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Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Elsa Wenzel CNET

Published: 01 Oct 2007

Desktop suites

	Microsoft Office 2007	Word Perfect Office X3	Star Office 8	Open Office 2	iWork '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 Solaris	Windows Mac Linux Solaris	Mac	Windows Linux
Features
File formats	MS DOC DOCX XLS XLSX PPT PPTX free add-in for PDF exports	Corel files MS DOC DOCX XLS XLSX PPT PPTX ODF exports PDFs	MS DOC XLS PPT ODF exports PDFs	MS Office ODF	MS DOC DOCX XLS XLSX PPT PPTX Mac formats MOV SWF exports PDFs	MS 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 Impress	Impress	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 request	n/a	90 days free then £35 per incident	n/a
Email	90 days free then £46 per request	unlimited, free	3 free requests in first 60 days then $20 (~£10) per request	web	web	web

Online suites

	Thinkfree Office 3	Google Docs & Spreadsheets	Zoho Office
Rating	7.3	7.3	6.7
Pricing & licensing
	$50 (£24.45) download; free & paid online versions	free online beta version	free 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

1 2

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]

2 Talkbacks

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]

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]

1 Talkback

Product	Date	Editors' Rating	Readers' Rating
Microsoft Office Standard 2007	[30 Jan 2007]	7.7	5.2
WordPerfect Office X3 Standard Edition	[18 Jan 2006]	7.0	9.4
StarOffice 8	[29 Sep 2005]	7.0	8.5
OpenOffice.org 2.0	[07 Dec 2005]	6.0	8.8
iWork '08	[23 Aug 2007]	7.3	7.7
ThinkFree Office 3	[05 Dec 2005]	5.3	7.5
Google Docs & Spreadsheets	[28 Nov 2006]	7.3
Zoho Office Suite beta	[30 Oct 2006]	5.7
Product	Date	Editors' Rating	Readers' Rating

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