, starting 8/1, she would need to use the web client of O365."

I am just a foss-prejuduiced get-off-my-lawn crank now? Is there anything inherently unsound, risky with this? Can you still save to your desktop or usb? Or does everything you create also stash a copy in the cloud, since Word and P-Point will be cloud apps. Does this sound reasonable?
Thanks

Axios

brent Under (View-User interface)

Then under tools and customize to add remove stuff on what ever toolbar you are using
(Make sure you select the correct toolbar)
Like on the pic I have standard selected so thats the one I want to customize.

elfprince

brent Can you still save to your desktop or usb?

I think so, doesn't make much sense without that option.

brent

elfprince I tend to agree or else what's the point. Reading the fine print. Signing in to the big MS 365 monolith interface then having a new independent mailbox and their apps, and their drive to do your work on all of a sudden...makes me queasy. She could do all this stuff without them last week. Something seems really off to me. I really doubt this benefits the user. As a business move it removes them from having to dole out free batch licenses which I understand.

alfisya

AFAIK Using O365 web means all the stuff is stored on cloud by default. You can download the files quite easy, but working with local file involved uploading it to cloud. So, yeah not good.

I would just seperate work and personal use. Use O365 for work and any FOSS office of your choice for personal use. It is certainly annoying but I don't know a better alternative.

brent

alfisya AFAIK Using O365 web means all the stuff is stored on cloud by default. You can download the files quite easy, but working with local file involved uploading it to cloud. So, yeah not goo

that is the 3-way intersection impending disaster between her employer, MS, and her own intellectual property.
before 8/1 this waiting disaster was never a possibility. Sigh.

I did not have the words so I explained it to her like you told me. Even though she's a WIN girl, she's not trusting this scenario they are forcing her into at home, so she has decided not to O365 Web and do all home-based work with Libre.

It's weird because at her work there is no cloud or 365 sign-in, just the HDD-installed Office apps...

Case closed. I would do a dis-service to everyone who tried to help me if I picked a single best answer so I won't, but she chose LibreOffice and this is SOLVED. BIG thank you everybody.

Axios

brent I was thinking awhile ago how its nice to get input on things in the forum
I have watched over the years people throwing their two-cents in on stuff I enjoy it and learn from it
to sometimes.
Probably helps others to besides the person asking the question.
Its all good.

brent

Axios was thinking awhile ago how its nice to get input on things in the forum
I have watched over the years people throwing their two-cents in on stuff I enjoy it and learn from it
to sometimes.
Probably helps others to besides the person asking the question.

that's the beauty of this joint I really agree with all that

AlphaElwedritsch

One question
How to install and use OnlyOffice on Solus?

alfisya

AlphaElwedritsch Flatpak.

If you have not enable Flathub (It will enabled by default soon) :

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then :

flatpak install flathub org.onlyoffice.desktopeditors

AlphaElwedritsch

alfisya
thanks. did that already
would only know if there is a other possibility, or best practice

alfisya

AlphaElwedritsch best practice

The flatpak have "Verified" status on Flathub. So, it is maintained by OnlyOffice developer. I would say it is the best practice. I already talk about the possibily about adding it to Solus repository here. TL;DR: The chances are slim to none.

diagnostics0

Sebastian I have often read that OnlyOffice has also good compatability to Microsoft Office documents.

Sebastian compatibility with .docx is one of their main selling points.

bubba66

Using Onlyoffice every day in my work for over a year and have to say it is easy to get along with.

AlphaElwedritsch

I have now installed OnlyOffice and tested it a bit.
Advantage over FreeOffice:
It can both open and save *.odt and *.ods.
Freeoffice can only open *ods, but not save.

noise617

@brent , hi, what have you chosen in the end?

From my experience, Libre Office would do 99 % of jobs MS Office does, but there might be minor compatibility or formatting issue at times.

brent

noise617 she chose Libre Office, thank you for asking

AlphaElwedritsch

brent she did a good choice

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