The price of Microsoft Office 365 can seem very steep, especially if you’re don’t qualify for its cut down Student version. Yet there are numerous other office applications out there and investigating an alternative like SoftMaker Office 2018 could save you some money. Maybe.
SoftMaker Office 2018 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), spreadsheet (PlanMaker) and presentation (Presentations) programs. You also get an enhnaced version of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. The Professional suite includes all Standard has to offer plus four Berlitz dictionaries.
The look and feel of some of the components is very similar to the Microsoft Office 365 components, which we think looks fantastic. You also have an option of switching to a classic "menu" design. Of course, SoftMaker Office is also fully compatible with docx, xlsx and pptx documents, making it a seamless transition. There are Linux and Mac versions in development.
The software does what it’s meant to achieve. TextMaker is a more than adequate word processor that includes some text effects not available in its free competitors. PlanMaker offers everything you might want from a spreadsheet program and Presentations is a good PowerPoint substitute. There’s just not enough difference to make these stand out from the free alternatives available in LibreOffice or OpenOffice.
Verdict:
SoftMaker Office 20182 in either Standard or Professional guises provides an alternative to Microsoft Office, but, compared to LibreOffice, it’s very pricey.
Your Comments & Opinion
A straightforward and free Office-compatible productivity suite
This Microsoft Office-compatible suite comes with a (marginally) smaller price tag
This Microsoft Office-compatible suite comes with a (marginally) smaller price tag
A free presentation tool that can be used in place of PowerPoint
A free spreadsheet tool that’s a great alternative to Excel
Create professional reports, spreadsheets, presentations and more with this Microsoft-compatible Office suite
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Create industry-standard PDF files from any Windows application.