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Micro***t Word on Linux and alternatives (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Are there good Microsoft word alternatives that support Linux (I don't mind closed source)? Libreoffice is meh and only office is quite good, but are there any better ones? Also, is there a way to install word on Linux using wine? When I do that my laptop just overheats and loses internet connection.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What is it with Microsoft Word that makes you prefer it to others?

LibreOffice and OnlyOffice are pretty much the only free software office suites that really hold a candle to Microsoft Office's functionality. LibreOffice defaults to the Toolbar interface but changing it to Tabbed will make it look like Microsoft Office. It takes some getting used to and isn't as smooth but once you start using it for a few weeks you will get used to it.
WPS Office is a Microsoft Office clone that works fine on Linux. It's a pretty common Microsoft Office substitute and is nearly identical in most aspects of its interface. It's made by Kingsoft, a Chinese company. The software is closed-source and there is a free version that contains advertisements.
Microsoft Office Online is available through your browser free of charge at portal.office.com. It contains Word, PowerPoint, and Excel but only has basic functionalities. Collaborative editing is still supported on it which you might care about.
Microsoft Office can be installed using WINE but in my experience, it is usually not stable enough for daily use. I would not bother with it. You should not install things manually using WINE. It's highly recommended that you use some wrapper software like Bottles, PlayOnLinux, or Lutris (common for games).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not op, but what drives me back to word (and other ms office like pp and publisher and win is:

90%: Far Superior spell and grammar and style check

10%:

Easy integration of a good tts to read my own texts to me as well as lecture for university.

Easy citavi integration

Auto complete sentences (at least in English)

superior layout presets (on click and OK and modern enough style to submit without even thinking about it) (Far superior for publisher)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you tried languagetool? There is an integration for Libre Office, Obsidian, MS Word and others. It offers spell checking, rephrasing and is superior to the build in checker in my experience. You could compare it to DeepL versus Azure Translate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

This looks quite interesting tbh. I will habe a look, thanks for suggesting

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

As someone with dyslexia, the superior spell and grammar check is what I miss most in libreOffice. I usually have to use an external tool for spell check like grammarly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For libreoffice, does it support change tracking and digitally signed documents with digital signature + photo of physical signature?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

@JustEnoughDucks @NateNate60 I'm sure about the first two features: Yes. I don't know about a picture of your manual signature, unless you talk about simply embedding it in a document: That's for sure possible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

For me, I use the office suite at work, and one of the simplest things that makes me wish i could use it at home is that damn search bar in the top.

After that, I appreciate that libreoffice introduced the ribbon UI. I grew up with word 2003, so i know what it was like, but after they introduced the ribbon ui, it immediately felt more easy to use. Especially the style picker.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Where doed WPS office source it's ads? I mean, if you run it in a (more or less) sandbox (well, you might want to have access to the files you're editing), and without access to internet, how does the ad interface behave?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

I actually don't remember seeing adverts on the Linux version when I tried it out a few years ago. Maybe that's changed, or maybe they just don't run adverts on the Linux version.

Disabling WPS's Internet access will remove the advertisements. Strangely enough, the WPS blog gives instructions on how to do this in Windows.