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You can buy the SoftMaker Office suite as a one-time purchase or opt for a subscription-based model. If you don’t want to pay anything, SoftMaker offers a less-capable, no-cost version called FreeOffice. PlanMaker makes creating calculations, worksheets and charts of any complexity a cinch – from a simple timetable to the complete financial planning of your company. As it uses the XLSX file format natively, you can edit Microsoft Excel files true to the original.
The software offers everything you’d expect from a professional office suite. Thanks to the native use of the file formats DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, it offers seamless compatibility to Microsoft Office. The resource-friendly system requirements allow a quick workflow with nearly any hardware setup.
SoftMaker OfficeNX Home
It offers dozens of templates in familiar, unexciting styles. Slide transitions range from the standard checkerboard-and-fade option to slightly weird transitions like one called, Ferris Wheel, in which the next slide appears like a Ferris wheel compartment rotating into view. The app gets the job done, but if you’re trying to dazzle an audience with a presentation, you’ll almost certainly prefer Microsoft’s PowerPoint or Apple’s Keynote.
TextMaker lets you create documents of any size in next to no time – be it a flyer, a brochure, a business letter or a complete academic paper. Thanks to its native use of the DOCX file format, your documents are always compatible with Microsoft Word. TextMaker breezed through thousand-page documents without a hiccup. PlanMaker can handle any ordinary business or personal worksheets, too.
Apple iWork
However, I loathe subscription models for software - I'd far rather buy the software and have it forever . Downloaded and all I got was zip file which only contained readme file. Every day we offer FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise. BasicMaker, a programming environment that allows you to control TextMaker, PlanMaker, and other VBA-compatible Windows programs using SoftMaker Basic scripts. You will receive all updates and upgrades during this free subscription period.
I have settled on Ashampoo Office Free and am very happy with it. SoftMaker’s apps use a unique native file format that no other application can open, but you can set the default file-saving format to Microsoft, OpenDoc, or RTF formats instead. It opens documents created by Microsoft and other applications, including Windows Write and Corel WordPerfect without issue. SoftMaker and LibreOffice lack this essential interface convenience. I've got no problem with a 6 month license - this may seem limited, but 6 months is plenty of time to evaluate software and decide if it meets our needs.
SoftMaker Office NX Universal
Why not use their FreeOffice suite at which is always free and has most the features a home user would want. Or look around and sometimes you can get the Pro version for free though an older version. The 6 month license in the main reason I will not be taking advantage of it.
However, PlanMaker was slowed to a crawl by the monster Excel worksheet that I use for testing and didn’t get any faster when we saved the worksheet in SoftMaker’s native format. This won’t affect ordinary business and personal applications, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you have more ambitious spreadsheet work. Thanks to breathtaking animations and slide transitions, you are well-prepared for every presentation. As Presentations uses the PPTX file format natively, document exchange with PowerPoint is fully seamless. Search for mental health programs by county, program category or subcategory. This is a wonderful, Microsoft-Office-compatible suite, and you can use the ribbon UI or, for those of us that hate the ribbon, the classic UI is available.
Cells can include references to external PlanMaker or Excel worksheets, but, unlike Excel, can’t reference online data like stock prices. PlanMaker’s interface is mostly convenient, but its Function dialog displays existing functions in a confusing one-line style instead of the hierarchical outline display in LibreOffice and Corel WordPerfect. I also ran into performance issues when importing a huge spreadsheet for testing, which I discuss in a later section. SoftMaker Office NX Home for Windows is the No. 1 alternative to Microsoft Office and LibreOffice.
The office suite can be installed to a USB flash drive so that it can be used on any PC without installation. The TextMaker word processor supports text variables called fields, a feature pioneered by early versions of Microsoft Word that's still available in recent versions, if you know where to look. Like all the other suites I've reviewed, TextMaker has a continuous view that formats the text to fit the window, not the printed page. No complaints about SoftMaker products -- I've bought several version upgrades of their regular office -- but always on sale for around $20.
Compared to other suites that ship with components and add-ons that you may not need or want (I’m looking at you, LibreOffice), Softmaker Office is refreshingly straightforward. It consists only of the TextMaker 2021 word-processor, the PlanMaker 2021 spreadsheet app, and—you guessed it—Presentations 2021. The Windows version of the suite also includes BasicMaker 2021, a separate app for creating scripts that can automate operations in TextMaker and PlanMaker. Notably, you can’t create automated macros by recording your actions, as you can in Microsoft 365, Corel WordPerfect Office, and with many limitations, in LibreOffice.
Optional sidebars on the left and right of the main window let you manage formatting features without opening a separate menu. You can also choose between a classic toolbar interface and a Microsoft-style ribbon interface. The classic interface may be frustrating because some features are only on the toolbar.
Some parts of SoftMaker Office seem stuck in the past, however. For example, the formula editor available in all the apps is a subset of a version of the Design Science MathType editor that dates back to 2000. It’s almost impossible to use unless you already know MathType well and I still haven’t figured out how to create a superscript number in the SoftMaker version. The track-changes feature offers only an option to show or hide your changes, unlike Microsoft’s option to use lines in the margin to show where changes were made, without cluttering the document.
PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. The alternate toolbar interface is shown here, with the Windows-only feature that displays Berlitz dictionaries in four languages. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Corel WordPerfect Office include a search field that lets you type in a few letters of the feature you’re looking for, and then get taken instantly to the menu item you want. SoftMaker Office 2021 is the closest thing you can find to Microsoft 365 at a lower price.
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