Living with LibreOffice in a Microsoft Office world.....

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I have found that I really need to make absolutely certain that the recipients of documents I create in LibreOffice are in the proper format. In Open Office, you could set the default save format. Well, LibreOffice offers it too, and it includes the new 2007/2010/2013 .docx format.

To make LibreWriter (Word equivalent) always save in .doc or .docx, open it up and go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. Change the format to Word 2007/2010/2013 if you want it to save always in .docx, or save in Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP/2003 to always save as a .doc

Similarly, follow the same process in LibreOffice Calc (Excel equivalent), Impress and the other LibreOffice programs to save in the MS Office default formats. This makes things much easier when collaborating with others or sending attachments.

Fonts

When writing in LibreOffice, the default font is Liberation Serif. It's nice, but it isnt what Word uses. Anyone opening the document in Office will see it replaced with Calibri. So, enter the TrueType Font Installer. Go to the Software Center and look for ttf-mscorefonts-installer. Once installed, you can then install Calibri or any other TTF fonts you want, and use them in all LibreOffice programs.

Or, open a terminal and type:

Code:
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

To install fonts, download them in .ttf format, and open them with the Font Viewer which is already installed. Then you will see an Install button. Click that and you are good to go. :) NOTE: You need to close and re-open Writer to see the new fonts if you had it open when installing them.
Toolbars

Go to View > Toolbars and turn on the Drawing Toolbar to be able to use shapes and arrows and stuff. You can customize it much like Office.

Windows Users Welcome!

YES! Windows users can install LibreOffice. Get it here: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/?type=win-x86&version=4.3&lang=en-US

Comparing Microsoft Office against LibreOffice

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office

I hope this helps!
 
Last edited:

Jim of WVa

Well Known GateFan
I have found that I really need to make absolutely certain that the recipients of documents I create in LibreOffice are in the proper format. In Open Office, you could set the default save format. Well, LibreOffice offers it too, and it includes the new 2007/2010/2013 .docx format.

To make LibreWriter (Word equivalent) always save in .doc or .docx, open it up and go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. Change the format to Word 2007/2010/2013 if you want it to save always in .docx, or save in Microsoft Word 97/200/XP/2003 to always save as a .doc

Similarly, follow the same process in LibreOffice Calc (Excel equivalent), Impress and the other LibreOffice programs to save in the MS Office default formats. This makes things much easier when collaborating with others or sending attachments.

Fonts

When writing in LibreOffice, the default font is Liberation Serif. It's nice, but it isnt what Word uses. Anyone opening the document in Office will see it replaced with Calibri. So, enter the TrueType Font Installer. Go to the Software Center and look for ttf-mscorefonts-installer. Once installed, you can then install Calibri or any other TTF fonts you want, and use them in all LibreOffice programs.

Or, open a terminal and type:

Code:
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

To install fonts, download them in .ttf format, and open them with the Font Viewer which is already installed. Then you will see an Install button. Click that and you are good to go. :) NOTE: You need to close and re-open Writer to see the new fonts if you had it open when installing them.

Toolbars


Go to View > Toolbars and turn on the Drawing Toolbar to be able to use shapes and arrows and stuff. You can customize it much like Office.

Windows Users Welcome!

YES! Windows users can install LibreOffice. Get it here: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/?type=win-x86&version=4.3&lang=en-US

Comparing Microsoft Office against LibreOffice

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office

I hope this helps!

Thank You. I do love me Times New Roman.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
Thank You. I do love me Times New Roman.

Me too. :) That was the first one I installed, and I couldnt believe it was not in LibreOffice by default. It wasnt until I was getting complaints about formatting when people were receiving my LibreOffice Writer documents even though they were in .docx format. Calibri and Liberation Serif are enough different to cause paragraph or page break problems, and in some cases it messes up sentences if the page uses full justification. With this installed, you can be certain that the document will look the same to your Word user as it does to you. Also, you might consider getting Segoe.
 
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