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Five free alternative office suites

Microsoft is set to unveil its own free Office suite as the competition catches up.

By Nicole Kobie, 17 Nov 2009 at 09:00

For added security, there's a digital signature tool for sharing the documents. And to make collaboration easier, there's a handy history tool, so you can see what changes your co-workers have made. It also includes code preview, making it a nice way to type up blog posts and so on.

Zoho features many other online tools. Aside from presentation and spreadsheet tools, it includes email, document management, chat, and a sharing repository. It also offers more business-friendly applications, including CRM, invoicing, reporting and more – although these are only free for a limited number of users.

Those extra business tools make Zoho a solid choice for small businesses looking to make use of business intelligence and other systems without forking out a lot of cash. Even if you prefer to use an OS-based office suite for your documents and files, the free software on offer by Zoho is worth a look.

IBM Lotus Symphony
Launched back in 2007, IBM's Lotus Symphony is another option if you're looking for a Microsoft-like, desktop-based solution. Based on an earlier version of the OpenOffice.org code, Lotus Symphony's document editor will seem very familiar to Word users with many of the same shortcuts, too.

It also features spreadsheet and presentation applications, but unlike others they're all in the same place. Click 'new' to open a spreadsheet and it stays in the same window in a separate tab, which should come in handy when you're moving between different document types.

It also has a built-in web browser, which seems a bit strange when you're used to working with a separate one.

As far as user interface goes, it's a bit old school, lacking any slick UI treatment. It also does weird things to the text when you're typing, auto-suggesting words and underlining spelling mistakes before you even finish typing the word. It also renders text strange, making it seem bold as you type, before settling down to how it should be.

IBM has publicly dropped Microsoft Office in favour of Lotus Symphony, but it's hard to see others doing the same with the small troubles Symphony still has – especially with OpenOffice.org around.

On the flipside, it's still in version 1.3, so hopefully the next release is a bit better to work with.

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4 comments

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Office Suites

Although Office 2007 is very "pretty" and today far better value than its ever been, my personal choice these days is Open Office which does the job very well and I love the price ! It is an amazing suite which can be considerably reduced in terms of footprint via 'custom install' to the essential WP and Spreadsheet applications. It offers a wide range of document formats to save in so compatibility isn't really an issue. For me the only weak point lies in the Dictionary come Spell Check, this does need expanding in its scope. Whilst 'mainstream words' are fine, start moving away even slightly into more unusual words and phrases and it gets lost. It will throw up a miss spelt word with some of the most odd alternatives imaginable, that apart, more than does the job and does it well.

By popskihaynes on Tuesday Nov 17

Some more free alternatives.

You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download.

Their software also don't need to run on Java or .NET, like so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small and efficient.

You may try these links:

http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm
or
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuiteexcalibur.htm
or
http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm

By BeBob_Esq on Wednesday Nov 18

What about databases?

Why do discussions like this never take Access and its alternatives into account?

By JoyceBeck on Friday Nov 20

You've forgotten one crucial entry...

Sadly, more often than not the impressive work done in Germany on integrated office suites is overlooked. Let's not forget that OpenOffice was originally a German project (anybody remember StarOffice 5?). Let's not forget amazing if quirky solutions like Papyrus. But above all, let's not forget SoftMaker and their suite of office products, especially TextMaker and PlanMaker. In German government tests, SoftMaker's Word filters were found to be better than anybody else's (a fact we can confirm from our own experience), and TextMaker also handles very long files much, much better than Word (much faster, more stable). SoftMaker's products form the basis for Ashampoo Office Suite, and are just about to be upgraded to SoftMaker Office 2010. The price is pleasing (EUR 69, or less if you buy it now), and it's well worth evaluating in any case. And no, I don't work for/with or have any commercial interest in SoftMaker. Just appreciation for very good, vastly underrated software.

By MadaboutDana on Friday Nov 20