The Document Foundation Wiki has a page about LibreOffice Vanilla for Mac, which explains the differences. There are some differences in functionality. LibreOffice Vanilla for Mac omits some Java-based features. The upshot is that Base cannot use the HSQLDB engine, and is lacking some reporting features. Java-based extensions won't work either. Word Perfect's best days were with DOS. The counterpart to Word Perfect on a Windows PC was Ami Pro. I am not a fan of Word back the nor now. Any of the items such as LibreOffice and similar are good candidates but most likely will not have a port for M1 based systems but may work under Rosetta 2. Microsoft Office with native Apple Silicon M1 support arrives By William Gallagher Dec 15, 2020 Microsoft's main app collection of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook in Microsoft 365 have all.
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This page describes how to set up a build environment for LibreOffice on macOS 10.14.4. Building master requires Xcode 11.3 or later, which requires macOS 10.14.4 or later.
Prerequisites
- Install Xcode from the App Store. The intent is that LibreOffice will always be buildable with the current Xcode on current macOS. Right after a new Xcode version is released, or after a new macOS version is released, there might be a few days while that is not true. Just be patient in that case. Using older Xcode versions on older macOS versions might also work. What you are absolutely not expected to do is to specifically download some old Xcode version or a separate old SDK and use those.
- Run Xcode at least once (you don't need to open or create any project)
- If you are planning to work on the parts of LibreOffice that are implemented in Java, mainly the HSQLDB embedded database in Base, you need to download and install a JDK (Java SE Development Kit): Oracle's Java SE Development Kit. But that is entirely optional. If you want to avoid Java, just use the --without-java option in your autogen.input or on the autogen.sh command line, when you get that far.
Notice: according to http://document-foundation-mail-archive.969070.n3.nabble.com/About-building-on-Apple-Silicon-M1-tt4298988.html, everything should be ok to build with mac containing processor Apple Silicon M1 except a known issue with in-process JVM (see https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2020-December/086490.html) Yamaha ymf400 kodiak service manual.
Building
See Development/lode.
Building Tips
See platform-independent tips at Development/GenericBuildingHints
Building in a ssh session
In some cases it seems that if you are building in a ssh session, some unit tests fail unless you also have a windowing session open to the machine, either on the physical console or through Screen Sharing.
Performance
Building LibreOffice takes time, a lot of time. Exactly how much depends on how powerful your machine is. But there are tools you can use to speed-up things.
ccache
ccache is short for compiler cache - and it is exactly that. It saves tons of time by not running the actual compiler when little has changed in the source codebetween two builds. But note that unless you explicitly do 'make clean' often, that is not typically the case, and using ccache just because you think it maybe helps is not a good idea.
Get it here: [1]
Build it like this:
You will also need to ensure the following is defined, e.g. in .bash_profile in your home folder, if using ccache (see Development/Building LibreOffice with Clang for full details), otherwise clang will report errors and show unnecessary warnings:
The default cache limit (5 GB) is not large enough to be useful for a LibreOffice build, but you can increase it, for instance to 30 GB:
To check what the current cache limit is, and see ccache statistics, run it with the -s command-line option:
Upgrading to a recent macOS on unsupported machines
Using various unofficial third-party tools it might be possible to run newer macOS versions on machines that are older than what that macOS version supports. If you need that, search for it. It is not relevant to duplicate such information here.
Don't bother building the ODK
It is likely that you don't need to build the 'ODK' (Office Development Kit), especially as building that would require installing one more dependency: doxygen. Use the --disable-odk option in your autogen.input or on the autogen.sh command line.
See also
I upgraded my Mac to Big Sur, version 11.1 On Mac mini (Late 2014)
LibreOffice failed to run - appeared to start and then failed. Installed new LibreOffice
Version: 6.4.7.2 Build ID: 639b8ac485750d5696d7590a72ef1b496725cfb5
Note: The same steps shown below failed using LibreOffice 7.0.3 MacOS x86-64.dmg
Tried to connect to my database. Got the message others have seen
The LibreOffice configuration has been changed. Under LibreOffice - Preferences - LibreOffice - Advanced, select the Java runtime environment you want to have used by LibreOffice.
When I try this, no Java runtime shows up in the list.Tried unclicking 'Use a Java Runtime Environment'Slightly different behavior
I installed the latest Java v. 8 from Oracle
In the Java Control Panel / Java / View it shows Java Runtime Environment Settings for System as
Path = /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/bin/java
Returned to Libreoffice preferences, but could not navigate past the 'Internet Plug-Ins' folder in the 'Add' command
I saw some comments about adding a missing libreoffice-sdbc-hsqldb - not sure how to add this.
Comments
Mac to Big Sur, version 11.1
Fedex zp 500 plus drivers for mac. There is no macOS 11.1 - Big Sur is 11.0 (current sub-release 11.0.1)
I installed the latest Java v. 8 from Oracle
Did you really install JDK, which is required on macOS - see FAQ? Your path doesn't look like the install path of JDK but install path of a JRE (be aware, if being on LibreOffice version 7.0.x - you need to use JDK 12.0.2 - others don't work).
Libreoffice M1 Mac
Libreoffice M1 Machine
I saw some comments about adding a missing libreoffice-sdbc-hsqldb
This is applicable to GNU/Linux systems only. On macOS all required software gets installed while installing from dmg file (the only exceptions to this are language files, if you require another UI language than 'English (USA)'.
I got a Macbook Air M1 on Dec 25 with 11.0.1, updated it to 11.1, 6.4.5.2 wouldn't run, downloaded 7.0.3 (already downloaded), 7.0.4.2 would. Options - Libre Office Advance -> Java Options showed Oracle Corporation 1.8.0_20, selected it. Location shown as /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMacMachines/jdk1_8.0_201.jdk/Contents/Home/jre . The java was loaded by the Migration Assistant.app from OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan). I think the /Library/Internet Plug-ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin is a bundle.
Your issue is: You need a special version of java: JDK 12.0.2 - see bug report tdf#135479 - LO Complains about missing JDK when accessing any Java functionality, despite recognizing JDK on macOS under Preferences - Even if yours shows up in LibreOffice - it won't work due to the bug mentioned above (which also might be the solution for OP, who did not respond to my comment hence the current status is unclear).
Libreoffice Per Mac M1
@Opaque I apologize for my idiomatic English. The combination LibreOffice 7.0.4.2, Oracle jdk 1.8.0_201 and macOS 11.1 on the Macbook Air M1 works. The comment was meant to suggest places to look and that the Plug-in wasn't appropriate.
Oracle jdk 1.8.0_201 and macOS 11.1 on the Macbook Air M1 works
Are you sure? Are you really using it? The issue is not LibreOffice not recognizing that version but the issue is to get an error about a defect Java installation when using it. Anyway - did not find that old 201 release at Oracle's website, hence cannot test.