All the latest UK technology news, reviews and analysis
|
|
|
12 Jan 2012
SoftMaker Office 2012 offers a capable set of office applications, including an email client new to this release (Professional version only). It can handle documents created by Microsoft Office with ease and also runs on any PC with Windows XP or above.
Pros:
Excellent file compatibility with Microsoft Office, runs on older PCs, easy to use
Cons:
Not as slick looking as Microsoft apps, email client does not support Exchange protocol
Price: €69.95 (£58) SoftMaker Office 2012 Standard, €99.95 (£83) for SoftMaker Office 2012 Professional
Manufacturer: SoftMaker
SoftMaker Office 2012 is a new release of SoftMaker's productivity suite for Windows, offering a set of office applications to rival Microsoft's Office 2010 and other suites such as OpenOffice.org
Available since the end of November, SoftMaker Office 2012 is the first release of the suite to feature an email client in addition to the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool of earlier versions.
SoftMaker's chief selling point is file compatibility, not just with files created by Microsoft's current Office 2010 suite, but the older formats used in Office 2003 and earlier, plus it has support for OpenOffice.org files and SoftMaker's own native document formats. SoftMaker applications can also export to a PDF document as standard.
However, SoftMaker 2012 also has the advantage that it will run on any PC with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, which might appeal to those with older or less capable PCs. In addition, the user interface has more of a conventional look and feel, which should please those who dislike the ribbon-style user interface that Microsoft created for recent versions of Office.
We found SoftMaker Office 2012 to be a capable suite, with the individual applications matching rivals for pretty much all the features that users might require.
We also tested the suite on several machines and confirmed that it runs well even on relatively low-spec machines such as netbooks and older PCs running Windows XP.
However, the applications look rather utilitarian when compared with the slick cosmetic appearance of Microsoft's productivity tools.
It should also be noted that the email client does not support Microsoft's Exchange protocol and can only link to mail servers via standard protocols.
SoftMaker Office is also a paid-for product, so buyers must weigh up the benefits of purchasing this against free-to-download suites such as OpenOffice.org, or buying into Microsoft's much more pricey products.
To set against this, customers get the rights to install SoftMaker Office on up to three PCs for a single payment and the company also provides technical support to registered users, while users of free-to-download suites typically have access only to web-based community support via forums.
SoftMaker Office 2012 comes in two versions; the Standard edition consists of the TextMaker word processor, PlanMaker spreadsheet, SoftMaker Presentations and the BasicMaker scripting language for automating tasks.
The Professional edition includes all the above plus the SoftMaker eM Client for email, plus extra Berlitz dictionaries.
SoftMaker Office 2012 runs on any PC capable of running Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7
Review categories
Laptops (112) | Tablets (65) | Mobile Phones (169) |
Dell XPS 13 review | Asus Transformer Pad TF300 video review | Samsung Galaxy S3 video review |
Other product categories
V3 examines the key strengths and weaknesses of Samsung's latest iPhone killer
Connect with V3.co.uk
Social networking is almost ubiquitous. This white paper examines the benefits and risks and it looks at the different ways companies can reconcile them
The importance of understanding your infrastructure
The Role: As a Field Service Engineer working from...
The Role: Make the most of your IT knowledge in one...
Head of IT / Infrastructure Manager (Marketing Services...
A Multi-national data analytic's and cloud computing...
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies. IThound.com brings you over 2,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.
Do you agree?
worthless review and wierd comments
the reviewer could have saved a lot of webspace with one or two lines: similar to MS office. The reviewer didn't appear to spend any effort - what happens if you have custom styles (does it have paragraph styles) and you have a TOC - does it work ? as for the commenter trashing MS office 2010, your sir, are an ignorant biased beast.
Posted by: ezra abrams 28 May 2012
Totally unbiased first review of course!...
Ha! Look, if an employee of the company that created the product wants to post a "comment" after what I think (having never heard of SoftMaker before this article) is actually a pretty positive review, where they slam Microsoft for Office 2010 being a "poorly designed, bug filled mess", then I think they could try and do it a little more subtly! Office 2010 is used by millions of people and I for one like its slick, impressive design and ease of access to features. You may not like it, but "poorly designed bug-filled mess" is neither fair nor balanced, Mr CallMeBC! And as for calling Exchange compatibility "obsoletish", even though it's used by virtually every business in the developed world, well frankly that's ridiculous. I'm afraid your "comment" only has the effect of putting me off ever trying SoftMaker's products, which may or may not be a pity...
Posted by: Phil 18 Jan 2012
Apparently the reviewer doesn't get around much
I've been evaluating and installing MS Office/Exchange/Server systems and alternatives to them for quite a while, and its pretty clear that the author of this article is very unfamiliar with the alternative side of things. Without being too long-winded: 1) MS Office 2010 is a poorly designed, bug filled mess. The Word component has an unfixed problem with manual duplexing, and mail-merging. as difficult it is to believe, is even worse than before. Outlook is a confused, high strung mess that may not successfully update your existing Outlook without becoming corrupted, and will by default create several derivative address books that will especially clutter up your iPhone if using ActiveSync with an Exchange Server, and which cannot be completely removed afterwards without a complete profile do-over. It's a C+ product at best now -- usable, but not without periodic aggravation. 2) OpenOffice, along with its derivatives, is still a sluggish beast. It's gets a B+ for effort but a D for execution 3) If full, obsoletish Exchange compatibility is not needed, SoftMaker blows both MS Office and OpenOffice away in usability, and can be cheaply bought if you are a student or if you wait for one of their periodic sales. Also their 2008 version is free if you register with them (it lacks compatibility with those bizarre Docx and Xlsx formats MS made up for deceptive reasons, but you can download SoftMaker's excellent and free Docx and Xlsx viewers to deal with those.) 4) While neither free nor a full suite, the Atlantis Word Processor is something I also strongly recommend for busy, impatient people who favor speed and usability above all else. It's available as a trial and you can make it portable.
Posted by: CallMeBC 13 Jan 2012