Libre Office Start page.
This doesn't exist in Microsoft office. From here you can:
- Launch any of the 6 Office programs (create a new document)
- Open a recent file, from the grid of recent files.
- Open any file on your computer, from the Open File button
- Edit your templates
- Access Help and the Extensions webpage.

Libre Office Writer.
Libre Office Writer is the equivalent of MS Word. It has all of the basic functions, like Font, Text size, Alignment, and drawing functions, like Rectangles, Circles and various shapes, like Stars, Call outs (Speech Bubbles) and Arrows.
It can be launched with the command libreoffice --writer
(Creates a new document), searching the dash for Writer
, or clicking its icon on the launcher.
Here is the icon, and a cropped screenshot of the Writer window.
As you can see, in the top bar is the standard tool bars, File
, Edit
etc. and the formatting tool bar - Font + Size, Colour etc.
In the bottom, there is the Shapes tool bar with the Arrows etc.

Libre Office Calc.
Libre Office Calc is the equivalent of MS Excel. It has all of the basic functions, like Font, Text size, Alignment, and some more advanced ones, like Formula insertion, Charts, Cell Colouring and Conditional Formatting.
It can be launched with the command libreoffice --calc
(Creates a new document), searching the dash for Calc
(Often Calculator is the first result), or clicking its icon on the launcher.
Here is the icon, and a cropped screenshot of the Calc window.
As you can see, in the top bar is the standard tool bars, File
, Edit
etc. and the formatting tool bar - Font + Size, Colour etc.
At the bottom is the Find search bar. This can be focused with the standard Ctrl+F short cut.

Libre Office Impress.
Libre Office Impress is the equivalent of MS Power Point. It has all of the basic functions, like Font, Text size, Alignment, and others exclusive to Impress, like Custom Animation, different Slide views and default text boxes for tiles that come with the templates.
It can be launched with the command libreoffice --impress
(Creates a new document), searching the dash for Impress
, or clicking its icon on the launcher.
Here is the icon, and a cropped screenshot of the Draw window.
As you can see, in the top bar is the standard tool bars, File
, Edit
etc. and the formatting tool bar. In Impress, it is a bit different, it has the colour and line settings for shapes you make. This changes to text when you are typing
At the bottom is the Shapes tool bar. It has all the shapes that Writer has, but also some extras, like certain freehand shapes, more like Draw (below).
Along the side are the tools exclusive to Impress, like Custom Animation, Master Slides and Slide Transitions.

Libre Office Draw.
Libre Office Draw is the equivalent of MS Publisher, a program that doesn't come in the basic MS Office package. It has all of the basic functions, like Font, Text size, Alignment, and others exclusive to Draw, like freehand drawing and better shape manipulation.
It can be launched with the command libreoffice --draw
(Creates a new document), searching the dash for Draw
, or clicking its icon on the launcher.
Here is the icon, and a cropped screenshot of the Draw window.
As you can see, in the top bar is the standard tool bars, File
, Edit
etc. and the formatting tool bar. In Draw, it is a bit different, it has the colour and line settings for shapes you make, as text is less often used.
At the bottom is the Shapes tool bar. It has all the shapes that Writer has, but also some extras, like certain freehand shapes.

Libre Office Math.
Libre Office Math has no equivilent to an MS product. It is very different to all the others, it hasn't got the font tools.
It can be launched with the command libreoffice --math
(Creates a new document), searching the dash for Math
, or clicking its icon on the launcher.
Here is the icon, and a cropped screenshot of the Math window.
As you can see, in the top bar is the standard tool bars, File
, Edit
etc. but in the standard bar there are unique tools like zoom and special greek symbols.
At the botom is not a tool bar, that is where you enter the formula. The point of math is to present your formula in a professional way, instead of trying to get /
and +
alligned, and formulas over each other.
As an example it converts this:
{π} over { 2 } = sum from { { i = 0 } } to { infinity } { k!} over { (2k +1)!! }
into this:


Libre Office Base.
Libre Office Base is the equivalent of MS Access. It is a very specialised tool, and is designed completely around creating databases.
It can be launched with the command libreoffice --base
(Creates a new document), searching the dash for Base
, or clicking its icon on the launcher.
Here is the icon, and a cropped screenshot of the Base window.
As you can see, in the top bar is the standard tool bars, File
, Edit
etc. however in this view most features are disables, as this is the navigation window, with links to the base wizard.
In the bottom, there is a status bar with details about what you are working on (not included in screenshot).

Keyboard short cuts.
Ctrl+C - Copy
Ctrl+X - Cut
Ctrl+V - Paste
Ctrl+Z - Undo
Ctrl+Y / Ctrl+Shift+Z - Redo
Ctrl+P - Print
Ctrl+A - Select All
F7 - Spell Check (Check spelling as you type is an option, which I think is enabled by default.)
Ctrl+S - Save
Ctrl+Shift+S - Save as
A list of general keyboard short cuts. Here are the specific ones for Writer and Calc.
Compatibility
Compatability with other document types is fairly good. MS Office is not as good at decoding .odt
documents, but Libre Office is quite good at saving in that format. Some features (especially formatting of tables, for me) are a bit hit and miss. If compatibility is key, I suggest using the built in export feature to export it to a .pdf
. Normally however, just saving as a .doc
or .docx
is enough for windowsers to access it.
They do use different methods to create the same thing, which is why you get issues.
Most of this came from my memory and experiences. The wiki is
- Less bias.
- More reputable.
- Has more info, and the info is more accurate.
so I would suggest you have a look in it for information I have (accidentally or purposefully) left out.
So essentially, no there is no alternative to One Note built in - you're going to need to look outside of Libre Office for this.
[text](http://example.com)
. It looks like a normal link: text – Tim Apr 22 '15 at 14:58