Any alternatives to OpenOffice?

[avaya]

Now I'm not normally one to criticize fellow software engineers and I don't mean to troll but I'm wondering whether OpenOffice/LibreOffice really is the state of the art open source 'Office suite' are there any alternatives other than MS and Google Docs? I've used it for over 5 years now; on and off and I can say without a doubt it's the most difficult ham-handed piece of software I've had to use. As a software engineer myself I don't get to use office suites much but have had my fair share of crumbly software which is manageable but Open Office seems to have a big community behind it yet it deals with absurd bugs that you'd expect in closed alpha testing.

To be a bit more concrete, I'm working in Calc at the moment if you hide a row and then copy the data set the hidden row is still copied defeating the purpose of hiding it, if I save an ods file and then reopen it my formulas have been removed and I have to re-enter them again, horizontal scrolling only works in discrete steps so I cannot see how far I'm scrolling when I'm using wide columns. These are the issues that I'm currently having at this moment, there's plenty more. With Writer I've had docs completely wiped out when saving in certain file formats and people losing faith in the Ubuntu operating system because important documents have been erased, these have been recoverable by extracting the compressed file format of Writer and then explicitly going through the XML file that it's using and searching for the words and copying them out and reformatting them again. I haven't mentioned the issues with formatting and saving to doc files because I believe that's more Microsofts fault than OpenOffice but these are still issues.

A lot of the time I'll find solutions on these forums which is good because it shows people still care about the software but the solutions tend to be hacks - use filters instead of hiding - why have the hide functionality at all?

I've been actively trying to get people to move onto Google Docs as much as possible as I believe the lack of native support outweighs the downsides of using OpenOffice but I suppose my real question is am I missing something, do people just get used to these issues because you're working with OO on a daily basis and they fade to the background?

[Zizi64]

To be a bit more concrete, I'm working in Calc at the moment if you hide a row and then copy the data set the hidden row is still copied defeating the purpose of hiding it,

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=64039
https://help.libreoffice.org/3.3/Calc/O ... ible_Cells
Use the Filter...

if I save an ods file and then reopen it my formulas have been removed and I have to re-enter them again,

Which filetype are you using?

horizontal scrolling only works in discrete steps so I cannot see how far I'm scrolling when I'm using wide columns.

It is a logical method. Why you want to see a half cell or column?

[acknak]

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

... if you hide a row and then copy the data set the hidden row is still copied ...

I'm not seeing this when copying through the clipboard. What steps did you follow?

... if I save an ods file and then reopen it my formulas have been removed ...

I don't see this either. Are you sure you're saving to .ods (ODF file format)?

... I've had docs completely wiped out when saving in certain file formats ...

Some formats are not well-supported and it is possible to shoot yourself in the foot. OO/LO do have some really nasty file handing issues, but they're very rare. I've used OO for ten years and I can't remember ever losing a file. The problems see to be very difficult to nail down and they've not been addressed.

I'm not arguing with your general point: yes, OO/LO have some a lot problems, some of them fairly serious. They are NOT a "free replacement for MS Office".

Even so, there's no other open source that comes close to providing the functionality that OO/LO provide.

OO/LO are poor examples of open source, I'd say. There are millions of users, but few contribute anything back. Most of the work done in building OO was done by paid developers and now that they're gone I'm not sure there's a critical mass left to continue improving it. Both projects have trouble attracting developers, (I believe) because they aren't "fun" to work on. Everything internal is just grossly complex. LO has done a lot of work to clean up some of the mess but it's still very hard for someone to get to the point that they can contribute new features or make design improvements.

But despite the warts, OO is still a very valuable option and nothing is as compatible across platforms and with other software. Choose whatever works best for the situation.

[esperantisto]

I'm not arguing with your general point: yes, OO/LO have some a lot problems, some of them fairly serious. They are NOT a "free replacement for MS Office".

M$O does have lots of problems too. So what? To me, OpenOffice IS a good replacement to M$O. Not just because it’s free, but because its development is driven by real needs of real human beings, not by decisions of some marketing department monkeys. From time to time, I have to use M$O, and this crap makes me curse like a sailor because of a stupid interface, because of lots of stability issues etc.

As for alternatives, well, try SoftMaker Office. I’ve seen some users reporting better compatibility with M$O file formats. It’s not free though.

[RoryOF]

I don't use MS file formats except very, very rarely. Working all the time in OO's native formats on linux (Xubuntu 15.04 at present) I have excellent stability.

[hargrove]

I'm a relative newbie--used OO in the past and an using it again after a couple of years away from it. Several comments relative to this discussion.

1. I found that the OO user interface still had a familiar look and feel to it. In the interim, the Other Office Suite has gone through several updates--a process that appears to involve hiding any functions I normally use in a menu that is no longer readily visible, but can be easily invoked from the touch screen. Or, since I work on a desktop, I can use a convenient keyboard short cut like Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Home-Tab-F11--or I could if it were documented anywhere.

2. As others have pointed out, other Office Apps have their own flaws and foibles. I recently tried to do a simple bar chart of a block of 6 contiguous data elements in a single column in Excel, and got a message that the selection was to complex for the App to handle. I accept that I must have inadvertently done something in the process that introduced the complication. But, there was nothing to indicate what that might have been that I could find.

3. The overwhelming difference is support. I invariably find the Other Office Forums (there appear to be dozens of these) exercises in frustration and futility. There may be other Office Apps out there, but I haven't seen anything remotely comparable to the quality of support that this Open Office Forum appears to offer.

[Zizi64]

I'm working in Calc at the moment if you hide a row and then copy the data set the hidden row is still copied defeating the purpose of hiding it,

There is an extension for this task:
http://extensions.libreoffice.org/exten ... ible-cells

In my opinion it is not a perfect tool, but it is usable...

Install it, and then use the new menu item (after selecing a cellrange):
Edit - Copy visible cells only

[hershel]

I use MS office for many years and open office on different computer. The functions are almost same. Both of them have problems too but, both problems have support system that will help to solve it. I never experienced to lose even one file in both office suite. I think it's a matter of I get used to both product. However, if you really want the other alternative of OO. You can try WPS Suite. I think it's also free.

[Zizi64]

You can try WPS Suite. I think it's also free.

As I seen on the homepage the professional version for Windows is not free. (There is a free - personal - version with limited functionality: There is no macros; no Draw, no Base applications, it can not save into Standard ODF formats...)