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Re: Softmaker FreeOffice (adware)
Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 4:55 pm
by webfork
bawldiggle wrote: ↑Sun May 27, 2018 5:02 am
I tested their Flexi-PDF program, it is very rough ... I wouldn't even call it a Beta. It is, IMO, rough Alpha
I seem to recall testing it out sometime back and it was in such an early state that I didn't even bother posting about it. Sounds like it's not a high priority effort.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice (adware)
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:45 am
by Midas
Topic update: latest release is currently
FreeOffice 2018 Revision 966, dated 2019-07-10 (changelog at
https://www.freeoffice.com/en/support/version-history).
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice (adware)
Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:18 pm
by vevy
Update of Sept. 5:
Code: Select all
FreeOffice can now save in DOC, XLS and PPT formats
...
FreeOffice TextMaker can now save in OpenDocument Text format
Tried it. Things look good.
Edit:
It does attempt to connect on startup every time, even when update check is turned off. Turns out my firewall was silently blocking connection attempts.
Can be made
portable as far as I could tell:
- add portable.txt to main folder
- \inst\ contains some fonts, samples, templates, etc. Mostly optional but must be installed to the right folders if you want them to work.
- main folder contain many language files and folders that can be removed. Note that sometimes English is us/uk rather than en.
I also think it is stealth. No files/registry entries that can be helped.
I think it is worth adding to the main database.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:14 am
by Midas
Thanks for checking and sharing the info,
vevy.
Just to make it clearer, above info is about
FreeOffice 2018 Revision 970, released 2019-09-05.
Had a first check and can confirm portability if '
portable.txt' is added to program(s) folder -- I could find no significant traces with
Primo/
Regshot and settings were created/saved to '
SoftMaker\Settings' sub-folder.
Note: as the ad-sidebar can now be hidden or modified, I removed the '
(adware)' tag from OP.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 11:52 am
by vevy
No problem.
Also, please check my updated post above.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:30 pm
by opsimathic
I am interested by the statement of vevy on September 11th that Softmaker FreeOffice (2018) can be made portable and helpfully he gives some instructions to use. For many years Softmaker Office (both paid and free versions) have included a utility to make a portable version which works very well. I have used this product for a long time and it is currently my primary Office software for both work and personal use. I am not sure if the portable version is 100% stealth but that does not matter for my use of the product. I may of course, be missing something that vevy understands better than I do. Hope this is helpful.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 3:54 am
by vevy
opsimathic wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:30 pm
I am interested by the statement of
vevy on September 11th that Softmaker FreeOffice (2018) can be
made portable and helpfully he gives some instructions to use. For many years Softmaker Office (both paid and free versions) have included a utility to make a portable version which works very well. I have used this product for a long time and it is currently my primary Office software for both work and personal use. I am not sure if the portable version is 100% stealth but that does not matter for my use of the product. I may of course, be missing something that
vevy understands better than I do. Hope this is helpful.
It does work as well (except that, for some reason, it didn't seem to include hunspell dictionaries).
The problem is that it requires you to install the software first (and with admin privileges), which is a problem for many.
Using Universal Extractor 2 avoids this problem.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 6:47 am
by Midas
If you find them in suitable format -- I did it a prior version of
SM Office -- you can install them through the "
Add Hunspell Dictionary" button at the bottom of the "
Dictionaries" dialog; you get there via the "
Hunspell dictionaries..." button in the "
Language" tab from the "
Tools | Options" menu, ...
EDIT: this info is incorrect, please see viewtopic.php?p=94231#p94231
Dictionaries location is appropriately named sub-folders of 'SoftMaker\hunspell' (e.g., 'en_us') and they behave portably after that (untested!).
@
opsimathic: as I said in my testing above,
FreeOffice was entirely stealth.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 2:09 pm
by vevy
Thanks, but I meant that the official portable method doesn't include the hunspell dictionaries (.aff and .dic) already packaged in the installer and are extracted by Universal Extractor (Twice).
Simply leave the ones under \inst\ and they will work. The ones under SoftMaker aren't recognized.
So, should someone submit the software to the database or what?
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 3:51 pm
by billon
There is already
SoftMaker Office 2006 in the DB
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 5:38 pm
by vevy
So it gets updated to 2018?
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:34 am
by Midas
vevy wrote: ↑Simply leave the ones under \inst\ and they will work. The ones under SoftMaker aren't recognized.
You are absolutely right,
vevy, my bad; didn't realize there were multiple copies of those and didn't check it through.
Thus, the
correct location for dictionaries is the 'inst\hunspell' sub-folder (and not '
SoftMaker\hunspell' as I previously posted).
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:53 am
by thepiney
I used the 2006 and then 2008 versions for years and had little to no real issues. Occasionally some formatting had to be tweaked when opening the files in MS Office or mostly I just copied/cut the text and pasted in new documents if there were issues. One of the fastest opening office suites I've used. Old school menu... I like it, I promise I like it...
Also, Manjaro Linux 18.1.0 was just released and during install it gives the option of installing LibreOffice,r FreeOffice 2018 or others.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2019 9:53 am
by thepiney
Turns out the Manjaro devs got a bit o' heat over replacing LibreOffice with FreeOffice so they put out an explanation.
Forbe's - Manjaro Linux Team Responds To LibreOffice Versus FreeOffice In Upcoming Version 18.1 --->
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevang ... 195b2cbf46
The main takeaway is that the team believes FreeOffice delivers the best overall compatibility with Microsoft Office, and Müller emphasized that no money had been exchanged (yet) as a result of the partnership.
An update at the end of the article also shows that SoftMaker is adding support for saving in Microsoft Office file formats (PPT, DOC, XLS) to its free version. If this is the result of working with Manjaro, It gives me a good feeling to see open source and closed source companies working together on what will in the end help all users of both.
Re: Softmaker FreeOffice
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2019 5:37 am
by Midas
thepiney wrote: ↑I used the 2006 and then 2008 versions for years and had little to no real issues.
Same here, but mostly with the SM Office 2012 Pro version , which I got off a software giveaway.
In fact, that version track record was so good, it made me switch from the
MS Office XP/2000 I had been using up to then.
And this latest 2018 version is starting to look up as a keeper, too, from my very brief testing -- I just need to sort out spelling dictionaries and some defaults to be good to go.
