Also, it looks as if its a straight pirated version of Microsoft Office, Chinese-style.)īut I’ve had it from Microsoft. It has been acquired by a Chinese company, and it has all sorts of devious marketing practices built in the program.
I wouldn’t recommend it, though, even in its free version.
(There’s another one : WPS Office, ex-Kingsoft. Soft Maker Office Standard has a hugely useful feature no other Office clone has, even Libre Office : a real outliner for the word processor, which really mimics Word’s outliner mode. I bought Soft Maker Office Standard for the steal promotional price of 20 €, directly from the publisher, which I was offered after using the free version for a while. You’re not a second-class citizen if you insist to own your software.) (There’s also a subscription plan : contrary to Microsoft, you are free to choose. It’s not cheap, at 70 € : it’s just an honest price, given what’s inside. The Standard version (first paid-for level) has a number of really useful extra features. The free version, called Free Office, is already very good and very generous, feature-wise. It’s Soft Maker Office (German software). I can recommend a good, legal alternative to Microsoft Office, better than Libre Office, in my opinion.
I’m glad to pay for good software when it’s honestly priced, and the commercial and privacy practices of the publisher are correct. I’m not considering it morally wrong any longer. I’ve never used pirated software up to now, and never bought grey/black market Microsoft keys from eBay, but I’ll now seriously consider it. Making an ad to prove your products are shit and the public really shouldn’t buy them (we’re only selling them to you, at extortionate prices nevertheless, because you’re stupid schmucks who don’t know what’s good for you), that’s the height of cynicism and spite for the people who pay your bills and fatten your bank accounts. I have been, for decades, a vocal adversary of the pirate brigade, for moral reasons.įrom now on, I’m saying Microsoft has overstepped the mark.
(Well … unless you are already an expert at “regular expressions,” which I am most decidedly *not*.) Trust me: it will make your life a lot easier.Īt that point, I will write exactly the same thing as you, Martin. PS: For all but the most simple and basic use, I consider the “Alternative Find & Replace” extension for Writer (aka “AltSearch”) to be *absolutely essential*.
That said, I still maintain that where *basic features* are concerned, the transition from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice is quite easy. Given many developers’ rapid adoption of ultra-simplified smartphone interfaces (even for desktop apps), I imagine there must be at least *some* users that fall into that category, especially among the young. (UbitMenu is a third-party Office extension that adds a new section to the Ribbon containing the old menu-and-toolbar interface.) Users who have only ever used the Ribbon and who don’t have much experience with traditional interfaces in other apps may have a slightly rougher time transitioning than I did.
I don’t like the Ribbon - which I consider to be a proprietary vendor lock-in tool not worth getting “addicted” to - and whenever I need to get work done quickly and efficiently using MS Office 2007+ on someone else’s computer, I install UbitMenu.
Advanced features are not always handled in quite the same way.įull Disclosure: I used to be a fairly advanced user of pre-2007 Word and Excel but switched from MS Office to LibreOffice three or four years ago, in anticipation of jumping ship from Windows to Linux.
For more *advanced features*, there can be a definite learning curve … just as there was in MS Office. Speaking only to Writer (~Word) and Calc (~Excel), the transition from MS Office to LO for *basic features* is easy - maybe even effortless. Moreover, many keyboard shortcuts are exactly the same. (LibreOffice has been working on an optional, vaguely ribbon-like “NotebookBar” interface for a couple/few years, but I don’t know how far along the project has come.)Īnyone who is familiar with traditional menu-and-toolbar interfaces - especially users who cut their teeth on pre-2007 Microsoft Office - shouldn’t have much trouble finding the commands they are looking for in LibreOffice. MS Office has used a “ribbon” interface since Office 2007, and LibreOffice uses a traditional menu-and-toolbar interface.