LibreOffice

[e-class]

Hi,

 

Is anyone using LibreOffice in school.

I'm toying with the idea of deploying it to lesser used PCs in the school, as a bit of a test

Has anyone configured it with certain settings that they might be willing to share?

I've got the ADMX files from here: https://github.com/CollaboraOnline/ADMX but I wanted it to default to saving in Microsoft format e.g. docx, xlsx, pptx etc and it doesnt seem to be an option in the ADMX files?

So does anyone know the registry keys to set, maybe using GPP?

 

Thanks

[DalekSec]

Nope, and the short answer to why is... the staff/students will hate it and complain bitterly.

 

If they only need little use of office point them to the online version.

[MatthewL]

I've used it when I have been doing bits and bobs but people don't want to pay for Office and never had too many issues. What I would check is the license terms that it could be used for free in what you want to as it may only be free for home/personal use rather than corporate.

[Roberto]

I'm toying with the idea of deploying it to lesser used PCs in the school, as a bit of a test

 

This feels like it might not be a great test. Either the PCs are not used enough for any testing to be statistically significant (how will you ensure 'testing' on these devices will actually cover all your use cases if they're hardly used?) or they're used just enough for people to be really annoyed at the change in user experience between them and other devices, at which point they'll either avoid those devices or complain constantly about the UI being different...

[supportman]

I've installed it but noone uses it. The vast majority of our staff and students use the web versions of MS Office these days. Its such too nicely integrated.

[e-class]

Thanks for all the replies, all with pretty valid points.

But ... I want to try this out. Together with Office on Web, it might be worth a try. Wont take much time to roll forward and back.

Context - it's a pretty small Primary School, and I don't think they will be using Office products in a non-standard way. I'm not proposing changing the whole school over like Teachers, SLT, Admin, Finance PCs etc, just a few as a test.

Let's see what happens.

 

I did do a bit of searching on edugeek, and there's enough people moving away from MS Office products with Google options etc. I also saw a thread in which someone (mavhc) said they had done this.

 

So back to my question, if anyone has done this, what settings have they applied - specifically looking for the option via GPO/GPP to set the default save to docx, xlsx, pptx, etc.

 

Thanks

[BKGarry]

My input here, you need to triple check what software you have relies on there actually being Microsoft Office to work. I know SIMS and FMS do for one, you cannot use them with other office suites.

 

You'll be surprised what other software you may have which does rely on it.

[e-class]

Thanks, I have checked and these machines dont have any reliance on any specific MS Office need - I've built the whole school IT system from scratch, so have a good understanding of the end to end system.

 

Anyway, I think I've found the registry setting now and it's reflected in the file in the user's profile called registrymodifications.xcu.

 

Thanks for comments everyone!

[mavhc]

I have a GPO that sets some settings https://github.com/CollaboraOnline/ADMX

 

Common>General> Use system file dialog

Common>Load and Save> Autosave enabled, Create MSO lock file enabled, Warn user when saving not ODF disabled

Common>Localization>Default language en-gb