This page might evolve into an anchor page for Open Source software. Here is an item that caught my eye as relates to Open Source tools in the graphics and 3D modeling arena. https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/11/09/064248/are-forced-subscriptions-driving-3d-users-to-open-source-tools

Here is one sentence from the item above, that can lead you into a lot of reading: Some of the most popular FOSS 3D tools are the complete 3D suite Blender, polygon modeling tool Wings 3D, polygon modeling tool Dust3D, CAD modeling tool FreeCAD, PBR texturing tool ArmorPaint, procedural materials generator Material Maker, image editing tool GIMP, painting tool Krita, vector illustration tool Inkscape and the 2D/3D game engine Godot Engine.

The website slashdot.org is one of the places that frequently leads to “interesting” stuff.

A place to start learning about LibreOffice or OpenOffice or OnlyOffice

The The Document Foundation, LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice are evolutions of the same software. OpenOffice history is identified here. LIbreOffice history is here. Both products are free to use in either binary or source format. OpenOffice and LibreOffice use ODF as the default format for documents. But, both programs allow selection of the default document format. This includes the format for Microsoft Word documents.

Then I found/saw a youtube video that identified OnlyOffice . This product identifies itself as open source. This product can be cloud based or installed on your computer. Looks interesting…

Software tools for creating and editing spreadsheets, documents and presentations were once primary reasons for having a computer. The evolution of those tools resulted in tools that are free or not. The attitude of the Help Center is: Free is the preferred choice. Free is often the preferred choice for the clients of the Help Center.

Microsoft Office components (Excel, Word, … ) are not free.

Two use cases that are addressed by this and supporting pages are: You have never used any of these tools or you would like to start using free tools. Good news… There are documents, tutorials and videos on the internet that can help you educate yourself about OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

One of the capabilities of a spreadsheet, document or presentation program is the format of the file that it can read or write. During the evolution of LibreOffice and OpenOffice, open formats has been a goal.LibreOffice and OpenOffice can read proprietary file formats and save a document in Open Document Format or formats that are compatible with Microsoft.

There are educational materials for LibreOffice, OpenOffice and Microsoft Office on the internet. Documents and videos are easy to find. The product web sites have links to educational materials. The documents from the product web sites are usually up to date. Videos that you find on youtube can be about older versions. This implies they may not address all the latest enhancements to a product, but given the maturity of the products, the videos are likely to be “good enough” to get you started.

LibreOffice help site: https://libreofficehelp.com/

Visiting youtube.com and searching for terms about Openoffice or Libreoffice of Microsoft Office will produce lists of videos. Determining which of the videos meets your needs can be a time consuming.

This video about LibreOffice Write, is intended for the beginner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIBWOjeiptA

Here is a video that addresses LibreOffice versus Microsoft Office.

Here is a vidoe that addresses How to make LibreOffice look more like Microsoft Office and 365