We all have used Microsoft Office at some point in our lives. But since the Office suite is not free, it has become hard to edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations without having to spend money. Fortunately, there are various free and open-source alternatives available.
ONLYOFFICE is a free collaborative cloud-based, on-premise, and desktop office suite. It is a viable alternative to mega corporations like Google and Microsoft. ONLYOFFICE is free and can be self-hosted. It is fully compatible with Office Open XML formats: .DOCX, .XLSX, .PPTX and enabling collaborative editing in real time.
Therefore, it is one of the best Office alternative that most accurately reads and writes Word/Excel/Powerpoint files. It runs fast on both desktop and in the browser.
The software is not only available as an online service, but can also be installed on your own server.
ONLYOFFICE includes three of the most widely used editors:
- Document Editor
- Spreadsheet Editor
- Presentation Editor
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors is a standalone application which contains the document, spreadsheet and presentation editors within itself. It is free, open source software available for Linux, Windows, and macOS PCs.The desktop editors do not require a server component and can be used locally like a conventional office suite.
The user interface is quite simple and familiar. If you have been using MS Office Suite, you will have no problem using ONLYOFFICE.
You can integrate the programs with several common CMS or collaboration systems through connectors. These include Alfresco, Confluence, ownCloud, Nextcloud, Seafile, SharePoint, and many others.
What’s New in ONLYOFFICE 6.3
ONLYOFFICE 6.3 comes with added Dark theme to reduce eye strain in low-light environments. You can switch between Dark, Light, and Classic Light themes in the app’s settings or in the Advanced settings in the File tab.
In addition to 100% and 200%, the software now support 150% scaling. This ensures comfortable work on small HDPI monitors. The scaling is automatically adjusted in accordance with your OS settings. You can also switch between the scaling options in the app’s settings. Also 125% and 175% scaling options will be available in the future versions.
Now it’s also possible to protect your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with passwords so that no one is able to open the document without entering it. If you upload a password-protected file created in the desktop app, the protection will be preserved. To open the file, you’ll need to enter the password.
ONLYOFFICE 6.3 enable Track Changes for everyone who has full access to the file or just for yourself. After you close the doc, the Track Changes status will be saved. If you leave the Track Changes flag on, the next time you/your teammates open it, reviewing will remain enabled.
In version 6.3, you’ll find new types of charts: line to display trends over time and scatter to compare numeric values in two series. Combo charts that help you present and analyze data from several charts are now fully supported. You can not only view but also create them in ONLYOFFICE Docs.
For detailed information about all changes, you can refer to the full changelog.
Install ONLYOFFICE on Linux
ONLYOFFICE are available for Linux users as deb, rpm, snap, flatpak, and Docker Image.
To install ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors on Linux as a snap package, simply use the following command:
sudo snap install onlyoffice-desktopeditorsOnce the installation is over, you can run the editors using the terminal command:
snap run onlyoffice-desktopeditors
