Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

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keme
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Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

Post by keme »

There are several posts recommending Softmaker's office suites, mostly when the issue is connected to MS Office compatibility. The advice is reasonable, but there are also issues which should be mentioned. Because the advice mentioned could be seen as eager marketing of a commercial package, moderators have asked that I post my findings in public.

I am not able to thoroughly test every feature in various Office suites against each other, so I post what I have here, and hopefully others will pitch in with their knowledge.

My simple tests indicate that when it comes to preserving document layout in wordprocessing and presentation files from MS Office, Softmaker FreeOffice performs better than OpenOffice-related suites. I have not done any tests towards spreadsheet compatibility.

I have only tested the "lightweight" FreeOffice version, not the full-featured commercial one. Some drawbacks I found (as compared to OpenOffice):
  • The suite install is available in a fairly limited selection of languages.
  • ODF is only supported for wordprocessor documents
  • All applications default to using their own (proprietary, by the looks of it) storage format.
  • The free suite is a limited version of their commercial office suite
  • Licensing is somewhat restrictive. You can install on several computers from one product key, but they all need the same combination of email address and name.
  • You must give them your email address (product key is sent by email).
The most important issue to me is the case of vendor lockin, as manifested by defaulting to their own storage format and only providing very limited support for ODF (which presently, AFAIK, is the only truly free office document format in common use).
Apache OO 4.1.12 and LibreOffice 7.5, mostly on Ms Windows 10
SoftMaker
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Re: Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

Post by SoftMaker »

Thank you for posting about SoftMaker Office and FreeOffice. Some comments:

1. Both come with user interfaces in 15 languages. The next version (due this fall) will support around 40 languages. Spell-checking in the commercial version covers 20 languages. Both the free and the commercial version can be extended by any Hunspell dictionary.

2. ODF is indeed currently supported only in the word processor. We plan to add support for the spreadsheet and later for the presentation-graphics module, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

3. While the applications support their own file formats, all can be set to use the Microsoft formats (and in TextMaker some more, such as ODT or RTF) by default. Go to Tools/Options/Files and set the Default File Format.

4. Since all serial numbers for FreeOffice are free, licensing is not really restrictive. You can always request more keys for free. Plus, the commercial version comes with three licenses in the box both for home and business use. Granted, this is not as nice as a free-of-charge office suite, but it is pretty generous as far as commercial software goes.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH
I don't use OpenOffice 3.1 on Windows Vista, or anywhere else, but this message board forces me to enter it in my signature.
esperantisto
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Re: Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

Post by esperantisto »

keme wrote:My simple tests indicate that when it comes to preserving document layout in wordprocessing and presentation files from MS Office, Softmaker FreeOffice performs better than OpenOffice-related suites.
Do you refer to MSO 97-2003 file formats or current ones?
AOO 4.2.0 (of 2015) / LO 7.x / Win 7 / openSUSE Linux Leap 15.4 (64-bit)
harrodsyd
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Re: Concerning Softmaker Office

Post by harrodsyd »

In my experience the Softmaker writer and calc programs are far easier than the OpenOffice offerings to adapt to from old MS Word and Excel versions that use MS proprietary formats. My only quarrel with Softmaker was the upgrade fee for their macro functionality.

The Softmaker modules do what I tell them, whereas I am still experiencing difficulty in teaching OpenOffice to use my paths that lead to separate drives for text and spreadsheet data files. What about the lists of recent files? I often use spreadsheets in series and detest the text files cluttering OpenOffice's "re-open one of these?" list.

It seems to me that musty OpenOffice made a bad decision to conform to the ancient Microsoft multiuser-obsessed trap of throwing everyone's data into one corner with absurdly long labels on the bin-bags.
OpenOffice 4.0.1 on Windows XP sp3
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keme
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Re: Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

Post by keme »

esperantisto wrote:
keme wrote:My simple tests indicate that when it comes to preserving document layout in wordprocessing and presentation files from MS Office, Softmaker FreeOffice performs better than OpenOffice-related suites.
Do you refer to MSO 97-2003 file formats or current ones?
My tests were with files which students had asked for help with, because they didn't come out right on the collaborators' computers (I work in the ICT department in a secondary school).
According to what I was told (IIRC):
  • one ".doc" file was originally created in Writer but edited in Word
    All table cells had an additional blank line at the bottom
  • Two ".docx" files created in Word 2010
    One of them had tables in frames/tables in tables, built on a report template one of the teachers created. We have had major printing problems with several documents built on that template, but most of them look good onscreen.
    I have forgotten what was the case with the other file...
  • One pptx file created in Powerpoint 2013
    Plain presentation. OpenOffice Impress duplicated every slide. LibreOffice duplicated most slides.
I am quite certain that I tried opening all of them in both AOO and LO. I can't say for sure which versions of the suites I tested with, but fairly recent ones (AOO 3.4.1, at worst...).
In Softmaker FreeOffice the files all came out nicely. Didn't try to edit them, only open and print/pdf export.
Apache OO 4.1.12 and LibreOffice 7.5, mostly on Ms Windows 10
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Villeroy
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Re: Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

Post by Villeroy »

A list of MS Office features not implemented in Softmaker would help to build a matrix of incompatibility.
1. Pivot tables (spreadsheets)
2. ...
3. ...
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
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ecbritz
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Re: Concerning Softmaker Office/FreeOffice

Post by ecbritz »

I recently added Softmaker Office 2016 to WordPerfect X6 and now have two extra word processors -- extra to OpenOffice that is. The main reason for adding Softmaker -- the new, fully featured, paid version -- is the trouble I sometimes run into with both OpenOffice and WordPerfect when I have to help my son with his school projects, to be handed in in the docx format. The Softmaker interface layout and menu designs seem to be borrowed from both WordPerfect and OpenOffice. It's slightly weird to bump into WordPerfect-type menu's in what seems to be an OpenOffice-type interface environment. But apart from this non-issue, Softmaker 2016 is easy to like, its seems to come from a good home dedicated to its success, and it serves it's stated purpose, namely to produce good .doc and .docx files, as far as TextMaker is concerned. Softmaker has many ways you can fine-tune a document, reminding me of WordPerfect, and I enjoy learning to use it. The main drawback for me is the lonely user support forum. It does not have many souls populating it and I have had no responses to date to two questions I posted.
AOO 4.1.2 on 64bit Windows 10 machine
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