However, that time has been well spent and it's well optimized for use on the move, with easy access to documents stored on a networked drive, an FTP server, or cloud storage (opens in new tab) account. This takes some time, so it's a few versions behind the installable version of LibreOffice. Like many portable apps, LibreOffice Portable is made using open source (opens in new tab) code. The only thing missing is Charts – though you can create graphs and other visualizations using Calc. LibreOffice Portable includes almost all the programs from the installable version of LibreOffice: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector drawing), Math (formulas), and Base (databases). You’ll need an external drive if you want to carry it, but you can easily keep it in the cloud (Google Drives gives you a free 10GB to play with, and DropBox gives you 2GB). LibreOffice Portable is the largest of the portable apps here, but it's still amazingly compact considering it's a full office suite.

Some portable apps have optional language files, which will add to the size considerably, so consider opting out of these unless you need a language other than English. The program itself is an EXE file, but the extracted folder will also contain associated files including fonts and settings, which are essential for it to run.

Other portable apps are provided as a regular ZIP file (opens in new tab) for you to extract yourself. Some portable apps have an ‘installer’, but don't worry – this just unzips a compressed file archive and saves the extracted files to a location of your choice it doesn’t make any changes to your system files. Portable apps have several advantages: they make it easy to switch between different computers because you can take your software with you, they don't interfere with any other programs installed on your PC, and they can be used on PCs with restricted user permissions (at work or school, for example).

Provided there’s enough space available, you can store portable apps anywhere – an internal drive, an external storage device like a USB stick (opens in new tab) or SD card (opens in new tab), on a networked drive, or a cloud storage (opens in new tab) service like OneDrive or DropBox. Portable apps are programs that don't have to be installed, and don't change your PC's settings.

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