Solved Microsoft Office Suite - Another Free Alternative

JustATest

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[FONT=&quot]Good UI, but too much quirks.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]First: It's only available in English and Chinese, and changes regional settings while launching (that creates problems for other apps).[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Compatibility with Microsoft Office is better than that of LibreOffice / OpenOffice, but still far away from being considered good: I couldn't open several docx files, had problems opening password-protected, or larger documents, many that could be opened had screwed up formatting.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]As Word (doc, docx), Excel (xls, xlsx), and PowerPoint (ppt, pptx) represent the global standard office formats, a good alternative should be able to interoperate properly. Kingsoft isn't, LibreOffice is even less, OpenOffice isn't at all.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I see only one alternative office suite which is seamlessly compatible, and that's SoftMaker Office by German developer SoftMaker. This has fantastic import and export filters compared to all others, is very feature-packed, and makes Microsoft Office dispensable. They also offer a lite version of a full-fledged office suite for free, try it out:[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]freeoffice.com[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]It has the same brilliant import and export filters like SoftMaker Office; in contrast to Kingsoft Office, you can change UI language, and can download dictionaries in nearly all languages of this planet, it doesn't change regional settings when launching, it's usable portably from flash drive. Try it out.[/FONT]
 

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Hello Caligula,

Thank you for all that information and comparison to SoftMaker. However, I don't see the word "free" anywhere on the SoftMaker website but I do see a 30-day trial. Now, with that said, I think it is unfair to make a comparison (as such) between free and pay Office versions. Also, I must dispute your one statement where you say Kingsoft doesn't open *.docx documents properly because it does open them perfectly. Anyway, thanks again. BTW, do you work for Softmaker?
 

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SoftMaker FreeOffice :: A full-featured office suite offered as a free download

"Free" is all over the page, they just hope you will upgrade to full version.

"You can now download fully functional and permanently usable versions of SoftMaker FreeOffice for Windows and Linux for free.
SoftMaker FreeOffice is a complete office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation-graphics program:

  • FreeOffice TextMaker is more than just Word-compatible: It is not only great at document creation, but also at adding great-looking layouts.
  • The FreeOffice PlanMaker spreadsheet is not only Excel-compatible, but convinces with ease-of-use, speed, and presentation-quality charts.
  • And FreeOffice Presentations presents itself as a capable, easy to use alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint.
Where's the catch? There is none. And if you like SoftMaker FreeOffice as much as tens of thousands of other users do, maybe you'll switch to its commercial version, SoftMaker Office 2012, which provides additional features."
 

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Hey! Free wasn't all over the page that I accessed here: SoftMaker : Downloads
What you have provided is nothing more than a "canned marketing response" for SoftMaker. AND, NOWHERE in your response do I see any indication that you have actually tried it or intend to use it. So, please don't recommend something that you haven't even tried.
 

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"Hey! Free wasn't all over the page that I accessed here: SoftMaker : Downloads
What you have provided is nothing more than a "canned marketing response" for SoftMaker. AND, NOWHERE in your response do I see any indication that you have actually tried it or intend to use it. So, please don't recommend something that you haven't even tried."

I was speaking of the site posted earlier in the thread. Of course it is marketing, obvious to most. I saw nothing in your post that told me what I had to include in my response so sorry I didn't know you required me to have "actually tried" the product - by the way which I have but you assumed I had not. I do not see anything in my response that was a recommendation either.

Sorry I pulled your string, had no intent to do so.
 

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You didn't pull my string at all. However, it did sound like you were trying to promo the product and make me look somewhat uninformed in the doing. The fact is that the page I accessed shows no free downloads and the page you accessed does show free downloads so a gentle reminder would have been sufficient. And, that does not serve the product sponsor very well when they are providing conflicting information on the same product. Anyway, thank you for your response.
 

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