I've always been a keen fan of Microsoft Office. But recent versions, and especially 2016, have not impressed me. It's huge, complex, and the endless menus and ribbons and selection screens take up far too much of the display, leaving less room for my own work and thoughts.

This is one of the reasons why I'm currently looking at alternatives, and why I have been experimenting recently with Libre Office. The other reason is that I was working on a PowerPoint presentation the other day, and got to thinking how well Libre Office would cope with Microsoft's modern document formats.

Having tried various open-source free office software in the past, I have to admit that I wasn't confident. But it turned out to be a fascinating exercise. As soon as I copied my PowerPoint presentation to the machine on which I was testing Libre Office, everything worked just fine. Windows recognised the .PPTX format and changed the file's icon accordingly. My presentation opened without a problem. The slide show worked flawlessly, including the fading transition effects between slides.

The Libre word processor, too, worked just fine with some Word documents. And of course there's a spreadsheet too. All of which is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats.

If you haven't yet tried Libre Office, give it a go. It's a perfectly capable office suite, and totally free. It's open source, too. If you get a new PC in the near future and it comes with a month's free trial of Microsoft Office or Office 365, think twice before you pay to upgrade to the full version. Libre Office may well suffice, which will save you money.

The latest version of Libre Office is 5.2.3.3 which is a 213 MB download and is malware-free according to my tests.  Read More