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Best Office suite
- Thread starter MacBH928
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You forgot to include iWork and Microsoft Office, which, while they're not free, are more popular than any of those you mentioned.
LibraOffice, When Oracle bought Sun who owned a lot of licenses, they upset a lot of the contributors with a license change. They in turn forked the development, so the defector standard is LibraOffice. NeoOffice was built from Open Office and was pretty good back in the day, but I've not heard anything good.
If you're looking for an open source suite, LibraOffice is my recommendation.
If you're looking for an open source suite, LibraOffice is my recommendation.
LibreOffice. Especially with the latest version that improved things on OSX. I used to rely on NeoOffice, but the gap in development between it and LibreOffice has grown over time, the OSX-optimizations/customizations didn't keep up, and they now charge for the latest version.
He didn't forget to mention them. He wanted an opinion on those 3 not all suites available (in spite of what the thread title says)
Very important may be that LibreOffice can read and write all other document
formats, e.g. Microsoft's. So you can use it while people around you have Microsoft Office.
A downer might be that little errors in LO on Mac have not been repaired
lately because "they don't have enough Mac developers".
A strange statement, as they release every 2 months or so for Mac ........
;JOOP!
formats, e.g. Microsoft's. So you can use it while people around you have Microsoft Office.
A downer might be that little errors in LO on Mac have not been repaired
lately because "they don't have enough Mac developers".
A strange statement, as they release every 2 months or so for Mac ........
;JOOP!
I am open for any alternatives but I don't think iWork is more popular than LibreOffice , and MS office is just very expensive (for my use) and the online version is good enough.
I know there are others like Zoho, WPS, Mariner, and Google Docs but are they really good alternatives or extremely limited?
I just find it weird that everyone on earth just uses Microsoft Office and everyone outside that ecosystem is an outcast
iWork is no where near the features of MS Office (and libraOffice), and as you noted MS Office is expensive and/or poorly implemented imo for the Mac.
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I really tried to give LibreOffice a fair chance, but eventually gave up and bought MS Office (on the subscription plan no less!).
LibreOffice is free, but very unpolished (do you remember the last time you saw a program crash on OS X?), which may be fine until you stumble upon a bug that affects you. Then all you can do is create/view the bug report, and wait... and wait...
If you're programmer you can contribute and help fix bugs, but all that people like me can do is make a donation, which doesn't directly help fix the bugs that may have the most serious impact on my usage.
I'd say just give something like LibreOffice a try, but be prepared to bite the bullet and go with MS if you hit a serious bug that affects your workflow.
[The bug that finally broke me down was in pivot tables within LibreOffice Sheets. See here. There's even a video.
This is really a missed opportunity for the LibreOffice folks, as pivot tables are completely absent in Numbers (much to many people's dismay), so the LO team could really make the most of the opportunity to offer software that gets the job done. For all the issues people have with Office, at least pivot tables work properly!
\rant]
Microsoft Office was well-established as the standard for office suites very early on. As a result, the vast majority of users have learned MS Office and moving to another suite means considerations must be made for learning curve and compatibility with MS Office. Remember that MS Office was released for the Mac OS before it was released for Windows.
LibreOffice is the best of this sorry bunch, for reasons well documented by other posters on this thread.
But none really shine for anything but simple spreadsheets, very plain presentations and generic word-processing, IMHO.
The "best" office suite depends on your usage case.
o If your needs are straightforward and you want it all to be free and cross-platform, LibreOffice is a fine choice.
o If your needs are more "corporate" or you need the most accepted spreadsheet (or perform certain high-end word-processing chores), then MS Office remains the gold standard-- an annoying, bulky, crashy, ugly, frustrating gold standard though.
o If you want to make the sweetest, slickest presentations on Mac or iOS and can make-do with an okay spreadsheet and a really nice but limited word-processor (which is also, by the way, an unusually effective page-layout program for things like posters), then Apple's iWork suite fills the bill, and like LibreOffice it's free (but not open-source, if that matters to you).
And, y'know, it's allowed to have all three on your machine so you always have the best tool for a given job. That's my approach.
But none really shine for anything but simple spreadsheets, very plain presentations and generic word-processing, IMHO.
The "best" office suite depends on your usage case.
o If your needs are straightforward and you want it all to be free and cross-platform, LibreOffice is a fine choice.
o If your needs are more "corporate" or you need the most accepted spreadsheet (or perform certain high-end word-processing chores), then MS Office remains the gold standard-- an annoying, bulky, crashy, ugly, frustrating gold standard though.
o If you want to make the sweetest, slickest presentations on Mac or iOS and can make-do with an okay spreadsheet and a really nice but limited word-processor (which is also, by the way, an unusually effective page-layout program for things like posters), then Apple's iWork suite fills the bill, and like LibreOffice it's free (but not open-source, if that matters to you).
And, y'know, it's allowed to have all three on your machine so you always have the best tool for a given job. That's my approach.
I wouldn't say that, but I deal with people who write in word and excel. Other products just cannot guarantee the exact same rendering of a document. LibraOffice is better then others, Numbers is horrific when it comes to importing a spreadsheet and then exporting it. That tool is all but useless for me to use on large spreadsheets that I need to share with my team.
Office is the defacto standard and such, if you need to share files with others, its best to use the standard.
IMO the "best" office suite is Office 365 Work & Home - I use Office 2013 on a Windows 8.1 disk image using Parallels 10, and Office 2011.
The secondary reason for choosing this option is the "unlimited" cloud space per each of the 5 accounts/installs included in the Office 365 package. My single personal account offers 10TB of storage - I can't beat that anywhere - and I get an office suite on top of that. And, a subscription to Office 365 includes upgrades if you want them.
I got my first year "free" when I brought my iPad into a local MS Store, and I'll buy another year on Amazon for about $65.
iWork is OK. If all you need is a word processor, use TextEdit, using RTF as your formatting default.
I own a 2-license copy of Office 2011 Pro (hard to find, and includes Outlook), and I'll be selling it to someone who wants a subscription-free option - that'll pay for a year or two of Office 365.
I've tried the open-source versions, and find them wanting for compatibility. All of my clients use the MS Office suite - I just don't want to deal with formatting issues and an incomplete feature set that each of the open-source suites bring with them. Nobody I know uses the Google suite either, but I've heard good things from my friends about it (but they also like free drinks too, in the free-is-good vein...). Cheap - or free - IMO isn't necessarily a better option.
The secondary reason for choosing this option is the "unlimited" cloud space per each of the 5 accounts/installs included in the Office 365 package. My single personal account offers 10TB of storage - I can't beat that anywhere - and I get an office suite on top of that. And, a subscription to Office 365 includes upgrades if you want them.
I got my first year "free" when I brought my iPad into a local MS Store, and I'll buy another year on Amazon for about $65.
iWork is OK. If all you need is a word processor, use TextEdit, using RTF as your formatting default.
I own a 2-license copy of Office 2011 Pro (hard to find, and includes Outlook), and I'll be selling it to someone who wants a subscription-free option - that'll pay for a year or two of Office 365.
I've tried the open-source versions, and find them wanting for compatibility. All of my clients use the MS Office suite - I just don't want to deal with formatting issues and an incomplete feature set that each of the open-source suites bring with them. Nobody I know uses the Google suite either, but I've heard good things from my friends about it (but they also like free drinks too, in the free-is-good vein...). Cheap - or free - IMO isn't necessarily a better option.
I have all 3 installed... iWork, Office 2011/365, and LibreOffice. I use 75% iWork, 25% Office, and I have LO just to play with really. Depending on the document, all 3 are fairly compatible. From Pages, exporting straight text to .DOCX is never a problem. Text boxes are usually exported as graphics and tables... don't get me started on tables.
In my experience, the #1 thing that borks a document, no matter which suite you use, is fonts. If the receiving party doesn't have the fonts you use, it won't render accurately. For that reason, I export to PDF almost always. If the document needs collaboration, then we start with just text content using Times New Roman or Ariel, then PDF for the actual layout. Even Helvetica is not the same across Windows and Mac systems. I find Pages easier to work with than Word so I'll design the document in Pages and only export to Word if I need a particular feature, such as gradient text which Pages doesn't support... yet. 95% of everything I do Pages can handle. I use Numbers to generate reports, graphs, and charts, again in PDF. For mailings, pamphlets, flyers, and business cards, I actually use Broderbund's The Print Shop for Mac. For custom labels... Avery Design Pro. I use the best tool I have for the job instead of a swiss army knife for everything.
For spreadsheets that go out of my office... Excel is the only viable option. If the data needs to be editable, Excel is the only way to be consistent, and again we have a list of acceptable fonts.
The term BEST is really a misnomer. Use the suite you like, feel comfortable with, and can get the work done. Export to PDF if you can, then it doesn't matter what tool you use. But if you share editing with the outside world, you're going to need Office.
In my experience, the #1 thing that borks a document, no matter which suite you use, is fonts. If the receiving party doesn't have the fonts you use, it won't render accurately. For that reason, I export to PDF almost always. If the document needs collaboration, then we start with just text content using Times New Roman or Ariel, then PDF for the actual layout. Even Helvetica is not the same across Windows and Mac systems. I find Pages easier to work with than Word so I'll design the document in Pages and only export to Word if I need a particular feature, such as gradient text which Pages doesn't support... yet. 95% of everything I do Pages can handle. I use Numbers to generate reports, graphs, and charts, again in PDF. For mailings, pamphlets, flyers, and business cards, I actually use Broderbund's The Print Shop for Mac. For custom labels... Avery Design Pro. I use the best tool I have for the job instead of a swiss army knife for everything.
For spreadsheets that go out of my office... Excel is the only viable option. If the data needs to be editable, Excel is the only way to be consistent, and again we have a list of acceptable fonts.
The term BEST is really a misnomer. Use the suite you like, feel comfortable with, and can get the work done. Export to PDF if you can, then it doesn't matter what tool you use. But if you share editing with the outside world, you're going to need Office.
Well, here is what I learned from this thread. Office is where it is, and if you are doing something personal use iWork, and if you want a quick and free way use LibreOffice which I think I just should use OneDrive instead.
2 questions
1) Why no one just exports as PDF? This insures compatibility with everyone.
2) Are MS Office formatting compatible on all versions? I mean if something was saved on Office '95 will it work with 365?
Actually I like your way better, but there is a problem. That is just too much software to juggle. Updates, learning curve, and compatibility are a lot to deal with. If this is your main line of work then it makes sense, but for everyone else its too much to manage.
Also I am surprised someone out there really uses Print Shop, its a relic from the 90's
2 questions
1) Why no one just exports as PDF? This insures compatibility with everyone.
2) Are MS Office formatting compatible on all versions? I mean if something was saved on Office '95 will it work with 365?
Actually I like your way better, but there is a problem. That is just too much software to juggle. Updates, learning curve, and compatibility are a lot to deal with. If this is your main line of work then it makes sense, but for everyone else its too much to manage.
Also I am surprised someone out there really uses Print Shop, its a relic from the 90's
Can a current outlook 2015 beta user advise where I can add a 'from' field for sending new e-mails
Because its hard to have my co-workers to manage/update spreadsheets in PDFs
PDFS are great for locking in a format, but for documents/spreadsheets that are being edited/maintained its not really that good.
Yes, I believe so. I use Mac Office on my Mac, Office 2010 on my work computer and office 2013 on my Surface Pro 3. I've never ran into a formatting issue.
I used to use OpenOffice before it fractured into Apache and Libre. I'm not sure what you mean by "best" as that's subjective. Now I'm learning to use Pages, which comes bundles with other apps on the mac.
Both OpenOffice and Pages has Sidebars; and I'm finding everything that I used to do in Writer I can do in Pages, and the templates are useful too.
But if I have to choose between Open/Neo/Libre, I'd probably choose Libre to better support FOSS.
Both OpenOffice and Pages has Sidebars; and I'm finding everything that I used to do in Writer I can do in Pages, and the templates are useful too.
But if I have to choose between Open/Neo/Libre, I'd probably choose Libre to better support FOSS.
It really does depend upon one's particular needs. If one needs cross-platform compatibility, then LibreOffice and MS Office are preferable. I put LibreOffice ahead of MS Office in that context because Office for Mac is pretty sad compared to the Windows version. LibreOffice is virtually identical.
If collaboration is important, then it most probably requires MS Office.
I'm limiting my use of OneDrive until Microsoft raises the reliability and functionality to that of DropBox (which in my opinion is superior).
I'm near the end of my year's subscription to Office 365. I doubt that I will renew it considering that the next version of Office for Mac will require OSX Yosemite which I refuse to install on my OSX devices.
LOL. On occasion I still use MS Works and ClarisWorks/AppleWorks.
I started using The Print Shop back on my Commodore 128 in the mid 80's. It's still the best object oriented printing solution for $70 (just checked Amazon). It's much easier and more intuitive than Word, and Word was never designed to do the stuff The Print Shop will do. I have yet to find a print project I couldn't do with it. Flyers, mailings, envelopes, business cards, CD/DVD case inserts, Avery label sheets, business cards, and greeting cards. There are over 1000 templates for anything you want to do. I also use it for certain graphics projects like logos, decals, and memes. It's easier than PhotoShop and will export to JPG, PNG, or PDF.
Anyone can go to Walmart and pull a card off the shelf but a custom printed card is more appreciated. My grandmother thought I worked miracles with the cards I sent her but it was actually just a few clicks, drag a graphic in, add some text, apply a shape, and print.
Broderbund is still the maker but Software McKiev is the distributor for the Mac version now. I'm still on v2 but v3 is available now.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Broderbund or Software McKiev... I just really love The Print Shop
Sounds like how I use Pages 4.x from iWork 09. My wife uses PrintShop for Mac, and I've been trying to get her to switch to Pages... but she's so comfortable with Print Shop that it is an uphill battle.I started using The Print Shop back on my Commodore 128 in the mid 80's. It's still the best object oriented printing solution for $70 (just checked Amazon). It's much easier and more intuitive than Word, and Word was never designed to do the stuff The Print Shop will do. I have yet to find a print project I couldn't do with it. Flyers, mailings, envelopes, business cards, CD/DVD case inserts, Avery label sheets, business cards, and greeting cards. There are over 1000 templates for anything you want to do. I also use it for certain graphics projects like logos, decals, and memes. It's easier than PhotoShop and will export to JPG, PNG, or PDF.
Anyone can go to Walmart and pull a card off the shelf but a custom printed card is more appreciated. My grandmother thought I worked miracles with the cards I sent her but it was actually just a few clicks, drag a graphic in, add some text, apply a shape, and print.
Broderbund is still the maker but Software McKiev is the distributor for the Mac version now. I'm still on v2 but v3 is available now.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Broderbund or Software McKiev... I just really love The Print Shop
Which Word Processor is best? Well, as many posters have said, it depends. If you are dealing with relatively simple documents, any of them will do.
However, if you may be dealing with complexly formatted graphics and text documents from a variety of sources, get as many of them as you can fit onto your disk. Way back when I was doing a lot of newsletter editing. Some very complex MS-Word documents came in. Some would not display properly in my copy of Word but would do very nicely in OpenOffice or NeoOffice or Symphony (the old IBM derivative of OpenOffice).
Recently? Just yesterday, I needed to get some information out of Word documents from 2002. Word-2011 and NeoOffice did a similar, but poor, job with them. LibreOffice, OpenOffice and Pages mucked up everything beyond belief.
To repeat; if you may be dealing with complexly formatted graphics and text documents from a variety of sources, get as many of them as you can fit onto your disk or wallet.
HTH,
However, if you may be dealing with complexly formatted graphics and text documents from a variety of sources, get as many of them as you can fit onto your disk. Way back when I was doing a lot of newsletter editing. Some very complex MS-Word documents came in. Some would not display properly in my copy of Word but would do very nicely in OpenOffice or NeoOffice or Symphony (the old IBM derivative of OpenOffice).
Recently? Just yesterday, I needed to get some information out of Word documents from 2002. Word-2011 and NeoOffice did a similar, but poor, job with them. LibreOffice, OpenOffice and Pages mucked up everything beyond belief.
To repeat; if you may be dealing with complexly formatted graphics and text documents from a variety of sources, get as many of them as you can fit onto your disk or wallet.
HTH,
When I said best I meant overall better for everything, while the answer is obviously is Office I thought there could be almost as good Office Suite out there but for a cheaper price. Also, many people hate on Office like they hate on Explorer so I thought someone came up with something better but I didn't know about it.
Any one tried WPS? It has a lot of good reviews but no Mac version
Any one tried WPS? It has a lot of good reviews but no Mac version
