Can LibreOffice edit MS Office documents just as well as MS Office?

answered 2012-07-31 17:38:09 +0200

hyogapag
821 ● 7 ● 19
http://www.insolit.org/

Your title and the content of your post don't match. These are two different questions. For both, however, you can find plenty of information on the web. I will try to make it very clear and short.

Can LibreOffice edit MS Office documents just as well as MS Office?

This one is an interoperability question. In other words, I assume you're asking : will I be able to open my files with another office suite?

Yes, but if your files are really complex or if you use macros (in Excel for instance) you can have some problems. It can also be a problem if the document is edited sometimes in MS Office, sometimes in LibreOffice.

LibreOffice is getting better at every version on this issue. Let me point out that MS is the origin of the problem : closed (or obscure) formats have always been a part of their lock-in strategy.

Is LibreOffice a viable replacement for MS Office?

This is a functionality question. First of all, the two suites don't have exactly the same components. For instance, there is no equivalent of Outlook in LibreOffice (but you can use Mozilla Thunderbird, which is very efficient when combined with its Lightning extension).

Then, I would say yes, and it's even better in some respects. The "Export to PDF" has been around in LibreOffice (then called OpenOffice.org, to make it short) since version 1.1 (2003) while MS Office integrated it in 2007 (through an add-on !).

I've always been able to do what I wanted with LibreOffice, but I'm not a heavy user of that kind of tools. You also have to take into account your learning curv. If you're familiar only with the ribbon, the LibreOffice UI will look strange to you.

Again, there are plenty of comparisons out there. And, even better : try it out and make your own opinion !