Microsoft Office vs Alternatives

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Right now I have access to Microsoft 365, so I have access to Microsoft Office on my Macs and Windows PCs.

 

In the event this one Microsoft 365 account expires, I'm trying to decide what would be a good option moving forward.

 

I probably wouldn't signup for a new Microsoft 365 account, as I'm trying to move away from many subscription services and own more of my apps.

 

I'm not sure if I would purchase Microsoft Office perpetual licenses, switch my machines to LibreOffice (which would be free), or on the Windows PC considering purchasing a one-time copy of WordPerfect Office.

 

Now that I've graduated from my PhD program, I don't heavily use Microsoft Word. On my Mac, I mainly use Mellel or Nisus Writer Pro. For academic writing on Mac or Windows, I use Nota Bene.

 

For presentations, I use Keynote. Not a PowerPoint fan.

 

For personal spreadsheets, I can get by on using Numbers. Occasionally I need to open Excel spreadsheets and share them with others, but they're generally "light" and not overly-complex.

 

For a while, I had to use Outlook for email, but I'm at a point where I could move everything over to Apple Mail on my Mac and probably Windows Mail on the Windows PC.

 

Would it be worth eventually getting Microsoft Office perpetual licenses, or would LibreOffice be sufficient, or on Windows, is WordPerfect Office worth giving a try at all?

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

One of my email accounts can only connect to Outlook or Thunderbird, so if I don't use Outlook, I'll have to use Thunderbird on the Windows PC.

 

I also have a contacts account over CardDAV, so if Thunderbird can connect to CardDAV, that might be a good option for emails on the Windows PC.

[Michel Gilbert]

Without going into much detail, SoftMaker Office.

 

You can choose a one-time purchase or subscription.

 

Their upgrade policy is very generous. I upgraded from a 2016 Linux version to the full 2024 version.

 

You can install it on five devices with the same GUI on Mac, PC, Linux, iOS, iPad OS, and Android.

 

If you choose the one-time purchase, you can only use the free versions on mobile. You don’t miss much anyways. Just use AirDrop to move and print files.

 

In my experience, it is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office, and almost every other file type from the beginning of the millennium. It blows every other program out of the water in this regard, with one exception:

 

SoftMaker works perfectly for left to right languages, and for Hebrew consonants right to left. But it doesn’t do well with vowel and accent placement, which it fully acknowledges.

 

Re. WordPerfect, it isn’t Unicode compatible. I would avoid it.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks for the info! The perpetual license looks super-affordable! I'll certainly consider it. I don't use Microsoft Office Mobile apps anyway, and my devices fall within the allowance for free versions anyway if I absolutely needed to use them.

 

Hebrew I'd use Mellel or Nota Bene for, so I'd be OK there as well.

[markusvonkaenel]

Try Pages. It's free and equal to Word. But not Industries Standard.

 

[Ken Simpson]

Personally I have always found Libreoffice to be almost but not quite. I used softmaker office for a while and they are good! I love Mellel and Nisus Writer Pro. I use NWP quite heavily. I rarely use office at all, though I have a copy of 365. Have never liked outlook. Apple Mail just fits me. But then I was a Eudora lover. 
 

excel is excel. Nothing comes close. But if you don’t need it, then you don’t. Keynote is wonderful. Pages is more than usable, but not quite to NWP or Mellel yet. (I only use Mellel for Hebrew). I really wish the cmd-opt-a add verses shortcut worked properly in NWP. It’s annoying. 

[ukfraser]

many moons ago, I used what is now apache open office which was ok but missed access and visio. Have used visio since early 90s from version 3 before ms got their hands on it. 
 

i dont use keynote or powerpoint as they dont have styles. I want to change format throughout the document in one go so use a word processor where i have more control in format and breaks and then pdf it and project full screen from pdf. 

 

i have always tended to buy ms office and never used their 365 subscription.
 

Still have an out of date and non supported version of office on my mbp (and still miss access and visio).

 

i see that openoffice is very long in the tooth these days but for backwards compatibility, i still tend to use the old file formats, especially as i still exchange files with others.

 

https://www.openoffice.org

Edited January 23 by ukfraser

[Michel Gilbert]

I’ve used Open Office, Libre Office, AbiWord, and Nissus Writer Pro, which is based on Libre Office. I used the first three on Windows and Linux for over a decade. In my experience, they are more glitchy in their Mac versions, including NWP. But they all do Hebrew correctly. I’m sure they do better if you stick with left to right languages.

 

I think it all depends on what you’re doing and your background. I use TextMaker on all my devices, and Word on some of them. Word in Windows still has more features than Word in OSX, which I need and use. I also use Classical Text Editor for my own Hebrew editions of individual books. I’ve only finished the Psalms so far. Maybe I will publish some of them one day. I’ve tried Mellel and Pages, but coming from a Windows background for over two decades, I can’t stand a GUI that uses palettes and doesn’t offer enough customization of the top toolbar. Like I said, it depends on your background and the task at hand.

 

Typed in TextMaker on my M1 Mac mini.

[Lawrence]

If it's just subscriptions that you don't like, there's still the option of using free versions online.

MS365 has a free version that you can use for Office apps, with all editing done through a browser.

There's also the googledocs office suite that offers offline browser access that might tide you through patchy internet connections.

The MS suite might also offer offline functionality.

[Michel Gilbert]

Good point, Lawrence.

 

I also forgot to mention that there is a free version of SoftMaker called FreeOffice.

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Great info. Thanks!

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

@Michel Gilbert Is the direct-purchase Pro version of StarMaker Office worth the extra cost, or is the direct-purchase Home edition fine enough?

 

I'd need to purchase one over FreeOffice, but not sure if Pro is worth the extra money.

[Michel Gilbert]

You can see a comparison of the free, subscription, and one-time purchase versions here.

 

The pro version supports Zotero, German grammar and spell check, and EPUB export. I use the first two occasionally so I got the pro version. Otherwise, there is hardly any difference that I can see.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Great. Thanks for that link!

[Brian K. Mitchell]

I usually recommend the following:

1. Collabora Office (It shares the same base source code with LibreOffice, but it comes with customer support for non-techies like myself, it has online collaboration options, and I find it to be more stable than LibreOffice already was. It cost like 10 USD, but I have found it to be worth more and a whole lot cheaper than Microsoft products. I could use iWork/Pages since it came free with my MacBook but I still find pages a bit frustrating to use.) 
2. Egword Universal 2 (It is Mac only I think produced by Monokaki-do. It is much, much better at handling Japanese formatting issues than Microsoft Word).
3. When, I was on Windows I used to use Dvaka Writer 7 but I will probably end up going with Mellel for my Hebrew Word Proccessing needs at some point.

I have seen these used quite of bit, but I can't say anything about them from personal experience except one of them came pre-installed on most of the Windows computers I have bought in the past:

Polaris Office (Link #1)

WPS Office (link #2)

Free Office (Link 3)

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Thanks!

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

By the way, it would be great if SoftMaker and some of these apps could be updated to support the URI scheme, so the links to Accordance works.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier#Syntax
 

[Michel Gilbert]

Fabian asked SoftMaker for this on their German forum, on Accordance’s behalf.

 

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Yep. I'll probably buy the software myself and also ask them for it. So far I like what I see on SoftMaker and would seriously consider going for it.

[Enoch]

I bought Microsoft 2021 off of Ebay; it is not a rental; it think it is about the same as the rented 365 (renting I also reject).

Actually I prefer Microsoft 2002!  Microsoft 2021 occupies a huge amount of space at the top of the screen with a bewildering bunch of menus. But I think I was forced to "upgrade" (which can mean "downgrade" as a politician's term "invest" probably means "tax & spend")  because of newer Apple OS required for things I want to do & newer Apple OS refusing to run 32 bit apps (used to callem programs).  I can't think of a thing that 2021 does that 2002 would not do more efficiently -- except perhaps manage mass emailing, which I have not yet succeeded in getting to work.   I still use 2002 on a windows machine that I reserve for the Bible I am working on. As I recall, I had to go through a lot of effort to get 2021 to run what with MS trying its best to get me to go 365.  If I recall correctly I actually bought a product listed as MS Word 2019, but after installation the "About Microsoft Word" clicker at top right says 2021 when I click on it. Oh Yes, I think you must be sure to buy a 2019 or 2021 which says on it that it is for Mac, if you are an Apple computer user.  I think that I had to return my first purchase as it falsely was advertised as working on both Windows & Mac computers.  I should have looked at the image of the app box provided at the Ebay presentation of what was being sold, which image did not say "MAC" on it.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

On 1/23/2024 at 5:55 AM, Dr. Nathan Parker said:

In the event this one Microsoft 365 account expires, I'm trying to decide what would be a good option moving forward.

 

@Dr. Nathan Parker  

I thought this was mentioned before, but it seems like it wasn't so here is one more suggestion:

The Free Desktop Version of...  Only Office

https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop.aspx?from=desktop

If you are one of those people that likes the look and feel of Microsoft Office you may enjoy using Only Office because it is a virtual look alike.

See for yourself:

[Larry Wing]

On 1/22/2024 at 2:51 PM, Michel Gilbert said:

Without going into much detail, SoftMaker Office.

 

 

 

 

 

You can choose a one-time purchase or subscription.

 

 

 

Their upgrade policy is very generous. I upgraded from a 2016 Linux version to the full 2024 version.

 

 

 

You can install it on five devices with the same GUI on Mac, PC, Linux, iOS, iPad OS, and Android.

 

 

 

If you choose the one-time purchase, you can only use the free versions on mobile. You don’t miss much anyways. Just use AirDrop to move and print files.

 

 

 

In my experience, it is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office, and almost every other file type from the beginning of the millennium. It blows every other program out of the water in this regard, with one exception:

 

 

 

SoftMaker works perfectly for left to right languages, and for Hebrew consonants right to left. But it doesn’t do well with vowel and accent placement, which it fully acknowledges.

 

 

 

Re. WordPerfect, it isn’t Unicode compatible. I would avoid it.

 

+1

 

I've used Softmaker Office for years and haven't had any major issues.  I do know that your can't include Accordance links in a document and then open Accordance like you can with Word (last I heard) or LibreOffice (last I tried a year or so ago).

 

I have the perpetual license and only recently updated to latest version after a couple years on the old one. The upgrade price was reasonable (whatever that may mean).

 

They also have a generally responsive support.

 

I've installed on my Macs.

Edited January 28 by Larry Wing

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

@Larry Wing Thanks!

 

@Brian K. Mitchell Thanks!

 

@Enoch Yeah the ribbon in Office can be a bit funky. Honestly I loved Office 2004 for Mac. It was fast and lean. Office 2007 Windows and 2008 Mac onward was a major change, not 100% for the better.

[Larry Wing]

I'm not sure what I did but I just found out Softmaker Textmaker kinda works with URI (?). The links I have in a document send me to Accordance website where it then opens Accordance on my computer at the link address.

 

The format in the documents is not the usual I have in other documents so I must have selected  a copy format in Accordance app for it to work. When I get some time I'lll check out further but others may already know about this.

 

Macbook, Ventura, Accordance 14.0.8, Softmaker TextMaker Office 2024

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Wow!