Libreoffice 5
OFFICE SUITE www.libreoffice.org
What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10
Last year, the best free alternative to Microsoft Office came ninth in our rundown of best free programs of all time (see Issue 433) – but it’d probably rank higher now.
This isn’t just down to the great new design and features in this new release; it’s also because of Windows 10. Those of you struggling to make your trusty old paid-for Office tools work smoothly in the new OS are well advised to try this program instead. It’s open source so it’ll always be free, and it’s created by an active, ever-helpful community. Of course, there are other free Office alternatives, including Office Online ( https://office.live.com) and Google’s Docs and Sheets ( www.snipca.com/17618). However, despite what many tech companies seem to assume, we don’t all want to do everything online.
So what does Libreoffice 5 have to offer? There’s powerful new import and export options that all but wipe out formatcompatibility problems with other programs, notably Office. The spreadsheet tool, Calc, is now far more sophisticated, offering image cropping and conditional formatting, among other new functions.
Libreoffice might be big (211MB for the installer alone), but it’s still much smaller than Office, and unlike Office there’s a portable version that you can run on any PC without installing. It even has an Android app ( www.snipca.com/ 17620) that turns your phone and tablet into remote controls for slideshows and presentations.
To get the main installer, click Download Now, and then click Download Version 5.0.0 on the page that opens ( www. snipca.com/17613). From this page you can also download the source code, an extensive offline help guide and a brand new version for Linux. After downloading the installer (which doesn’t contain any junk) you’re redirected to a donation page, but you’re not obliged to pay. Libreoffice is fee-free and advert-free, and we don’t begrudge its appeal for funds.
There are a number of different options available – all are free, so try them out to see which one suits you best. Rather than convert the PDFS to another format, you can edit them using Libreoffice ( www.libreoffice.org, see opposite page). Open your PDF in Libreoffice Draw, use the Text Box tool on the top toolbar to insert text wherever you need to on the page, and select ‘Export to PDF’ when you’re done.
If you’d prefer to convert to Word, you may lose some formatting but, as you’ve suggested, it would make your documents editable. One way to do this is to download a tool like ‘Free PDF to Word Doc Converter’ ( www.snipca. com/17725, see screenshot), which is a bit basic, but it’s free and doesn’t come with any junk. If you’d rather not install anything on your PC, you can use a free online converter, such as Nitro ( www.pdftoword.com) – just upload your PDF, enter your email address and the converted Word file will be sent to you. Results are very good, but it’s worth checking to make sure you’re happy with the terms of Nitro’s privacy policy ( www.snipca.com/17729).
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