SoftMaker Office 2006 for Windows....(NOW FREEWARE)

Stone Tablet · **Joined:** Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:58 am **Posts:** 42

It is not the current version but is now FREEWARE, was $79.95. As an SFX it is only about 10 Mb on your USB. Works well UPX'd. IMHO much better than OO because of the size.

Go to:

http://www.softmakeroffice.com/

Extract or Install, then run the included program "usbstick.exe" to make it portable.

Note: This is not a trial it is free... check it out!

Enjoy…

Stone Tablet

Drutt · **Joined:** Fri Aug 17, 2007 2:26 pm **Posts:** 93

A bit more info:

Quote:

...a complete office suite containing the following programs for free.

TextMaker for Windows

The Microsoft Word-compatible word processor that is so easy to use that you will wonder why you bothered with Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org for so long.
•Fast, powerful, reliable.
•Reads and writes your Word documents seamlessly (Microsoft Word 6.0 to 2007)
•Comes with all features that you expect from a high-end word processor
•Many useful helpers – for example, SmartText: just type "lax", and "Los Angeles" appears in your document
•Built-in database, mailmerge that's as easy as pie – and much, much more

PlanMaker for Windows

The Microsoft Excel-compatible spreadsheet that opens all your Excel workbooks directly and gives you many time-saving features.
•Fast, powerful, reliable.
•Reads and writes your Excel files seamlessly (Microsoft Excel 5.0 to 2007)
•More than 320 calculation functions
•Design your worksheets with colors, fonts, borders, pictures, drawings, AutoShapes, WordArt etc.
•Built-in Excel-compatible charting
•Conditional formatting, syntax highlighting, goal seeker, sheet and workbook protection – and much, much more

What you will receive is a fully-functional, non-crippled, not time-limited version of this office suite... totally free of charge, without any obligations.

Certainly runs from USB fine, but it's not totally portable...

It creates numerous reg entries under:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\TypeLib

and

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Interface

and apparently edits:

Code:

%SystemRoot%\win.ini

Still, it's a nice piece of software, cheers for the heads up Stone Tablet.

Local · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:48 am **Posts:** 240

That's great news.
I tested a few betas a while back and was quite impressed but they always had really short expiry dates on them.

Those reg entries seem pretty negligible Drutt

(thanks for the heads up) but isn't the win.ini only used for v18bit apps?

SoftMaker · **Joined:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:02 am **Posts:** 2

Those registry entries are only created when the software is installed as a regular desktop app.

When you create a USB flash drive install (Start, Programs, SoftMaker Office, Utilities, Install SoftMaker Office on a USB stick), the resulting installation will leave no traces on the host system.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Drutt · **Joined:** Fri Aug 17, 2007 2:26 pm **Posts:** 93

SoftMaker wrote:

Those registry entries are only created when the software is installed as a regular desktop app.

When you create a USB flash drive install (Start, Programs, SoftMaker Office, Utilities, Install SoftMaker Office on a USB stick), the resulting installation will leave no traces on the host system.

How peculiar... I installed it on a clean (separate) host, then 'made' the USB install on a detachable drive, then tested the USB install version on a new 'clean' host, which is where I obtained the reg entries stated above.
But if your member name correctly reflects your position, then I thank you for stepping in for the assuring correction nonetheless, it's always good to hear it from the horses mouth so to say :lol:

SoftMaker · **Joined:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:02 am **Posts:** 2

SoftMaker Office decides on startup whether to run in "USB stick mode" by checking the existence of the file PORTABLE.TXT. If it's there, it's supposed not to make any registry changes.

The changes you are listing are for OLE Automation (scripting) and I am pretty sure they are not made in portable mode.

About win.ini you are right. This is a bug in Office 2006 that was fixed in Office 2008. It is harmless (it adds one entry in the [SoftMaker] section) but of course it shouldn't do that.

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

Arithmomaniac · **Joined:** Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:57 pm **Posts:** 54

So, can this be added to the database?
Arithmomaniac

m^(2) · **Posted:** Thu Dec 25, 2008 1:20 pm

Hmm I missed it. SM Office 2003 IIRC was by far my favourite Office suite at the time, I didn't buy the license only because it wasn't portable.

If it really is now, consider me a huge supporter of making this another entry, it's really worth it.

If nobody does it before, I'll be able to check portability 2 weeks from now.

2SoftMaker:
Registration is annoying...

Stone Tablet · **Joined:** Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:58 am **Posts:** 42

Registration nag auto stops after three starts. An alternative is to edit ini to:

[Ignore]
OEMRegisterSkip=-1

Kea · **Posted:** Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:32 am

I registered SoftMaker Office 2006 (the free version) and that gave me the possibility to register version 2008 for only EUR 24.99 (US$ 32.99). Without that registration of the free version the price would have been EUR 69.95 (US$ 79.95). SoftMaker Office 2008 is portable too (but not free).

-.- · **Joined:** Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:32 pm **Posts:** 332

could someone zip this as portable? I want it on my pc but portable because I use office so I dont want anything interfering with it but this looks nice too so I want it.

I cant install to usb device since I don't have one right now and I cant figure out how to install portable to c drive

thanks

m^(2) · **Posted:** Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:45 pm

-.- wrote:

I cant install to usb device since I don't have one right now and I cant figure out how to install portable to c drive

thanks

Yeah, this is a case when sb goes to far with idiot-proofness, to the point when application thinks it's smarter than the user.

Don't you have another partition you can install it on?
Try

Code:

subst z: c:\

and install on z:
To delete the drive z use

Code:

subst z: /d

cali · **Joined:** Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:06 am **Posts:** 2

exciting news,haha

opsimathic · **Posted:** Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:16 am

cali wrote:

exciting news,haha

Not sure why you signed up just to make this somewhat cryptic comment.

Can you expand a little on what you are referring to so we can all learn from your understanding and experience about this software.

Thank you.
/opsimathic

m^(2) · **Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 2:56 pm

I made some tests today:
How well does UPX work with TextMaker?
Uncompressed size: 13058084 B
Compressed size: 2579456 B
Uncompressed startup time: 0.282 s.
Compressed startup time: 0.390 s.

Tested on: XP x64, Pentium D@2.66 Ghz, Barracuda ATA 10 with 330 GB platters.

Cheers.

SoftMaker Office 2006 for Windows....(NOW FREEWARE)

Who is online