LibreOffice - awesome free Office Suite - gets new UI and lots of updates

LibreOffice is a free, open-source, powerful office suite software that is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it on my home computer when I'm not using Google Drive. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has six applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database) and there are also extensions and templates available. Draw and Math are excellent for creating drawings and images as well as mathematical equations and Base is an excellent alternative to Access.

One of the great features is that it can open, and save as, files in a variety of formats including Microsoft Office (multiple versions), PDF, ODF, and more. I have mine automatically set to load and save as MS Office files so that they work at school without a problem.

Support is excellent, with a great support site and user forums.

Upgrades to this version include a beautiful new user interface with new menus that are easier to use.

“LibreOffice 4.4 has got a lot of UX and design love, and in my opinion is the most beautiful ever,” says Jan “Kendy” Holesovsky, a member of the Membership Committee and the leader of the design team. “We have completed the dialog conversion, redesigned menu bars, context menus, toolbars, status bars and rulers to make them much more useful. The Sifr monochrome icon theme is extended and now the default on OS X. We also developed a new Color Selector, improved the Sidebar to integrate more smoothly with menus, and reworked many user interface details to follow today’s UX trends.”
LibreOffice 4.4 offers several significant improvements in other areas, too:

• Support of OpenGL transitions in Windows, and improved implementation based on the new OpenGL framework;

• Digital signing of PDF files during the export process;

• Installation of free fonts Carlito and Caladea to replace proprietary Microsoft C-Fonts Calibri and Cambria, to get rid of font related issues while opening OOXML files;

• Addition of several new default templates, designed by volunteers;

• Visual editing of Impress master pages, to remove unwanted elements, adding or hiding a level to the outline numbering, and toggling bullets on or off;

• Better Track Changes – with new buttons in the Track Changes toolbar – and AutoCorrect features in Writer;

• Improved import filters for Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Publisher and AbiWord files, and Microsoft Works spreadsheets;

• New import filters for Adobe Pagemaker, MacDraw, MacDraw II and RagTime for Mac;

• Greatly expanded support for media capabilities on each platform.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on office software, download LibreOffice for free. http://www.libreoffice.org/



Related:

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Access

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Google for Educators resources (includes Google Docs)

Free alternatives to Microsoft Access, including a web based one

Access is Microsoft's well known data base tool. However, it only comes in the higher priced versions of Office and many people don't use Office at all. Here are two alternatives:






1. Grubba - free, web based, easy to use database app. Useful for Chromebook users and others looking for a web based solution. There is also a growing community of users and tutorial videos and support. There are pre-made templates to help you get started too. There are a lot of features, so take a look.

2. OpenOffice / LibreOffice Base - OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free alternatives to Microsoft Office and both have a database tool called Base. It is easy to use, with a lot of great features and support and training resources, including an excellent manual. It also can work with SQL and Access files.
http://www.libreoffice.org/discover/base/
https://www.openoffice.org/

I've used LibreOffice for years and love it and prefer it over OpenOffice.

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LibreOffice - free office suite software

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

LibreOffice 4.0 released - better performance and greater interoperability

LibreOffice is a free, open-source, powerful office suite software that is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it on my home computers. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has six applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database). It works great and the menu functions are similar to Office 97, so the learning curve is easy. It is built off of the same code base as OpenOffice. I happen to like LibreOffice better and think it runs faster.

One of the great features is that it can open, and save as, files in a variety of formats including Microsoft Office (multiple versions), PDF, ODF, and more. I have mine automatically set to load and save as MS Office files so that they work at school without a problem.

Support is excellent, with a great support site and user forums.

Libreoffice has just been upgraded to version 4.0 and offers leaner, faster performance, greater interoperability between different file formats such as DocX and RTF documents. Other new features  include an Android app for controlling presentations, UI upgrades and a performance improvements. You can also attach comments to text in documents, import Visio and Publisher files, get themes, ink annotations and over 1500 other changes and improvements.



Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on office software, download LibreOffice for free. http://www.libreoffice.org/




Related:
Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Google for Educators resources (includes Google Docs)

Update on InstallFree Nexus and Rndr - work great on a Chromebook!

Earlier today I wrote about InstallFree Nexus and Rndr, apps that allow you to use other apps, like LibreOffice and Java, on any device. Here's the full article: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2012/05/installfree-nexus-us-ms-office-or.html

I've been using them all day on my CR-48 Chromebook and they work great! The biggest thing that I was not able to do on my Chromebook was accessing our Gradebook system, which runs on Java. Using Rndr, I was able to access it and use it on the Chromebook. It's not as speedy as on a Windows device, but not bad at all, and the company making Rndr tells me that there are some performance improvements coming shortly.

You can also use their apps to use LibreOffice (or MS Office) in the cloud on any device, including iOS, Android and Chrome. I was using the LibreOffice version and I was able to open up, view and edit LibreOffice and MS Office files directly from my Google Drive without needing to convert them to Google Docs formats.

All-in-all, these apps are a great resource for anyone, especially those using Chromebooks.

Check out my full review here: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2012/05/installfree-nexus-us-ms-office-or.html


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Google Chromebooks and Chrome OS revisited - great for education
iPads, Chromebooks, on-device apps, cloud apps - great discussions

InstallFree Nexus - us MS Office or LibreOffice on any device through the cloud

InstallFree Nexus is an application I just learned about that allows you to use different applications on any device you want, while optimizing for that device. You can use Microsoft Office or LibreOffice on an iPad, Android Tablet, Chromebook or any device with a web browser. You can view and edit documents that you have stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, Office 365 and others and even access web apps that are written in Flash, Silverlight or Java. InstallFree Nexus makes it possible to use rich web applications written in Flash, Silverlight and Java on any device. All you need is a browser.



It's cloud based platform that allows you real-time access to these apps. It uses HTML 4 and 5 to work.

It is currently in public beta and will be going to full production this summer. There will be free and paid versions. 

The free version will be called InstallFree Nexus Basic and will include the following functionality:

• The full LibreOffice application suite for creating and editing documents from any device or browser.
• Full-fidelity viewing for Microsoft Office documents.
• Seamless integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, SharePoint, Office 365 and other storage services.

The paid version will be called InstallFree Nexus Premium and will include the following functionality:

• All the capabilities available in Nexus Basic
• Microsoft Office 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher) subscription license:
• $4.99 per month / $49.99 per year for academic users (students, teachers, etc.)
• $19.99 per month / $199.99 per year for standard users

This is a very useful application that schools could use to make it easier for students and faculty to use certain applications. This makes things platform/OS agnostic and would allow everyone access to these apps and resources and would be especially useful in a BYOT/BYOD environment. It would also eliminate the need to install certain applications on devices. LibreOffice is an excellent free app that does everything that MS Office does. With LibreOffice and InstallFree Nexus, schools can eliminate the need for Microsoft Office licenses. 

Rndr enables any browser to render plugins like Java that may not be compatible with the device. This is very useful for the Chromebooks. 

Take a look:  http://www.installfree.com/ 

All of there products are available in the Chrome Web Store at the following links:
- Nexus with Microsoft Office: http://goo.gl/grC0j
- Nexus with LibreOffice: http://goo.gl/zmttd
- Rndr: http://goo.gl/SkqRC

LibreOffice - great free office suite - gets upgrades

LibreOffice is a free, open-source, powerful office suite software that is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it on my home computers. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has six applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database). It works great and the menu functions are similar to Office 97, so the learning curve is easy. It is built off of the same code base as OpenOffice. I happen to like LibreOffice better and think it runs faster.

One of the great features is that it can open, and save as, files in a variety of formats including Microsoft Office (multiple versions), PDF, ODF, and more. I have mine automatically set to load and save as MS Office files so that they work at school without a problem.

Support is excellent, with a great support site and user forums.

The upgrades include built-in grammar checker and a real time work count window for Writer, ability ti embed multimedia in Impress, and increasing Calc's sheet count up to 10,000 per workbook. That's a spreadsheet I do not want to work with. There are quite a few other upgrades too.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on office software, download LibreOffice for free. http://www.libreoffice.org/



Related:

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Google for Educators resources (includes Google Docs)