[TIP] Make LibreOffice Look Better and More Like M$ Office

[Appletax]

Edit: forget LibreOffice, get SoftMaker FreeOffice.

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I am trying to make LibreOffice look better and more like Microsoft Office for basic users that do not want to pay for M$ Office. Here are some changes I like to make thus far. Do you have any changes that you recommend?

Apparently, we used to be able to install LibreOffice themes, but that is now deprecated.

1 - The default icon theme is blurry depending on the scale setting of each individual computer. The solution is to change the icon theme to one that is SVG rather than PNG. So far, I like the default Colibre icon theme, but the SVG version of it.

Tools > Options > View > Icon Theme.

2 - Turn off Text Boundaries (corner angled half squares) - View > Text Boundaries.

3 - Switch to a ribbon-like interface - View > User Interface > Tabbed.

Not sure if anything on LibreOffice's extensions page would be of any use.

Extensions » Libreoffice Extensions

Extensions for LibreOffice suite

extensions.libreoffice.org

 

[ThatPlace928]

I never cared for Libre. OnlyOffice is what I use. I keep my inventory in spreadsheets and it's nearly identical to Excel. I don't have a need for the documents, presentations, or database but those are included with the software, if anyone needs it. It's free to download and use.

ONLYOFFICE desktop and mobile apps

Download free ONLYOFFICE document editors for your desktop and mobile devices

www.onlyoffice.com

 

[Sky-Knight]

It's different software with different usage conventions. Mucking with the default UI sets people up for future issues.

Pay for Office... ($100 a year for a family of 6 is cheap), or get used to LibreOffice / OpenOffice... or whatever else you want. But don't get lost customizing UIs, inform the user and help them through the change only.

 

[britechguy]

Mucking with the default UI sets people up for future issues.

And as someone who used to believe in "extreme customization" for users of assistive technology, and who learned through hard experience that this puts them in a horrible position if they have to use a different machine, I couldn't agree with you more.

Even for tiny tweaks, which most of us do, you find yourself years later, when doing a fresh install on a different machine, saying to yourself, "I know that I did something to get {behavior or appearance X} but I'll be damned if I know what it was!" This is one reason I strongly encourage people to log these changes when they make them (and delete from the log any that they reverse).

The minimum amount of tweaking to default UIs, for virtually anything, is preferable because it allows people to move from machine to machine being intimately familiar with what they will encounter no matter what computer they happen to be sitting in front of.

 

[Appletax]

I never cared for Libre. OnlyOffice is what I use. I keep my inventory in spreadsheets and it's nearly identical to Excel. I don't have a need for the documents, presentations, or database but those are included with the software, if anyone needs it. It's free to download and use.

ONLYOFFICE desktop and mobile apps

Download free ONLYOFFICE document editors for your desktop and mobile devices

www.onlyoffice.com

I have never heard of this one before. I installed it and gave it a quick tryout. It has a nice interface. I don't like how it takes a second or two to open a simple document, and when you close the document it goes to the main Editors page so you have to close two things to get out of the program.

I have tried out SoftMaker FreeOffice before.

I've seen WPS Office as a potentially good alternative. I installed it and like how fast it loads and how nice the interface is and that when you close a document, the whole thing closes.

Annoyingly, WPS comes with ads. I was able to disable them using the Firewall.

Apparently, there's no way to just open up a document directly - you have to open WPS Office first and then click on Docs and then click on blank. I looked in the AppData folder and found direct shortcuts to pretty much every program within WPS with the exception of Docs.

The final thing I would like to do in WPS Office is to disable the paragraph layout tool thing:

 

[britechguy]

I have tried out SoftMaker FreeOffice before.

That's by far and away my favorite alternative office suite for those who just want an office suite and nothing else. It's as close to "the spitting image" of MS-Office's UI as I've ever encountered.

 

[ThatPlace928]

I have never heard of this one before. I installed it and gave it a quick tryout. It has a nice interface. I don't like how it takes a second or two to open a simple document, and when you close the document it goes to the main Editors page so you have to close two things to get out of the program.

I have tried out SoftMaker FreeOffice before.

I've seen WPS Office as a potentially good alternative. I installed it and like how fast it loads and how nice the interface is and that when you close a document, the whole thing closes.

Annoyingly, WPS comes with ads. I was able to disable them using the Firewall.

Apparently, there's no way to just open up a document directly - you have to open WPS Office first and then click on Docs and then click on blank. I looked in the AppData folder and found direct shortcuts to pretty much every program within WPS with the exception of Docs.

The final thing I would like to do in WPS Office is to disable the paragraph layout tool thing:

View attachment 16504

It's odd you have to take 2 steps to close the document. I just save and 'x' out. I never get an editor's page. Not even sure what that is, to be honest.

 

[Appletax]

It's odd you have to take 2 steps to close the document. I just save and 'x' out. I never get an editor's page. Not even sure what that is, to be honest.

 

[britechguy]

View attachment 16505

Which looks analogous to the M365 window:


Which you only get if you fire up M365 via its own icon:


If I invoke any one of the Office Programs from their own individual desktop, start menu, or taskbar icons, that "M365 Central" screen never appears. That's all I do in practice.

I have to believe that were you to invoke any one of the OnlyOffice programs directly (e.g., Document) this thing would not even show up. But I hasten to add I'm not willing to install OnlyOffice to verify this.

 

[ThatPlace928]

View attachment 16505

That is just the page your files are stored in. You select from there what you want to open, instead of the drop down to open files. I like it this way. I don't have to search the PC for my files. They're right there. I save and click the 'x' in the upper right corner to exit, not the 'x' on the file.

 

[britechguy]

I like it this way.

One of the things I love about the Windows ecosystem as a whole, and how third-parties have integrated within it, is that there is virtually always more than one way to "get at" something, often more than two.

I hate these "X Central" style interfaces, but others love them, and none of us is right or wrong.

 

[Diggs]

more like Microsoft Office for basic users

I install Libre Office for those that did not want/need MS Office. I've used it for many years and like it. For new users I set file format defaults to Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx) and Power Point (pptx). (Tools-Options-Load/Save-General) Too often in the past a (residential) customer would finally be brave enough to work hard on a document/presentation/etc. and then send it to someone that only has MS Office which could not open odf documents. Frustrated to say the least. Even today, MS Office odf filter sucks.

 

[Appletax]

That's by far and away my favorite alternative office suite for those who just want an office suite and nothing else. It's as close to "the spitting image" of MS-Office's UI as I've ever encountered.

Yea, same! It's pretty nice. Only change I made was to remove the page margins corner angled brackets.