|
 My prime choice is - without doubt - OpenOffice.org 3. The basics of office document creation are well covered with an excellent module for each; word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, a desktop database, and some other gimmicks are all well worth exploring. All of the modules are easy to learn and if you've ever used any other office software, it's a doddle. It is extendable via extensions and handles all the same document types and you'll have no problem exchanging documents with MS Office.
OpenOffice in available in various 'flavors'. Sun Microsystems offers an almost identical StarOffice, IBM calls it Symphony, and there's also OxygenOffice with a lot of extras I don't really need.
A big plus is that it is available in many languages, but the most astounding fact is that even if you have thousands of employees and PCs, the cost is always the same - zero! Even for business use.
 If you're not in need of a full blown office suite and just want to write, you're fine with AbiWord. It's also a multi platform application, reads many standard document types (OpenOffice, MS Word, WordPerfect, RTF, HTML...) and you will be pleased with it's layout capabilities. As the program is very small, it requires very little resources and can blithely be used on even older machines. Of course, it is extendable via plugins and thus a perfect choice if your heart belongs to writing!
 Jarte, (see also this review) a fresh light weight, truly novel in design, is showing in the field of word processors. I've been using it for a while now, and there's nothing much I could wish for. It comes up in lightning speed, serves with all the necessary features plus an integrated screen grabber, which is very useful for writing how-to's on the fly. Some solutions are as simple as clever, e.g. when you mark a word and click the 'Encyclopedia' button, Jarte looks that word up in the Wikipedia. Correspondingly 'Dictionairy' and 'Thesaurus' take you online. The freeware version is a very respectable program, personally I use it as stand by word processor designed rather for short texts as I found no way of defining format styles - an essential feature (for me) when working on large documents.
 Gnumeric -The Gnome Office Spreadsheet is an excellent alternative to commercial products. It has been recommended over MS Excel for precision and stability, shines with "519 functions for use in spreadsheets. 154 of these are unique to Gnumeric", an online tutorial plus manual. Again, there are a lot of formats the program can process, so don't be shy and give it a try.
This software category is maintained by Christoph. Registered site visitors can contact Christoph (cy) by clicking here.
|
Subscribe to our 
Go straight to the Quick Selection Guide
3.1 
Unrestricted Freeware 
All Windows 98+, Linux (rpm, deb), Solaris (x86,SPARC), Mac
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
I have not tried these before and am still using MS office pro (2003) on XP. Someone showed me a work site that is 1-year past an institutional switch to Office 07. Microsoft engineered most of the keyboard commands out of the programs and they encourage mousing through "ribbons" of icons. MS office users have been complaining for two years now, but MS doesn't address the fundamental change for the worse.
So: Has there been an uptick in adoption of Open Office and other similar suites?
Is it possible that MS is preparing to move virtually all commands to a "gesturing" system? (Use the keys only for typing?) That sounds fun for charades and gaming, but I think the keys will still be faster and closer at hand. Mousing is unnecessarily slow, and it interferes with typing and accessing the rich command-set at the keyboard. It is such a shame to force users off the keys for no good reason.
The prospect of moving from Office 03 to 07 seems like the time for me to finally switch to Open Office.
Maybe Microsoft is not making such a dramatic paradigm shift but rather just running out of key combinations for the ever expanding command sets. That said, dropping down lists with the Alt-key combinations always worked well and could probably be expanded into the future. It didn't make sense to begin dismantling that.
et brocklesby
I downloaded OPENOFFICE.ORG just to give it a try. I find it very user friendly and easy to get around most of the features on the program.
My only problem was, i have some files stored on a differnt PDF system than MS Officepro with front page.
I tried to transfer these fles and my computer shut down and told me it was recovering from a serious error, that said one file did open but i think it was more luck than judgement.
My other question is, if I uninstall MS officepro can i still open the files in Microsoft excel and other files in that office program.
I have transferred drivers and other bits to OPENOFFICE.ORG but i am uncertain if they will open.
On an end note i have a legit copy of MS Office but i cannot install program file from microsoft which is MSA Authorization file. I know MS are trying to get the punters to upgrade to Office 7 and spend their bucks on something they do not want
Gnumeric doesn't work on windows!
Some people get confused by this because on XP at any rate it installs into a different folder so when they look for it after install to create a desktop icon they can't see it.
Anyone have any idea how to install gnumeric on windows, or do you need to compile it yourself??? The download link points to a page where there is no download.
Windows installer is there on the download page of Gnumeric, although the link points to a debug version. I don't know whats that.
http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/downloads.shtml
This link here holds various versions of Gnumeric windows installers. You can find latest builds too:
http://www.gnome.org/~jody/gnumeric/win32/
Softpedia link to Gnumeric windows:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/Gnumeric-fo...
Anupam
I prefer ASCII files. Much faster, simpler and better than any so-called "professional" office suites. Ah!
Correction: IBM Symphony is not an Open Office variant. It was originally a commercial package written by Lotus and pre-dates Open Office by many years. IBM bought out Lotus, but eventually realised they could not compete with the MS juggernaut and released the product as freeware. Symphony is not an MS Office clone and has its own distinctive style. If you remember the glory days of Lotus 123 this could be the package for you...
Link: http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home
Neil, Australia
That was my first thought too, but out of interest I went and checked and it is actually based on OpenOffice, and an old version at that. It doesn't seem to be an evolution of Lotus SmartSuite.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Lotus_Symphony
"Symphony is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. It is based on Eclipse Rich Client Platform from IBM Lotus Expeditor for its shell and OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 for the core office suite code."
I have a love affair with open office but for writing my
heart belongs to jarte. I've used it for a day and will
gladly pay for the upgrade just to show my appreciation.
I post writing on Booksie and all I needed was something
plain and simple yet better than Wordpad or Notepad. I
dual boot so I may try Abi Word just to try it but then
again probably not. Try it you will love it
(layman): when i send a open office doc. as an attachment, the receiver cannot open it...any remedies...
You can save your OO documents in a different format to match watch the recipient is able to open or alternatively (and the easiest way) is for them to install open office themselves.
NeoOffice is also a nice alternative (i.e. derivative of OpenOffice) geared towards MAC users.
Thank, thank you!!! Its been long overdue since the big M sorry Frank had some heat under them. I can still remember those days before they they were merged, purged, or plain bought out when the big M had some competition. I have been looking since 2007 since purchasing my two Notebooks for a suitable replacement. Office 2007 has never run properly on my systems which came loaded with Vista which I also hate. Emails and letters to the big M finally resonated within the hallowed chambers they agreed to send me two brand new pristine copies of XP Pro. This was the OS I had ordered when the machines were purchased tried as I did to return them the very day they arrived I told the manufacturer I would even settle for a lessor model you keep the difference. The exchange never happened the excuse was the cartons had been opened therefore the machines would be considered as used not new. Sorry to deviate but I was of the opinion that the problems with 2007 related directly to Vista and although I should have dug deeper for a replacement program I found it inconceivable that such upstarts would be permitted to remain alive. Super terrific article I'm going to download OpenOffice.org3 right now.
You won't be sorry, it's an outstanding piece of software. It's a little bloated according to some but we are talking suites here. Users needing something with less features can opt for Abiword and Gnumeric instead. There are one or two automatic Java/update features you can maybe live without but these can be configured out either during the install process or later on if you so choose.
I have been using Lotus Symphony 1.3 for a number of months now and am quite happy with it. It provides all the utilities I need; word processor, spreadsheet and presentation. It really is a "suite" in that you can open documents and spreadsheets in different tabs. It also comes with its own browser which in itself can not compete with the big boys but does make life easier when surfing the net doing research and then cutting & pasting informantion into a document. It is also compatible with Windows document password protection. Online support is very good too. I had a nuber of questions about the program and these were answered by IBM personel within a few hours. Very professional!
In my opinion "GO" open office is an improvement on the official open office build.
It loads faster and is closer to ms office in its gui.
http://www.go-oo.org/
-J
the faster part is true, but go-oo crashes. last night i tried to copy some graphics into a go office document and go-oo went down. I restartet go-oo and it ask me to recover the .doc, i said yes, but the .doc was empty. i tried a couple of times, but allways with the same result.
Now im back to the original open office, it's slow but works. btw. Also the free version of softmaker office do a bad job, when copying webpages with graphics into a document.
Peter
Hello
Why not OpenOffice Portable?
I like it because it is so fast and free of excess clunk.
Under "Gnumeric" christoph wrote "higher lurning curve for specific functions".
Could somebody correct this?
Fixed - thanks for pointing it out. He's reviewing spell checkers next time!
You should try the latest version 2.1 of "SSuite Office - The Fifth Element" that has recently been released.
It does not need to run on Java or .NET. It also has over 30 very useful applications included, and runs on any Windows system.
Page Link:
http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm or
http://www.ssuitesoft.com
BeBob Esq.
SSuite - The Fifth Element cannot be installed in my laptop. It stopped in the beginning and said: The screen resolution is not adequate for running SSuite - The Fifth Element.
My laptop is small, my screen resolution is: 1024 x 600. I won't change the resolution since my screen is small. Any solution?
Kingsoft is not free. There's only one version, and that is a trial version. It has the same GUI like microsoft office, but there're some differences of course.
I haven't tried softmaker. I'm about to try it this week.
I don't want to use Open Office anymore because the JAVA makes my laptop unbelievably slow and almost crashes my laptop everytime the application starts. Besides Open Office crashes everyday (yes, everyday). It's really annoying.
Try setting your screen resolution to 1024x768 before installing "The Fifth Element". After installation, restore your screen back to 1024x600.
The office suite "The Fifth Element" requires 1024 in width only, so the hight will not be a problem.
Simply right-click on your desktop and select "Properties..." at the bottom of the popup menu, and then select the "Settings".
I hope this helps.
I thought the previous version was quite good but the spreadsheet and sometimes the wordprocessor crashed, usually at the worst possible moment. I don't know how it figured that out.
I've downloaded the new version but haven't been game to use it for any serious work as it crashed once. Maybe someone can post positive experience with it soon because it should be good.
My two pieces of freeware will quickly open Word and 2007 format files. They're here: http://www.godskingsandheroes.info/software. They are supposed to be used for salvaging data, but can also work as somewhat light no install unformatted data viewers of docx and xlsx files.
Dear Christoph,
Can you please add a bit more "absolutely crucial" information to your reviews on behalf of the UK speaking world.
Is there an English/English version for OpenOffice.org.3 and for other programs you also reviewed? There appears to be no English/UK add-in on the OpenOffice site.
If there is none, or no add-ins, the rating for OpenOffice.org.3 MUST be lowered to no more than 3.5 stars. OK, so it is 5/5 for US speaking world, and 2/5 for UK speaking world as the program is useless for creating UK resume's, English tutoring or legal documents.
Could you please update your review.
Thank you
First up I'm very pro Open Office and all the amazing work done by Sun for putting out a great piece of code, and for nix at that.
I have to agree with Scoffer that all the suites based on OpenOffice code need a serious lowering of their rating, but not for the reason Scoffer gives.
The main reasons for choosing an Open Office based product is primarily you're a "Anything but Microsft" supporter, or are loathed to shell out several hundreds of dollars (and to keep the Europeans contingent happy Pounds/Euros) for a product suite of which you will never use 95% of its features.
Unfortunately the world is Microsoft centric, so Office compatibility in alternative suites is an absolute must. With this regard Open Office fairs very poorly as I've found out to my great cost.
To explain. About three months ago I was unfortunately retrenched at very short notice from my employment, and had to put together my resume. Due to having lost access to the use of Microsoft Word as I had to give back my company laptop, I downloaded Open Office 3.x and went to work, coming up with what I thought was a pretty good resume.
As those who have trawled the job sites, when you submit your resume ".DOC" format is the one and only format acceoted accross the board, with very few exceptions. So I started submitting my resume for available positions.
For thr first two months I didn't receive a single bite from any of my applications. It wasn't until I forwarded my resume to a potential employer via a friend that I found out why. The feed back was that my resume was a jumbled up mess.
On further investigation, Open Office's export to ".DOC" feature had realigned everything and my 5 page resume ended up as a 23 page document for use in the smallest room in the house. What a waste of two months jobsearching and all the related stress.
Within 2-3 days of correcting this issue, the e-mails and phone calls started flowing in.
Now if this isn't a serious failing which requires a radical drop in rating for the Open Office based suites I don't know what is. At best because of such issues a 3 or 3.5 would be a fair representation of where Open Office is at this time.
If you insist on using Open Office based suites, and you have the necessity to submit important documents in ".DOC" format as I did, check the final document before submitting it with one of the free viewers for Microsoft's products which are freely available.
And for all those who align themselves with Scoffer, I'm there with you. COLOUR has a "U" in it, and what's so hard to understand with metric?
hey people! Kingsoft Office 2007 has been released as a add supported freeware. it is compatible fully compatible with microsoft office 2003.
you can get the software from here:
http://phanmem.dec.vn/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=23
and get a complete description from here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/07/14/kingsoft-office-2007-personal-e...
Marcel Oros
Timisoara, Romania
Kingsoft is also available as shareware. Add supported software is not true freeware(in my opinion)
Is there a portable version?
muCommander, a cross-platform file manager
http://www.mucommander.com/
I was initially very please with Softmaker's Textmaker wp program. Loads of features and the promise of full compatibility. But I have had it now for a little over a week and am finding it almost unusable. It crashes. I lose work. and it is not opening all my Word documents or jarte ones.
I cannot give it a recommendation at this point.
Open Office is badly let down by calc's charting facility. It is nowhere near as good as Excel (even in it's Office 97 version) and only barely compatible in that area.
The Open Office suite is bloated and you have to change most of the keystrokes which are non-standard.
Hello my friends!!!
Im using open office and im very happy with it!!!
I install it also to my mothers laptop because she need it for her work but unfortunately this laptop is old (512 ram - intel single core 1.4, win xp home) and the open office is making 1 minute to load a microsoft word/excell document!!
Please recommend an alternative :)
thank you very much!!!
*** she needs only word/excell support and she need only the veeeeery basics of that applications !
Hi Lambas,
If it is just Word and Excel that she uses, why not let her try Softmaker 2006? You can find it at the link below. Made of just 2 applications, An MS Word compatible word processor and MS excel compatible spreadsheet application. It is really small (24 MB download),light and the interface is similar MS Office 2003 , and totally free. Take a look, maybe you will find it adequate?
http://www.softmakeroffice.com/
To avoid any confusion, note that SoftMaker Office 2006 is completely free, the new version SoftMaker Office 2008 is not. You can find more information in the link I have posted. I can vouch for their good quality, I had used a public beta version of 2008 last year. Keep in mind, this does not have support for the new docx and xlsx formats though.
Another option for your Mum would be to download and use Abiword and Gnumeric separately, described in the article above.
Open office is said to be slow as it uses Java, you can disable that option, if I remember correctly, just google for the solution, but I feel the options I have posted maybe more suitable.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.:)
Hi nes!!!
I have no words to thank you!!! thanks x1000!!!
the word and excel documents open in half a second now (with Softmaker )! my mother is so excited haha!!!
Except that it is very simple too and has a beautiful gui like you said!
She wanted also to be able to view power point files (to view only) and i install the free microsoft viewer so now she is complete!!!
thanks once again my friend!!!
You are very welcome, Lambas. :) Glad to know you and your mum are so thrilled with it. We are all out to help each other, so pitch in too if you have any freeware suggestions. Cheers and take care.
What about "Atlantis Nova"?
Atlantis Nova is very fast, compact, and has a very small memory footprint.
It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/nova.htm
Atlantis Nova has been a fine piece of freeware in 2001. It has not been updated since. The alternative as a word processor would now be AbiWord or JARTE.
kostenlose programme
You should try the new version of "SSuite Office - The Fifth Element".
It is very stable and fast, as it was written in WIN32. The new version 2.0 can export documents to pdf, png, emf, bmp, jpg, and gif. It is able to run on any Windows platform, from Win95 upto Win7 and beyond.The office suite consists of over 30 applications and is only 36.6 MB in size.
Download Links are:
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm
http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm
Doesn't seem to offer columns in the format menu...
Just downloaded the app & tried installing it. It just quit somewhere in the middle of the process for no reason. Not a good sign, if you ask me, since I never had any problems installing anything before...
Ready for the bin...
If a recommendation says something is "stable" but there is no indication of the period of stability, I assume it's about 30 seconds (being a cynical bastard). I only had one crash, after a short period, and stopped using it as the previous version crashed too often, but one crash is not conclusive.
So, please tell me how long was it stable.
Redrik
I have been using OpenOffice for years and have the same problem: it is very slow to load and it crashes daily. I keep upgrading hoping these two problems would be solved. I have also tried the other free variations (e.g., Go-OO), but with no difference.
I just received my new Asus EEE 1000HE, which has StarOffice 8 installed, and it is perfect: few freeze-ups and opens as fast as the Office '07 on my work PC. I am very pleased and will stop upgrading now that I have found one I like. (I still use Jarte for light duty work -- I love it too.)
Interestingly, I tried OpenOffice 3.x on the Asus and had the same problems I have always had. Can anyone explain why StarOffice rocks and OpenOffice is a sluggard?
Can I ask a question. I have the 1000he also and it came with
the StarOffice 8 also. We use MS Office 2007 not because its
so great but it links files and data with MS Office. How do you
change the default from star to office for opening files.
Chas.
Funny, for me, both StarOffice and OpenOffice were perfectly stable, and seemed very similar when I used them...
et brocklesby
I am certainly interested in any one of these freebies. I currently have off2003 with front page and today it comes up after 4 years of use with updates that It is a pirate copy, I know that this is not the case and it is a legitimate copy, Microsft is a bit of a bumber with all of this.
They also say that the updates will be stopped in a short while. I will certainly not be paying megga bucks for office 2007. I will uninstall and install one of the others. IBM looks the best bet. I also have office 2000 which is a genuine copy but it is way out of date.
Do you think it is a good idea to ditch office 2003 and install one of the others. I have 1.5 gigs of ram
Advice would be appreciated
eriv
Do you actually need all of Office ? or perhaps just a "word processor". You might want to try playing with Jarte.
Post new comment