Comparison of Apache OpenOffice with LibreOffice

Both Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice are modern derivative products of OpenOffice.org. In recent years, almost all Linux distributions have LibreOffice as their default office suite. However, in the past 18 months, OpenOffice as the Apache project has returned to the people's view, for the two full-featured office suite, now, free software users can do two select a slightly ~

Even users, however, have difficulty making decisions in two of the most common choices. Three years ago, this twins, three years, for software development is a long time, even so, the difference between OpenOffice and LibreOffice is just beginning to show. In addition to the outdated features that have apparently been removed, there has been little change in both the functional set and the basic logic since the OpenOffice.org era.

Throughout the suite, only a few new features can be found in individual applications, focusing mainly on writer word processing. In fact, most of the differences between them are mainly in the higher level, such as the support for formatting and fonts, the policy of extension of Plug-ins, and so on, which is reflected in whether to keep up with the times and how to standardize the interface.

The difference between the specific procedures

Most of the procedures between LibreOffice and OpenOffice are the same. For example, there is no difference between the draw and the impress, and the main difference is that LibreOffice's latest version supports the use of Android devices to control slide shows; In addition to the slide background, there is no difference between the two, which is good for everyday use, Unless you have a special preference, you can choose which one you want; Similarly, the biggest difference in Calc spreadsheet software is that you can create data forms in LibreOffice.

Even in the most commonly used writer programs, the difference between the two is very small. LibreOffice this side, the edit window at the bottom of the status bar now contains a new word counter, the review tag is no longer limited to a single point, can now be attached to the map, in addition, LibreOffice finally resolved the "footnote can not close to the corresponding text display" bug, in addition, LibreOffice also adds a simple search bar, similar to the one on the Web browser, and removes the option of a graphical horizontal line that has been almost never used in the last more than 10 years.

Formatting and fonts

Some of the more obvious differences are reflected in format categorization and font support. For example, OpenOffice always supports some older save formats, like Aportisdoc (Palm Edition) and Pocket Word. Alternatively, it can open a file in the. docx format, but you cannot save the document as a docx format like LibreOffice.

LibreOffice also has an advantage in font support. It has always had better support for multilingual and advanced typography, so the latest release can support modern font preference formats such as OpenType. More importantly, by "file-> properties-> fonts," You can embed fonts in your document without any tedious operation to ensure font compatibility.

This feature makes LibreOffice a decisive 1 points in the face of the Microsoft Office user's conversion format. Because usually OpenOffice and libreoffice are not very good at working with Microsoft documents, especially those with text tables and graphics objects and complex formats. So if you want to share complex documents, such as brochures, it's best to use PDF instead of open Document Format (ODF).

However, if you do need to convert some local or Microsoft documents, LibreOffice has some decisive advantages. Not only does it read and write most Microsoft documents, but it does a good job of font substitution, which is one of the major problems in document format conversion. While there are still many other issues, such as differences in feature implementations, LibreOffice should be a more reliable choice when dealing with Microsoft Office documents.

Policy towards plug-in extensions

Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice support plug-in extensions, and when you want to enhance or replace a feature, it takes only a few minutes for the user to download and install it. In most cases, the same extension can work well on both OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

The difference is that you don't have to install the most popular plug-in extensions yourself when using LibreOffice. On the contrary, LibreOffice has helped you to install the integration well. For example, the basic grammar checker Lightproof, database Rollup and print tools Reportbuilder, presentation compression tools Presentationminimizer, blog users like Wikipublisher, There are also slide configuration tools Presentationconsole and so on.

These extensions are also available under OpenOffice. Unlike the former, when using OpenOffice, you first need to know about these extensions and then find them specifically, which in turn limits the experience of new users to many features. Therefore, such omissions are a serious shortcoming when OpenOffice tries to provide better modern templates and clip art in its recently released version, especially when it is easy to make up for, (not to mention LibreOffice also provides its own latest templates and clip art).

Update of interface

In the 12 years that OpenOffice.org belonged to Sun and Oracle, its interface, like many other features, was almost lost in the forgotten corners. The result today is that OpenOffice and LibreOffice, as suite products, each have a set of outstanding features, but their interfaces remain at the level of the 90 's. Only the surface of some of the old interface has been removed, in fact, most still need to be updated.

In the latest release, OpenOffice's efforts to completely update its own interface focused on the sidebar. This feature, which you can open with the tool-> option->libreoffice-> Advanced, is labeled "Experimental."

A sidebar is a set of features that are primarily used for user-manual formatting. This feature makes it easy for users to apply styles, because if the user is concerned about the logic of the article, it's easy to ignore the choreography style. However, best of all, it greatly simplifies formatting characters and paragraph tabs, such as the Borders tab in all applications, and the Format tab in spreadsheet cells. Fortunately, the sidebar also redefined the concept of the menu and Style dialog box window.

LibreOffice also has more "adventurous spirit", for example, like the sidebar, the task pane in Impress, which shows the tab names that are used in most slide design steps.

In the Writer editing window, most of LibreOffice's interfaces have been improved, and a word counter has been added to the status bar at the bottom of the window, and the Narrow submenu, originally responsible for managing and editing templates, has now been replaced by a streamlined button in the high-end atmosphere.

More significantly, the main text frame in the LibreOffice is reduced to a four-corner crosshair. Similarly, headers and footers are changed to invisible by default, and if you want to find them, four small right angles indicate their boundary position, and click on them to appear.

A little bit of success. The improvement is the tab in the edit window of the admin header footer in LibreOffice. Although this tab is in fact intended to facilitate manual formatting, it is frustrating that when you enter the first line of a new page, the part that you have entered is always hidden automatically.

Although LibreOffice has reorganized many of the dialog window options, these efforts are far from over. Sometimes developers make libreoffice a mixture of traditional frameworks and modern minimalist art, but at least LibreOffice is trying to solve a long-running interface problem, which OpenOffice not even realize yet.

Make a choice

If the document does not exceed 2 to 3 pages, the average user may often look at the title bar to see whether they are using LibreOffice or OpenOffice. However, for advanced users, LibreOffice may now have a more advantageous position. The advantages are not big, but it is obvious.

This advantage is indeed hard to ignore. The first reason is that, while the LibreOffice has established several months of time, OpenOffice is still focused on management rights and code audits, which may be helpful and necessary, but ordinary users would prefer to see them make more improvements to the code.

Second, most of the LibreOffice developers are former members of the Go-oo, an unofficial branch of OpenOffice.org, with the goal of "rapid improvement". While the Apache OpenOffice project team is still in the process of being built, LibreOffice has attracted the world's most avid programmers, who are passionate about change.

No one has done an accurate survey, but I remember that when the OpenOffice.org community was split, most of the adventurous and innovative contributors chose LibreOffice, while there were some semi-autonomous document groups that worked cautiously for two projects.

In fact, the most important advantage of LibreOffice may be called "Blood sucking license". What do you mean? is the OpenOffice Apache license compatible LibreOffice lesser GNU General Public License, but LibreOffice less GNU General Public License is incompatible with the OpenOffice Apache license. In other words, LibreOffice can "borrow" code from OpenOffice at will, but OpenOffice can't "borrow" anything from LibreOffice at all. Strictly speaking, if you want to "borrow" from the LibreOffice to a feature, OpenOffice must be completely from scratch.

This is likely to change, especially if the Apache OpenOffice has a higher profile than LibreOffice, but LibreOffice's supporters are expanding rapidly and its communities are very active, In just 3 years, more has been done than OpenOffice.org 12 years.

Now, unless you specifically need a feature, there is almost no difference between using OpenOffice or LibreOffice. But I am certain that unless something unexpected happens, the LibreOffice will become more and more dominant. Whichever side you choose to support, you may be able to evaluate it again within a few years.

Via:http://www.datamation.com/applications/apache-openoffice-vs.-libreoffice-1.html

Translator: Mr Small eye Proofing: wxy

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