Office Suite Recommendations For Private Use

BRRABill

Since we were discussing this in another thread, I thought it might be an interesting topic for its own thread.

What Office Suite do you generally recommend when someone comes up to you and asks about getting Office? And why? What is the reasoning behind your recommendation?

Obviously if they have a die hard need for one application, that might be the only option. But what is your go-to recommendation?

I guess this could also qualify for business as well, but I am worried that might cloud this topic. No pun intended.

gjacobse

For personal use, I use Libre Office. For 90% of what I do,.. it is perfect,.. and allows moving back and forth to MS Office.

I generally will go in and default the .odt file to .doc / docx for compatibility.

coliver

It depends. Generally I recommend LibreOffice to the average user. My sister, for instance, has been doing all of her grad school work with LibreOffice. She loves it and it works for everything she uses it for. I also have been installing Linux Mint on a few computers (Vista machines that didn't have the recovery media anymore) for relatives and the in-laws. They love how fast and usable it is.

There are some people who don't "trust" open source so I generally recommend they take a look at Office365 Personal (Office 2013 soon to be 2016).

IRJ

I only recommend Microsoft Office to users because they know how to use it for the most part. I personally like Libre Office, but I don't feel like troubleshooting compatibility issues. I will somehow be responsible since I recommended it to them.

scottalanmiller

@gjacobse said:

For personal use, I use Libre Office. For 90% of what I do,.. it is perfect,.. and allows moving back and forth to MS Office.

I generally will go in and default the .odt file to .doc / docx for compatibility.

I'm on LibreOffice for work now. No need to see MS Office directly.

BRRABill

@IRJ said:

I only recommend Microsoft Office to users because they know how to use it for the most part. I personally like Libre Office, but I don't feel like troubleshooting compatibility issues. I will somehow be responsible since I recommended it to them.

This brings up a good question that @coliver also kind of brought up with trust of third party products, that might be asked of us.

How do I get support?
How do I know [XYZ] will be around? Microsfot isn't going anywhere.
How do I know it is secure?

BRRABill

Also, how does LibreOffice interact with cloud storage?

Yesterday I was hearing a lot of Google Docs recommendations, but none here today.

scottalanmiller

I generally recommend Google Apps to most people as an extension of also recommending that they be on Chromebooks.

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said:

Also, how does LibreOffice interact with cloud storage?

Yesterday I was hearing a lot of Google Docs recommendations, but none here today.

I was writing about Google Apps as you wrote that.

LibreOffice uses cloud storage like any normal third party app. Nothing special (yet) like MS Office has.

gjacobse

@BRRABill said:

Also, how does LibreOffice interact with cloud storage?

Yesterday I was hearing a lot of Google Docs recommendations, but none here today.

I use Dropbox, and pause the sync engine while I am working. Once done with my day, I unpause the sync engine and set my computer to shutdown after about 40 min and walk away.

scottalanmiller

Does the sync engine cause problems while working?

coliver

@BRRABill said:

Also, how does LibreOffice interact with cloud storage?

Yesterday I was hearing a lot of Google Docs recommendations, but none here today.

Good Docs is awesome. I used it exclusively through part of high school, college, and grad school. It did 100% of everything I needed from an Office Suite. Collaboration was just perfect all the time and made group projects a breeze.

BRRABill

@scottalanmiller said:

Does the sync engine cause problems while working?

Yeah, @gjacobse , why do you stop it?

BRRABill

@coliver said:

@BRRABill said:

Also, how does LibreOffice interact with cloud storage?

Yesterday I was hearing a lot of Google Docs recommendations, but none here today.

Good Docs is awesome. I used it exclusively through part of high school, college, and grad school. It did 100% of everything I needed from an Office Suite. Collaboration was just perfect all the time and made group projects a breeze.

Do you feel your documents are secure from Google itself?

BRRABill

@BRRABill said:

Do you feel your documents are secure from Google itself?

By this, I mean are you concerned at all with their TOS and looking at your stuff.

stacksofplates

If I don't have internet, I use LibreOffice. If I have internet I use a mix of Zoho Docs and the free version of online office.

BRRABill

When did OO stop getting used?

stacksofplates

@BRRABill said:

When did OO stop getting used?

When Oracle took over

Romo

When Oracle bought it

BRRABill

Always funny when multiple people post at the same time with the same thing.

There should be a "GAH" after it.