MS Word alternative for Ubuntu to work with templates having mergefields and if conditions

Question

I have been using LibreOffice on my Ubuntu laptop for quite sometime now and everything was fine up until I had to work with word templates with a lot of merge fields and if conditions.

Whenever I open sample templates on Libreoffice writer, it gets all wonky and doesn't even display the merge fields and if conditions already there in the opened word template.

Said templates open without any issue in MS Word on a windows machine.

Is there any alternative for MS Word that I can use to create and edit such templates on my Ubuntu machine?

Does this answer your question? Is there any way to use microsoft office in ubuntu without using wine? or any other alternative similar to microsoft office which uses the same format — mikewhatever, May 05 '22 at 18:04
@mikewhatever It doesn't actually. I already use LibreOffice and I don't think I'll be able to run a VM given the resources I have on my system. — Bilesh Ganguly, May 05 '22 at 18:17
I need something for creating and updating word templates that use merge fields and if conditions... — Bilesh Ganguly, May 05 '22 at 18:21
I'm not sure it fits the bill but you may want to try WPS Office. — ChanganAuto, May 05 '22 at 18:28
@BileshGanguly The answers provide a few alternatives, but most importantly, should lead you to a logical conclusion. Obviously, that last one has not happened yet. — mikewhatever, May 06 '22 at 07:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 05 '22 at 19:25

1

Due to how proprietary and complicated Microsoft Word is, I'm afraid there isn't a solution to this that doesn't involve running actual desktop Word. Even Microsoft, who has access to the source code of Word, can't make features like this work in their web version of Word.

answered May 05 '22 at 19:25

Ray Walz

11

Yeah... Seems like a futile effort... – Bilesh Ganguly May 06 '22 at 16:34
I’ve run a Windows VM on Ubuntu on some pretty old/cheap hardware. It’s not going to be fast but would probably work if you really need it. Or if you have fast enough internet and are willing to pay $5/mo you could get a Windows VPS and remote into it. – Ray Walz May 07 '22 at 18:16

MS Word alternative for Ubuntu to work with templates having mergefields and if conditions

1 Answers1