What's up with LibreOffice

Been using it for a long time. Lately, its documents stop opening unless I reboot. I used to go months between reboots and Libre’s text and spreadsheet worked fine. Now a week after my last reboot, they won’t open.

Should I resign myself to rebooting regularly or is there some fix to this?

–fleg

1 Like

Been using it for a long time. Lately, its documents stop opening unless I reboot. I used to go months between reboots and Libre’s text and spreadsheet worked fine. Now a week after my last reboot, they won’t open.

Should I resign myself to rebooting regularly or is there some fix to this?

I have been using LibreOffice for a long time with no problems. Right now I am using

The installed version is LibreOffice 7.2.6.2.
and my machine has been up 16 days, 13hours :18minutes

While I do not know what your problem is, I would not recommend resigning yourself to putting up with this.

People more knowledgeable than I will want to know what OS you are running and its version, and what version of LibreOffice you are using. Did you install a new version of LibreOffice when the problems started?

As a first step I agree w/JD in that you should try an uninstall, reboot & a fresh reinstall w/latest version. Good Luck.

1 Like

The installed version is LibreOffice 7.2.6.2.

Is it any better than 6.2.4.2, which is what I have currently installed? I find it to be completely bug riddled. Or else I just can’t get used to its - shall we say - idiocrasies.

The installed version is LibreOffice 7.2.6.2.

Is it any better than 6.2.4.2, which is what I have currently installed? I find it to be completely bug riddled. Or else I just can’t get used to its - shall we say - idiocrasies.

I do not know. The version I am running is out of date, but much more up-to-date than yours. The oldest available is 7.2.7 or something like that.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

Yeah, v7.4 appears to be the latest. I don’t use LibreOffice all that much, but when I do, I’m constantly annoyed by it. Perhaps I need to upgrade. I use the “portable” build.

As a long time Linux user, I’ve tried to use the Libre Office suite over the years. Always been kludgy, but granted that I’m trying to ‘replace’ MS Office which is used at work. I’ve viewed many, many videos about tweaks to make Libre Office more like MS Office, but it is still a kludge. Again, I’m trying to do things like bring PowerPoints created at work to edit further at home. It’s nearly impossible as all the formating and fonts are different. Hell, can’t even get the bullets to match between the two. Forget color matching. Any work I do at the office doesn’t carry across; any revisions I make at home make a mess. I’m sure that if I started with Libre or used it exclusively that it is more than adequate. And free.

I’m currently using SoftMaker FreeOffice and it is a nearly perfect crossover with PowerPoint.
Using MS Office 365 on my Linux machine to connect to my work Outlook, I can open Word and other MS documents and easily edit in FreeOffice and then upload them back into Outlook to send to other MS Office users.

When I retire, I’ll probably stick with FreeOffice as it is familiar to what I’ve used since WordPerfect bit the dust in the, what, the 80s.

YMMV
glh

2 Likes

Just jumping on at the end here, but why all this wailing and gnashing of teeth over Office compatibility? Just buy the real thing and be done with it. Microsoft Office was like a $100 one-time payment when I bought my new laptop three years ago. It works great, just like Office, because it is.

6 Likes

I’m currently using SoftMaker FreeOffice and it is a nearly perfect crossover with PowerPoint.

Thanks for mentioning this, I had not seen this. I’ve put it on my Mac and it seems to work well.
I regularly use Keynote which comes with a Mac and works well to present Powerpoint files.
I haven’t checked out the spreadsheet program yet but it seems to be a nice addition.

Thanks again.
wolferd

Just jumping on at the end here, but why all this wailing and gnashing of teeth over Office compatibility? Just buy the real thing and be done with it. Microsoft Office was like a $100 one-time payment when I bought my new laptop three years ago. It works great, just like Office, because it is.

You do make a very good point. I got used to MS Office at work, retired 3 years ago, and am getting too old to wrestle with user interface annoyances: life is too short!

1 Like

I’m currently using SoftMaker FreeOffice and it is a nearly perfect crossover with PowerPoint.

Thanks for mentioning this, I had not seen this. I’ve put it on my Mac and it seems to work well.
I regularly use Keynote which comes with a Mac and works well to present Powerpoint files.
I haven’t checked out the spreadsheet program yet but it seems to be a nice addition.

From what I see at https://softmaker-freeoffice.en.softonic.com, it looks like the product is stuck at version 2016? Does that mean it is no longer being maintained or updated? …later… Never mind! That seems to be its old location. The new one is https://www.freeoffice.com/en/features/freeoffice and that one is at version 2021.

I/we have been using Office in either the PC versions back in working days, company provided, but also I always bought, updated Office for our Macs as it came out, so effectively an annual update. Once retired, 20 years ago, I continued, but the PCs also left the area as the needs for work also vanished once DW also retired…

Then came the subscription model, Office 365, I resisted for a long time, but as we updated, replaced our computers, it became too dicey to rely on alternatives, new places to find menus, the Apple equivalent had the capability, free, but we are hooked on Excel for a lot/most of our financial record, other list, and such as well as using Outlook for email, Word for some projects… I/we gave it up, subscribed. Way too many hours invested in what we use to muck about with the freebies…

Like any tool, in any field/trade, find the one that does the job, stick with it… That there is a $100 option now, all the better as long as it’s legit… I tried one of the eBay bargains, eventually it phones home for an update and killed itself, wasted money, zero support, pirated crapola…

weco

I’m currently using SoftMaker FreeOffice and it is a nearly perfect crossover with PowerPoint.
Using MS Office 365 on my Linux machine to connect to my work Outlook, I can open Word and other MS documents and easily edit in FreeOffice and then upload them back into Outlook to send to other MS Office users.

I found LibreOffice’s macro capability sufficiently unstable that I abandoned it and went back to MS Office… running on Linux. And yes, I do custom coding enough that this is important. (Not all parts of Office work on Linux. Powerpoint is one part that doesn’t work - which I consider an improvement, but obviously some people disagree. On the other hand, I miss Access.)

Softmaker FreeOffice has no macro capability. Softmaker Office has macro capability only on Windows.

As to why not just use Office, the main reason is because it’s from a monopolistic entity that feels free to trample all over any standard it wants to - even those it created itself - in order to break other people’s software. As one specific example, Office 2007 hid the long-established and well-supported menu bar, title bar, and toolbars behind the “ribbon” - which merely duplicated most of the functionality, offered no advantage, and broke any sort of Windows or Office add-on that relied on manipulating those bars. Further there could not be new versions of the add-ons compatible with Office 2007, because that product had no API for manipulating the ribbon.

1 Like