Anyone using KingSoft Office Free?

http://www.kingsoftresearch.com/kso/index.html

Just recently discussed in a thread here on Wilders. I downloaded and installed it, and was pleasantly surprized. It,s free and atleast to me it seems a bit faster and smaller than OpenOffice. I also like the GUI more as compared to OpenOffice.

It also seems compatible with OpenOffice and MS Office documents. I don,t use a lot of office features. I only need, off n on, to write some word documents and some Power Point presentations as part of my academic lectures.

I am going to replace OpenOffice with it. What do you think about this office suite?

Thanks

 

Hello,
Never change the saddle on a horse that does not bite your hand ... or whatever. If a product works (well), I wouldn't be trying to replace it. Furthermore, never heard of them.
Mrk

 

On another site I saw there was a bit of confusion as to whether the suite was free or a 30 day trial. I have also read that there is a 30 day trial then you have to request a free license key.

Any ideas?

 

First time I ever heard of it, but I would agree, MS Office works great, and so does OO, so why bother with yet another one? OO is already free and probably much more developed....

 

Just put in your name and it,s activated as licenced to you. No internet acess is required for activation.

 

MS Office is best, no boubt but costs money. OO is good but I really its slow start on my PC( some users find it faster than MS Office though).I really hate the slow start up of it on my PC. GUI is another plus for KS Office though practically it doesn,t matter.

I think we never heard of it as it,s Chineese and no so much advertized as an international product. Also not much focused on international market. Few years back I never heard of any Chineese AV, now I know atleast some of them.

 

Hmmm.... It,s realy a trial. But there will be a free version. From their forums:

 

Looks like it would be an easy switchover. GUI seems to be exactly the same. [Even the "Office" font in the splash screen looks like MS Office's]

Is there any fileloss for saving more advanced Office files?

 

Not sure. I use pretty basic features.

 

with Openoffice it doesnt feel right. dont use office on this computer much thou.
microsoft office genally works well but £50 with student discount i cannot afford atm.
kingsoft office looks nice but i think i will stick with OO for now and see what the next version of OO brings.

 

Not to stray too far off topic- but there is a program I found in case kingsoft is not the answer. It is called Softmaker Office Suite and looks exactly like Ashampoo Office 2006. I doubt it is compatible with MS Office 2007 but I have used Ashampoo in the past and the office suite was light and very nice overall.

http://www.softmakeroffice.com/

Text make and plan maker- no presentations, though.

 

aigle nice find! the GUI is awesome and it's only a 42 meg download!

 

U are right. I have not used MS Office since long. Is it true that GUI is basically a copy of MS one?

 

sure looks like its a copy of the MS GUI

 

Until someone offers an "office" version with an outlook look a like I'll continue to drink the real thing.

 

why do people like outlook so much?
i used to use outlook but i prefer webmail now.

 

Microsoft Office is good like it is, and nothing can really replace it.

 

There are many reasons but the ability to store and archive important e-mail going back 10 years on my pc and external drives is good enough. web mail is fine for chat but not good enough for important mail. Perhaps if I had 100 gb of storage and a 50 meg connection I would think differently ?

 

Hello,
Real men use latex ...
Cheers,
Mrk

 

OO does it all and for those looking for a Publisher equivalent there is the free open source Scribus. For those looking for a faster opening OO apart from OO quick starter, there is Go OO which is a fork of OO and loads way faster.

MS Word is too full of holes, I ditched MS Office 2000 in 2001 and never looked back after using OO.

 

good news - the last time I looked OO didn't have an Outlook equivalent.

 

I believe the only Outlook equivilant out there is Thunderbird. Not sure if it's your cup of tea. I need to use Outlook due to its scheduling features so the search goes on for an alternative/replacement.

 

If you are concerned with startup speed, as many users are, might I suggest Go-OO. It is a branch of the OO code. It is a lot better, in my opinion, and is noticable faster.

As for KindOffice, the 2007 version is free. The upcoming 2009 version is not. It will cost $29.99. See here

 

Tried Go-OO and almost same.

About KSO, there will be a free personal version too for 2009 version.

 

Those that are interested, please read this forum post.