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Do you ever find yourself needing to use Microsoft Office on a PC that doesn’t have it installed?
An easy solution is to use a cloud-based Office suite like Microsoft 365 Online or Google Docs, but what if you happen to be in a place that doesn’t have Internet access?
Well, there’s a simple (and free) solution to this problem: Simply put the portable version of Libre Office on a USB flash drive and take it with you everywhere you go!
Like the full desktop version of Libre Office, the portable version is a full-featured Microsoft 365 compatible Office suite that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation tool, a drawing package and a database program.
Every component of the Libre Office Portable suite can read and write files in Microsoft 365 format. That makes it easy to work with Microsoft 365 documents using any borrowed PC while you’re traveling and then use those same documents on your work computer when you get back to the office!
It’s easy to put your own copy of Libre Office Portable on a USB flash drive. Here’s how:
1 – Connect a USB flash drive to your PC.
2 – Download Libre Office Portable from this page.
3 – Run the downloaded installation file in order to install Libre Office Portable onto the flash drive.
4 – (Optional) If you only work in English you can check the box beside Remove extra languages to save storage space on the flash drive.
5 – When prompted, select the USB flash drive as the Destination folder, then click Install. This will begin the installation process (which could take a few minutes).
That’s all there is to creating your Libre Office Portable flash drive. Luckily, using it is even easier. Here’s how:
1 – Insert the flash drive into an open USB port.
2 – Open the LibreOfficePortable folder.
3 – Double-click on the executable file for the Office module you wish to run (the filenames are fairly self-explanatory.)
4 – Use the program to edit an existing document or create a new one, then save it to the flash drive.
There you go! Now you’ll be able to use your very own Office suite on any PC that has an open USB port!
Bonus tip: If you’re used to using Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365 you’ll probably find the learning curve for Libre Office to be quite short and easy. However, if you’d like to learn all the ins-and-outs of using this awesome software this can be a big help.