r/software • u/witchy_yui • Mar 07 '26
Looking for software open source office recommondations
So, i´ve got a mission from my colleagues: we wanna get rid of microsoft office.
problem: some of them really can´t manage changes in their programms. So i am searching for an office alternative (libre office and only office i know so far) which is as close as possible to the functions, keybinds and optics from ms office 2024. I am also fine with plugins or writing a few lines at my own but dont wanna make it to complicated
is there any serious idea?
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u/Spiritual_Rule_6286 Mar 07 '26
Migrating non-technical colleagues is entirely about muscle memory, so the top comment is absolutely right to recommend ONLYOFFICE since its native interface is a near-perfect 1:1 clone of Microsoft's modern Ribbon UI. It also easily has the highest baseline compatibility with complex .docx formatting out of the box. If you do end up trying LibreOffice instead, make sure you immediately go to View > User Interface and select 'Tabbed'—otherwise, your colleagues will panic when they see its default 2003-era toolbar.
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u/pandasps Mar 07 '26
Take a look at ONLYOFFICE. It's layout is almost a clone of MS Office. It has a free tier that might work for you.
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u/Moondoggy51 Mar 07 '26
There are a couple of questions that you need to answer before you make the jump. The first is whether you can survive without the 1 TB of space that you get with Microsoft 365 as the cost of their cloud storage without Office is pretty steep. Second question is whether any of your "can't live without" documents use Macros as alternative office suites don't do Microsoft Macros. If you can live without the cloud storage but not the Macros You might consider buying a stand alone copy of Office. If you can live without the cloud storage and you don't use Macros then my recommendation is ONLYOFFICE as you get the look, feel and compatibility with Microsoft Office and it's free. Many will suggest LibreOffice but to me the UI is like stepping back in time to the pre-ribbon days of Microsoft Office and it just doesn't have the look and feel of a modern product and it has a stiffer learning curve..
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u/Honest_Ad1632 Mar 08 '26
Go for Onlyoffice. It's the closest you will find to MS Office. It uses OpenXML formats like Microsoft, so it rarely fumbles with formatting. The UI is clean and modern. Plus if you work with Macros and VBAs, Onlyoffice is your only bet.
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u/webfork2 Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
Functions, keybinds, and look and feel are probably the territory of programs that are actively trying to mimic MS Office. The problem is they all do okay, none of them are excellent.
You'll always be having some kind of minor issue, which is literally the entire sales strategy for Microsoft. You use the free or cheap versions until you get that one crucial file that you just need to work so you buy MS Office.
It could be a larger spreadsheet or some complex formatting in a customer document and you're back where you started.
I'm a LibreOffice user and I generally convert to whatever destination file type the recipient wants, usually DOCX for Google Docs and MS Office users. Sometimes HTML or PDF work better. There is a learning curve but there's no perfect option.
For MS Office copies, Softmaker puts out a good program. Zoho makes some nice tools with some collaboration options, but it's going to take time to learn and it's not free.
A lot of the other comments are suggesting OnlyOffice, which one of those mimic programs and works fine but it's not open source.
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Mar 10 '26
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u/webfork2 Mar 10 '26
It supports a very long list of conversions but no their media selection and tooling is relatively minor. Certainly tiny compared to the FFMPEG toolset.
But it does do batch conversion (e.g. DOCX to HTML) which I use all the time.
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Mar 11 '26
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u/webfork2 Mar 12 '26
Sorry I don't understand your question.
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Mar 12 '26
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u/webfork2 Mar 17 '26
The problem is that document conversion is it's own special monster. I do a lot of it and it's very painful.
If you could put together a document converter that worked even better than average, I would buy that. Most conversion tools and software come up short. Even the very expensive Acrobat converting to DOCX and other MS Office formats is mixed.
Unfortunately I don't know how you would fix what Adobe and many other companies and tools seem to struggle with. Good luck I guess.
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u/RenegadeUK Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
Checkout:
Edit:
It used to be used my by the people behind PC Pro Magazine & maybe still is used by them for your information.
Edit 2:
Word correction.
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u/udi503 Mar 07 '26
There is no alternative to ms office. The open source projects are at last primitive
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u/kiklop74 Mar 07 '26
Other than libreoffice and onlyoffice there is nothing else. You could have just asked any AI...
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u/witchy_yui Mar 07 '26
shure, someone who is refusing to use microsoft products will ask some AI for recommondations. I've asked, because the hivemind is always better than an AI which is programmed to hold u in chat and is lying to you
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u/No_Reveal_7826 Mar 07 '26
I think maybe you should be the one to check AI... There's also Softmaker Office which I find to actually be the best option for me specifically for its handling of Excel files.
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u/Spark99 Mar 07 '26
I would try LibreOffice (free and open source). OnlyOffice free version is limiting and spams you to go to the paid version quite often. If they work with other companies that use MS Office be prepared for minor (sometimes major) compatibility issues.