this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Can I use MS Office natively with that? Also, can I use it as a non-techie lay man in a way that is similar to the way most office bottom-feeders use Windows?
I know there is Open Office but I am lawyer and the free office alternatives just don't have the rich formatting options I need to do my job. I have tried and they just won't do.
Not the full suite, natively. You can install it via PlayonLinux, which works well without fiddling, or you can use Office 365 on the web.
Yes.
Open Office is deprecated. You can use LibreOffice which is free. Or WPS Office or SoftMaker Office, which run on Linux and are 100% compatible with MS Office, but cost money.
Also Only office, which appears to have the best compatibility with MS documents (although in my particular case I find it a bit cumbersome).
Last I used it, it seemed to lack a lot of more advanced features. I think I especially stumbled over the bibliography, though I did not use any add-ons.
One can use Zotero ad Mendeley plugins for bibliography, btw.
First of all, libre office is very competent but I understand that it'll always be very behind whetever Microsoft decides to do next.
Office is available on all systems at office365.com if you must use Microsoft tools.
For the non-tech usage, very much yes. Most of the problems your hear about with linux stem from people trying to make it do stuff that you can't dream of doing on windows because it will stop you. Simply installing a system and using it to browse the web, edit documents, maybe install a few popular programs like VLC or Discord is set-and forget. System installers have recently gotten much more noob-friendly as well, imo the debian and Pop!OS installers don't really allow you to mess up. KDE is a good choice of DE, but you might be more confortable with others. Good news, you can decide later, as switching desktop Environments is easy and preserves your files.
Fyi: Libre Office is the actively developed Open Office fork.
Don't know how it stacks up to MS Office though.
In my opinion, it stacks up VERY well, even better, except the toolbar is by-default a mess for some reason while there's a very easy option to set it to tabbed.
How does the UI size work out for you? I recently took a look at it on a windows pc and the tiny size of most things is the one problem I have with it. Then again, I read something about being able to scale different programs individually somewhere (not for windows though)
https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-do-you-increase-fontsize-on-the-libeoffice-writer-toolbar-and-dropdown-meuns/7821
Thanks, I think this was removed some time ago from what U remember reading. I'll have to check that again though.
(I should really check my accounts inbox more often ^^')
Interesting. Will have a look on the snazzy package manager and give it a go. Ta.
Just out of interest: What are the specific formating options / features you're missing to be able to perform your job?
ToC via Styles formatting and Table of authorities - these are from the top of my head, which I remember not working properly with Open Office. They need to work when I do them and also should be displayed correctly when I receive them from colleagues in docx format.
Format painter, track changes, spell checker in two languages, intendation adjustments, page breaks, and paste as text - I use these like crazy but I don't remember if they were OK in Open Office or not.
https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/swriter/guide/indices_toc.html
https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/can-writer-make-a-table-of-authorities/49015
honestly Libreoffice is not on par with MS Office. I use MS at work and Linux at home and Libreoffice is great for general use, but it is very rough around the edges, and does not have all the capability that MS does. I wish it were not the case but lack of an excellent office suite is one weaknesses of Linux.