for some background, I’m on latest stable Kubuntu. able to use Microsoft Office via a KVM+Winapps setup currently. it mostly works but there are a few kinks like the display frame getting fucked up when going full screen or windowed, drag and drop being hit or miss and whatnot…

i did read up on Office 2019 being installable using Wine, but wasn’t able to find any methods to activate it. MAS isn’t really a thing on wine since we don’t have Powershell I believe. any ideas?

  • @VonReposti@feddit.dk
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    11 months ago

    This might be a stupid question but now that you’re on Linux, why not use something like LibreOffice or Collabora?

    • @_comfortablyAverage_@lemmy.mlOP
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      911 months ago

      Libreoffice is the most atrociously structured piece of software I ever encountered. not only is the UI absolutely dated and god awful trash, it can fuck up microsoft office formatted documents. i possess a special hate for it since it decided to crap out on me when I REALLY positively needed it.

      don’t know about collabora, will look into it

      • @TheYang@lemmy.world
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        3111 months ago

        it can fuck up microsoft office formatted documents

        everything can.
        That is because Microsoft doesn’t follow the 1000 page docx standards they wrote themselves.

        And I will defend the decent UI against modern words ribbon-trash to my death.
        libreoffice ui can certainly be improved a lot, but microsoft office is definitely worse.

        • @rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
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          511 months ago

          100% can confirm. It always takes me ages to find what i need in the ribbon interface. Especially the things that aren’t visible all the time. First time I was asked to print something, I really struggled with that. And it used to be File->Print. And I have no interest in finding out if they made it easier or worse to do things like conditional formatting or alternating row colors in tables.

          Regarding the issues with formatting: It’s Microsoft’s fault. They’re doing this deliberately to get rid of competition. And they’ll ensure it stays that way in the future.

          There is one exception, however: You need to install the correct fonts. If you don’t have the specified font available, a document will look differently and things might get misplaced, because your characters might now be wider or narrower.

      • @Anders429@lemmy.world
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        1111 months ago

        it can fuck up microsoft office formatted documents.

        The problem there is not with LibreOffice, but with Microsoft Office. They do not implement the format standard correctly.

        Not that it eliminated your problem, but it’s important to understand who the real culprit is and why.

        • @TheYang@lemmy.world
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          811 months ago

          They do not implement the format standard correctly.

          I think it’s also important to mention, that they wrote the standard themselves (after being forced to)

      • luna
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        511 months ago

        If you dislike the UI, you can turn on an MS Office-like ribbon design in the settings

      • @WaterSword@lemmy.world
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        211 months ago

        If you want a piece of software that keeps closer to microsoft’s shitty file types I’d take a look at onlyoffice

    • @sibloure@beehaw.org
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      511 months ago

      Or OnlyOffice which is a near clone of Microsoft Office that can handle docx files without screwing then up.

  • Brickfrog
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    1711 months ago

    Is this for work? Just have your work pay for your Microsoft 365 or whatever, not sure why you’d need to pirate anything for work related reasons.

    If this is for home use just get your workflow working with the free open source alternatives, IMO LibreOffice is pretty great.

    Or just start using the online office apps like everyone else is nowadays e.g. Google Docs (free with a Google Account), Microsoft 365 (I know at least Word you can use for free with a Microsoft account haven’t checked what else), etc.

    It’s just a bit odd needing to pirate that. But sure if you’re dead-set on it then just create a Virtual Machine with Windows OS in it (LOL you may end up pirating that too) and install your MS Office and whatever other cracks/activators you want. Now you have MS Office in your virtual machine whenever you need it. You could use VirtualBox for example.

    • Aatube
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      11 months ago

      While we’re here, is there a way to have the top toolbar(of LibreOffice) be less confusing?

      • @tycho@lemmy.sdf.org
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        511 months ago

        You can enable ribbon-like top toolbar in LibreOffice, I find it less confusing coping from MS Office. I’ve worked a lot in MS Office and LibreOffice so don’t hesitate to ask :)

        • Aatube
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          311 months ago

          woahhhh
          Is there a way to conveniently set all of them instead of having to click into the view options for each application?

            • Aatube
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              11 months ago

              I was groaning in despair when I realized: there’s an “Apply to All” button in the UI selection menu!
              Also, I found contextual groups to be the best. Still thank you for helping me find this menu!

  • chrizbie
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    711 months ago

    WPS office is a closed source, Chinese made office suite that is actually really good if none of that bothers you and you can even install ms fonts

    • iliketrains
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      511 months ago

      WPS is definitely decent. I used to use WPS Office, because LibreOffice corrupted my school document files, but it felt too limited and riddled with telemetry. It never suddenly crashed on me and the compatibility was amazing.
      But I have since moved back to LibreOffice because it is more feature complete and more peaceful, knowing that it’s made by a trusted and open foundation. LibreOffice might still not be stable since it still often crashes and becomes unresponsive but at least I never got my documents corrupted again.

  • @Gamey@lemmy.world
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    411 months ago

    If you need Microsoft Office on Linux I recommend the web version of 360 and if you want to pirate it on Linux I would go for a VM, it’s not the best experiebce in Wine from what I have heared.

    • @_comfortablyAverage_@lemmy.mlOP
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      11 months ago

      for MAS to work, Powershell must run under wine so that it can find the Office installation

      atleast, that’s how I think it should be

  • Destide
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    311 months ago

    Unless you need VBA or something like that I would just use Libre or 365