LibreOffice 7.2 review - A turning point?

I might be wrong. I have Softmaker 2016 & it was very much harder to use than Ashampoo Office 8. Are you saying they're the same just rebranded?

 

They're pretty much the same. Ashampoo might change a few things here and there but Ashampoo is pretty much Softmaker.

From the softmaker forum: The Ashampoo version has fewer features than our Standard and Professional versions (no BasicMaker, no enhanced Thunderbird, no Berlitz dictionaries), offers neither service packs nor automatic updates, and you need to get your tech support from Ashampoo only. It's simply a reduced licensed version.

 

To be clear, there are many differences between Softmaker Office 2016 and Ashampoo Office 8. I'm not talking about the free versions of either product. Ashampoo is better, primarily because it gets updated more and the gui is more modern. The price is also on Ashampoo's side too, $30 vs $80 lifetime.

 

What are the differences and are you sure that Ashampoo is updated more regularly than SoftMaker? I ask this as Ashampoo is a brand of SoftMaker with slightly reduced functionality. Also, the current version of SoftMaker Office is 2021, not 2016.

 

Ashampoo is essentially a rebranded Softmaker, whether free of paid. The free version is Softmaker 2012, several versions behind. I don't know what the paid version of ashampoo office is, maybe 2018 Softmaker. There were changes between 2016 and 2018, and many think 2016 Softmaker was a better version. But I'd think since it's Softmaker Office at the core, paid or free, any upgrades to ashampoo office would be cosmetic rather than feature updates.

Virtually all of Ashampoo products with which I'm familiar are rebrands of other software.

 

Right. But the 2016 was the version that was mentioned, so that's the one I responded to. From what I can tell, Softmaker office hasn't been updated since January 2021, revision 1030. Ashampoo Office 8, on the other hand has been updated 6 times since then. My point about the price still stands too. Ashampoo Office is $20 right now and Softmaker office is $70.

 

According to Softpedia, SoftMaker was last updated in July, with Ashampoo being updated a week later. The cheaper price, is why was I using Ashampoo Office until recently. I was using SoftMaker for a while, as they offered a cheap upgrade price for Ashampoo users. But when new versions were released, it was again cheaper to switch back to Ashampoo. Now I'm using neither, other than using Ashampoo when I need to open files which were saved in the proprietary SoftMaker format.

 

Based on feedback, the original behavior is being restored: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142214#c25

 

And afaik Softmaker is per YEAR & Ashampoo has no time limit.

 

Kind of true. See here. You can buy the NX version on subscription or the Professional version which is lifetime.

 

I have a separate PDF viewer. Is Ashampoo Office 8 a PDF viewer also?

 

No, I don't believe it can be. I usually just use my browser for reading them.

 

Btw $20 is a helluva deal. TY. I grabbed it.

 

Right??! I was so excited to find that deal when I did because I was about to pay another $110/year for MSO365. I've had no issues at all with it. BTW, you can use it on 5 systems, linux, windows, or mac.

 

@Mrkvonic thanks for the update. It seems that LO is finally usable, so I have switched from FreeOffice, the mandatory free registration alone was annoying, though it started way faster than LO.

 

Yes I can understand this and to clarify it wasn't directed to you. It's just that I feel like an idiot, I didn't even realize that WordPad is already good enough for my needs, totally forgot about this tool. I don't need advanced text editors and I also don't need MS PowerPoint, Excel and Access.

And yes I can understand why they banned WPS Office, the amount of outbound connections being made is concerning, but most apps nowadays connect out, I'm not too happy about this, so a firewall stays quite important. But good to know that Ashampoo Office performs quite good, now I can install it for other people.

 

No worries at all. I wasn't taking any kind of offence. It is worth noting that WPS Office premium offers cloud storage, and that could have been a major issue with it being banned; everyone storing all their documents on Chinese servers. I really do wonder if WPS Office uses the same filters as Ashampoo Office/Softmaker Office because every file looks exactly the same as it does in MS Office. Libre/Open/Star/Free Office all use different filters, and consequently every one of them might have some nuanced difference. But that's not true with Ashampoo/Softmaker or WPS.

But as long as you've found what works for you, that's good.

 

I like WPS, but nowadays when I open a spreadsheet (nothing complex, list of blood sugars) it stays at 13% cpu, whereas LO drops to zero. I'm using Kubuntu 20.04. I've also tried Onlyoffice but it annoys me it doesn't open with the Queen's English auto selected as the spelling language, and it's a bit slower, but the nicest for basic office requirements - you're not presented with loads of options you won't use. Overall, out of the three, WPS is the best Office alternative in presenting documents like Office does. But, it phones home and stresses my cpu. Tried Softmaker free, but when saving/opening it presents one with the root directory, which I find annoying and would frighten my wife! I know you can highlight favourite folders but I just want the Home folder to show.

Re 7.2 LO, I opened the Mrk suggested templates and none were perfect. The organics template took 50s to open! I've reverted to 7.1 and will wait for Discover to update me.

When I look at what LO does, it's way more sophisticated than I require but it works for what I do require and doesn't stress my cpu. On Linux it's the easy option. For US English users who require limited functionality Onlyoffice is worth a try.

 

Searching a long time for an alternative (respectively supplement) to MS Word I tested LibreOffice, Softmaker (and Ashampoo), WPS and various others. None of them was the right one for my needs which are primarily:
- the ability to handle big (doc-)files without problems
- the possibility to search comfortably and quickly within a document.

Especially the first condition (respectively both in combination) could not be fulfilled by any of these programs.

I found only one exception - absolutely convincing in both respects (and concerning the keeping of original formatting too - but this should be something basic anyway):
Atlantis Word Processor: https://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/

A quite unknown software, I think. (Perhaps a candidate for Mrk's interesting reviews of office software ? )

But it is excellent in performance and functionality, cheap (35 $, respectively 49 $ for lifetime upgrades) and accompanied by an outstanding Manual (https://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/help/).

The developer himself (whoever he may be) does not deserve such a promotion, as communication with him (either in the Forum either via E-Mail) was terrible (not because of language barriers but because of his unwillingness for substantial communication). But his product is really superb.

 

Interesting review. Enjoyed reading it. I have been using LibreOffice for many years. I use it everyday, mostly for Calc or Writer things. Most of my experience with both are usually when I have formatting problems, in particularly with Word versus Writer, it's in my opinion, the author of the Word document is sort of clueless and just fiddle fuddled it along until they go what looked good. Word documents read from someone who knows what they doing in general work just fine.

This particular version introduced a "feature request" in Calc to alter LibeOffice's behavior to match "other popular alternatives" (i.e., Excel). I am not happy about this "downgrade", there are others too. Read about it here:

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142214

I really do not understand why LIbreOffice must compare to MS Office. I get the document thing, but it's the usage part I don't get. I am of the opinion that usage wise, LibreOffice is superior to MS Office, at least in my daily use of Writer and Calc.

 

The change will be reverted in 7.2.1 according to comment #30 in the bug thread. Meanwhile, I'm using the "still" AppImage which is version 7.1.5.2.

 

I noted that, meanwhile I'm stuck with 7.2.0.