Free Microsoft Word alternative: best LibreOffice features explained

For typing up documents on your PC, the first program many of us think of is Microsoft Word. But while it’s arguably the industry standard word-processing tool, Word is by no means your only option.

The cheapest way to get Word is to buy Microsoft Office 2021 Home & Student (£120), or subscribe to Microsoft 365 (from £60 a year). If you’re using an old copy, note that unsupported versions aren’t safe to use as they no longer receive security updates.

Alternatively, you can pay absolutely nothing. There are some excellent free Microsoft Office equivalents around, including LibreOffice. And, unlike unsupported versions of Word, LibreOffice continues to receive regular updates. Below, we highlight its key features.

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What is LibreOffice?

LibreOffice is a full office suite comprising equivalents for Word (Writer), Excel (Calc), PowerPoint (Impress) and more. It’s free to use and, unlike unsupported versions of Word, continues to receive regular security updates.

Unlike many other free office tools, it doesn’t require a constant internet connection, so you can install and use it offline.

To get LibreOffice, go to libreoffice.org and click Download > Download LibreOffice. Once the file has been downloaded, double-click it to launch the Installation Wizard.

7 useful LibreOffice features you should know about

1. Explore the toolbar

Individual tools are represented by icons, but some have a small arrow next to them – clicking this reveals more options. The arrow next to the yellow highlighter tool icon, for example, shows a selection of alternative highlighter colours.

There’s another selection of icons running vertically down the right-hand side of the window. Click any of these to open a handy slide-out panel of tools. For example, clicking Properties opens a panel of style, character and paragraph formatting tools.

Right at the bottom of the program window is another bar that includes a running page count and word count for your document, information about the page style, plus a slider that will increase or decrease the size of your document view.

2. Set up your menus to match Office

In recent iterations of its Office programs, Microsoft moved away from a drop-down menu style to the Ribbon – a tabbed toolbar that shows a selection of different tools and options. If you’re more used to working with this type of toolbar, you can switch from Writer’s default interface to one that’s more like Ribbon.

Click View > User Interface, then select the Tabbed option. You can either apply this change to all LibreOffice’s apps or opt to Apply to Writer alone.

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3. Use templates to save yourself some time

Being faced with a blank page can be daunting. Luckily, Writer comes with a selection of free templates to get you started.

If you want to type a letter, for example, simply click File > Wizards > Letter. This brings up a step-by-step process that lets you choose your page design from a selection of business, formal and personal styles. Alternatively, click File > New > Templates to start a fresh document based on one of LibreOffice’s built-in templates. These include options for CVs, letters, business cards and more.

If you can’t find the template you need, you might be able to download it from LibreOffice’s online Extensions and Template Centre.

Click the template you want, then click Download. To import the template into Writer, click File > Templates > Manage Templates. In the window that opens, click Manage > Import, then select My Templates and click OK. 

Browse for the one you downloaded (it will probably be in your Downloads folder - if you're not sure where this is, press the Windows Key on your keyboard and E - this is a shortcut to open the Windows Explorer folder. You can then scroll up to Downloads), select it, then click OK.

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4. Import, format and edit images

To import a photo into your document, click Insert > Image, browse for the photo you want, select it and click Open.

It’s likely that the image will be the wrong size for your page and in the wrong place. Click the photo, and a selection of square dots appear around the edge of the image. Moving your mouse over one of these will change the cursor to a double-headed arrow – clicking and dragging inwards or outwards will make the image smaller or larger, as required. 

To move your photo where you want it, click on it and drag it. By default, text will flow around your image.

With your image selected, click the Properties icon in the right-hand toolbar for useful image-editing tools. Click Colour mode and choose Greyscale, for example, to change a colour image to black and white. Use the Wrap, Arrange and Align tools to position it in relation to the text.

You can import a variety of other content into your documents via the Insert drop-down menu, including captions, headers and footnotes. To add a table, click Table > Insert Table.

5. Convert documents

By default, Writer saves to the ODF open document file format, but you can easily save or convert your documents to Word, PDF and more. This will make it easier for others to open and view them.

• Convert your document to a Word file – click File > Save As and type a name for your document. Now, click ODF Text Document next to Save as type. Select Word 2007-365 to convert your document to the most recent Word-compatible format (.docx), then click Save.
• Convert your document to a PDF – click File > Export As > Export As PDF. You’ll see a dialogue box of options, which you can customise if you wish – click Export > Save when you’re done.

To create a template based on your current document, click File > Templates > Save as Template. In the window that opens, enter a name for your template, choose a category and click Save.

6. Print documents

Before you print, it’s worth clicking File > Print Preview to get an idea of how your document will look.

If you’re happy, click File > Print. Here, you’ll get a preview of your document – click the forward and back buttons underneath to navigate through its pages. On the right are two tabs of settings. The General tab lets you select the right printer (if more than one is available). Below that are options for setting the Range and Copies and the Page Layout.

Click the LibreOffice Writer tab for some useful additional settings. You can, for instance, untick the Page background and Images and other graphic objects options, if you want to save ink by printing the text only. When you’re ready, click Print.

To see which printers have soared through our lab tests and will cut your ink costs, see our expert printer reviews.

7. Recover a lost document

Losing hours of work is a pain, and the best way to avoid this is by making sure you save regularly. If your PC crashes or Writer unexpectedly quits while you’re typing a document, however, it might still be possible to retrieve your work thanks to LibreOffice’s automatic recovery function.

Once your computer is up and running again, fire up LibreOffice. You should be presented with a Document Recovery dialogue box, explaining that LibreOffice will attempt to recover your file in the state it was in before your PC or the program crashed.

Simply click Start > Finish to launch the most recent version of your work that LibreOffice can find.

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Additional reporting by Tom Morgan.