Why pay for Microsoft Office when you get can get a powerful, full featured 6 Best Office suites free.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice gives you the feeling that you’re using a proper, professional product that’s comparable to Microsoft Office, but completely free. It has much of the same look and feel (especially if you prefer the pre-2007 version of Office, without the ribbon bar) and many of the same functions; useful as they are, none of the other office suites we’ve reviewed comes close. The standard download includes seven tools Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math and Charts while FreeOffice and WPS Office only offer word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs. Interoperability with Microsoft Office is generally good across all the modules, so you shouldn’t experience any problems opening files.
LibreOffice makes extensive use of its Sidebar to compensate for the lack of a ribbon and here you’ll find formatting options and other useful tools. Arranging the screen like this makes perfect sense and makes better use of space than FreeOffice’s equivalent, which is mainly used for tips and to promote its paid-for
version.
The interface is consistent across all programs in the suite; many of your favourite Microsoft Office keyboard shortcuts work just fine; and we also liked the Carlito and Caladea fonts, which are designed to mimic Office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria.
How it can be improved:
The developers need to keep on top of Microsoft Office file formats and although copyright restrictions prevent LibreOffice from copying Office’s ribbon, we’d prefer its interface to have a flatter, more modern look.
Wps Office Free
WPS Office’s Metro-style interface makes you feel like you’re using software that’s up to date and cared-for. It has a good level of Microsoft Office compatibility (although creators of complex documents who swap files back and forth may experience some problems) and it’s fast.
We particularly liked the Skin Management feature, which lets you change the look and feel of WPS Office with a single mouse click, and the selection of templates. These include attractive and useful document layouts, as well as good starting points for presentations and spreadsheets. There’s also a paragraph formatting control that lets you adjust indentations and spacing by dragging the highlighted edges with your mouse pointer. WPS Office’s spreadsheet supports over one million rows and 16,000 columns, while its presentation tool offers more
How it can be improved:
The latest version (www.wps.com) forces you to download the Premium Edition that reverts to the free version after 30 days, so we’ve reviewed an older version.
SoftMaker FreeOffice
As with WPS Office, SoftMaker provides a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool, but while it lacks the same good looks and configurable interface, its familiar ‘Office 2003‘-style layout makes it very easy to find your way around.
Unlike LibreOffice, there's no unified ‘dashboard', but no matter which program you're working in, the other two can be accessed directly from the toolbar. There are neat touches elsewhere as well, including a ‘Save As PDF' icon on the toolbar and a continuous page view which is useful for browsing long documents. Compatibility with Office is generally good and, like the other suites reviewed here, FreeOffice will open password-protected documents and spreadsheets, has a decent mail-merge tool and offers a ‘master styles‘ feature in the presentation program that‘s as easy to use as the one in PowerPoint.
How it can be improved:
You have to sign up with a valid email address to get your licence code, which seems unnecessary for a free program. Conditional formatting created in Excel sometimes gets lost and the word processor needs a grammar checker.
Apache OpenOffice
We've only omitted OpenOffice from the top three because it's so similar to LibreOffice, with which it shares a tortuous history (they originate from the same suite). Although in many ways it's stillthe same product, LibreOffice is updated much more frequently these days and OpenOffice is beginning to fall behind. However, it remains a great free office suite.
SSuite Excalibur
This suite offers a word processor and spreadsheet (with a few bolt-ons), but offers precious little compatibility with Microsoft Office. However, it reads and writes RTF and XLS files, as well as offering its own proprietary formats. It's worth looking at if all you need is a wor processor and spreadsheet combo wear your sunglasses, though, as the interface is rather garish.
Calligra
Probably thanks to its origins in the Linux world, Calligra’s the wackiest suite of the bunch. You get Braindump (mind-mapping) Flow (diagrams and flowcharts), Karbon (vector illustrations), Kexi (database), Krita (painting), Plan (project management), Stage (presentations). Sheets (spreadsheet) and Words (word processing) everything you get with LibreOffice plus a couple of extras. Sadly, Office compatibility is uneven (especially with password- protected files) and performance is a bit sluggish. There's plenty of bang-for-no- bucks, though, and an unusual interface that makes good use of the sidebar.
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