People aren’t paying for Word, they’re paying for Excel and getting all the other goodies included.
Yeah, LibreOffice is fine for home use, maybe even really small businesses that don’t have to trade spread sheets with external customers, but Excel is the killer app.
Calc’s a fine spread sheet program, but it’s frustrating as hell after using Excel for 30+ years. You can’t trust that it will properly import an Excel sheet and it sure won’t do macros.
The main problem with LibreOffice as a whole is the vast install base of MS Office. If you can work from the beginning in LibreOffice and store things as ODTs and ODSs, you’ll have a fine time. The second you need to work with someone who uses MS Office or deal with legacy documents made in Office, it beats your chin on the floor.
100% for real. I simply can’t do freelancing Excel work with LibreOffice because I know the 1:1 compatibility falls apart quickly. Basic formulas are about as far as I can trust it.
Is there a decent FOSS alternative to excel? Libre has been my goto for years because I never needed anything more, but just in the last week I have a new client with some more rigorous needs, and I REALLY dont want to bite the buellt on 365
Not that I know. Grist and Proton Sheets are worth checking out.
Depending on your exact needs a more specialized tool like SmartSheets or AirTable (browser based, subscription) can be good. WPS office is a little better than Calc in some ways, but no full replacement for Excel.
The problem is everyone expects Calc to be Excel, including full compatibility with reading and writing of Excel’s file formats. As Excel is a constantly moving target, following that path means you’ll forever be a second-rate Excel that’ll never quite be fully compatible.
I find Calc to be a fine spreadsheet program myself, though I’m hardly a power user. If you want to use Excel, then just go use Excel.
I straight up used draw.io to create a paper form. I needed high information density so I can’t waste space formatting stuff the normal way, I need something more graphical and publisher got axed.
People aren’t paying for Word, they’re paying for Excel and getting all the other goodies included.
Yeah, LibreOffice is fine for home use, maybe even really small businesses that don’t have to trade spread sheets with external customers, but Excel is the killer app.
Calc’s a fine spread sheet program, but it’s frustrating as hell after using Excel for 30+ years. You can’t trust that it will properly import an Excel sheet and it sure won’t do macros.
Exactly. Excel is the workhorse. The combo between Exchange and Outlook is the other major major strength of MS Office.
The main problem with LibreOffice as a whole is the vast install base of MS Office. If you can work from the beginning in LibreOffice and store things as ODTs and ODSs, you’ll have a fine time. The second you need to work with someone who uses MS Office or deal with legacy documents made in Office, it beats your chin on the floor.
LibreOffice Writer has eaten comments on documents several times for me. Word handles comments much better.
100% for real. I simply can’t do freelancing Excel work with LibreOffice because I know the 1:1 compatibility falls apart quickly. Basic formulas are about as far as I can trust it.
Is there a decent FOSS alternative to excel? Libre has been my goto for years because I never needed anything more, but just in the last week I have a new client with some more rigorous needs, and I REALLY dont want to bite the buellt on 365
Not that I know. Grist and Proton Sheets are worth checking out.
Depending on your exact needs a more specialized tool like SmartSheets or AirTable (browser based, subscription) can be good. WPS office is a little better than Calc in some ways, but no full replacement for Excel.
I will just leave this here in case you need to go the MS route.
I went over the powershell script out of boredom,
Found this
Anyone knows why they are trying to do 2 tasks that actually do nothing?
Beautiful. Thank you.
That’s fair. Imagine if people invested that much time into calc. A person can dream…
The problem is everyone expects Calc to be Excel, including full compatibility with reading and writing of Excel’s file formats. As Excel is a constantly moving target, following that path means you’ll forever be a second-rate Excel that’ll never quite be fully compatible.
I find Calc to be a fine spreadsheet program myself, though I’m hardly a power user. If you want to use Excel, then just go use Excel.
I straight up used draw.io to create a paper form. I needed high information density so I can’t waste space formatting stuff the normal way, I need something more graphical and publisher got axed.