Microsoft Office vs LibreOffice (or NeoOffice Mac)

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I currently have free access to Microsoft Office through my school. When I graduate eventually (although I still have enough time in my program), I will lose free access to Microsoft Office.

However, I seldom use Microsoft Office in general. On my Mac, I use Nisus Writer Pro for “everyday” use, Nota Bene for academic papers, and Keynote for presentations. I generally only use Microsoft Office for checking document compatibility with Microsoft Word.

Therefore, do I need to purchase Microsoft Office eventually when I graduate, or would LibreOffice (or in my case NeoOffice for Mac) satisfy my needs?

Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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It depends on your needs and the field or industry you’ll be working in.

In my case, LibreOffice documents are not compatible enough with MS Office to use in a publishing setting. Conversions back and forth (as you work with an author) create a lot of residue, such as added LF/CRs and change tracking that shows up as regular text.

We’ve had much better luck with documents produced in SoftMaker Office, although even there the MS compatibility isn’t perfect.

 

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Nathan Parker, OscarCP

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Cybertooth wrote:

It depends on your needs and the field or industry you’ll be working in.

Also it’s possible that you’ll need a specific version of MS Office.

Usually employers provide these to employees, though. At least around here. I’ve never bought MS Office myself… but at work I’ve sold several versions of it various ways, including volume, subscription and single packages.

(One organization ended up buying different versions for R&D, manufacturing and management, for compatibility with the other software they were using.)

And, I know a number of people and even organizations who do manage to use LibreOffice for work. (Won’t name previous clients in public.) It all depends…

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Nathan Parker

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True on being provided it. My school is providing it now. Any place I work likely would.

Nathan Parker

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