The problem with LibreOffice is that interface is so ugly. And no, I am NOT asking for the ribbon, which I think is a horrible idea.
abhiyerra · 11h ago
I think LibreOffice needs a general refresh of marketing and product for simplicity. The LibreOffice website, you have to dig in to see what features are provided. The product itself has a lot of bells and whistles but as you mentioned it is hard to discover.
A feature that isn’t noted but is quite cool is LibreOffice Base’s ability to connect to remote databases and create forms on top of those. Basically a better Access.
tryptophan · 5h ago
Its also slow and laggy compared to office products somehow. Has that classic open source jank.
greazy · 10h ago
Libreoffice comes with a few different themes and icon sets. Have you tried them out?
kwanbix · 8h ago
It doesn't matter. Most people go with the defaults. If your default is ugly, your app is uggly.
ricardonunez · 7h ago
Also the themes and the themes are not that great and not sharp looking, specially in dark mode. I’m using it out of principle but the design needs an overhaul. I was considering doing the design using some open source icon set but time is limited.
bundie · 11h ago
> so ugly
I think this is a common issue with open source software, except when it comes to GNOME/GTK/Libadwaita apps. For some reason, GNOME apps almost always manage to look good.
snackbroken · 9h ago
It's easy to make something look nice when you drop "being useful" as a requirement.
poisonwomb · 10h ago
You know, I did kind of think that until I sat down to use it and realised compared to MS office it’s like a glass of ice water in hell.
I do actually think on Mac if you just use the minimal toolbar buttons and the menu bar buttons it looks pretty presentable. Not good but not the worst. And on Linux/GTK it actually looks super nice
tiahura · 5h ago
Its reminiscent of Wordperfect 6 for Windows.
kristopolous · 11h ago
Are people still using single user desktop office suites?
It makes me wonder if there's some kind of light decentralized thing that can be used with a convention oauth style front end
glimshe · 11h ago
I do. Although I have no love for Office, it allows me to keep all of my data locally seamlessly.
With online-only tools, I'm one unfair ban away from losing all my data.
kristopolous · 11h ago
Interesting. I just searched for "banned from google docs" and some people seem to either be questioning whether it happened to them or if it is possible.
I never considered that possibility.
I guess my other question is word processing programs usually have a target format of paper ... is that how you're still using it?
glimshe · 7h ago
I don't use Word much. When I do, I use standard US Letter size. I rarely print to paper, though.
I use PowerPoint and Excel more frequently nowadays. Excel happens to be truly exceptional.
joseda-hg · 8h ago
As far as I'm aware it's not banning you from Docs itself, but getting an account nuked for any external reasons (For a random example, Copyright problems on Google Drive or YouTube)
contextfree · 9h ago
MS Office isn't single user? It supports real-time collaboration, including in the desktop apps. Though that does require you to keep the files in onedrive or sharepoint.
pragmatic · 10h ago
Excel on the desktop isn’t going any where.
poisonwomb · 10h ago
Bro I just wanna write my CV and do my dad’s taxes I don’t wanna collaborate with 100s of my favourite redditors while leveraging AI
kristopolous · 10h ago
I guess i just live in a bubble where everyone uses org mode or other nerd tools to do that
pessimizer · 4h ago
Does your mom use org-mode, or does she use Word?
kristopolous · 2h ago
nah, she's big on neovim.
abirch · 12h ago
One of the biggest dangers you have with Microsoft if you're not in the USA, the US government can turn off your access for shiggles.
cyanydeez · 11h ago
AT THE current rate of things, its probably more dangerous they'll install fancy keyloggers.
A feature that isn’t noted but is quite cool is LibreOffice Base’s ability to connect to remote databases and create forms on top of those. Basically a better Access.
I think this is a common issue with open source software, except when it comes to GNOME/GTK/Libadwaita apps. For some reason, GNOME apps almost always manage to look good.
I do actually think on Mac if you just use the minimal toolbar buttons and the menu bar buttons it looks pretty presentable. Not good but not the worst. And on Linux/GTK it actually looks super nice
It makes me wonder if there's some kind of light decentralized thing that can be used with a convention oauth style front end
With online-only tools, I'm one unfair ban away from losing all my data.
I never considered that possibility.
I guess my other question is word processing programs usually have a target format of paper ... is that how you're still using it?
I use PowerPoint and Excel more frequently nowadays. Excel happens to be truly exceptional.