Alternatives to Microsoft Office programs: compatibility
If you’ve tried switching to non-Microsoft productivity applications before, you know there are some issues with rendering and compatibility. For most purposes, everything is fine, but every now and then you may encounter broken markup, rearranged elements, messed up graphs, etc. How grave is the problem for each of the suites suggested in the previous article? We’ve looked for answers, focusing on real user feedback, and summarized the findings. Consider this piece a postscript to the “Microsoft Office alternatives” series.
1. LibreOffice
Writer. Generally, the text editor of LibreOffice is highly compatible with MS Word documents, but complex formatting (floating tables and such) can be rendered incorrectly. Moreover, in some cases, the margins are different, which alters the ultimate number of pages, requiring manual adjustments. There are also reports about problems with rendering of math formulas in files originally composed in Microsoft Word.
Calc. Same as for Writer: simple spreadsheets work well, but complex formulas and charts may not render correctly. There is also user feedback pointing to the occasional need to redo charts in Calc if they were originally created in Excel, and slow loading of large files.
Impress. This is the least compatible app in the suite. Presentations made in Microsoft PowerPoint that are full of complex animations and transitions may be significantly distorted when opened in Impress.
2. Apache OpenOffice
Writer. This app is fairly well compatible with MS Word, rendering documents created in that text editor correctly in many cases. However, Writer hasn’t been updated in years, so compatibility issues pile up, and if today it is only some complex formatting that is challenging for the program, tomorrow the situation will be worse.
Calc. Basic spreadsheets transfer adequately, as do formulas, but OO Calc fails miserably with larger datasets. If you’re using this app only as a convenient table editor, it does the job, anything more complex may be a problem.
Impress. If you have OpenOffice Impress for presentations, it is best to build your slidedecks in this program, because whatever was created in PowerPoint will likely be misaligned when opened in the Apache’s editor.
3. WPS Office
Writer. This editor offers very good compatibility with MS Word files. The only reported issues have to do with fonts and embedded objects, and they are occasional. Plus, the interface may be confusing in certain aspects.
Spreadsheets. Generally compatible with Excel files, but you might want to avoid using really complex formulas, since those can function not as intended. Also, their order in Spreadsheets may differ from that in Excel.
Presentation. Overall, largely doing a good job opening files created in PowerPoint. Certain animations or transitions may render incorrectly, but otherwise, everything is great.
4. SoftMaker Office
TextMaker. SoftMaker specifically focuses on making its apps as compatible with MS formats as possible, and, with years of experience under the belt, they succeed. TextMaker only misses some advanced and recent features, but the developer is quick to catch up. Otherwise, it is an almost perfect alternative for Microsoft 365.
PlanMaker. SoftMaker’s take on the Excel genre is compatible with the original format in the vast majority of cases, but, as mentioned by some users, certain Excel functions might not translate perfectly.
Presentations. Same as with other Microsoft Office replacements, slide builder is the least compatible of the pack, with advanced animations sometimes failing to perform as expected.
5. FreeOffice
Since FreeOffice comes from the same house as SoftMaker, it shares the respective compatibility issues therewith. Given that this suite has fewer features and functions, it is sometimes obvious that this or that formatting/function/formula is not misinterpreted but simply missing.
Takeaway: if you want a free office suite, LibreOffice and FreeOffice are good in the vast majority of scenarios, while WPS and SoftMaker are viable paid alternatives to Microsoft 365 that are feature-rich and practically devoid of compatibility issues. Note “practically” in the previous sentence: some problems with rendering, formatting, and formulas are still possible, so if you are using office software for complex tasks, staying with Microsoft’s products may be a good idea.
