Release history

SoftMaker is a closed source office suite that has two versions, one free and the other paid, the suite has many features from office suites such as Microsoft Office, LibreOffice or WordPerfect Office, and it can softmaker office email client be run from a USB memory stick and supports built-in reference jobs.

Has its own native formats, and can read and write Microsoft Office, OpenDocument, RTF, and HTML file formats.

It can export to PDF and it has spell checking in different languages, has support for hyphenation and synonyms. It has a built-in translation dictionary for five languages ​​(English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish).

SoftMaker Office has the user interface is similar to Microsoft Office and it has support for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Android.

As I had already mentioned, it has two versions the published version is a freeware version, which is called SoftMaker FreeOffice.

While its paid version has several modalitiesFrom acquiring it with a monthly subscription with support for 5 computers for as little as $ 5 per month to paying an annuity.

Personally, I can say that the costs are quite accessible taking into account that it can be installed on up to 5 different computers, although I am not one of the people who like to pay subscriptions, this is a very good option for both educational and business environments .

SoftMaker is a feature-rich office product with a modern and intuitive user interface. Compatibility with Microsoft Office is a great advantage for the SoftMaker suite.

The SoftMaker suite has four products, among which we find: TextMaker a word processor, PlanMaker a spreadsheet application, presentations a Graphic Presentations application that is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint and Basic Maker a tool for programming macros under a language similar to Visual Basic

The Softmaker Office Professional version also includes:

• An email client - Thunderbird
• A spell checker Duden.
• Two Duden dictionaries.
• Four Langenscheidt dictionaries.

SoftMaker Office already has native support for Linux

As I said before, this suite is available for Linux, so it is no longer necessary to use Wine or Crossover to run it.

This suite added its Linux support just a few days ago, so it's a great LibreOffice alternative if it's not good enough for you.

With SoftMaker's new release and native Linux support have improved and added a couple of features among which we find:

• Includes a modern ribbon interface with the option to switch to classic view
• Uses standard GNOME file dialogs
• Documents can be tabulated with the option of dragging them to open in a new window
• Uses DOCX, XLSX and PPTX natively to provide seamless compatibility with MS Office documents
• New 2D and 3D animations and slide transitions based on OpenGL
• Includes "presenter view" where the presenter's monitor displays current and future slides while viewers see the current slide in view
• Available for both bit and bit systems. This is the first bit version for Linux.

How to install on SoftMaker Linux?

Even though it is a paid geforce now cracked we have the possibility to test the suite for free for a period of 30 days, with which we can measure if softmaker office email client is good enough to pay for any of the subscriptions it offers us.

The suite has support for 32 and 64 bit architectures and also we have two main installers in .deb and .rpm format.

With them, all those derived from Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS and others will be able to install in just a couple of clicks or from the terminal.

For the rest of the distributions they provide us with a .tar package from which we will install the suite.

The link download is thisIf you know of any other alternative or suite that you know, do not hesitate to share it with us in the comments.

SoftMaker Office is a suite of office programs designed to be an alternative to Microsoft Office. The package comes with applications for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It can also be used to send emails and organize tasks and appointments.

Soft Maker Office is explicitly designed to be an alternative to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs with support for many of the same formats and industry standard functionalities.

About the SoftMaker Office suite

If you are looking for a cheaper alternative to Microsoft Office, SoftMaker Office is a good choice, however free alternatives like OpenOffice or LibreOffice may be better suited to your needs.

SoftMaker Office is the latest version of the office suite from German developer SoftMaker Software. It comes in two versions; Standard and Professional.

The standard version includes a word processor (TextMaker), a spreadsheet (PlanMaker) and presentation programs (Presentations).

As well you get an improved version of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. The Professional suite includes everything Standard has to offer plus four Berlitz dictionaries.

Of the applications included in the Office application suite we can find:

TextMaker is the Word version of SoftMaker, as it supports DOC and DOCX documents and provides many of the traditional styles and formatting options such as fonts, text indents, table insertion, and the formatting brush.

PlanMaker, which is the replacement for Excel, supports XLS and XLSX files and can handle large data sets in a spreadsheet environment.

Presentations is the PowerPoint presentation from the SoftMaker suite of applications. It supports both PPT and PPTX files and gives you many of the same softmaker office email client, such as graphics and audio insertion and slide transitions.

BasicMaker is a simple program that provides a programming environment that allows you to control Windows programs VBA compliant such as TextMaker and PlanMaker using SoftMaker Basic scripts.

And finally, Mozilla Thunderbird application allows you to manage your email and organize your tasks and softmaker office email client Office has many features from office suites such as Microsoft Office, LibreOffice or WordPerfect Office, and it can also be run from a USB memory stick and supports built-in reference jobs.

It has its own native formats, and can read and write Microsoft Office, OpenDocument (word processor only), RTF, and HTML file formats. You can export to PDF.

Free SoftMaker for educational environments

As part of his Nuremberg party education initiative SoftMaker offers its office suite of the same name in version for Linux and Windows to liberate schools and colleges. The company had already established such a program with the previous package.

Softmaker Office you will receive all schools, universities and faculty for free. Depending on the provider, educational institutions can use the campus license in teaching and administration.

The Teachers are also entitled to geforce now cracked a free license for private use.

In the case of students and students who are interested in this, they also benefit from the campaign: for group orders of at least 10 students or students, they receive the package for private use for a processing fee of around € 10 per license.

The office pack generally costs a little less than 70 euros.

Included in the package the text editor Text Maker , spreadsheet Plan Maker and presentation software Presentations Besides, the package comes with a custom version of the Softmaker office email client mail client.

For those interested in obtaining this benefit of the free or reduced version of Softmaker Officeyou can request the parties interested in the promotion directly on the provider's website.

You should also know that the suite earlier this year launched the support of its products for Linux, so this is a multiplatform office suite that can be used for any operating system in educational environments.

Zoho, an up-and-coming software company, has developed not one, but two viable Office alternatives: Zoho Workplace and Zoho Office Suite.

Zoho Workplace includes an extensive array of built-in applications, including business email, spreadsheets, file management, online meetings and even a word processor. Zoho Workplace users have access to 30 MB email attachments, unlimited organizations and private chat channels, 5 GB file upload for docs and Google Workplace (formally Google Suite) integration for free for up to 50 members.

Zoho Office Suite (also known as Zoho Docs) is a bit more subdued than its Workplace counterpart, but no less powerful. Designed to “[blur] the line between your productivity tools and business apps,” Zoho Office Suite consists of five applications:

• Writer for word processing
• Sheet for collaborative spreadsheets
• Show for interactive presentations
• Notebook for multi-device note-taking
• WorkDrive for online file management

All of Zoho Office Suite’s apps are compatible with other platforms, including Office and Dropbox, for seamless import, editing and export, softmaker office email client. Zoho Office Suite also features Zia, Zoho’s AI-powered intelligent assistant, across all applications.

Price:

• Zoho Workplace: Free for up to five users; $3/user/mo. for Zoho Workplace Standard; $6/user/mo. for Zoho Workplace Professional
• Zoho Office Suite: Free for up to five users; softmaker office email client. for Zoho Docs Standard; $/user/mo. for Zoho Docs Premium

Users Say…

“With a price tag of free, a minimalist user interface that becomes familiar after using it for only a short time, and the ability to optionally share documents amongst team members without sending them by email, Zoho Workplace puts group collaboration at the forefront of cloud-based work. With a Chromebook, a Windows system, a Macintosh, or even with an iPad or Android tablet, I can create and edit word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online with ease.”

“Zoho Docs is absolutely perfect for sharing and storing documents within my team, softmaker office email client. We are able to upload any documents that we can think of to make sure that they are safe and shared with the entire team. I would highly recommend Zoho [Docs] to any team that is looking for a cost-effective and easy way to share and store their documents for their small business.”

Here we give you the five best alternatives to Microsoft Office. We compare them based on features, softmaker office email client, are easy to use and provide you with a guide to choosing the one you need.

We all agree that Microsoft Office is one of the best software developed by Mircosoft. It has a presence almost everywhere in the entire world in nearly every business. It is a fine piece of software that evolved over a few decades.

And obviously, it doesn&#;t have a Linux native installer and comes with a significant price. The current Microsoft Office subscription pricing is a little higher if you are a business owner or a personal user. And not everyone can afford that price bucket for a longer time.

Then what are the alternatives? You can try other options that relatively get the job done for most users or businesses.

This article gives you the five best alternatives to Microsoft Office.

Best Alternatives to Microsoft Office

1. LibreOffice

The first alternative we highlight here is LibreOffice. The Document Foundation develops and manages the entire LibreOffice free and open-source office suite, available for Linux, macOS and Softmaker office email client, it comes with a spreadsheet (Calc), word processor (Writer), presentation (Impress), softmaker office email client (Draw) and a database program (Base).

Secondly, this project is actively developed, and compatibility with Microsoft Office documents is improved in every release iteration. If appropriately used, LibreOffice can effectively do all the work that a Mircosoft office program does. In addition, a massive set of documentation and communities can help you adopt LibreOffice in no time.

You don&#;t need to pay for the software if you are a small or large corporation. But paid deployment and support are also available at minimal cost if you require them for your critical work.

However, LibreOffice does not come with an Outlook-like email program. This might be one of the minor drawbacks, but you can access emails from web browsers today for all email service providers.

More details about LibreOffice

2. Google Docs

The search engine giant Google provides a complete web-based Office suite (aka Google Docs) with its Docs (document processor), Sheets (spreadsheet program) and Slides (presentation) for free users.

You can access and create documents in your Google Drive account by default and access them from anywhere. The office components provide well-designed web-based toolbars, advanced options, spell check, Voice to Text feature (only in Chrome), encryption and cloud access. Google also offers mobile apps for iOS and Android to access your documents and edit them on the go.

One of the best features of Google Docs is templates. With the power of pre-built templates, you can start professional-grade documents in time. The collaboration option gives you more control when sharing and deploying documents with a Google account-based authentication and authorization mechanism for a wider audience.

If you need more from Google Docs, you may opt for Google Workspace with a minimal price compared to costly Microsoft Office. The Google Workspace is a complete and integrated solution that gives you Google Forms to collect data and integrate it into your docs and Sheets, website builder Google Sites, Google Calendar and more storage options to keep your document.

More details about Google Docs

3. OnlyOffice

OnlyOffice is a free and open-source complete Office productivity suite with a text editor, spreadsheet program, and presentation tool for you and your office work. It supports advanced features such as real-time collaboration with proper tracking changes for your shared documents, fillable forms, and many other features.

This powerful office suite looks better with its Office type ribbons, which helps to adopt this program quickly. In addition, this product has better Microsoft Office compatibility with .docx .xlsx and .pptx file formats which are easy for you and your organization to share documents.

It&#;s worth mentioning that it provides an Enterprise office suite, aka &#;ONLYOFFICE Workspace, &#; a paid product with additional features and instant support. This enterprise suite is perfect for those with a tight budget on office products but needs near compatibility with Office

Furthermore, the ONLYOFFICE Workspace comes with an Email client, CRM product, Project Management tool and an integrated calendar. Although everything works well, you face issues with spell checking, print preview, page size and some bugs, softmaker office email client. But you should not worry as the team is receptive, and you can report issues on GitHub and get help.

More details

4. Softmaker Free Office

The FreeOffice is another option if you are looking for Microsoft Office alternatives. SoftMaker developed this office suite, and it is arguably one of the choices you may have. Let&#;s talk a little about its features.

Firstly, the FreeOffice brings TextMaker (like Word), PlanMaker (like Excel), Presentations and a comparison utility. Secondly, softmaker office email client, the user interfaces as two options. The modern Ribbon option makes it softmaker office email client desirable product due to its popularity. Moreover, it has a traditional Legacy user interface with a menu and toolbar with a considerable fanbase.

Besides these, the SoftMaker FreeOffice provides a specific user interface and features for touch-based devices. The Microsoft Office document format compatibility is well established to get the most done.

However, you may have little trouble working with Open Document Format files, whose support is limited.

This is a closed-source product.

More details about SoftMaker FreeOffice

5. WPS Office

Remember Kingston Office? Well, it&#;s now renamed and repackaged as WPS Office, the acronym for Word, Presentation and Spreadsheets. Today, the WPS Office is one of the oldest office suites, with more than three decades of development and release. It is a fully-featured office suite available for all platforms and mobile devices.

Some of the noteworthy features of WPS Office are its real-time collaboration in its softmaker office email client programs which helps you work in a team on a shared document. The office suite comes with ,+ templates which allows you to create professional-grade documents and presentations.

The WPS Office comes with the standard edition, free to download and use but limited in features.

Moreover, if you need additional features such as PDF editing, Cloud support, collaborations and enterprise support, then you can opt for the WPS Premium of WPS Business option with a price.

It&#;s important to mention that this is a closed-source program and may contain Ads. Also, it was developed by a Chinese company.

More details about WPS Office

Comparison

Here&#;s a quick comparison of the free Microsoft Office alternatives based on noteworthy features and other details.

Our Recommendation

Besides all the pros and cons, if you cannot choose which Office suite is best for you, I recommend going ahead with LibreOffice. Because LibreOffice and TDF have a good vision, active development and worldwide community support. LibreOffice has a considerable knowledge base about tips and tutorials on the helpful web. And you can easily automate tasks with Basic or Python Macro.

Closing Notes

I hope this guide helps you choose the best alternatives for Microsoft Office for your personal or business usage. Genuinely speaking, none of the above office products come close in comparison to Microsoft Office in the true sense, softmaker office email client. Not everyone or every company can pay a hefty monthly subscription fee for Microsoft Office. For those, I believe some of these options can be a good starting point.

Next:Upgrade to Latest LibreOffice in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Windows

SoftMaker FreeOffice is a free office suite that includes a spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation program, making it a suitable free Microsoft Office alternative. 

The application that most resembles Word is called TextMaker, while Presentations and PlanMaker can be used as alternatives to PowerPoint and Softmaker office email client, respectively.

FreeOffice File Formats

FreeOffice fully supports some file types, meaning that it can both open and save back to the format. Some are only acceptable when opening the file, and others are supported only when saving the document.

TextMaker:

• Open and save to: DOC, DOCX, DOT, DOTX, HTML, ODT, PSW, PWD, RTF, TMD, TMDX, TMV, Softmaker office email client, TXT
• Open: DOCM, DOTM, HTM, OTT, SXW, WPD, WRI, XHTML
• Save to: EPUB, PDF

PlanMaker:

• Open and save to: CSV, DBF, DIF, PMDX, PMV, PMVX, RTF, SLK, TXT, XLS, XLSM, XLSX, XLT, XLTM, XLTX
• Open: ODS, OTS, PMW, PRN, SDC
• Save to: HTM, PDF, PMD, TMD

Presentation:

• Open and save to: POT, POTX, PPS, PPSX, PPT, PPTX, PRD, PRDX, PPSX, PRV, PRVX
• Open: POTM, PPSM, PPTM, PRS
• Save to: PDF, PTF

Note that popular formats found in Microsoft Office programs, such as DOCX, PPTX, and XLSX, are fully supported in FreeOffice.

Program Features

Here are some of the features found across the three parts of this office suite:

• Insert tables, pictures, text, lines, and shapes.
• Use dozens of formulas related to finance, date and time, statistics, math, softmaker office email client, databases, and more.
• Use one tool in Presentations to replace a specific font with a different one.
• Generate a table of contents and create a footnote in TextMaker.
• Create slideshow animations by picking from categories like motions, complex, and softmaker office email client external sources in PlanMaker.
• Change a document's page margins, orientation, and size.
• Adjust an object's line thickness, color, and style in Presentations.
• Tinker with really specific options, such as whether to automatically capitalize a sentence's first letter, auto-correct when two uppercase letters are accidentally typed together, use smart quotes, or format URLs as hyperlinks.
• Set up automatic saving as frequently as every 1 minute.
• When exporting to PDF, choose to save the whole document, only a selection, or specific worksheets (in PlanMaker). You can also define the shape quality, JPEG compression level, and encryption.

FreeOffice vs. Microsoft Office

While Microsoft Office is more expensive than SoftMaker FreeOffice (since it's free), don't assume MS Office is a better choice, softmaker office email client. Evaluate your needs and compare them to each suite's features to see which is right for you.

Both suites deliver sound core office programs (spreadsheet, presentation maker, and word processor), softmaker office email client. Most of the acceptable file types are interchangeable and the corresponding programs share similar features. MS Office boasts an softmaker office email client client, communications platform, and note-taking software, as well.

Take a look at softmaker office email client individual features of each suite before deciding what's right for your needs.

Final Thoughts

Unlike some other free office suites, FreeOffice can automatically identify spelling mistakes in Presentations and TextMaker (manual spell check works in PlanMaker). softmaker office email client SoftMaker FreeOffice can open a wide variety of file formats, even the new ones created by MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Each program's interface is easy to use, and the product offers a wide range of tools and functions that make it a sound, usable office suite.

Download SoftMaker FreeOffice

Thanks for letting us know!

SoftMaker is a closed source office suite that has two versions, one free and the other paid, the suite has many features from office suites such as Microsoft Office, LibreOffice or WordPerfect Office, and it can also be run from a USB memory stick and supports built-in reference jobs.

Has its own native formats, and can read and write Microsoft Office, OpenDocument, RTF, and HTML file formats.

It can export to PDF and it has spell checking in different languages, has support for hyphenation and synonyms. It has a built-in translation dictionary for five languages ​​(English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish).

SoftMaker Office has the user interface is similar to Microsoft Office and it has support for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Android.

As I had already mentioned, it has two versions the published version is a freeware version, which is called SoftMaker FreeOffice.

While its paid version has several modalitiesFrom acquiring it with a monthly subscription with support for 5 computers for as little as $ 5 per month to paying an annuity.

Personally, I can say that the costs are quite accessible taking into account that it can be installed on up to 5 different computers, although I am not one of the people who like to pay subscriptions, this is a very good option for both educational and business environments .

SoftMaker is a feature-rich office product with a modern and intuitive user interface. Compatibility with Microsoft Office is a great advantage for the SoftMaker suite.

The SoftMaker suite has four products, among which we find: TextMaker a word processor, PlanMaker a spreadsheet application, presentations a Graphic Presentations application that is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint and Basic Maker a tool for programming macros under a language similar to Visual Basic

The Softmaker Office Professional version also includes:

• An email client - Thunderbird
• A spell checker Duden.
• Two Duden dictionaries.
• Four Langenscheidt dictionaries.

SoftMaker Office already has native support for Linux

As I said before, this suite is available for Linux, so it is no longer necessary to use Wine or Crossover to run it.

This suite added its Linux support just a few days ago, so it's a great LibreOffice alternative if it's not good enough for you.

With SoftMaker's new release and native Linux support have improved and added a couple of features among which we find:

• Includes a modern ribbon interface with the option to switch to classic view
• Uses standard GNOME file dialogs
• Documents can be tabulated with the option of dragging them to open in a new window
• Uses DOCX, XLSX and PPTX natively to provide seamless compatibility with MS Office documents
• New 2D and 3D animations and slide transitions based on OpenGL
• Includes "presenter view" where the presenter's monitor displays current and future slides while viewers see the current slide in view
• Available for both bit and bit systems. This is the first bit version for Linux.

How to install on SoftMaker Linux?

Even though it is a paid product we have the possibility to test the suite for free for a period of 30 days, with which we can measure if it is good enough to pay for any of the subscriptions it offers us.

The suite has support for 32 and 64 bit architectures and also we have two main installers in .deb and .rpm format.

With them, all those derived from Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS and others will be able to install in just a couple of clicks or from the terminal.

For the rest of the distributions they provide us with a .tar package from which we will install the suite.

The link download is thisIf you know of any other alternative or suite that you know, do not hesitate to share it with us in the comments.

SoftMaker FreeOffice is a free office suite that includes a spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation program, making it a suitable free Microsoft Office alternative. 

The application that most resembles Word is called TextMaker, while Presentations and PlanMaker can be used as alternatives to PowerPoint and Excel, respectively.

FreeOffice File Formats

FreeOffice fully supports some file types, meaning that it can both open and save back to the format. Some are only acceptable when opening the file, and others are supported only when saving the document.

TextMaker:

• Open and save to: DOC, DOCX, DOT, DOTX, HTML, ODT, PSW, PWD, RTF, TMD, TMDX, TMV, TMVX, TXT
• Open: DOCM, DOTM, HTM, OTT, SXW, WPD, WRI, XHTML
• Save to: EPUB, PDF

PlanMaker:

• Open and save to: CSV, DBF, DIF, PMDX, PMV, PMVX, RTF, SLK, TXT, XLS, XLSM, XLSX, XLT, XLTM, XLTX
• Open: ODS, OTS, PMW, PRN, SDC
• Save to: HTM, PDF, PMD, TMD

Presentation:

• Open and save to: POT, POTX, PPS, PPSX, PPT, PPTX, PRD, PRDX, PPSX, PRV, PRVX
• Open: POTM, PPSM, PPTM, PRS
• Save to: PDF, PTF

Note that popular formats found in Microsoft Office programs, such as DOCX, PPTX, and XLSX, are fully supported in FreeOffice.

Program Features

Here are some of the features found across the three parts of this office suite:

• Insert tables, pictures, text, lines, and shapes.
• Use dozens of formulas related to finance, date and time, statistics, math, databases, and more.
• Use one tool in Presentations to replace a specific font with a different one.
• Generate a table of contents and create a footnote in TextMaker.
• Create slideshow animations by picking from categories like motions, complex, and transformations.
• Reference external sources in PlanMaker.
• Change a document's page margins, orientation, and size.
• Adjust an object's line thickness, color, and style in Presentations.
• Tinker with really specific options, such as whether to automatically capitalize a sentence's first letter, auto-correct when two uppercase letters are accidentally typed together, use smart quotes, or format URLs as hyperlinks.
• Set up automatic saving as frequently as every 1 minute.
• When exporting to PDF, choose to save the whole document, only a selection, or specific worksheets (in PlanMaker). You can also define the shape quality, JPEG compression level, and encryption.

FreeOffice vs. Microsoft Office

While Microsoft Office is more expensive than SoftMaker FreeOffice (since it's free), don't assume MS Office is a better choice. Evaluate your needs and compare them to each suite's features to see which is right for you.

Both suites deliver sound core office programs (spreadsheet, presentation maker, and word processor). Most of the acceptable file types are interchangeable and the corresponding programs share similar features. MS Office boasts an email client, communications platform, and note-taking software, as well.

Take a look at the individual features of each suite before deciding what's right for your needs.

Final Thoughts

Unlike some other free office suites, FreeOffice can automatically identify spelling mistakes in Presentations and TextMaker (manual spell check works in PlanMaker).

SoftMaker FreeOffice can open a wide variety of file formats, even the new ones created by MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Each program's interface is easy to use, and the product offers a wide range of tools and functions that make it a sound, usable office suite.

Download SoftMaker FreeOffice

Thanks for letting us know!

Finally some good news from the Thunderbird front!!!!

In the last few weeks I was seriously considering dropping it. But the only viable alternative was eM Client, and in the end it still fell short of the features Thunderbird has. However, I&#;ll keep an eye on eM Client, it shows promise.

The latest Thunderbird update (v38 -> v45) broke several of my add-ons, some of which I consider essential to my usage of Thunderbird. So I&#;m still stuck with TB v x and will remain so for the foreseeable future, it seems, since I seriously doubt those add-ons are going to be updated for Thunderbird v 45 and beyond. I&#;ll try to find replacements, but I don&#;t hold much hope.

I&#;m also glad to hear that Softmaker is developing add-ons for Thunderbird. I only found one of them useful (Faster autocompletion of e-mail addresses), but it shows commitment from Softmaker towards Thunderbird&#;s development.
But the best news is that Softmaker will assign a full-time developer for Thunderbird. This was so badly needed. There was (is?) an open position at Mozilla for a &#;Thunderbird Architect&#; (www.abbottbuilders.com.au) that has remained unfilled for a long time. Hopefully Softmaker&#;s developer, together with the team of volunteers currently in charge of Thunderbird, can deliver a better future for TB.

I was also curious about the reasons Softmaker had for dropping eM Client as the default email program of their office suite and choosing Thunderbird instead. This is what I found at Softmaker&#;s forum:

&#;as far as I learned from the contributions of SoftMaker officials here and in the German forum, it was not the cost which made them replace eMClient, but the fact that it is developed and supported by another company which was not as responsive to bug reports and feature requests as expected. As you already remarked, SoftMaker has a high reputation and standard especially in customer relations and it seems they couldn&#;t get to terms with the emClient developers in this area. Once bitten, twice shy – I suppose they are not willing to repeat this experiment with another external company.
So, by appointing one of their own developers exclusively for Thunderbird improvements, add-ons and bug fixes, they hope to have more control over their mail client&#;

A final note, Martin, about the installation procedure of Thunderbird&#;s add-ons. I always find it easier to just drag and drop the download link of the add-on from the browser (Firefox in my case) to Thunderbird&#;s add-on manager tab. Thunderbird recognizes it as a valid add-on and offers to install it, no need to download and save it as an intermediate step.

Here we give you the five best alternatives to Microsoft Office. We compare them based on features, are easy to use and provide you with a guide to choosing the one you need.

We all agree that Microsoft Office is one of the best software developed by Mircosoft. It has a presence almost everywhere in the entire world in nearly every business. It is a fine piece of software that evolved over a few decades.

And obviously, it doesn&#;t have a Linux native installer and comes with a significant price. The current Microsoft Office subscription pricing is a little higher if you are a business owner or a personal user. And not everyone can afford that price bucket for a longer time.

Then what are the alternatives? You can try other options that relatively get the job done for most users or businesses.

This article gives you the five best alternatives to Microsoft Office.

Best Alternatives to Microsoft Office

1. LibreOffice

The first alternative we highlight here is LibreOffice. The Document Foundation develops and manages the entire LibreOffice free and open-source office suite, available for Linux, macOS and Windows.

Firstly, it comes with a spreadsheet (Calc), word processor (Writer), presentation (Impress), drawing (Draw) and a database program (Base).

Secondly, this project is actively developed, and compatibility with Microsoft Office documents is improved in every release iteration. If appropriately used, LibreOffice can effectively do all the work that a Mircosoft office program does. In addition, a massive set of documentation and communities can help you adopt LibreOffice in no time.

You don&#;t need to pay for the software if you are a small or large corporation. But paid deployment and support are also available at minimal cost if you require them for your critical work.

However, LibreOffice does not come with an Outlook-like email program. This might be one of the minor drawbacks, but you can access emails from web browsers today for all email service providers.

More details about LibreOffice

2. Google Docs

The search engine giant Google provides a complete web-based Office suite (aka Google Docs) with its Docs (document processor), Sheets (spreadsheet program) and Slides (presentation) for free users.

You can access and create documents in your Google Drive account by default and access them from anywhere. The office components provide well-designed web-based toolbars, advanced options, spell check, Voice to Text feature (only in Chrome), encryption and cloud access. Google also offers mobile apps for iOS and Android to access your documents and edit them on the go.

One of the best features of Google Docs is templates. With the power of pre-built templates, you can start professional-grade documents in time. The collaboration option gives you more control when sharing and deploying documents with a Google account-based authentication and authorization mechanism for a wider audience.

If you need more from Google Docs, you may opt for Google Workspace with a minimal price compared to costly Microsoft Office. The Google Workspace is a complete and integrated solution that gives you Google Forms to collect data and integrate it into your docs and Sheets, website builder Google Sites, Google Calendar and more storage options to keep your document.

More details about Google Docs

3. OnlyOffice

OnlyOffice is a free and open-source complete Office productivity suite with a text editor, spreadsheet program, and presentation tool for you and your office work. It supports advanced features such as real-time collaboration with proper tracking changes for your shared documents, fillable forms, and many other features.

This powerful office suite looks better with its Office type ribbons, which helps to adopt this program quickly. In addition, this product has better Microsoft Office compatibility with .docx .xlsx and .pptx file formats which are easy for you and your organization to share documents.

It&#;s worth mentioning that it provides an Enterprise office suite, aka &#;ONLYOFFICE Workspace, &#; a paid product with additional features and instant support. This enterprise suite is perfect for those with a tight budget on office products but needs near compatibility with Office

Furthermore, the ONLYOFFICE Workspace comes with an Email client, CRM product, Project Management tool and an integrated calendar. Although everything works well, you face issues with spell checking, print preview, page size and some bugs. But you should not worry as the team is receptive, and you can report issues on GitHub and get help.

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4. Softmaker Free Office

The FreeOffice is another option if you are looking for Microsoft Office alternatives. SoftMaker developed this office suite, and it is arguably one of the choices you may have. Let&#;s talk a little about its features.

Firstly, the FreeOffice brings TextMaker (like Word), PlanMaker (like Excel), Presentations and a comparison utility. Secondly, the user interfaces as two options. The modern Ribbon option makes it a desirable product due to its popularity. Moreover, it has a traditional Legacy user interface with a menu and toolbar with a considerable fanbase.

Besides these, the SoftMaker FreeOffice provides a specific user interface and features for touch-based devices. The Microsoft Office document format compatibility is well established to get the most done.

However, you may have little trouble working with Open Document Format files, whose support is limited.

This is a closed-source product.

More details about SoftMaker FreeOffice

5. WPS Office

Remember Kingston Office? Well, it&#;s now renamed and repackaged as WPS Office, the acronym for Word, Presentation and Spreadsheets. Today, the WPS Office is one of the oldest office suites, with more than three decades of development and release. It is a fully-featured office suite available for all platforms and mobile devices.

Some of the noteworthy features of WPS Office are its real-time collaboration in its core programs which helps you work in a team on a shared document. The office suite comes with ,+ templates which allows you to create professional-grade documents and presentations.

The WPS Office comes with the standard edition, free to download and use but limited in features.

Moreover, if you need additional features such as PDF editing, Cloud support, collaborations and enterprise support, then you can opt for the WPS Premium of WPS Business option with a price.

It&#;s important to mention that this is a closed-source program and may contain Ads. Also, it was developed by a Chinese company.

More details about WPS Office

Comparison

Here&#;s a quick comparison of the free Microsoft Office alternatives based on noteworthy features and other details.

Our Recommendation

Besides all the pros and cons, if you cannot choose which Office suite is best for you, I recommend going ahead with LibreOffice. Because LibreOffice and TDF have a good vision, active development and worldwide community support. LibreOffice has a considerable knowledge base about tips and tutorials on the helpful web. And you can easily automate tasks with Basic or Python Macro.

Closing Notes

I hope this guide helps you choose the best alternatives for Microsoft Office for your personal or business usage. Genuinely speaking, none of the above office products come close in comparison to Microsoft Office in the true sense. Not everyone or every company can pay a hefty monthly subscription fee for Microsoft Office. For those, I believe some of these options can be a good starting point.

Next:Upgrade to Latest LibreOffice in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Windows