Office Suites on Test
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GROUP TEST OFFICE SOFTWARE OFFICE SOFTWARE GROUP TEST Ben Everard now has an office, so sets off in search of some office software. On Test Office Suites ffice suite is an odd term, include some form of visual Libre Office since it seems to assume database tool. URL www.libreoffice.org Othat everyone does the For the purposes of this review, VERSION 4.3 same thing in an office. It obviously we’ll focus most strongly on the LICENCE LGPL/MPL can’t include all software that is word processor, spreadsheet, As the dominant office suite for Linux, needed by anyone in an office (after presentation tool and diagramming LibreOffice sets the standard. all, this author has used Steam in software, since in our experience, his office). Similarly, it can’t be these are by far the most used part Apache OpenOffice software that is only needed in an of most office suites. URL www.openoffice.org office, because for many people, Good office software should VERSION 4.1 word processors are only needed have a shallow learning curve. It LICENCE Apache for personal work. It can’t even be should be easy for a beginner to get Can Apache rejuvenate this suite now it’s software that is used the majority started, yet have plenty of power for been released from Oracle’s clutches? of the time in an office since, many advanced users. Above all, a good Linux Voice readers probably spend office suite should make a typical Calligra more office time using a text editor office worker more productive. or IDE than a word processor, but In other words, it shouldn’t be URL www.calligra.org that doesn’t mean Vi should be frustrating to use – it should just VERSION 2.8 LICENCE GPL considered part of an office suite. get out of the way and let you do Qt’s main contender is getting closer to However, rather than there being your work – and it mustn’t lose your challenging the status quo. any logic to what an office suite is, work in the event of a crash. over the past 30 years, a certain It should also let you collaborate consensus has built up on what to with people using other software. Gnome Office expect from one. This means it must be able to URL www.gnome.com/gnome-office The core of an office suite is open Microsoft Office documents. VERSION various undoubtedly a word processor While we may wish that this wasn’t LICENCE GPL and spreadsheet. Without these, necessary and that the world used Not really a suite, but a collection of it’s hard to claim that a particular open formats, the fact is that the applications from the Gnome project. bundle of software is an office majority of people using office Kingsoft WPS URL www.wps.com “A certain consensus has built up on VERSION Alpha 15 LICENCE Proprietary what to expect from an office suite.” A newcomer to the Linux world with an excellent interface. suite. There is generally some suites are using Microsoft Office. form of vector drawing ability This also means that it must be Softmaker FreeOffice (often included for its ability to able to use Open Document Format URL www.freeoffice.com create diagrams rather than pretty files. While these are no where near VERSION 690 pictures), and a presentation tool. as prevalent as Microsoft’s format, LICENCE Proprietary Beyond this, it becomes a little they are becoming more common Fast, lightweight, and with excellent less standard. Some suites include especially now the UK government document format support. email, contacts management and has committed to using them as and calendar software. Others standard. 56 www.linuxvoice.com OFFICE SOFTWARE GROUP TEST LibreOffice The office suite you probably already have installed. ibreOffice is the default office suite for the vast majority of Linux distros, but Lit hasn’t been for long. Up until the start of 2011, most distros came with OpenOffice.org, but LibreOffice forked from this due to concerns about the way the project was being led. Most distros very quickly adopted LibreOffice even though, at that point, the two suites were very similar. LibreOffice consists of six applications – Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Math and Base – which are a word processor, spreadsheet, diagramming tool, presentation tool, maths formula editor and database respectively. One area that LibreOffice has rapidly improved is support for MS Office files. Most MS Office files open, but complicated formatting can be lost. This becomes less of an issue with each new release. Impress’s controls are scattered about the window, and the sidebars disappear on some tabs. Easy interface The layout of Writer is based around a tool that’s improved the most under the user interface in LibreOffice. It’s confusing menubar and sidebar. Together, these give LibreOffice banner is Calc. This is now faster, and unintuitive. It’s possible to create good plenty of access to features, while still supports larger spreadsheets and has more presentations using Impress, but doing so providing enough screen space to display advanced formatting options. It also isn’t a nice experience. the document. The sidebar is quite a new supports GPU acceleration, which allows addition, and it doesn’t feel like the choice of faster visualisation of real-time data. This is VERDICT features on it is optimal just yet, as there’s most commonly shown-off as a way of LibreOffice is the default office suite in most Linux no clear split on what goes in the top bar showing stock-market data, and will distributions for a good and what goes in the sidebar. In fact, most probably remain a novelty for most users. reason. controls are simply duplicated on both. The Impress is the one exception to the good Apache OpenOffice The veteran Linux office suite. hen LibreOffice split from OpenOffice. This flow of code will probably support for Microsoft Office files, and a better OpenOffice.org, Oracle handed the reduce as the two code bases diverge status bar. Wproject over to the Apache because it will become harder and harder to OpenOffice has become a usurped foundation, and it’s now known simply as translate code across. product. If you find yourself with a system Apache OpenOffice. The biggest problem with OpenOffice is that has OpenOffice, you probably won’t have OpenOffice is at a disadvantage compared simply that LibreOffice is just a little better too many problems, but there’s little reason with LibreOffice, because it uses a more than it in almost every area. There’s not so to actually install it if you have a choice. restrictive licence than LibreOffice (The much different that you would immediately Unless OpenOffice can find a niche, it’s likely Apache 2 licence rather than the LGPL). notice, but as you use it, you become aware to slowly fade into obscurity. This means that LibreOffice can take any of little things that just make the experience new code from OpenOffice, but OpenOffice nicer. For example, LibreOffice uses standard can’t take code from LibreOffice (unless of GTK dialog boxes for opening and closing VERDICT The once mighty office course the original author agrees to license files, whereas OpenOffice uses custom-built suite is struggling to find it under the Apache Licence). For example, ones that don’t fit in with the look and feel of its purpose. LibreOffice acquired its sidebar from the rest of the desktop. LibreOffice has better www.linuxvoice.com 57 GROUP TEST OFFICE SOFTWARE Calligra More applications doesn’t mean more productivity here must be something about bar is minimal, and almost all activity office suites that makes people takes place in the sidebar. The tabs Twant to fork them. Calligra split are clear and well labelled. In some from KOffice in 2010 and quickly ways, it’s a little like a vertical version of became the more popular of the two. Microsoft’s ribbon interface. It can take KOffice stopped development shortly a little while to get used to the sidebar afterwards and now Calligra is the only having all of the controls if you’re used major open source office suite based to looking at the top of the screen, on Qt. Traditionally, this has meant it’s but once you’ve used it for a while, it the office suite of hardcore KDE distros, becomes second-nature, and it makes but perhaps we’ll see it gain some good use of the available screen space. popularity on LXQt, the relatively new The sidebar seems particularly well desktop that aims to provide a fast suited to Words and Stage, but it doesn’t Calligra writer keeps the features in a well-ordered sidebar, working environment using Qt widgets. work as well in Sheets. Perhaps this is and leaves the writing area distraction-free. Calligra is made up of Words because of an inherent difference in the (wordprocessor), Sheets (spreadsheet), way users interact with a spreadsheet issue. We would struggle to describe Stage (presentation tool), Flow or perhaps the Sheets interface just the interface of Stage (the presentation (diagramming tool), Author (ebook needs a little refinement. tool) in positive terms, but it is probably editor), Karbon (vector graphics Words and Sheets both epitomise the least bad open source presentation editor), Kexi (a database tool), Plan (an option. organisational tool) and BrainDump. Krita is the shining jewel in Calligra’s That’s a lot of applications, but much “Once you’ve used the Calligra crown. It’s an excellent digital drawing of it will be irrelevant to most users.