LibreOffice

Working with rich text documents, spreadsheets or databases can be quite difficult with certain programs. Fortunately, there are many excellent alternatives out there. In this particular case, you can use LibreOffice to make your work much easier. The package includes everything you need to edit word documents, spreadsheets, slideshow presentations or databases. The programs can save and load projects in many popular formats, including the ones used by the MS Office suite. What's more, LibreOffice is offered free of charge and it is open source.

When running LibreOffice, a dashboard will show up on the screen, on which you can find recent documents, as well as options for creating new ones. You can also open a web page with extensions, from the same dashboard. If you decide to start a new project, you can opt for a word document, a spreadsheet, slideshow presentation, drawing, math formula or for a database, by simply clicking the corresponding buttons, on the left side of the dashboard. Obviously, each button will bring up a different user interface, with different options.

The included programs come with many useful tools, which are well organized on toolbars and in the top menus. In terms of appearance, the programs are similar to the ones from the MS Office suite and they work the same way, but they are more comfortable. When it comes to text documents, Writer allows you to change font and paragraph settings on the fly, set up different headings, insert data sources, word and clip art and perform many other operations, without any effort. Text documents can be saved in various formats, including TXT, DOC, DOCX, HTML and other popular formats. What's more, text documents and other projects can be exported in PDF format as well.

Calc is LibreOffice's equivalent to MS Excel. Its interface has a similar layout and although its functionality is basically the same, Calc provides a few extra features. The same can be said about Impress, which looks and feels like MS PowerPoint. Unlike the aforementioned Office program, Impress comes with a well structured interface and its design is much cleaner. You can access any tool you need right away, without spending too much time looking through panels and menus.

Math is another excellent utility, included in the LibreOffice package. It gives you the possibility of typing complex mathematical formulas without any effort, which can't be done in traditional text editors. The program allows you to choose from numerous operation types, which are categorized and displayed on the left side of its interface. As you type a formula, using special characters and commands in a text box, the actual formula will appear in a preview area. The characters and commands are inserted automatically in the text box when you select an operation, after which you only need to insert your values.