Free Office Software Suggestions...

[TurnThePage]

(Specifically for small screens)
Yesterday, I installed Open Office on my netbook, which has a screen resolution of 1024x600. A quick test of the word processor, showed that it's very usable except that the toolbar that opens on the side of the screen uses up a substantial amount of available real estate. The "toolbar or whatever you call it" is closable so that's no big deal, except I'm not familiar with the hotkeys to access those features. Guess I'll be doing some learning. Just wondering what others have done in similar circumstances.

[Redsky]

Open Office apps work great on both PC's and on Mac computers. In fact Open Office works better on the Mac's than Microsoft Office for the Mac and there is much better file compatibility for sharing documents between Mac and PC computers.

[TurnThePage]

Yup, that's the one! It's worked very smoothly for me so far, though I did have one strange display problem when trying to view Chrome downloads.

[strollin]

BillyW wrote:
The OpenOffice sidebar is indeed easy to access. Cool! According to my install of Windows 8.1, metro apps require at least 1024x768 to run, which renders things like Windows Update unusable. Hence the reason to find a hack to get past that shortcoming. ...

This is what I did to my netbook so that I could run Metro apps on it: Change Your Netbook's Resolution

[1775]

The developers of LibreOffice are the original developers of OpenOffice. They broke away when the OpenOffice project was going in a direction they were not satisfied with and saw more potential for developments. They are basically the same suite with similar looks - different customizations perhaps - and equal features. LibreOffice - per the developers has more potential for improvements and future development.

To the poster who asked if they are alternatives to MS Office the answer is yes. Each component mirrors MS Office and file formats are compatible. What you write on one you can read and edit on the other.

[TurnThePage]

Why yes they are!

[Horizon170]

Are these that are discussed rivals,alternatives to MS Office?

[TurnThePage]

The OpenOffice sidebar is indeed easy to access. Cool! According to my install of Windows 8.1, metro apps require at least 1024x768 to run, which renders things like Windows Update unusable. Hence the reason to find a hack to get past that shortcoming. The previous install of Windows 7 worked and looked fine, but had built in networking restrictions that were really cramping my style. The Win8 "hack" was a simple registry setting, just in case someone else finds themselves in a similar situation. Even though I do IT for a living, I can't bring myself to rely on (or trust) the "cloud".

[AsheGuy]

Google Docs is free and, being part of Google's cloud, backup is automatic. Of course it depends on an Internet connection, but docs can be flagged to keep a copy on the device so they can be used offline.

I've moved all my doc/spreadsheet stuff to Google and I wouldn't go back to a PC-based app. I also have a netbook among other devices. It works fine on the small screen.

The beauty of cloud-based apps is that you can get to the app and documents from any device, smart phone to tablet to computer. Again, assuming you have online access. Wi-Fi is widely available now and my cell phone has a wi-fi hotspot so I am seldom disconnected.

Just another alternative. 🙂

[phays]

If your disk space is limited, you might try going to portableapps.com . You can install programs on a thumb drive and run them and not need to take up your disk space. They have versions of Open Office and Libre that will run from the thumb drive. One nice feature is that you can take your thumb drive to any machine, run your programs and not leave junk on the machine.

[moonlightrunner]

I've used Open Office for 10 years. I just prefer it. Went from a desktop with a large monitor to a Win 8.1 Notebook PC. I can see no difference. But then I can't see as well as I used to! 😄 I probably wouldn't be able to see a thing on a tiny netbook screen.

[strollin]

The controls you see on the side of the Writer are called the Sidebar by OpenOffice. The default is for the Properties option of the Sidebar to open on startup but if you click the x at the top of that window, it will close and the sidebar will be reduced to only taking up a single icon width on the side of your screen. If you now exit Writer and come back in, the Properties option will remain closed until you click on it's icon. If you prefer, you can view/hide the Sidebar from the View menu, just remove the checkmark to hide it, check it again to see it.

I have an older (6 years old) Acer Aspire One netbook with an N270 Atom processor running at 1.6Ghz and maxed out with 1.5GB of RAM and upgraded with an ssd. It runs Win 8.1.1 better than it ran XP that it came with.

[TurnThePage]

LibreOffice looks like it just might be the cat's meow! By the way, just thought I'd share that said netbook has been "upgraded" to Win8Pro and an SSD. It scoots along nicely for only having 2G of RAM. Getting the metro apps to work in that low resolution was a bit of a challenge, but it's working well now.

[1492]

Click For Full-Size Image.

I also use LibreOffice primarily. To get an idea of how LibreOffice Write would look on your Netbook's screen resolution of 1024x600, click on the image.





Click For Full-Size Image.

This is what Kingsoft Write would look like. Though free, its not open source, so may display ad links when you first open the app. Again, click to see what it would look like on your Netbook screen.

I use Kingsoft Office Android version in my tablet.

[aslakson]

Take a look at Kingsoft - it's basically a clone of MS Office, but using the "old" interface. And it's free. How Microsoft lets it live is beyond me, but it's a dandy bunch of software.

al