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The suite includes applications for word processing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentations (Impress), vector graphics (Draw), database management (Base), and formula editing (Math). <br>
The suite includes applications for word processing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentations (Impress), vector graphics (Draw), database management (Base), and formula editing (Math). <br>
It supports the OpenDocument format and is compatible with other major formats, including those used by Microsoft Office.
It supports the OpenDocument format and is compatible with other major formats, including those used by Microsoft Office.
===What is OpenOffice.org/Apache OpenOffice?===
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org] (OOo), is a discontinued open-source office software suite, originally based on StarOffice.<br>
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache%20OpenOffice Apache OpenOffice] (AOO), is a derivative of OOo by the Apache Software Foundation.
===History===
It is not the intent of this article to go into any kind of depth, nor exhaust the topic of the differences between LibreOffice and Open Office, and their history. The user can, if interested, find much better documentation and explanations online for this subject. However, with that said, I will attempt to give a brief overview of the histories of the two suites, and their predecessors and derivatives.<br>
====StarOffice====
The roots of OpenOffice, and consequently LibreOffice date back to roughly 1985, though not under the same name. In 1985 a word processing application was released named "StarWriter" by Marco Börries, who then formed a company named Star Division. By 1994, and version 2.0, the program came to be an office suite, named StarOffice, and including Base (Database management), Calc (Spreadsheets) and Writer (Word processing). StarOffice eventually came to have the same 6 basic elements modern successors have, namely: Base for Database management, Calc for spreadsheets, Draw for vector graphics, Impress for slideshows, Math for Mathematical formulas, and Writer for word processing. The office suite was initially offered as proprietary software until 1998, when it was first offered for free for personal use. <br>
====OpenOffice.org====
In 1999 Sun Microsystems purchased the StarOffice copyright and company, claiming it was cheaper to purchase StarOffice than to purchase 42,000 Microsoft Office licenses for Sun Microsystem's employees. The following year (2000), Sun released the suite as a free and open source program known as OpenOffice.org, marketed as a free alternative to Microsoft Office. At the same time Sun Microsystems offered the StarOffice program as a proprietary office suite based on snapshots of OpenOffice.org versions, with added features.
====Oracle OpenOffice====
In 2010 Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle, which for roughly a year afterward released the office suite as Oracle OpenOffice, though development was significantly hindered by Oracle when they drastically cut down the development team for the suite. This decrease in active development, both by Oracle and the community, as well as concerns about the management of the project by Oracle, resulted in the majority of the community contributors leaving OpenOffice development and forming the group known as The Document Foundation, the significance of which will be touched on shortly.
====Apache OpenOffice====
In 2011 Oracle completely ceased development of Oracle OpenOffice, dismissing the remaining employees, and donating the rights and codebase to Apache Software Foundation, which resulted in OpenOffice being again renamed, this time to Apache OpenOffice. Apache OpenOffice continued development from 2011 until this day, though due to fewer contributors and developers actively working on the project, development has largely halted. In August 2025, Apache Software Foundation reportedly allowed the trademark for OpenOffice to lapse.
====Other forks====
Along the way there has been several forks of OpenOffice and LibreOffice, some of these are Go-OpenOffice, IBM symphony, NeoOffice, and Collabora Office. As of 2025, most of these are no longer actively developed. Go-OO development was discontinued in favor of contributing to the then newly created LibreOffice, IBM Symphony was discontinued and the codebase was donated to Apache OpenOffice, and NeoOffice was announced as no longer active in 2024, according to Wikipedia. Collabora Office is an online version of LibreOffice that is more aimed at commercial usage, and development is still active as of 2025.
====LibreOffice====
As already mentioned, after Oracle acquired OpenOffice.org in 2010, members of the OpenOffice.org community formed an organization called The Document Foundation. The Document Foundation aimed to continue development of OpenOffice.org under a fairer governance and contribution model, and at the same time announced a fork named LibreOffice. Since then to this time, LibreOffice has been being actively contributed to and developed. Thanks to partner organizations that focus more on paid support of commercial usage of LibreOffice or derivative versions, plus an active and contributing community, LibreOffice has been able to have more consistent and sustained development and maintenance than Apache OpenOffice was able to maintain. For these reasons LibreOffice is currently recognized as the more prominently active and used successor of OpenOffice.<br>
With the above vague history, it will be easy to see that generally speaking, OpenOffice and LibreOffice have the same foundational features,but given the fact that LibreOffice is more actively developed, LibreOffice has more, and newer features available. This is also the reason this UDF was based on LibreOffice, and not OpenOffice.<br>
With the above vague history, it will be easy to see that generally speaking, OpenOffice and LibreOffice have the same foundational features,but given the fact that LibreOffice is more actively developed, LibreOffice has more, and newer features available. This is also the reason this UDF was based on LibreOffice, and not OpenOffice.<br>
Because LibreOffice is a fork from OpenOffice, this UDF will, in many places, work with OpenOffice as well. Unfortunately, as this UDF was being developed, I did not keep a record of the methods and properties that indicated they were added in certain LibreOffice versions, as well as the ones that seem to be not documented. Trial and error is the best method for now, with the addition of saying that any functions that list a minimum LibreOffice version, will most likely NOT be compatible with OpenOffice.<br>
Because LibreOffice is a fork from OpenOffice, this UDF will, in many places, work with OpenOffice as well. Unfortunately, as this UDF was being developed, I did not keep a record of the methods and properties that indicated they were added in certain LibreOffice versions, as well as the ones that seem to be not documented. Trial and error is the best method for now, with the addition of saying that any functions that list a minimum LibreOffice version, will most likely NOT be compatible with OpenOffice.<br>
'''Sources:'''
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarOffice StarOffice - Wikipedia]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org - Wikipedia]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OpenOffice Apache OpenOffice - Wikipedia]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice LibreOffice - Wikipedia]


==Feature comparison: LibreOffice - Microsoft Office==
==Feature comparison: LibreOffice - Microsoft Office==

Revision as of 08:48, 15 February 2026

This page is still a work in progress.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "LibreOffice" and other Wikipedia articles, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 4.0.

Introduction

What is LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is a free and open-source office productivity software suite developed by The Document Foundation (TDF).
It was created in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice.org, itself a successor to StarOffice.
The suite includes applications for word processing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentations (Impress), vector graphics (Draw), database management (Base), and formula editing (Math).
It supports the OpenDocument format and is compatible with other major formats, including those used by Microsoft Office. With the above vague history, it will be easy to see that generally speaking, OpenOffice and LibreOffice have the same foundational features,but given the fact that LibreOffice is more actively developed, LibreOffice has more, and newer features available. This is also the reason this UDF was based on LibreOffice, and not OpenOffice.
Because LibreOffice is a fork from OpenOffice, this UDF will, in many places, work with OpenOffice as well. Unfortunately, as this UDF was being developed, I did not keep a record of the methods and properties that indicated they were added in certain LibreOffice versions, as well as the ones that seem to be not documented. Trial and error is the best method for now, with the addition of saying that any functions that list a minimum LibreOffice version, will most likely NOT be compatible with OpenOffice.

Feature comparison: LibreOffice - Microsoft Office

This page compares the features of LibreOffice and Microsoft Office in several form factors.
The comparisons separate major and minor feature differences and also includes notes on LibreOffice extensions.
The comparison highlights differences and therefore does not display any features which are present in both office suites.

LibreOffice Object Model

The LibreOffice UDF is a wrapper for the complex LibreOffice object model. It hides the complexity of the object model and replaces it with a few AutoIt function calls.
The functions provided by the UDF cover most of the functionality that is typically required.
However, if you need more complex functions, you will have to write them yourself. First, you need to familiarize yourself with the LibreOffice API.

LibreOffice UDF

Requirements

Limitations

  • The UDF works ONLY for the installed version of LibreOffice, not the portable version.
  • The UDF is written using the English version of LibreOffice, and may only work for the English version of LibreOffice installations.
  • Many functions in this UDF may or may not work with OpenOffice, however some settings are definitely for LibreOffice only.
  • For those using older AutoIt versions, several functions use Maps. In older AutoIt installations, a syntax error will be reported due to this.

Big Picture

Technical terms

Installation

Getting started examples

Function reference

Troubleshooting

Error messages and codes

Debug your Script

FAQ

Tools

References