Softmaker 2021 Office (Beta)

Slydude

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Well, I expected more from clicking on Yes than just opening a web page.
if it's a blank page check your Downloads folder/or where ever you've told your browser to store downloads). I don't remember when this started but under Catalina, and perhaps earlier, many download links bring up a blank page and the download starts. Under Catalina you're often asked if you want to accept downloads from"name of sthe.
 
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The web page it opens for me does not have ANYTHING on it that mentions the Service Pack. It just has little blurbs about the versions for Windows, Mac, and maybe Linux(?), I don't remember now. So I clicked on the Mac "button" and it downloaded the entire 2018 version for Mac.
 
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The web page it opens for me does not have ANYTHING on it that mentions the Service Pack.


The next time you are at their home page, Click on "Support" (at the top of the page) then -> "Service packs" and click to select your specific choice to download.

SoftMaker: Official Website






- Patrick
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chscag

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Thanks Patrick.

Also, if you are a registered user of Softmaker Office, Softmaker will send you an email message stating that a service pack is available for download and also supplies the download link.
 
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Thanks for the helpful reply. :)
 

chscag

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Well, I decided to give the SoftMaker Office 2021 beta a look and downloaded a copy.

(I only tested the TextMaker app since that is the only app I'm interested in.)

The suite is definitely more polished than their 2019 version which I also have. Highly configurable both with the Ribbon and menus. Also supports dark mode.

Lots of templates to use.

However, when testing with my older Word documents, the same problem that I ran into before is also present in this version. Indents, margins, and page breaks on complex documents are way off. The older Word documents converted and could be edited, but mostly had to be redone in order to maintain the original content and look.

So again, I decided that I would rather stick to MS Office for compatibility purposes and occasionally use Pages for documents that I originate for myself.
 
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Well, I decided to give the SoftMaker Office 2021 beta a look and downloaded a copy.

Please give Softmaker your feedback.

Maybe even send them a representative file that they can try themselves.
 
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krs

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Please give Softmaker your feedback.

What is the best way to do that?
There is no "feedback" option on their website or within the app; I sent a reply to the email address that offered the beta version but never heard anything back - so I just stopped testing.
The problem that I had (and reported here as well) is that Softmaker Office corrupted a power point file so that one could no longer open it with MS PPT.
I think that is a pretty serious issue.
 

chscag

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Most beta programs distributed to those testing them have a way of reporting errors back to the publisher. Like member "krs" noticed, there does not seem to be a way to provide feedback. I suppose I could send them email reporting what I have found.

However, doing some thinking about programs that are MS Office compatible, perhaps I'm expecting too much. No program including Pages and the many office suites that I have tested provide 100% compatibility with MS Office.

I believe even Randy as an attorney mentioned that he uses MS Office to maintain compatibility. So I guess I'm not alone with that.

But I do want folks to know that SoftMaker Office and Free Office are very nice office suites and are probably as close as you're going to get maintaining compatibility with MS Office. I will admit though that I haven't tested their Powerpoint or Excel equivalent apps. So your mileage may vary on those. ;)
 
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...
I believe even Randy as an attorney mentioned that he uses MS Office to maintain compatibility. So I guess I'm not alone with that...

No, I didn't say that at all.

So far I've found FreeOffice to be 100% compatible with all of my Microsoft files. Even my older Word files.

However, I continue to use Microsoft Word for the bulk of my work. While FreeOffice is an extremely capable word processor, and it's perfectly adequate for use on my laptop, Microsoft Word has a huge number of esoteric features, and I make heavy use of a number of them. Microsoft Word is an ultra-high end product for professionals. In my experience, that's actually why a lot of MS Word users want to escape the program. (That, and the inflated price.) They are overwhelmed by it.
 

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