Alternatives to Microsoft Office
Published: 01 Oct 2007
Desktop suites Microsoft MS DOC
Office
2007Word
Perfect
Office X3Star
Office
8Open
Office
2iWork '08
Lotus
Symphony
Rating
8.0
7.0
7.0
6.0
7.3
TBA
Pricing & licensing
£492 (U)
£359 (P)
£327 (SB)
£291 (S)
£90 (HS)£235
(u/g £115)£52
free
£55
free
OS support
Windows
(XP, Vista)Windows
Windows
Linux
SolarisWindows
Mac
Linux
SolarisMac
Windows
Linux
Features
File formats
DOCX
XLS
XLSX
PPT
PPTX
free add-in for PDF exportsCorel files
MS DOC
DOCX
XLS
XLSX
PPT
PPTX
ODF
exports PDFsMS DOC
XLS
PPT
ODF
exports PDFsMS Office
ODFMS DOC
DOCX
XLS
XLSX
PPT
PPTX
Mac formats
MOV
SWF
exports
PDFsMS DOC
XLS
PPT
ODF
exports
PDFs
WP
Word
WordPerfect
StarWriter
Writer
Pages
Documents
SS
Excel
Quattro Pro
StarCalc
Calc
Numbers
S'sheets
Pres.
PowerPoint
Corel Pres.
Star
ImpressImpress
Keynote
Pres.
Email
Outlook
Mail
StarOffice email
n/a
n/a
(inc. with Mac OS)n/a
DB
Access (Pro edition)
n/a
Adabas D
Base
n/a
n/a
Drawing
n/a
n/a
StarDraw
Draw
n/a
n/a
Support plans
Phone
90 days free
then £46 per request£9.95 per incident
3 free requests in first 60 days
then $25 (~£12) per requestn/a
90 days free
then £35 per incidentn/a
Email
90 days free
then £46 per requestunlimited, free
3 free requests in first 60 days
then $20 (~£10) per requestweb
web
web
Online suites
Thinkfree
Office 3Google Docs &
SpreadsheetsZoho
Office
Rating
7.3
7.3
6.7
Pricing & licensing
$50 (£24.45) download;
free & paid online versionsfree online
beta versionfree online
beta version
OS support
Windows, Mac, Linux; Java-enabled browsers
IE6+, Firefox 1.07+, Mozilla 1.712+ Netscape 7.2+ browsers
IE, Firefox, Safari 3 browsers
Features
File formats
MS DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX; exports PDFs
MS DOC, XLS, PPT; ODF; exports PDFs
MS DOC, XLS, PPT; ODF; exports PDFs
Word processor
Write
Docs
Writer
Spreadsheet
Calc
Spreadsheets
Sheet
Presentations
Show
Presentations
Show
Email
n/a
Google Mail tie-ins
n/a
Database
n/a
n/a
Creator
Drawing
n/a
n/a
n/a
Support plans
Phone
n/a
n/a
n/a
Email
24h email + web
web
web
PreviousRelated articles
Buzzword: a first look at Adobe's new word processor
Preview Adobe looks set to enter the online office suite market, following the acquisition of a web-based Flash word processor. [02 Oct 2007]
Lotus Symphony: a first look
Preview Although it's still in beta testing, IBM's Lotus Symphony offers strong alternatives to Word, PowerPoint and Excel with more features and nicer interfaces than most other free software. [24 Sep 2007]
Office 2008 for Mac: a first look
Preview Mac users are getting a new version of Microsoft Office, but not until the second half of this year. Check out our preview. [11 Jan 2007]
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