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Add to SafariWhen comparing SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice vs OfficeSuite, the Slant community recommends OfficeSuite for most people. In the question“What are the best Microsoft Office alternatives?” OfficeSuite is ranked 11th while SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose OfficeSuite is:
OfficeSuite offers more editing features than similar apps for Android.
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
OfficeSuite offers more editing features than similar apps for Android.
Pro Full compatibility with Microsoft Office and Open Office formats
Pro Excellent PDF editing capabilities
Pro Drag and move text
Pro Keyboard shortcuts
If you have a keyboard connected to your Android device, you can optimize your workflow by using keyboard shortcuts.
Pro Supports 56 languages
Pro Supports Bluetooth and WiFi sharing
Other apps typically only support cloud sharing, OfficeSuite Pro allows Android users to share over their network or straight through Bluetooth.
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 Ads
If you don't pay for the full version, you will be forced to deal with ads.
Con Can not save in ODF
Sure the program can open the ODF format, which is very useful to users of LibreOffice or similar, but it does not seem to be able to save in that format as it tries to save as a docx, doc, rtf, or txt. Maybe in the future.
