Still Using Microsoft Office? Stop Now, Here’s Why… - Comments Page 1

Yes, I have moved on ... now Microsoft MAKE you pay for 365 if you want a One Drive with a larger cloud storage quota than the free version offers.

There is no longer an option for a stand alone version of One Drive with a larger cloud storage quota.

Does anyone know if LibreOffice's replacement for Microsoft Office can read Microsoft Office Access databases? I have Access databases that I need to keep and use.

I've been using LibreOffice for over ten years now. Works like a charm and I don't miss the "ribbon" of MS Office at all.

I've been using LibreOffice for many years. I got Microsoft Office 10 at a significant discount when I went to the local community college. When it reached its End Of Life, I made the switch to LibreOffice, and I've never looked back. I needed Microsoft Office for school, way back then, but LibreOffice meets all my needs today. The only part of LibreOffice I use is the Word Processor, so if a stand-alone open source option were available (I've tried ABI Word, and I don't like it), I'd give it a try.

Ernie (Oldster)

Been using Libre Office for twenty years. Now mostly Calc, then Writer. Haven't used Impress for many years as I no longer provide training materials. Since I don't make/use complex Calc sheets or Writer documents, I have never had a problem interchanging with MS Office users.

I have used LibreOffice or OpenOffice from the first and can't think of any reason to change. I write a lot (as a writer) and find no difficulty importing documents from LibreOffice into any other application.

@Stuart Berg
Yes, LibreOffice "base" is able to read and modify Access databases (with any of the 40 files extensions Microsoft invented during years...). You may need to add a JRE to the LibreOffice installation.

Too dismissive of WordPerfect. It is THE superior word processing software, particularly for long or complicated documents. Its "reveal codes" option allows complete control of text, almost impossible in Word and its clones. WordPerfect was once the basic legal text program, but was forced out by what I believe was monopolistic moves by Microsoft. Academics writing complex, footnoted documents still find WordPerfect superior. I started with WordPerfect, labored a few years with Word and Libre Office, and returned to WordPerfect which I find easier to use for both text and tabular information. Its powerful macro program also allows creation of terrific time-saving mini-programs. For less complex writing tasks, I agree that LibreOffice or (ugh) Word are OK. But for complex word processing, WordPerfect is far superior. (I am not an employee or paid by WordPerfect. And I do wish they had a decent datahase program as DataPerfect [obsolete] was.)

I have been using LibreOffice for several years and find the interface to be far superior to Microsoft Office; Microsoft has way too much stuff in their toolbars.

Being a stick-in-the-mud, I still use MS Office 2003. I also have LibreOffice. Occasionally, some app writes a DOCX of XLSX file that Office 2003 cannot read, but LibreOffice can.

I use MS Office 2003 on Windows 7.
(I have a dual-boot with Windows 10, but I don't bother trying Office on 10. I can't stand 10. Its user interface is fatheaded.)

I dumped MS office several years ago and started using Google docs, along with 100G of Google cloud storage! More recently I added a Chrome Book+ with Intel core i3. All works sweet at minimal cost!

I have LibreOffice, I don't use it because I don't need a whole suite. I'm retired and no longer use anything but a word processor. So I have a standalone version of Word that works for me. I wish there were open source word processors that aren't part of a monster sized suite of stuff I don't need or want on my desktop. I do not use Google drive and never will. I use virtually no Google products at all because they track so much. I've a gmail address but use it only as a backup.

used ms office for years, still like it; dont like libre but find I have to use it - ms makes it hard to even get it to load or do anything.
I still have lots of docs and spreadsheets from ms office, that I use, and cant get libre to open them in the correct formats I'm used to.
how do I convert or get them to do so? oldie here and not familiar much with new softwares, libre or ms 365. when menu comes up to ask what program/app to use to open, I never know WHAT to answer!!! any help is much appreciated, otherwise most of my yrs of office, are useless - much important papers too.

Well, I'll go against the grain here.
I have tried most, if not all, of the free word processors and have always gone back to MS Office. I am a writer of books and stories and need a word processor I am familiar with that doesn't have any "rough edges" like some of the "Free" ones. MS Word is worth the $69 I pay yearly for a subscription to 365, and I believe it is a small price to pay if you are a professional writer and your livelihood depends on it. There are also other benefits I won't go into here.

I use Google Docs for the small stuff but not for heavy manuscripts.

If Microsoft starts raising their prices or screws it up, or as they did on Windows 8 and Windows RT, I'll probably switch to LibreOffice or something similar.

I've used WordPerfect years ago, and it was very good, but more sophisticated than Word. So most of us in the engineering office didn't need that. Word worked perfectly. Today I'm retired. I use MS/OfficePro2010. I regularly use Word, Publisher, Excel, Access, and Outlook. I will keep my 2010 until I'm forced to change. Then I will switch to LibreOffice.

I guess I'm one of those dinosaurs, have used MS Office 2019 for 6 years, got legitimate free copy for both desktop and laptop from Microsoft. In the past I had Word Perfect, It was much better than Word, particularly reveal codes but everybody switched to MS Office so I had to also. Tried Libre and Open Office and didn't like them. Have used Google docs occasionally when necessary. When MS stops supporting Office 2019 I'll switch to something else.

I'm using MS Office 2021. I've tried Libre Office (nee Open Office, I believe) several times and never like it. I'm a writer and Word is still the standard for submissions. As a former newsletter editor I understand why. The Open/Libre Office documents were a mess and required a lot of work when opened in Word.

Eventually I suppose I'll have to suck it up and go with the subscription model, but I've simply never found anything that works as well for me as Word.

I did like Word Perfect quite a lot. I notice people mentioning it in the comments. It's no longer available, is it?

I'm willing to give up MS Office and use an alternate. However, I use Outlook and have emails organized into folders. What substitute is there for Outlook?

I have used both Libre and OpenOffice for years. Recently most contacts are saying that they can't open my word doc attachments. I have had to change to Microsoft Office. No choice.