By Aaron Couch, 08-02-2012, on makeuseof.com
Microsoft Office has dominated the market of text documents,
spreadsheets and slide shows for years, and for good reason – it’s one
of the very best. However, there’s one drawback and that is the price.
Sure, it’s a relatively good investment, but for one reason or another
you choose to not pay for it. What do you do?
Thankfully, there
are other options – and good ones. These range from web-based apps and
local software to free and paid. Although some do cost, all have free
options and the price you pay for the paid software is a fraction of
what you would pay for Microsoft Office. Through this article I will
touch upon any unique features such as mobile capability, cost, user
interface and compatibility with Microsoft Office files.
Google
Docs has practically become my unconsciously chosen alternative to
Microsoft Office. Although I actually own Microsoft Office, I use Google
Docs heavily primarily because of convenience. First off, I’m already
logged into my Google account either to check my email, watch a video on
YouTube, add an event to my Google Calendar and so on. I plain just use
Google for everything.
Besides that, I have found the
interface to be very nice, although I still think the interface of
Microsoft Office 2010 wins hands down – it’s just beautiful.
Features
Probably
my favorite feature in Google Docs is the ability to easily
collaborate. Collaboration on most sites can be difficult. So often if
you want to share a document with someone, they too must have an
account. Google is similar to Facebook in this aspect in that (almost)
everyone has a Google account. This makes collaboration very nice. But
even if the user doesn’t have a Google account, you can still share the
document with them.
But sharing a file is only one aspect of
collaborating. Editing a document and seeing the changes live is a
tremendous benefit to Google Docs – non-Google users can do this too.
Now with Google Drive you can also access all your files right on your
desktop.
Other
unique features are the research and dictionary tools to enable you to
search certain topics or words right next to your paper. Since Google
Docs is a web app, it’s also mobile and can be accessed from your tablet
or smartphone.
Cost
Google Docs is completely free –
plain and simple. There are options to upgrade space, but it’s hardly
needed – I wouldn’t recommend doing it.
User Interface
Google
Docs has seen some pretty major improvements in this area from the past
interface. The interface is now even cleaner and simpler, without
lacking essential features.
Compatibility
Google Docs’
compatibility with Microsoft Office is surprisingly good! When a
Microsoft Office file is uploaded, it labels it differently than it’s
own native files, but the editing process is all the same.
What
about synchronization and sharing files? Well we already covered
collaborating with others while using Google Docs in the cloud, but what
about collaborating with others who are using Microsoft Office? Google
offers a solution with a plugin for Microsoft Office called
Google Cloud Connect,
which has been covered thoroughly here on MakeUseOf.
Some may argue that Microsoft Web Apps
is Microsoft Office. However, that is completely irrelevant.
Unlike some articles,
the purpose of this article is not to avoid Microsoft products, but to
find cheaper alternatives. Microsoft Web Apps is free – you can’t get
cheaper than that. The only thing that can make it better is if it’s a
solid online office suite, which it is.
Not only is it available for Word, Excel and PowerPoint,
but it also offers OneNote online, which was news to me. If you don’t know what OneNote is, it’s a note taking application similar to
Evernote.
Features
Web Apps is combined with Skydrive,
which gives you access to 25 free gigabytes of cloud storage. That is
the best deal anywhere right now! Remember when I said I wouldn’t
recommending paying for more storage on Google Docs? I’d be hard pressed
to find one logical reason to pay for additional Google Docs storage
when you have 25 free gigabytes at your disposal. If you have Skydrive
installed on your computer, these files are synced there as well
(similar to how Google Drive works, except you get 20
more gigabytes with Skydrive).
As
far as other features compared to the official Microsoft Office
software, Web Apps can’t really compete, but it’s not too shabby. It’s
ideal that they’re used together – that’s how they were made. Can Web
Apps be used by itself? Yes it can, but just like Google Docs,
don’t expect it to be a full feature office suite.
As far as mobile access, to my knowledge you cannot edit documents on
your phone, but you can view them – which is still very nice.
Cost
Just like Google Docs, Microsoft Web Apps is entirely free of charge.
User Interface
Remember
when I told you how beautiful I thought the interface was in Microsoft
Office 2010? Well seeing that Web Apps is practically identical, I just
want to reiterate that. Sure Google Docs is clean and simple and even
what I use primarily, but Microsoft knows what they’re doing when it
comes to creating an office suite user interface.
Compatibility
This
is almost obvious, so I’ll keep it short – if there is going to be any
“winner” in compatibility with Microsoft Office, I really hope it would
be Microsoft Web Apps.
LibreOffice is a full featured, open source office suite that
“broke off” from OpenOffice.
LibreOffice lives up to its name, as “Libre” stands for “free.” As you
can see in the image above, LibreOffice has Text Document (Word
alternative), Spreadsheet (Excel alternative), Presentation (Powerpoint
alternative), Drawing (Publisher alternative), Database (Access
alternative) and Formula, a math and equation program.
Features
Like
I previously mentioned, LibreOffice is a full featured office suite
meaning it has all the same functions and maybe even more than the
competing office suites (free or not). Other software typically has
alternatives for the “popular trio” as I call it – Word, Excel,
PowerPoint. LibreOffice goes beyond that adding software for publishing
and databases, as well as it’s own addition – a math-focused software.
One
great feature about LibreOffice is that it’s portable. You can install
it on your flash drive or portable hard drive, or even an SD card and
take it with you wherever you go.
Cost
LibreOffice, like OpenOffice, is completely free. Although, donations are accepted.
User Interface
For
a free, full featured software suite, LibreOffice looks surprisingly
good. It doesn’t have Microsoft’s fancy ribbon-style menu, but it is
still modern and easy to use.
Compatibility
When I opened
my resume, a heavily formatted document originally created in Word, in
LibreOffice, everything was in place. There were no lines pushed over,
or any fonts, styles or settings changed. The only thing that was a
little different was the spacing – somehow the last couple lines didn’t
make it onto the second page and got pushed onto a third. I’m sure that
this could be fixed with spacing settings within LibreOffice. I use
LibreOffice as my primary portable office suite on my portable hard
drive so that I can open up my files where ever I may be without
worrying about having software that is incompatible with my Microsoft
Office documents.
SoftMaker
is a company that creates a very good alternative to Microsoft Office.
They offer two different paid versions of their software, as well as a
free version. Another thing they do, which is unique, is they allow free
downloads of their previous versions of software. Their free office
suite is named no other than
FreeOffice.
The
benefit to downloading this as opposed to other office suites they’ve
created and sold, but are not free, is that FreeOffice is in and will
continue to be in constant development, whereas older suites are, in
their words, “frozen.”
The screenshot above displays the SoftMaker Office Professional 2012 version of TextMaker.
Below is FreeOffice TextMaker:
Features
I
found while using SoftMaker, that it is very similar in features to
Microsoft Office and other office suites. There wasn’t anything
feature-wise that necessarily made it stand out apart from other suites.
That said, it has a lot of features and options within each program.
There are two versions, other than FreeOffice, of SoftMaker Office
Suites. The professional version includes TextMaker, PlanMaker,
SoftMaker Presentations, BasicMaker, SoftMaker eM Client Professional
and 4 Berlitz Basic Dictionaries. The standard version only excludes eM
Client Professional and the 4 Berlitz Basic Dictionaries.
TextMaker,
as it implies is a Microsoft Word alternative. PlanMaker is the
spreadsheet software. SoftMaker Presentations is the PowerPoint
alternative. BasicMaker is the macro language that lets you automate
TextMaker and PlanMaker. The SoftMaker eM Client Professional is
actually an all-in-one email, task, calendar and contact client. This
would be similar to Outlook.
Cost
It is obvious that
FreeOffice is free, so I’ll jump right into the prices of the Standard
and Professional versions. Office Standard 2012 is € 69.95 and $ 79.95.
Office Professional 2012 is € 89.95 and $ 99.95. If you’re looking for
an all-in-one email client alternative to Outlook included with your
office suite, this is a pretty affordable option. Of course, there is
Thunderbird
however. Another thing to consider with SoftMaker is that if you want
to upgrade, you don’t have to rebuy everything again, but instead just
pay a fraction of the cost.
I
feel the true value of SoftMaker Office resides in FreeOffice, and not
just because it’s free, but for what you get in comparison to what you
pay for in their other suites. It truly is a bargain and is a great new
rival to LibreOffice. Yes, FreeOffice is new. SoftMaker hasn’t
officially announced it’s arrival, but we have been given permission to
introduce it to you.
User Interface
SoftMaker Office 2012
isn’t bad, but it isn’t superb either. I definitely think that
LibreOffice has it beat in this area. I will give it credit though in
that it allows you to add and remove icons from the toolbars so that you
can customize it to your liking – that’s nice and often a forgotten
feature with many office suites.
Compatibility
When
opening up different Microsoft Office files with SoftMaker Office, I
didn’t notice any changes in them. In fact, the problem I mentioned
about an additional page being added in LibreOffice, did not occur in
this case. I was quite happy with the overall performance of the
program. Again, the only drawback is that the interface seems a little
backdated and could be overwhelming to someone who isn’t very tech
savvy.
Kingsoft
is a software company based out of Hong Kong that should worry
Microsoft. They have a pretty good product here. However, the product
only includes the “popular trio” as I’ve previously called it: Word
alternative, Excel alternative and PowerPoint alternative. If that is
all you need then this will suit you just fine. If you need a software
for publishing or databases or note taking, you will need to look
elsewhere or get “supplemental software” along with Kingsoft Office.
Although Kingsoft hasn’t been covered on MakeUseOf (to my knowledge), it has been mentioned by a reader in response to
a question on MakeUseOf Answers. To read his opinion about it, scroll all the way to the end of the page.
Features
Aside from only having three programs, Kingsoft Office still excels (no pun intended). One feature that I really liked was the
mobile app for Android,
which is full functioning – you can view and edit your files, right
from your phone or tablet. Not too many office suites offer that.
Unfortunately my lack of owning an android device inhibited me from
testing this personally, but I would be happy to hear any reviews in the
comments below.
Cost
Like SoftMaker Office, Kingsoft Office has three versions as well:
Free,
Standard and
Professional.
The standard version costs $49.95. The professional version costs
$69.95. In my opinion, this is a great deal. Also note that you don’t
have to have the entire suite if you don’t want everything. Each piece
of software (free and paid) is
available individually too.
User Interface
As
I was writing this review, I had to continue to hold back my praises on
the interface until this section – believe me, it was hard to do. My
first impression of Kingsoft Office happened like this, “Wow! That is
nice!”
Of
course that faded a little once I realized that the ribbon style was
only for the professional office suite and not the free one, but that
said, the free version looks pretty nice too. With the ribbon style and
full featured software combined with an affordable price, I would say
that Kingsoft Office is probably
the biggest contender
to Microsoft Office. Sure, LibreOffice is free, and it does offer more
programs – which in no doubt is a plus, but Kingsoft Office comes in at a
super close second place.
Compatibility
Compatibility
with Microsoft Office for Kingsoft Office isn’t even an issue. When I
opened the files they all looked uniform and I noticed that the
program’s own interface actually plays a roll in the look and “feel” of
the file you’re viewing. Even in the free version, Kingsoft Office
worked awesome.
Honorable Mention
ThinkFree
has web based and mobile apps as well as one for download. Don’t get
the online and local versions confused. Contrary to what the name may
imply, and although it’s a reputable company, the version for download
is not as
free as you may
think.
Zoho has been around quite a while and has long been
Google’s contender for the calendar and office web apps.
If you prefer to not use Microsoft Web Apps or Google Docs, Zoho is the
next best choice. They do have a free plan as well as two monthly paid
plans.
KOffice
KOffice
is a free office suite with Word, Excel and PowerPoint alternatives, as
well as diagram and flowchart, and vector graphics software. If you are
looking for something that is free and diversified, you may want to
check out KOffice to see what it has to offer. The interface isn’t bad
and the updates are current as well.
Note: KOffice is the older version of
Calligra Suite, which was covered on MakeUseOf for
popular Linux office suites.
Both are fantastic and Calligra Suite does have some differences. If
you are interested in one of these two, I recommend you try them both
out to see which one you like better.
IBM Lotus Symphony
Lotus
Symphony is another one of the “popular trio” desktop applications. It
has been around for a while and seemed to be popular among Linux users
for a while until OpenOffice came about. It still is a decent
alternative if you enjoy trying out different software, but it isn’t my
favorite by any means.
Conclusion
I hope that these
recommendations have been helpful in deciding what you should use as
your primary office suite. Some are much better than others. To sum up
my thoughts, I feel the best to consider would be Kingsoft Office and
LibreOffice for desktop apps and either Google Docs or Microsoft Web
Apps for online files. To me, these have the best user interfaces, the
most affordable prices (or are just plain free) and are the most full
featured. If you have already tried some of these, I would like to hear
your feedback. Which one do you prefer? I’m curious if there are others
out there that may not be as popular, but are just as good or better.
Let me know!
Also, if you use Microsoft Office, be sure to check out
our guide on the best tips and tricks in Office 2010!
Source:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-of-the-best-free-and-low-cost-alternatives-to-microsoft-office/
