SoftMaker Office

[tuahaa]

Hi guys

I just got a copy of SoftMaker Office for Linux (you have to pay though) and it is a great alternative for Microsoft Office. It beats Ooo (being paid, naturally)...

It make beautiful documents (yes, even the presentation files turn out looking good). Compatibility with MSOffice is good. I've noticed that while Ooo gets the job done, you get a hideous piece of work (no offense!)

I would urge everyone who wants to move onto a viable solution for doing school/homework on Linux by investing in this.

Random screenshot I took:

179839

[tuahaa]

Just to check the compatibility, I opened the same file on Windows (MSOffice 2007):

179840

[alexan]

By supporting commercial software for linux you're doing a great job, but since in linux community we like to talk about alternatives give a shot to IBM Lostu Symphony (http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home). Is a heavy patched by version of OpenOffice from IBM that come for free.
It is not just about compatibility with MS Office, but also deliver the IBM's way of business.

[murderslastcrow]

Not bad. As I have been consulting businesses on moving their offices to open source, it would be interesting to know better how good the compatibility is, here. If they only had to pay a small fee for this program, it would still be major savings, and it would be another program to boast as available for Linux, although not open source (nyeh).

Still, I think it would be a far more adequate solution to get people used to ODF, instead. There are many places around the world where it's becoming very common- if it becomes as common as PDF, the support for it will rise, and the options people have will increase in flexibility and quality. After all, people shouldn't complain when you send them an open format that can be read by any number of free programs (as in price). And, if Microsoft Office supports ODF, as I've heard, then I don't see why we shouldn't send our files in ODF as often as we please. However, I get the feeling people aren't using whatever versions do support it, as most people still prefer doc over docx.

Aside from that, the interface doesn't look horrible. It's better to use your own interface than to try poorly to integrate it(like OpenOffice.org). Still, it would be good to do some more testing on the compatibility, since this could be an ace in the hole for the people who can't jeopardize the compatbility of their old formats.

[Kalimol]

I played with Softmaker briefly through the trial, and it feels quite solid. Integration seemed smoother than OOo - it keeps, for instance, comments and tracked changes in .docx, which OOo loses. Lotus Symphony I tried, but it had some problems with my desktop, and it doesn't support .docx at all.

Since .odt is supported in MS Office now, as well as Google Docs, I'm not really worried about any potential format war here. It seems like, in the near future, we won't have to worry about these things so much. I mean, a lot of organizations seem to think that they need a specific piece of commercial software to handle documents of any kind. That illusion is still there, but the practical underpinnings are going away.

I'm sticking with OOo for now, myself, even if I hate having to convert to .doc (as opposed to .docx) if I'm making comments on a paper and even if the formatting is still somewhat less than trustworthy. I don't really have to deal with the cruddiness of the interface, simply because I have all the toolbars turned off and do everything from the keyboard anyway.

I'd definitely pick up Softmaker in full version if I could afford it right now. It's just $80, and the presentation editor and format preservation in general seems much nicer than OOo, but, yanno, $80. = P

[weasel fierce]

Keep meaning to check out Lotus Symphony, but thanks for the recommendation on Softmaker. 80 bucks isn't bad at all compared to non-student costs of office suites

[screaminj3sus]

I played with Softmaker briefly through the trial, and it feels quite solid. Integration seemed smoother than OOo - it keeps, for instance, comments and tracked changes in .docx, which OOo loses. Lotus Symphony I tried, but it had some problems with my desktop, and it doesn't support .docx at all.

Since .odt is supported in MS Office now, as well as Google Docs, I'm not really worried about any potential format war here. It seems like, in the near future, we won't have to worry about these things so much. I mean, a lot of organizations seem to think that they need a specific piece of commercial software to handle documents of any kind. That illusion is still there, but the practical underpinnings are going away.

I'm sticking with OOo for now, myself, even if I hate having to convert to .doc (as opposed to .docx) if I'm making comments on a paper and even if the formatting is still somewhat less than trustworthy. I don't really have to deal with the cruddiness of the interface, simply because I have all the toolbars turned off and do everything from the keyboard anyway.

I'd definitely pick up Softmaker in full version if I could afford it right now. It's just $80, and the presentation editor and format preservation in general seems much nicer than OOo, but, yanno, $80. = P

I can open .docx with symphony just fine...

[sandyd]

By supporting commercial software for linux you're doing a great job, but since in linux community we like to talk about alternatives give a shot to IBM Lostu Symphony (http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home). Is a heavy patched by version of OpenOffice from IBM that come for free.
It is not just about compatibility with MS Office, but also deliver the IBM's way of business.
It would be awesome if they provided a 64-bit version though; I cant run it.

[screaminj3sus]

It would be awesome if they provided a 64-bit version though; I cant run it.

I just installed the ia32 libs and it installed and runs fine.

[Kalimol]

@ screaminj3sus - That's fair, and I didn't really give it enough time. I'll try it out again when I have some of that. It's not like I need the ability to save into .docx for some reason.

As I said, I'd also had desktop integration issues of some kind, where the text would disappear as I typed it - maybe some high-contrast mode thing gone horribly wrong, or a Java conflict. I only played with it very briefly, but I do like the interface and might try to give it a fairer shake in the future. For now, though, I don't see an immense improvement over OpenOffice.org, which, if I'm honest, is totally sufficient and usable after a few tweaks.

[sandyd]

I just installed the ia32 libs and it installed and runs fine.
ive installed probably every emul-linux-* lib there is that shows up in my portage.
sadly....


sandy@sandyd-laptop /etc/portage/package.use $ "/usr/bin/symphony" %U
sandy@sandyd-laptop /etc/portage/package.use $
2011/01/02 12:51:17.132 CONFIG eclipse.buildId=20101013-2236
java.fullversion=JRE 1.6.0 IBM J9 2.4 Linux x86-32 jvmxi3260sr7-20100219_54049 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
J9VM - 20100219_054049
JIT - r9_20091123_13891
GC - 20100216_AA
BootLoader constants: OS=linux, ARCH=x86, WS=gtk, NL=en
Framework arguments: %U en -personality com.ibm.productivity.tools.standalone.personality -product com.ibm.symphony.standard.branding.symphony -com.ibm.symphony.standard.branding#process_args_co mmand -homepage -plugincustomization /opt/ibm/lotus/Symphony/framework/rcp/plugin_customization.ini
Command-line arguments: -os linux -ws gtk -arch x86 %U en -personality com.ibm.productivity.tools.standalone.personality -product com.ibm.symphony.standard.branding.symphony -com.ibm.symphony.standard.branding#process_args_co mmand -homepage -data /home/sandy/.lotus/symphony -plugincustomization /opt/ibm/lotus/Symphony/framework/rcp/plugin_customization.ini ::class.method=com.ibm.rcp.core.internal.logger.fr ameworkhook.writeSession() ::thread=Start Level Event Dispatcher ::loggername=com.ibm.rcp.core.internal.logger.fram eworkhook
2011/01/02 12:51:17.524 WARNING Warnings while parsing the images from the 'org.eclipse.ui.commandImages' extension point. ::class.method=unknown ::thread=Thread-7 ::loggername=org.eclipse.ui
2011/01/02 12:51:17.525 WARNING Cannot bind to an undefined command: plug-in='com.ibm.symphony.ui.spreadsheet', id='com.ibm.symphony.edit.sheet' ::class.method=unknown ::thread=Thread-7 ::loggername=org.eclipse.ui
The program 'IBM Lotus Symphony' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'.
(Details: serial 3637 error_code 8 request_code 148 minor_code 4)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

[tezer]

I can't agree that SoftMaker Office beats OO hands down in MS documents compatibility.
First of all SoftMaker Presentations can't read.pptx files, while OOo does it quite well.
Second, while SoftMaker TextMaker is better at detecting font/paragraph sizes of .doc and.docx documents, OOo is better at handling headers/footers (in some documents TextMaker was unable to put some pics properly).

So I am not totally convinced with the claim that SoftMaker Office is better at handling MS documents than OOo. They both have problems.

[tuahaa]

I can't agree that SoftMaker Office beats OO hands down in MS documents compatibility.
First of all SoftMaker Presentations can't read.pptx files, while OOo does it quite well.
Second, while SoftMaker TextMaker is better at detecting font/paragraph sizes of .doc and.docx documents, OOo is better at handling headers/footers (in some documents TextMaker was unable to put some pics properly).

So I am not totally convinced with the claim that SoftMaker Office is better at handling MS documents than OOo. They both have problems.

Well, I'm sure they both have problems but I've been working in TextMaker for quite a few days now and it's perfect as far as Office suites go on Linux.

Luckily for me, I can always open files that won't work on SoftMaker with Ooo and save them as something else or just open them in MS Office (though I don't like doing that as it means I have to boot into windows).

[tezer]

Well, I'm sure they both have problems but I've been working in TextMaker for quite a few days now and it's perfect as far as Office suites go on Linux.

Luckily for me, I can always open files that won't work on SoftMaker with Ooo and save them as something else or just open them in MS Office (though I don't like doing that as it means I have to boot into windows).

But what is the point in buying software (SoftMaker) that does not offer much improvement over a free software (OOo)???

[sandyd]

Well, I'm sure they both have problems but I've been working in TextMaker for quite a few days now and it's perfect as far as Office suites go on Linux.

Luckily for me, I can always open files that won't work on SoftMaker with Ooo and save them as something else or just open them in MS Office (though I don't like doing that as it means I have to boot into windows).
then run it in wine.

[gatorbrit]

Just checked out Softmaker...
Didn't get too far though..I found this..

Note: The SoftMaker Equation Editor is available only for Windows and is not
included in all versions of TextMaker.


Thats a deal killer for me.