Sliding over to LibreOffice — or not

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PRODUCTIVITY By Sandra Henry-Stocker LibreOffice is a great replacement for Microsoft Office. It provides a very similar set of applications. All are
[See the full post at: Sliding over to LibreOffice — or not]

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Patricia Grace, lmacri, SueW, MrChaz

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Been trying for years to get users to switch from MS Office to LibreOffice. Mission failed. Users don’t like LibreOffice. Don’t exactly know why, but I think it’s mostly the toolbar layouts. What definitely killed interest in LibreOffice was the way it handles (handled?) Excel files; occasionally parts of .xlsx files where just missing in Calc.

The biggest omission in LibreOffice, IMO, is the absence of an Outlook-equivalent.

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And another big learning curve

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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LibreOffice can be themed. I don’t use its default Ribbon, but a Theme which resembles older versions of MS Office. As noted in the article, the Document Foundation has no interest in hosting services, and this includes an email client. Thunderbird or Claws Mail will do the job of a desktop email client rather nicely, but neither is fully integrated with LibreOffice. Some of the Excel issues are better now, but there is still nothing in LO Calc which properly handles Pivot Tables and certain advanced features of Excel.

For mobile use, in addition to Collabora Office, there’s Kingsoft’s WPS Office. Both have good compatibility with LibreOffice and MS Office. And Microsoft does have mobile versions of Office apps, in addition to Office 365.

 

-- rc primak

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Patricia Grace, MrChaz, AlexEiffel

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Simon Weel, Mozilla Thunderbird would be a worthy addition in my opinion

illegitimi Non Carborundum

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teuhasn2

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I still use OpenOffice 4.1.10 myself on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, and I find them quite adequate for my needs. Actually I use only Writer most of the time. It is because of habit that I stay with OpenOffice and not switch to LibreOffice after abandoning Microsoft Office many years ago.

Files created by OpenOffice can be read directly by LibreOffice. So if in the future I need or want to switch to LibreOffice I don’t think I will have a problem.

I still keep several VMware virtual machines (Windows XP / Windows 7) with old versions of Microsoft Office (2003 / 2010) installed in case I need them, but I have not had a need to use them for work so far.

I will in all probability never go back to Microsoft Office (and that includes the subscription 365 version). No point to pay if a free OpenOffice / LibreOffice is good enough for me.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

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That’s one nice thing about open source software — old versions don’t always go out of fashion and get abandoned or become non-functional.

-- rc primak

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Does LibreOffice have a better spelling/grammar checker than OpenOffice?

I too switched to OpenOffice suite years ago and find it more than meets my needs, except for Spell/Grammar check. Many of us OO users have been asking and waiting for improvements for years, but so far nothing.

My work-around which may help others:
My laptop came with Word Starter, so I use it to do a thorough Spell/Grammar check on my OO documents. I save the OO as 4 prf [title of .odt].doc, open it in Word Starter, then open the .odt doc, and enable view side-by-side. With both open I can go through the .doc, find the errors and change them in the .odt. NOTE: yes, Word Starter will open the .odt but doing so messes up the formatting (images and footnotes primarily) for some reason, so resorted to the method I now use. If someone has any easier method, please share!

Cheers!

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There’s a grammar and spelling checking plugin for LibreOffice. Don’t know if it’s available for OpenOffice. But it’s supposed to be pretty good. I don’t use it, but do have it installed, both in Windows 10 and in Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS, as well as Gallium OS on my Chromebook.

-- rc primak

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grams

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End user attitude is the problem, not Libre Office. Laziness and disliking change are common traits by clients. Libre Office does what I need and more, from an ex-ms office user who has no need to go back. A huge bonus is for me is compatibilty across all mainstream operating systems.

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Most end users only use about 10% of the available features of any office suite. So for most of us, even many with small businesses, LibreOffice is more than adequate. It just may not support the one feature you or your business use.

I use Linux and Windows, so cross-platform compatibility is a must for me.

-- rc primak

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LibreOffice, I would like to install the spreadsheet program only, is this possible for Windows 7? I’m not interested in installing a complete suite for just one program with excess baggage. Thank you

illegitimi Non Carborundum

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If I remember correctly, during initial setup, opt for a ‘custom setup’ whereby you can disregard what you don’t want by unticking the appropriate boxes. That should be suffice for your needs.

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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rc primak

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I occasionally teach college courses.  In the classes, Microsoft Office (including PowerPoint) is used by the teachers and students.

I have many presentations from earlier, that I prepared using LibreOffice.  Aside from the relatively minor interface differences, LibreOffice is compatible with MicrosoftOffice.

However, for PowerPoint presentations, I always have to check when I am converting from LibreOffice presentations to PowerPoint.  The reason is that when the conversion occurs, there are invariably a few glitches that are introduced.  It is typically things such as bullets whose spacing does not perfectly line up.  Of course, they can always be corrected in PowerPoint.

The bottom-line is this.  If a presentation has been developed in LibreOffice, do not assume that the conversion to PowerPoint format will be perfect.  Always check it.  Otherwise, your previously perfect presentation will give the impression that you don’t care about the details.  (Not good for a professor.)

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wavy

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I have never in my 50+ years in IT used Microsoft Office.
Used anything but.. I use portable LibreOffice for years.

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rc primak

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I use LibreOffice as a free and open-source alternative to MS Office. But in the past year I was collaborating on an illustrated book with two other writers using Word 2017, and font, formatting, and spacing differences when trying to edit the same chapters made LibreOffice (Opening a document file and Saving As .docx in Text) a no-go for that project and showed that there are some limitations to compatibility between MS Word and LibreOffice Writer. For us it was too much work to try to get the documents to display and page the same way in the two word processing apps, particularly for illustrations and their captions and inserted tables. (This is less of an issue in a text-only document.) Since they didn’t want to learn and work in LibreOffice, I had to use an older version of Word I’d bought as a standalone license for this book.

I do like Thunderbird as a free, open-source replacement for Outlook and don’t feel LibreOffice needs its own email app for that reason.

I think it is important to support these projects with annual cash donations if you can’t help with programming. It doesn’t have to be as much as you’d pay Microsoft to subscribe to Office 365. Just a recognition there is a cost to keep these apps going for developers and distributors and using them regularly does confer a moral obligation to help out.

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Patricia Grace, wavy

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I switched to LibreOffice when Microsoft switched to the ribbon, which meant I could never find what I wanted in the menus.  That’s on the order of 20 years ago (maybe just under), and I’ve never regretted the decision.

I use only Writer, Calc, and Impress, so I don’t know about differences in the other modules.  My experiences are:

• Word and Writer are very close to 100% compatible.  The only routine problem I’ve found is in page formatting, especially line numbering.  Documents formatted in one don’t always look the same in the other.
• Excel and Calc are closer to 90% compatible.  The biggest differences are (a) each has some functions the other doesn’t, and (b) in Excel, if I remember properly, pressing <Ctrl-Home> takes you to the top left cell in the unfrozen section, while in Calc it takes you to cell A1.
• Powerpoint and Impress are more of a problem, especially if you are creating a presentation with audio.  Powerpoint — and I’m talking about Office 2000 so this could be fixed by now — works only if the audio is embedded in the presentation file.  Impress, on the other hand, works only by linking to an external audio file.  Makes it rather difficult to put together a presentation to be sent to a number of individuals (in my case, putting together a DVD celebrating a high school class reunion).  The solution was to create the presentation equivalent of a PDF — SWF, is it?  Obviously this isn’t something I do often!

Best of all, though, is that with LibreOffice (or its forerunner, Open Office) you don’t have to put up with Microsoft’s arrogance!

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Ditto on dsliesse’s comments, even though at the time I was still a worker bee and the company was a MS shop. The “ribbon from hell” we called it in the IT department. Since retiring LibreOffice is an easy choice (free, compatible, easy to use) but I’m still using Outlook. In some cases old habits die hard but LO works great for all my needs.

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The main problem with these stories that talk about using <fill in the blank> instead of Microsoft Office is that they never address the real problem; mainly complete compatibility.  The answer, right now, is a resounding NO.  There is not a single drop in replacement for Office that its user can rely on 100% of the time to work flawlessly with Office files.

So far the only 3rd party product that actually uses the Microsoft macro engine is  WPS Office.  It is a pretty good replacement and executes macros remarkably well, but I did observe formatting errors in both the word processor and the spreadsheet.

Softmaker Office really begins to feel like an Office replacement and is more faithful in formatting, but lacks the macro compatibility.

So, can a casual user get by with one of these alternatives?  Of course they can.  But can a real user that must be able to flawlessly interchange and work with documents from other Office users?  Unfortunately, NO.

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Strongly and respectfully disagree. As a semi-retired freelance writer, I have used LibreOffice for years, and never had an issue with a publisher, especially using MSFT format files, PDF’s, or what have you.

YMMV, but I used to make a living using it.

According to Wikipedia:

LibreOffice uses a “Time-based release schedule” for predictability (Nice, instead of having an unwanted or unnecessary update rammed down your throat)

There are now over 200 million ACTIVE LibreOffice users. Pretty good for an outfit that started with 25 million in 2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice#Release_history

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As a writer, I imagine you did not have much use for macros in your documents, and perhaps did not use a spreadsheet program all that much.  And if you were primarily working with manuscripts, the requirements are usually geared towards fairly vanilla formatting rules for clarity sake.

Unfortunately, in heavily formatted documents, especially with non-text elements, and in Word and Excel documents that contain macros, which is more common in the business world than you may have realized, compatibility across office suites continues to be elusive.

Trust me when I say, I truly desire a compatible product not sold by Microsoft.  And, I absolutely don’t want any type of cloud solution.

I preload Libre Office on every computer I deliver when the user does not provide or ask for a copy of MS Office, and tell the user to give it a try before buying Office.  After trying to work with it, anyone with more than simple needs usually has me remove it and install Office, citing compatibility issues with documents from work and from other sources.

Unfortunately, that is the reality of today.

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teuhasn2

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As you, I belong to this small number of people who do use “advanced features” and my Excel books are full of VBA macros. They insure the automation of many routine tasks, and I really need them…

For several years, I’ve been looking for any means to get rid of Microsoft’s hegemony: I tried LibreOffice, and many others, but no one can play my macros 🙁

But you said, about WPS ” It is a pretty good replacement and executes macros remarkably well”

Did you really test WPS for that purpose? Why didn’t you adopt it, then? Was it only because these formatting problems you evoke?

I think I personally wouldn’t care, if I could get rid of MS 🙂

Thank you for your help.

Best regards.

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Yes, I purchased WPS and got the macro add-on loaded.  In testing all the documents I had with macros, they all worked.  This was by no means an exhaustive test, but it gave hope.

I wasn’t thrilled with the interface, but could certainly learn to use it.

Unfortunately, with renewed interest I opened my letterhead document and got broadsided when I noticed it didn’t look the same as it did in Word.  Subtle things were different.

It has been a few years so I may revisit to see if they’ve improved, but it does highlight the issues.

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I use Office 97 to print my xmas card labels from a data base of names and addresses. I have never got that to work in Libre Office.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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teuhasn2

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I have been using Libre Office for years – ever since it forked from OpenOffice I think.  My needs are not complex and I have usually been able to find any question I have answered someplace online if not in the Help manual.  It is no more user friendly than MSOffice which I used through Win98.  But with a little investigation you can learn what you need to.

Using all 3 for a while back in about 2000 I think I decided on Libre.  It appeared that there was more current development there and I liked supporting (and paying for) the Open Source programs.  I felt like that way I was supporting those who could not pay and allowing them to have access to good programs.  Open Office seemed to have some problems for a while so I let it go.  Then Microsoft put in a bunch of new stuff (ribbon etc) which made it awkward for me so I felt I did not need to use it.

Now I use Libre and Google Docs generally and they serve my needs well.  I have encouraged family and friends who are Windows users and they find it useful.  The Apple people seem to balk.  No idea why.

 

 

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I have a question that is important, at least to me:

Has anybody prepared a slides presentation with Libre Office and tried to show it at a meeting where the computer in use was either a PC running Widows, or a Mac? With a presentation that was not in PDF format, and perhaps had animations in it?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

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Nobody has mentioned the matter of available fonts in LibreOffice compared with those which come with Microsoft Office.  Unless you have had Microsoft Office installed on your device, then all you have available to you is a download of Microsoft Truetype Core Fonts for the Web, early versions of Arial, TNR, and about half-a-dozen others including the greatly-loved [!] Comic Sans.  Admittedly font substitutions occur, but the resultant character widths will be different from the originals, perhaps only subtly but enough to cause line and pagination differences in Word / Writer.

BATcher

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What you’ve mentioned and more is available over on pjotr’s helpful site for linux users a ton of useful tips/fixes for ANY linux or Libreoffice users.
Well worth a bookmark for reference 🙂

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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MrChaz wrote:

I’m not interested in installing a complete suite for just one program with excess baggage.

You don’t have to install at all. Use the portable version (I do for years).

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Wow, how timely! I was just in the process of considering the switch. Sure enough, all my Excel spreadsheets opened with Libre Office. The formatting didn’t carry over, not even borders around cells which was a little odd. Otherwise, I am relieved and pleased. So many quirks were happening with Office software and with pricing increasing while support wanes, I couldn’t justify continuing. (We really have allowed tech companies to be jerks to their customers for too long).

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teuhasn2

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In my freelance work, I need to use what the customer expects. If I start giving them documents with incompatibility issues, they start looking for somebody else to get the job done right. Excuses don’t cut it. So for better or worse, it’s MS Office for me.

I’ve given SoftMaker Office (in both Windows and Linux) extensive trials and I like it, plus I like the idea of supporting competitors to MS Office. However, SMO continues to have little niggling issues with Word files and sooner or later I have to save the file in Word anyway before I can send it off with confidence. When you’re handling book-length manuscripts, there’s more than enough to do already without having to deal with these incompatibilities on top of everything else.

 

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Background experience: Long ago I used WordPerfect DOS then WP for Windows and MS Office 2003, 2007. And tried many others. When WP’s newer owners failed to keep the product updated and finding functions on the menus became complicated I gave up.
When MS began playing around with going to cloud-based office I switched to Libre Office after trying other office suite options.

My needs are simple: mostly word processor, spreadsheet, and ability to open MS Word & Excel docs.

One option I tried was the free [older] version of Kingsoft Office. Great set of tools and MS Office compatibility. BUT, without asking, it repeatedly updated to the latest version and demanded $$ to unlock features, no matter the settings choices. Bye forever, won’t tolerate this kind of trickery no matter how good your product might be.

I’ve use Libre Office for years. Nice product. Regular updates. Reasonable compatibility with MS Office. But familiarity breeds frustration. Nice selection of themes but none makes it easy to predict and learn which menu item or ribbon tile might contain the command or function you’re seeking.

Well, read the documentation ! I did! The online help is and has been a source of complaints. Search lacks clear link to specific item you’re looking for with far too many useless returns. Voluminous manuals, ten covering version 7.x alone. An avalanche of words, little useful information beyond the most basic. More importantly, few examples of usage cases, usage hints, gotchas, etc. Last I looked the spreadsheet functions list noted some Excel missing functions and some that acted differently from Excel but the individual listing provided just the name and format example.

BTW, for formatting and other differences between LO and MSOffice check out this helpful page of LO wiki:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office/en

Based on another member’s recommendation I tried Softmaker Office. Subscribed to their newsletter and took advantage of limited-time discount on their 2021 Office Suite. Haven’t regretted purchase since.

Choice of classic menu or ribbon layout. I wasn’t a fan of ribbon but their implementation is pretty well designed AND the layout is logical to me and easy to learn. Just as importantly, the same function may appear in more than one ribbon tile. Quite useful for different workflows.

Compared to LO their documentation is exemplary and a pleasure to read. Each component manual is very logically laid out. Like a good lecturer each begins with a synopsis of what is to be covered. Then follows both explanation and examples, hints, warnings, and links to other related information. The authors are not afraid to repeat earlier information when necessary for clarity rather than simply linking to it.

Indeed, the ‘hints’ are sometimes humorous. Such as: This function may not seem logical but MS implemented it this way in Office and we chose to follow their usage for compatibility.

The Planmaker [Excel equivalent] manual goes to great length to explain their spreadsheet functions and any differences with similar Excel functions. If you browse to Softmaker [dot] com >Support >User manuals you can look over the documentation.

BTW: “SoftMaker Basic is modeled after the industry standard Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) from Microsoft.
[…]
[However,] BasicMaker does not produce directly executable program files, as it does not contain a compiler that creates executable files. Instead, you build so-called scripts with BasicMaker. These can be opened and executed from within BasicMaker.”
— from BasicMaker manual.
From a FAQ elsewhere: this was a deliberate design decision because such executables were a known vector for malware.

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SueW, wavy, Cee Arr

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Earlier, in this thread #2378936  , I asked a question here that is relevant to people who make presentations using PowerPoint. The question remains unanswered. So it looks that nobody here does PPT presentations, or those who do never used Libre Office, at least for making presentations. Funny world, isn’t it?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

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The closest I can come to the conditions stipulated in your original question is that I have viewed in Libre Office on a Linux Mint computer a PPT presentation that was prepared on a Win 10 computer. It was seamless as near as I could tell and nothing seemed out of place. Not sure whether that helps you or not.

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DrBonzo: ” Not sure whether that helps you or not.”

Well … not really, but it is nice that at least one person has noticed my question. Which actually should interest anyone who makes PPT presentations and might want to use Libre Office to prepare similar presentations, instead of PowerPoint, to show them in places where the computers available to run the slide show are  either Windows PCs or Macs.

Because that at a meeting where the computer for showing the slides was not known to you beforehand,  it could be a nasty surprise, right in front of an audience gathered to hear and see what you’ve got for them, to find out, the hard way, that this does not work and all you have to show for all your efforts preparing for this occasion is a perfectly empty screen, except for the error message on it, like the biblical writing on the wall “Mene, Mene. Tekel, Upharsin”, in your case meaning: “This presentation format has been weighed and found wanting, folks, so this is all you are going to get from this sorry excuse for a speaker, so better just leave and see if you can  start your coffee break early! This time-wasting loser is not invited to join.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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OscarCP wrote:

Because that at a meeting where the computer for showing the slides was not known to you beforehand,  it could be a nasty surprise, right in front of an audience gathered to hear and see what you’ve got for them, to find out, the hard way, that this does not work..

Never rely on local hardware when preparing any presentation.
Always bring your own.

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Ascaris

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Alex: I agree, except, in this case, the hardware in question is the computer used for the presentations, which is set up by the meeting or conference technicians with the organizers’ blessings, so it is rather unlikely that they will let one start unplugging their things and plugging one’s instead in the middle of the meeting, to use one’s computer instead of theirs to drive their projector; and most certainly one’s projector won’t be allowed as an even temporary replacement of theirs. Not to mention that the person presiding the session can have a possibly fatal cardiac episode, and the technician in charge might get abusive and even physical about it.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
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OscarCP: You bring the device (laptop…tablet..) on which you have created and tested !! your presentation. The rest (cables, projectors, water, soft drinks..) are up to organizers.
It is good to have a small 7-14 ports (usb-a, hdmi, usb-c, sd, vga, dvi/display port..) hub.

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Alex, that would be nice, but won’t work at meetings with several presentations per session running in parallel with other sessions and, therefore demanding a very tight compliance with the published schedule. Because people go by it to attend presentations made at different but simultaneous sessions. Removing the computer provided for the session, replacing it with another and, afterwards, plugging the provided one back again can create not only delays, but also risks more time-consuming complications, usually with very little time to spare between presentations. Believe me, I know what I am writing about, because I have both attended, presented at and chaired sessions like that, and that’s how it is, particularly in large, important meetings lasting only a few days and with many speakers accepted to present their work.

Unless someone else with comparable experience provides convincing evidence here that using Libre Office presents no risks of the kind I have detailed in my previous postings in this thread, I shall very strongly recommend that people consider things very, very carefully before using Libre Office for making presentations, at least at large and, or important meetings, especially if there are many speakers scheduled to give talks and, in consequence, schedules are tight and compliance with them is seriously enforced.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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I would think that any office worth its salt would have a free HDMI cable for the big TV in the presentation room. It takes less time to plug in a HDMI cable than it does to transfer a presentation over to another computer.

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Not everybody attending big meetings and with something worth listening to say carry a computer around when traveling to a meeting, because they assume that carrying in an USB drive the PPT or PDF of the presentation will be enough. And it should be.

Not to mention the possible hassles of carrying a computer through Security on the way to boarding a flight.

Those with the presentation in their portable device with an HDMI port, or a dongle for that, might not be welcomed with open arms, for the reasons already explained. It does not matter what one thinks is easy or difficult, quick or time-consuming: the person in charge of the session will most likely prevent any fiddles with the audiovisual setup, as will the one who is in charge of such a setup. You go with what is there, which is pretty standard and to be expected, or you don’t go at all.

And then there is also the issue under discussion, of how compatible a Libre Office presentation can be with the usual audiovisual setup at a big meeting.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
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New version of LibreOffice 7.1.5 has just been released today.
More info over on the doucumentfoundation blogsite.

LibreOffice 7.1.5 includes around 55 bug fixes, with 20% focused on Microsoft Office file compatibility (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, and legacy DOCs)

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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Ascaris, OscarCP, Alex5723

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I am waiting for the PortableApps version which take usually a couple of weeks.

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For those people who have had issues with LibreOffice not rendering a document the way Office had, be sure you’ve tried the latest version! For Linux users, the version in the repo could be quite a bit older than the newest version.

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I haven’t used Office in years, but I don’t like LibreOffice either.  I want a toolbar, not a ribbon, and I prefer to pick and choose which apps to install, not the entire suite when I only use one or two of the apps.  I’m sticking with OpenOffice.

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AmbularD wrote:

and I prefer to pick and choose which apps to install, not the entire suite when I only use one or two of the apps.

Install ? The less you install on the flimsy Windows OS, the better. Use portables. LibreOffice has portable versions.

https://documentation.libreoffice.org/assets/Uploads/Documentation/en/GS5.2/HTML/GS5214-CustomizingLibreOffice.html

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I am not  familiar with the expression “portable application”. I am guessing that it means something like “one carries it in an USB thumbdrive, sticks the drive in the PC when one wants to use it, then does *something* and runs the chosen software *in some way* on the PC.

Perhaps someone could correct anything wrong in the statement above and fill in the gaps? Thanks.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application

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OscarCP wrote:

I am not  familiar with the expression “portable application”

Portable application are application you copy to a folder on your hard-drive and run the software from that folder. No installation needed. No changes to Windows OS, registry…To “uninstall” you just delete the folder. No traces remain.
Of course you can run the portable app from a USB, external drive…

LibreOffice Portable.

~90%+ of software I use are portable apps. I don’t install software if there is a portable version.

PortableApps.com

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OscarCP

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Thanks, Alex.

That is what I do with my own software: I just create it and save the executable, sometimes also the source, in one or more of folders where I might need to run it (or, being my own, modify), later on. But some applications come with libraries and several other files besides the application itself.

So I imagine a portable version would have all that in some folder, probably compressed, that one downloads and then decompresses in some conveniently named directory. Correct?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

So I imagine a portable version would have all that in some folder,

Yes. Portable apps usually carry all the necessary components needed for the app to function.
Of course portable apps use OS resources/functions too (copy, print…)

example : Portable Firefox ESR :

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OscarCP

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Alex, Thanks again for explaining this interesting thing I did not know about.

Is this a good place to find and download portable applications?

https://download.cnet.com/utilities-portable-apps/

Or would you recommend another site instead?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

Is this a good place to find and download portable applications?

No.

I recommend :

PortableApps.com
or
SourceForge PortableApps.com

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windbg, OscarCP

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LibreOffice 7.2.1 released

If you’re a technology enthusiast, early adopter or power user, this version is for you!

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LibreOffice 7.2.0 portable released

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LibreOffice Portable Fresh 7.2.1

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LibreOffice 7.2.2

Release Notes

Berlin, October 14, 2021 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 7.2.2 Community, the second minor release of the LibreOffice 7.2 family targeted at technology enthusiasts and power users, which is available for download from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. This version includes 68 bug fixes and improvements to document compatibility…

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LibreOffice 7.2.2 portable

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? says:

when i run libreoffice –version, i get this:

>libreoffice –version
LibreOffice 6.4.7.2 40(Build:2)

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LibreOffice 7.2.3 Community

Berlin, November 25, 2021 – The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 7.2.3 Community, the third minor release of the LibreOffice 7.2 family targeted at technology enthusiasts and power users, which is available for download from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/. This version includes 112 bug fixes and improvements to document compatibility.

LibreOffice 7.2.3 Community is also available for Apple Silicon from this link: https://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/7.2.3/mac/aarch64/&#8230;

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LibreOffice 7.2.4

Torrent : https://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/7.2.4/win/x86_64/LibreOffice_7.2.4_Win_x64.msi.torrent

Release Notes : https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.2

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LibreOffice 7.2.4 Portable

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/portable-versions/

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LibreOffice 7.2.5

Release Notes

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Libreoffice 7.2.5 portable

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Mods – Surely it’s time to close this topic?

For the last 5 months it’s been completely off-topic and is now nothing more than just a list of ongoing updates.

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But Alex has to have somewhere to put his update posts.  🙂

cheers, Paul

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Perhaps an ‘Updates’ topic somewhere so they can all be aggregated in one place?

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