Lotus Symphony 3 has been officially released, nine months after it first emerged in beta format back in February. This is IBM’s free answer to Microsoft Office for both individuals and businesses, featuring word processor, spreadsheet and presentations tool.

The code is based on OpenOffice 3.x, although the two suites bear little resemblance otherwise. The interface still resembles the earlier release – a single program window where all open documents are displayed as tabs (making it easy to switch between them, regardless of type). Lotus Symphony can also display web pages in separate tabs too, primarily to access online content such as the paid-for LotusLive cloud-based collaboration tool and plug-ins repository, where additional features can be quickly and easily added to Symphony.

Major changes in version 3.0 include improved new sidebar menus, additional features bringing Symphony more in line with its rivals, and support for version 1.2 of the ODF (Open Document Format), which allows Symphony documents to easily swap with OpenOffice, and vice versa. Lotus Symphony also benefits from improved compatibility with Microsoft Office – not only is it capable of opening all Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents (even those created in Office 2007 and 2010), it now also supports Office 2007 Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).

Other new features are less revolutionary, but essential in order for Symphony to compete with other office packages: features like a new clipart gallery, AutoText support and PDF export won’t necessarily impress Office veterans, but they’re welcome nonetheless. And professionals may be tempted by Lotus Symphony’s support for VBA scripts, as well as the fact the program is now integrated into Lotus Notes 8. Grizzled veterans of Lotus SmartSuite may be less impressed to hear that this new version no longer supports the old Lotus file formats.

A complete list of new features is available from the Lotus Symphony website, and the program is available to download for Windows, Mac and Linux.