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Add to SafariWhen comparing SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice vs Documents To Go, the Slant community recommends SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice for most people. In the question“What are the best Microsoft Office alternatives?” SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice is ranked 20th while Documents To Go is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice is:
SoftMaker office can open doc(x), xls(x), and ppt(x) files without messing up formatting.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Great interoperability with Microsoft Office
SoftMaker office can open doc(x), xls(x), and ppt(x) files without messing up formatting.
Pro Multi-platform
Works on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.
Pro Low on dependencies
On Linux it avoids the common widget toolkits which makes it really lightweight compared to other office suites.
Pro Configurable user interface
Includes the possibility to use Ribbons or classical Menus.
Pro EU based company
Follows the the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU.
Pro Has a free version
A free version, called SoftMaker FreeOffice, is available.
FreeOffice is a stripped down version of SoftMaker Office, with less features, templates and interface polish, but it still is feature-packed and with the same excellent import and export filters that enable opening/saving Microsoft Office formats faithfully.
Pro Free technical support
If you face any issues, you can always use the technical support by developer SoftMaker, it's free.
Pro Documentation
Even the FreeOffice version includes a Handbook in PDF.
Pro EPUB export included
You can create high-quality e-books in EPUB format easily.
Pro Integration of Zotero
Especially important for academic use: SM Office has a great working connector to Zotero for the direct insertion of citations.
Pro Free for teachers
The regular paid version is free for teachers.
Pro Great amount of advanced features
Compared to alternatives like OnlyOffice and WPS, really important advanced features especially for compatibility with Excel.
Pro Rich editing features
Docs To Go offers more editing features than you would typically expect on Android devices
Pro Android phone and tablet versions are bundled in one download
One of the best features in this app is being able to use it across devices. Instead of having to download it twice, the different versions are bundled together to save time.
Pro Internal cloud service
You don't need to use any other cloud service in order to access your documents from anywhere
Pro No sign up necessary
Most apps require you to sign up in order to get going, Docs to go doesn't put users through the hassle of filling out a form before getting to use the app.
Pro Free
Cons
Con The regular paid version is not free for students as it is for teachers
For students to use it, there needs to be a free student license for the regular (with . docx support) version.
Con Proprietary software
Although some versions/programs are free to download, they're all proprietary licenses utilizing a freeware model.
Con Free version needs registration
The free version needs to be registered with a valid email adress.
Con Installs a lot of crap and does not clean up
On Linux it installs over 40 MB of templates, images and other crap people will never need.
De-install does not clean up usr/share/freeoffice.
Con Breaks icon themes
On Linux it breaks all icon themes by modifying them.
Con No VBA support
As Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is proprietary software used in MS Office.
Con It's not Microsoft Office and it never will be
Use SoftMaker Office only if you want basic MS Office-like features. Once you delve deeper into the software the omissions become glaringly obvious.
Con Dated
Con Lack of spellchecker
If you happen to make a typo while using Documentss To Go, you're out of luck because they don't have a spell check feature.
Con There is a one time fee for the pro version
