Which office suite do you use?

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5730 votes tallied
LibreOffice
69% (3942 votes)
Apache OpenOffice
9% (519 votes)
Microsoft Office
8% (440 votes)
Google Drive
3% (197 votes)
iWork
7% (419 votes)
I don't use a suite, a mix and match.
4% (213 votes)

Which office suite do you use?

Office software suites offer a host of tools to help you get things done: email, a word processor, notepads, spreadsheets, as well as, presentation, finance, and publisher applications.

Which office suite was your first? Do you love or hate the one you're using now? From your experierce, how would you compare and contrast a proprietary suite to a free and open source one?

If you don't use a suite of office apps, all packaged nicely together, what tools to do you use in tandem to get work done? Would you say it's just as nice or better?

 

 

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45 Comments

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Drew Kwashnak | November 14, 2013
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I use a mixed bag of suites depending on when and where I am access the files.

At work, I am limited to the Microsoft Office suite they provide. Outlook is the one product I use the most, followed by Excel.

I use a log of Google products because when I am at work, the longest period I am sitting in front of the computer, if I am doing anything for myself personally I use it via the browser as opposed to downloading, emailing and using anything locally.

I also like that the Google Docs are not extremely complicated and works pretty smoothly compared to Microsoft Office online.

When I am at home, unless I need the added power of LibreOffice or a local Microsoft Office, it is just as easy for me to continue what I started in Google Docs. Additionally, if I have to access it from work to update or tweak it I don't have to worry about getting access to it again.

If LibreOffice or OpenOffice were to produce a fully-functional web-based interface that can be run in an ownCloud setup then that would be an awesome alternative to the Google/Microsoft duopoly.

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Joshua Parker | November 14, 2013
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Although I voted iWork, I also use OpenOffice depending on the project.

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Marc O'Brien | November 14, 2013
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Great survey topic! ProjectLibre ( http://www.projectlibre.org ) is an open source replacement of Microsoft Project (part of the Office family) We are very impressed with the progress at both LibreOffice and OpenOffice! The future is bright and the international adoption is really impressive....

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qubit | November 14, 2013
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Is there a way to see the results of the poll without voting?

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Jason Hibbets | November 14, 2013
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You must vote to see the current answers to an open poll. We typically run polls for four weeks. Once they are closed, we show the results. You do not need to be a registered user or logged in to vote. But if you are logged in, you'll earn points for voting.

Jason

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Daniel Thompson | November 14, 2013
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While I use Microsoft Office the most, I love Open Office. Their presenter is far more compatible with PowerPoint than Libre. Great tools to have!

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Stephen Brooke | November 14, 2013
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A mixer/matcher, but Open Office is what I most commonly use. WordPerfect isn't on the list, but I do find it useful for certain tasks.

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JDOdesigns | November 14, 2013
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I have used OpenOffice for a number of years prior to Apache taking over development of the software. I've always been a fan of the software, and feel strongly that Apache is heading in the right direction. There are certainly times when I may be away from (my) computer and need to work temporarily on another, and in those instances, it's generally Microsoft Office that's installed, so I'll use it. As far as email goes, Mozilla Thunderbird has been my email client of choice for years now, and integrates nicely with both my google accounts, and email addresses provided by my domain/hosting provider.

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gyprat | November 14, 2013
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I use Microsoft Office and OpenOffice on my Windows 7 computer ( more OpenOffice ) and LibreOffice on my Linux computer.

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SuiteCRM | November 15, 2013
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I use LibreOffice + Thunderbird + Planner (Ubuntu) as the default tool set. Increasingly we're seeing clients asking for integration with Google Docs. I have a bad feeling about this. We're coming out of a couple of decades of proprietary client>server "standards" and are just about to repeat the debacle with a new set of proprietary browser>server ones. When are we going to learn that the new shiny things at the bottom of the xmas tree are not necessarily where the best gifts are?

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Robin Muilwijk | November 15, 2013
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I'm like Drew (1st comment), I use a mix of applications from Microsoft, LibreOffice and Google Apps.

Microsoft because of work, LibreOffice at home. When mobile, I fall back on Google Apps, or in case I need to share docs which is easy and simple when on Google Docs.

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Jen Wike Huger | November 15, 2013
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I use Notepad++, LibreOffice, Google Drive everyday!

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IndianArt | November 16, 2013
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Have known & used OpenOffice for years. Learned about LibreOffice because of Ubuntu.

I like both AOO & LO a lot.

Google Docs + Drive is great. I feel sad Google doesn't integrate LO with Google Docs. This way (Integration) people will get so many more features & off-line benefits.

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MikeF | November 18, 2013
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IndianArt: There is an extension for LO/AOO that lets you sort of intergrate with Google Docs and Zoho. It works pretty well. You can load and save directly to/from Docs.

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IndianArt | November 18, 2013
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MikeF are you talking about: OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs version 3.0.0 ?

I find that this extension has stopped working for several months. Besides I think it requires Java which caused LO to slow down a lot.

This extension was so useful I used to use it practically everyday. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on my comps anymore.

In addition, I feel Google should promote LO as its off-line counterpart of Google Docs which will give Google feature parity + complete off-line capability. This will help LO as well because of the big endorsement of Google.

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MikeF | November 19, 2013
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Yes, you're right. Just tried it and it's not working anymore. I haven't used it in a while, so I was just assuming it still worked. Lesson learned!

Another option would be to use either InSync or google-drive-ocamlfuse to set up a direct filesystem connection with your Google Drive account. I use google-drive-ocamlfuse, and it lets you use Google Drive as if it were a hard drive. Load and save directly to it from LO. Pretty seemless.

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Simon Phipps | November 18, 2013
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I understand LibreOffice 4.2 will introduce Google Drive read/write support.

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IndianArt | November 18, 2013
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@Simon Wow, that would be great & ergonomic too. Will save numerous clicks multiple times + saves the bother of going through a browser. Saves time, Carpal Tunnel syndrome & headaches.

Now I am eagerly looking forward to LO 4.2! :)

Also happy about Google's support for OpenDocument Format (.odt) in Google Drive.

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Drew Kwashnak | November 19, 2013
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@IndianArt
Microsoft Office Online actually provides the option to save everything as an OpenDocument Format, though it naturally defaults to MS Office format:

<em>Office document defaults</em>
<em>Select the default file format for Office documents you create. This setting will only apply to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.</em>
<ul><li><em>Microsoft Office Open XML Format (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx)</em></li>
<li><em>OpenDocument Format (.odt, .odp, .ods)</em></li></ul>

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IndianArt | November 20, 2013
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That’s true Drew, this is a good move by MS.

Even in Google Drive, one can download a new document in ODF but I could not get Google viewer to read ODF documents, for which the ZOHO app was needed. I think Google Drive should support ODF more actively.

I feel Governments worldwide as well as educational institutions must insist on ODF. Otherwise, I think other office suites will forever be chasing format compatibility that one company sets like a monopoly. These formatting anomalies (whether accidental or deliberate) that I believe needlessly crop up when different office suites are used should be prevented by legislation, where ODF should be the standard.

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Unidentified | November 18, 2013
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KingSoft office is also quite good. Use it all the time on Android. Its Windows & Linux versions are very good as well.

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Veronika Capotosti | November 18, 2013
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LibreOffice is my favorite suite in my Fedora 20 and I'm fully satisfied http://youtu.be/8HZ6ZWQnfbc

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Veronika Capotosti | November 18, 2013
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LibreOffice is my favorite suite in my Fedora 20 and I am fully satisfied http://youtu.be/8HZ6ZWQnfbc

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Georges Lacombe | November 18, 2013
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I use IBM Symphony that is based on Apache and also MS Office and Google. Google is best when I need to work on a collaborative paper.

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Brian Smith | November 18, 2013
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Calligra, used to be Koffice in KDE

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Meine | November 18, 2013
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preferrably I use a mix of AbiWord, Gnumeric, Claws Mail and !mpressive and Leafpad. at the office we only use Redmondware, but I try to persuade my colleagues to try the nifty features of Impressive only with a pdf...

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7ero | November 19, 2013
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I use Softmaker Office and Google Drive

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Brian9000 | November 19, 2013
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I use OpenOffice mainly because I have Ubuntu 10.10 on my desktop. I quit upgrading at that point since I despise Unity, and reloading all of my files and programs from scratch after upgrading to Mint would be a laborious process taking several hours. On my laptop I have Linux Mint with LibreOffice. I seem to be able to transfer Impress slide shows from OpenOffice to LibreOffice without difficulties. I use Microsoft Office only when I am forced to; the ribbon is an aggravating mess, and I have had documents utterly destroyed by Word when I tried to link documents together.

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Incog | November 19, 2013
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This book strongly recommends LibreOffice:
www.freeyourselffrommicrosoftandthensa.org

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Carlos-Xfce | November 23, 2013
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I just use LibreOffice.

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pauloamgomes | November 26, 2013
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MS Office at work due to obvious reasons.
LibreOffice and iWork at home.

I don't like MS Office neither LibreOffice interfaces, both are too poor in terms of usability. First is too complicated and second is like Office some years ago, iWork is a bit better, at least is simple.

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Eddie G. | December 4, 2013
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I have used Microsoft's office suite for years.....and I got floored by OpenOffice, (before it was taken by Apache.....when it was still called "StarOffice"!) But Ive been using LibreOffice since it's inception and I love it, it's fast on my fast laptop...it does what I want it to...when I want it to..and it doesn't have half the footprint size of MS Office, not to mention I run it on a Linux machine at home...and when I'm at work I use MS Office, because that's what is being used by the company.

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Anas R. | December 5, 2013
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I think future is for web-oriented office applications; something based on RichStyle Project: http://richstyle.org/about.php.

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laurent556 | December 9, 2013
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LibreOffice.org on Ubuntu 12.04 for work.
For small group projects I usually use Google docs. Not as Open though

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blackjackshellac | December 10, 2013
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No mention of gnome or kde suites? Me, I use gnumeric, gimp, inkscape and, very occasionally abiword (nearly never) when I need it. OpenOffice and LibreOffice are too much like the bloatware from Micro$oft for my needs.

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Kor | December 16, 2013
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OpenOffice.org every where.

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Mr. Keen | December 17, 2013
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May we have the results please?

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Robin Muilwijk | December 17, 2013
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Hi,

This poll is still open, you would need to register/login and vote to see the current results. Results should also show as soon as the poll is closed, which should be anytime soon. And if this is not the case, we are also looking into other options sharing the results. So if you are interested, stay tuned.

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Indian-Art | December 18, 2013
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Robin,

I've logged in however I am still not able to see the results. Please could someone help?

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Robin Muilwijk | December 18, 2013
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Hi,

You can't see the results, directly under the title and image of the post?

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Indian-Art | December 18, 2013
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No, the numbers & the bar graphs have gone for some days. :(

Tried dx browsers.

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Robin Muilwijk | December 18, 2013
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Thanks again for the feedback! I'll have to check with the team later today, who has access to the system behind it, and check what is going on.

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Indian-Art | December 18, 2013
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Thank you Robin.

:)

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Mark Rodwell | December 17, 2013
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I also use Microsoft Office+Google Docs+Easy Projects (I use project management software that works on Gannt charts, it helps me keep my business on track), such a mixture of tools.
If you ever need some of those, check out http://www.easyprojects.net/gantt-chart-software/

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Jen Wike Huger | December 18, 2013
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The poll is now closed and the results are visible to everyone. Thank you to everyone who voted! This was a very successful poll.

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