Ever since I started using a computer, I've used Microsoft Office for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. This was two decades ago, when Microsoft had pretty much no competition. Add to it the fact that Windows PCs came with the Office suite pre-installed, so it made sense to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. However, times have changed since then, with a bunch of options now available — completely free of cost. Among those, LibreOffice is an excellent alternative to MS Office. It's completely free, cross-platform, and has a lot of features similar to its MS counterpart. With so much to offer, you would think that LibreOffice must be the new default for most people. Unfortunately, that's far from the truth.

A big part of that is due to Microsoft's ecosystem. Thanks to OneDrive being a popular cloud platform among Windows users, lots of people opt for the Microsoft 365 subscription — which provides both cloud storage and access to MS Office. Then comes Microsoft's proprietary file formats like XLSX and DOCX that may prevent users from making the switch. More recently, Microsoft's needlessly complex XML formatting also came to light — as an effort to keep users locked in. However, LibreOffice busts all myths related to compatibility by letting you open and edit files exported from MS Office. Owing to these factors, I decided to ditch Microsoft's productivity suite in favor of LibreOffice for a week. Safe to say, I don't think I'll ever pay for Office again — especially since I have already replaced OneDrive with Nextcloud. Here's how you can make the switch as well.

Supports all formats

Open MS Office files with ease

The biggest concern that most people would have when switching to a different platform is compatibility. Thankfully, LibreOffice handles all files from MS Word, Google Docs, and other productivity suites without a problem. I tried several files across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — and they opened just fine. To my (pleasant) surprise, there weren't any formatting issues either. All the text remained just the way they were saved. I also tried opening a Word document with a few images, and the layout was just fine. For the sake of testing, I also saved a document on LibreOffice and opened it on MS Word. Again, no issues whatsoever. Notably, some fonts that are exclusive to MS Word will not appear properly on LibreOffice. The same applies to SmartArt and other such Microsoft-exclusive features.

If you've just switched from MS Office, you will find the layout to be slightly different. I wouldn't say you'll get used to it instantly, to be frank. There is certainly a learning curve. That said, you can make LibreOffice look more like Microsoft Office if you want a familiar interface. The USP of LibreOffice, above all, is the fact that it's completely free to use. There's no one-time cost, no subscription fee, and you're not paying with your data either. It's an open-source project — which is a step in the right direction in terms of privacy.

Works on all devices

Albeit with some ifs and buts

Those who want to access their documents on the go can also use LibreOffice on their smartphones or tablets. Of course, it's available on Windows and macOS as well. In my experience, the entire LibreOffice suite ran smoothly without any hiccups on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro. I also tried it on my partner's Windows laptop with modest hardware, and it ran just fine. There were a few hiccups here and there, but she corroborated that they occur even when using MS Office.

While it's easy to look past the small jitters, there are some concerns that may make someone think twice before switching. The first one is the lack of niche and powerful features in Excel and PowerPoint. If you make presentations for a living, or you're a data analyst for whom Excel is bread and butter, you may have a hard time. Features like VBA macros, add-ons, Power Query, etc., aren't available on LibreOffice. This directly impacts one's workflow. For presentations, too, LibreOffice misses out on some animations, effects, transitions, etc. While the lack of these features is definitely a bummer, you also have to take into account that not everybody uses these features regularly. For most people, LibreOffice's native features are good enough, and that is sufficient for the average consumer to make the shift. If you only rely on these apps to make basic spreadsheets, documents, and presentation, you won't miss out on much.

Switching isn't as hard as you think

At first, you may feel like switching to a different productivity suite after using MS Office for decades would involve a lot of headaches and compatibility issues. However, LibreOffice shows that need not be the case. With more users switching to a different platform, Microsoft's monopoly in this sector should also hopefully take a hit — after all, it's never beneficial to consumers if a brand has a monopoly, since it would mean they can increase subscription costs with time, and users would have to oblige. Switching to LibreOffice is free, so you're also saving a good amount of money every month.