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best open source software to replace microsoft office?

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posted 2 months ago

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I have been given a macbook pro! from 2011...the old Microsoft Office won't activate after switching owners. I was able to use it for a couple weeks before it disappeared to see that something similar is what I need.

I'm not on line except if needed at the library where I could download something.
I see open source programs are available but don't know how to choose one.

I do a lot of picture editing and have gimp loaded for that.

We need a program that will allow for formating pages with both text and pictures.

recommendations?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
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Matt McSpadden

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posted 2 months ago

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I like LibreOffice, which is an offshoot of OpenOffice. The "Writer" program is similar to Microsoft Word. It is more for text, but can handle quite a bit of formatting with pictures as well. It also includes "Draw" which is similar to Microsoft Publisher and is built for designing posters and pamphlets and things like that. So it has all sorts of tools for pictures and text.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

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John F Dean

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posted 2 months ago

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I use Apache Open Office.

….give me coffee to do the things I can and bourbon to accept the things I can’t.

Judith Browning

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posted 2 months ago

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thanks to you both!

I read in another older thread that...

LibreOffice is good for editing, Calibre for making eBooks and Inkscape for drawing things.

Would I be able to use those without internet after loading them to the laptop?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Matt McSpadden

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posted 2 months ago

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Will it work without Internet after installing?

LibreOffice - Yes
Inkscape - Last time I tried it
Calibre - I'm not familiar with

Judith Browning

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thanks Matt!
so, when I get on line at the library do I first uninstall microsoft office?
It is there but unusable since it's so old it's not supported anymore and I can't activate.

Will installing new things be step by step for amateurs or will I need to find a techy friend in the library?
I'm pretty good at following instructions although I don't always know all of the proper terminology.

Then, an even bigger question, maybe I should go all out and switch to Linux first?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Kalin Brown

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posted 2 months ago

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I’ve been using Libreoffice for 15 years give or take. I haven’t missed Microsoft Office even for a second.

Christopher G Williams

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posted 2 months ago

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LibreOffice user here too, highly recommended. I used OpenOffice for several years as well, but find Libre to be superior.

Sebastian Köln

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posted 2 months ago

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Judith Browning wrote:Would I be able to use those without internet after loading them to the laptop?

Yes!
Except for Web-browsers and chat programs, almost everything works offline on Linux.

I use Libreoffice, Darktable and Inkscape on a weekly basis.
I mentioned Calibre from memory, but it is an e-book management software.

Scribus is for writing e-books, but I have not used it a lot.

Generally for Linux, only install software via the package manager, unless you know what you are doing.
You have the power to break the system and can happen easily when running commands that you don't know.
Using the package manager also avoids accidentally installing malware from some website that pretends to be the original.

Judith Browning

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sounds like I at least want libreoffice and the ebook one.
Will they work equally well no matter what operating system on the laptop?

Sebastian, I don't know what 'software via the package manager' means?

How do I know if I'm linked to a legit software for linux? or for libre or any thing else?

thanks!

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Sebastian Köln

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posted 2 months ago

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For windows:
LibreOffice (office stuff)
Scribus (writing E-books)
Inkscape (2d vector graphics)
Gimp (2d pixel graphics)
Darktable (professional photo editing)

I started Linux using KDE and never changed, so for me, I would install Ubuntu from https://kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/ .
You will need a 8 GB usb stick that can be wiped for the installation. Instructions here .

If you know someone with Linux experience who can help you with the installation, it is probably not a bad idea to ask them for help.

Sebastian Köln

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Judith Browning wrote: Sebastian, I don't know what 'software via the package manager' means?

See the pictures below.

Judith Browning wrote: How do I know if I'm linked to a legit software for linux? or for libre or any thing else?

Unfortunately that isn't very easy now with Ads in search engines… Never click on an ad when looking for software, usually it is someone trying to cheat you.
Usually any decent program has a page in Wikipedia, and that page has the URL to the website where you can download it.

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Judith Browning

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thank you Sebastian!

I plan to try libreOffice next time at the library when I have plenty of time and see how that goes.
Then one of the others another time.

I think I'm not up for installing linux so will hold off on that for awhile.
I know of someone who could do that for me...maybe.

I really appreciate all of the information and links

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

William Wallace

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posted 2 months ago

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Open Office or Libre Office are my choices.
There are much better options than gimp, but you can do anything your want with gimp.

These days for image editing, just upload it into chat gpt and see if you can tell it what your want exactly. The newest update is proficient now most of the time

Freedom!

Judith Browning

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William Wallace wrote:Open Office or Libre Office are my choices.
There are much better options than gimp, but you can do anything your want with gimp.

These days for image editing, just upload it into chat gpt and see if you can tell it what your want exactly. The newest update is proficient now most of the time

I'll probably try another editing program eventually (not chat gpt

)
Gimp was the one I was familiar with so I kept but it does have more 'bells and whistles' than I really need.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 1 month ago

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I got this far towards installing libreoffice

Is there anything I can do to work around?

The software and hardware prerequisites for installing on a Apple macOS computer are as follows:

macOS 10.15 or newer
Intel or Apple silicon processor
512 MB RAM
Up to 800 MB available hard disk space
1280x800 graphic device with 256 colors
It is a recommended best practice to back-up your system and data before you remove or install software.

https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/

what I have...

macOS High Sierra
version 10.13.6

macbook Pro 13 inch
mid 2010

Processor
2.4GHz intel Core 2 Duo

Memory
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256MB

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

John Wolfram

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posted 1 month ago

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It looks like version 7.4.(something) versions will run on macOS 10.13. See https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.4#Platform_Compatibility

Older versions of LibreOffice can be downloaded here:
https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/

Matt McSpadden

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posted 1 month ago

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**Edit - Cross posted with John. We both had the same idea :)

I would be tempted to try it anyway and see what happens... but I am more familiar with Windows.

I wonder if you could try an older version. Google says that version 7.4.7.2 is compatible with Mac OS 10.13. It is not being updated anymore, but it might be something.

https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/7.4.7.2/

Judith Browning

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posted 1 month ago

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thanks John and Matt!

I was hoping there would be an option that would work.
Since nothing on this laptop is supported anyway it shouldn't hurt to add more.

It will probably be awhile before I'm back at the library....will post results then.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 1 month ago

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going to the library today and I plan to install either libre office or scribus or both...or nothing...what's the worst that could happen

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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well, nothing bad happened...

I learned that I do not know how to do more than tap a big green download button...the other words are not computing.

I went to the link for an old version of LibreOffice that, as mentioned by John and Matt above, is most likely to work and there was no big green button that says 'download' just more clickable links for more clickable links, etc.

I think I don't know enough of the language to do this 🤔

https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/7.4.7.2/

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Phil Stevens

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posted 1 month ago

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Let's assume that your Mac has an Intel chip. That's an almost certain bet. If you follow the breadcrumbs you will end up here:

download link for 64-bit Intel MacOS

You probably don't need any of the language packs, so that single file *should* see you right. Fingers crossed!

Judith Browning

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Phil Stevens wrote:Let's assume that your Mac has an Intel chip. That's an almost certain bet. If you follow the breadcrumbs you will end up here:

download link for 64-bit Intel MacOS

You probably don't need any of the language packs, so that single file *should* see you right. Fingers crossed!

'Breadcrumbs!' is that a technical term? and that's just what it felt like except I had no idea what all the groups of letters implied. 'Language packs' 🫤
I think I even saw the numbers in your link but by that time it was all total gibberish to me....

Yes, it does have intel...I saw that somewhere.

will give it another go next library time.

Thanks Phil!

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Phil,
the link you sent worked perfectly, directly to download and install and libreOffice is up and running now off line here at home.

Thanks to everyone for all of the help!

I think it's going to do the things I need.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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it's working!
exactly what I needed

IMG_20250515_140643_175-2.jpg

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Phil Stevens

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Yay! I like happy endings to tech stories and I'm glad this one worked out.

Judith Browning

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Phil Stevens wrote:Yay! I like happy endings to tech stories and I'm glad this one worked out.

I'm really glad to keep this laptop useful...it is in very nice shape, well cared for.
It's a shame electronics are all part of the planned obsolescence game.

Next time at the library I'm going to try for photoscape

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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Personally I prefer Apache Open office over Libre Open office. If you used a lot of older word processors you will probably prefer Apache as libre tries to think too much for the user at times. I have run both Apache and Libre offline just fine. But mostly I choose Apache. One other reason to choose apache is if you are math nerd is that it has a low level version of math cad built in. It is not much but does a few things.

Country oriented nerd with primary interests in alternate energy in particular solar. Dabble in gardening, trees, cob, soil building and a host of others.

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