Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by typical clerical worker and knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways that the operating system would not normally allow.
The currently dominant office suite is Microsoft Office, which is available for Microsoft Windows and Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X. Its default file formats have become standards in office software. There are numerous office suites attempting to challenge Microsoft's market dominance, many of which use similar interfaces and are compatible with Microsoft's file formats.
There is currently a trend towards online office suites, sometimes referred to as Office 2.0, which function as web applications, rather than software installed on the local computer[1]. The most well known of these is Google Docs.
Typical office suite components
- Word processor
- Spreadsheet
- Presentation program
- Database
- Graphics suite
- Communication
- Email client
- Personal information manager
- Groupware
- Web log analysis software
Multi-platform office suites
Proprietary suites
- SoftMaker Office 2008 — a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics program, provided by a German company.
- StarOffice — an office suite from Sun Microsystems. Originally developed by the German firm Star Division, which Sun acquired. Early versions shared code with OpenOffice.org project, which Sun funded and continues to support, but there has been separate development of the two packages.
- Kingsoft Office (Chinese version known as WPS Office) — a native Chinese-language office suite. English and Japanese versions are currently available also. For Microsoft Windows and Linux.
- IBM Lotus Symphony — based upon an older version of OpenOffice.org. Its components include Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.
Free (open source) suites
- OpenOffice.org — an open-source software project upon which Sun's StarOffice is based. The initial code was provided by Sun Microsystems, based on the Star Office package by German company, Star Division, that was acquired by SUN. Sun has provided much of the labor for its development since. Its components include Writer, Impress, Math, Draw, Calc, and Base. Releases are available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
- OpenOffice.org Novell Edition — features the Office Open XML translator add-on. Based upon OpenOffice.org. Its components include Writer, Impress, Math, Draw, Calc, and Base.[2]
Office suites for Microsoft Windows
Proprietary suites
- Ability Office
- Celframe Office — supports Microsoft Office and OpenOffice file formats, with a user interface styled on Microsoft Office 2003.
- EasyOffice
- Framework — historical but also still supported for Windows by the present developer, Selection & Functions Inc.
- Gobe Productive — Originally written for BeOS by developers of the original ClarisWorks, GoBe Productive is a lightweight integrated Works-like office suite with a generous "Hassle-Free License."
- JUST Suite 2008 - a full Japanese-language suite from JustSystems, the most direct competitor to Microsoft Office in Japan. For Windows only.
- Kingsoft Office (Chinese version known as WPS Office) — a native Chinese-language office suite. English and Japanese versions are currently available also.
- IBM Lotus SmartSuite — For Windows 2000 and XP only
- IBM Lotus Symphony - Freeware word, spreadsheet and presentation suite.
- Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Works
- StarOffice
- WordPerfect Office
Freeware suites
Free Software suites
- GNOME Office
- KOffice
- OpenOffice.org
- OpenOffice.org Novell Edition[2]
Office suites for Mac OS X
Proprietary suites
- iWork — Apple Inc.'s Mac-only office suite. Includes Pages, for word-processing, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Keynote, for presentations. iWork replaces the now-discontinued AppleWorks suite.
- MarinerPak — MarinerPak includes Mariner Write, a fully-featured word processor, and Mariner Calc, a fully-featured Spreadsheet application.
- Microsoft Office for Mac — Microsoft's office suite for Mac operating systems. The current version is a universal binary that supports both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. Prior editions ran on PowerPC systems and Intel based systems using Rosetta[3].
- Microsoft Works - 4.0 is the last version for Mac.
- StarOffice - Sun's supported version of OpenOffice.org added support for Intel-based Mac OS X systems with StarOffice 9.
Free suites
- KOffice
- NeoOffice — NeoOffice is a Mac-specific free/open-source software development project, to integrating OpenOffice.org with native features of Mac OS X such as Quartz and Aqua, and by so doing giving the suite a more "Mac-like" look and feel.
- OpenOffice.org runs on Mac natively in an Aqua version.
Office suites for Unix/Unix-like operating systems
Proprietary suites
- Evermore Integrated Office — a new Chinese / English / Japanese / French language integrated office suite. Available for Windows / Linux operating systems
- SoftMaker Office 2008
Free suites
- 602Office — a Czech and Slovak commercial version of OpenOffice.org. Contains the 602SQL database program.
- Andrew — an office suite developed by Carnegie Mellon University and named after Andrew Carnegie.
- GNOME Office — includes AbiWord, Gnumeric and GNOME-DB data access components. It is a part of the GNOME environment for the X Window System (on Linux, the BSDs, and other Unix-like operating systems).
- Jambo OpenOffice — a Swahili version of OpenOffice.org.
- KOffice — a free, integrated office suite for KDE.
- MagyarOffice and EuroOffice — Hungarian and European multilingual commercial office suites based on OpenOffice.org
- Siag Office — a free office suite for Unix systems. Primarily written by programmer Ulric Erikkson, with contributions from other authors. Includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and an animation program.
Online office suites
-
Main article: Online office suite
- Google Docs — an AJAX-based online office suite from Google, Inc. The suite includes a word processor, a spreadsheet program, and a presentation editor.
- OpenGoo — an open source, fully featured online office suite. The application can be downloaded and installed on a server.
- ShareOffice — a Web-based office suite from ShareMethods. This suite utilizes separate word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications from other vendors. It is distributed through Salesforce.com's AppExchange program.
- Simdesk — an online office suite from Simdesk Technologies, Inc. This suite offers partial compatibility with the Microsoft Office file formats (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint). With a monthly subscription to Simdesk Services (costing $3.50 – $20 per month), one is allowed to install the application anywhere.
- ThinkFree Office — an office suite written in Java, from ThinkFree, Inc. It includes a word processor (Write), a spreadsheet (Calc), and a presentation program (Show). For Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
- Zoho Office Suite — a free online office suite from AdventNet, Inc. Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, and collaboration groupware.
Comparison of general and technical information
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of office suites. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. The table only includes systems that are widely used and currently available.
General information
| Developer | First public release | Predecessor | Latest Stable version | Operating system | Office Open XML support | OpenDocument support | License | Online capability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ability Office | Ability Plus Software | 1985 | — | 5.00 | Windows | No | Planned for Ability Office 6 | Proprietary | ? |
| AppleWorks | Apple | 1991 | ClarisWorks | 6.2.9 | Mac OS, Mac OS X and Windows | No | No | Proprietary | ? |
| Celframe Office | Celframe | 2006 (Windows) | Celframe Office 2006 Celframe Office Vista - 2007 | Celframe Office 2008 | Windows | Yes | (With several free plugins, Yes native support) | Proprietary | Celframe Office Online - 2009 |
| WordPerfect Office | Corel | 1991 | WordPerfect (1982) | X4 | Windows | Yes | Yes | Proprietary | ? |
| GNOME Office | GNOME Foundation AbiSource |
? | — | 2.4.5/1.6.3/1.9 & 0.62 | Cross-platform | (Gnumeric has limited SpreadsheetML support) | Yes | GPL | ? |
| GobeProductive | Gobe Software | 1998 | — | 3.04 / 2.01 | Windows and BeOS | No | No | Proprietary | ? |
| Google Apps Google Docs |
2006 | — | beta | Cross-platform | No | Yes | Proprietary | Fully online | |
| iWork | Apple | 2005 | AppleWorks[4] | '08 | Mac OS X | (Read-only support) | No | Proprietary | ? |
| Kingsoft Office (WPS Office) |
Kingsoft | 1988 | WPS (word processor) | 2007 | Windows and Linux | Yes | Yes | Proprietary | ? |
| KOffice | KDE Project | 1998 | — | 1.6.3 | BSD, Linux, Solaris (Mac OS X and Windows in KDE 4) | No | Yes | LGPL and GPL | ? |
| Lotus SmartSuite | IBM | 1992[5] | — | 9.8 | Windows and OS/2 | No | No | Proprietary | ? |
| Lotus Symphony | IBM | 2007 | OpenOffice.org | Lotus Symphony 1 | Windows and Linux | No | Yes | Proprietary | ? |
| MarinerPak | Mariner Software | 1996 | — | 10.0 | Mac OS and Mac OS X | No | No | Proprietary | ? |
| Microsoft Office | Microsoft | 1990 (Macintosh), 1992 (Windows) | Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel PowerPoint | 2007 (12.0) (Windows), 2008 (12.1.4) (Macintosh) | Windows and Macintosh | (Office 2007 supports an early draft version of OOXML. Office 14 will support ISO OOXML[6]) | (With several free plugins, Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 will add native support[7]) | Proprietary | Microsoft Office Live |
| Microsoft Works | Microsoft | 1986 | — | (9.0) (Windows), (4.0) (Macintosh) | Windows and Macintosh | Yes | No | Proprietary | ? |
| NeoOffice | Planamesa Software | 2005-06-02 | OpenOffice.org 1.1 for Mac OS X | 2.2.5 | Mac OS X | (Supported since version 2.1) | Yes | GPL | ? |
| OpenOffice.org | OpenOffice.org Organization | October 2001 | StarOffice | 3.0 (all versions require Java runtime environment) |
Cross-platform | (With several free plugins, or partial import support in version 3.0 beta) | Yes | LGPL | yes - with several free extensions |
| ShareOffice | ShareMethods | May 2007 | — | Cross-platform | No | Yes | Proprietary | Fully online | |
| SoftMaker Office | SoftMaker | 1989 | — | 2008 (Windows, Linux, Pocket PC, Windows CE), 2006 (FreeBSD, Handheld PC) |
Linux, PocketPC, FreeBSD, and Windows | No | TextMaker | Proprietary | ? |
| StarOffice | Sun Microsystems | 1995 | StarWriter | 9.0 | Cross-platform | Yes | Yes | Proprietary | yes - with several free extensions |
| StarOffice from Google Pack |
Sun Microsystems | 1995 | StarWriter | 8.0 - Update 10 | Cross-platform | No | Yes | Proprietary | yes - with several free extensions |
| ThinkFree Office | Haansun | 1994 | — | Cross-platform | (Supports OOXML word processing files, support for spreadsheets/ presentation files is planned) | Yes | Proprietary | Fully online | |
| ZCubes | ZCubes Inc. | 2006 | — | 2007 | Cross-platform | No | Yes | Proprietary | Fully online |
| Zoho Office Suite | AdventNet | ? | — | Cross-platform | (Supports OOXML word processing files) | Yes | Proprietary | Fully online | |
| Developer | First public release | Predecessor | Stable version | Operating system | Office Open XML support | OpenDocument Support | License | Online Capability |
Operating system support
The operating systems the office suites were designed to run on without emulation; for the given office suite/OS combination, there are six possibilities:
- No indicates that it does not exist or was never released.
- Partial indicates that while the office suite works, it lacks important functionality compared to versions for other OSs; it is still being developed however.
- Beta indicates that while a version of the office suite is fully functional and has been released, it is still in development (e.g. for stability).
- Yes indicates that the office suite has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
- Dropped indicates that while the office suite works, new versions are no longer being released for the indicated OS; the number in parentheses is the last known stable version which was officially released for that OS.
- Included indicates that the office suite comes pre-packaged as part of or has been integrated into the operating system.
Please note that the list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common operating systems today.
| Office suite | Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ability Office | Windows 98 or later | No | No | No | No |
| AppleWorks | Yes | Dropped (6.2.9) | No | No | No |
| Celframe Office | Windows 98 or later | No | No | No | No |
| GNOME Office | Partial [8] | Partial [9] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gobe Productive | Windows 98 or later | 1Q '08 | 1Q '08 | No | No |
| Google Apps | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) |
| iWork | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Kingsoft Office (WPS Office) | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| KOffice | Partial [10] | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lotus SmartSuite | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Lotus Symphony | Yes | Yes (Lotus Jazz) | Yes | ? | ? |
| MarinerPak | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Office | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Works | Yes | Dropped (4.0; Classic only) | No | No | No |
| NeoOffice | No | Mac OS X v10.3 or above | No | No | No |
| OpenOffice.org | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ShareOffice | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) |
| SoftMaker Office | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| StarOffice | Yes | Yes (Intel only) | Yes | No | Yes |
| ThinkFree Office | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) |
| WordPerfect Office | 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista | No | No | No | No |
| ZCubes | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) |
| Zoho | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) | Yes (fully online) |
| Office suite | Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix |
Main components
Historical
- AppleWorks (previously known as "ClarisWorks") — an early Mac Office suite. It has morphed and branched into AppleWorks and GoBe Productive. When the original developers split up, ClarisWorks continued as AppleWorks after being bought by Apple, and GoBeProductive was redeveloped from the ground up using ideas from the original. Apple discontinued this suite after the release of iWork '08 in August 2007.[15]
- IBM Works — was an office suite for the IBM OS/2 operating system. It included word processing, spreadsheet, database and PIM applications.
- Island Office was available in the 1990s on many Unix platforms. This included Island Write, Draw, Paint, Presents, Calc, Chart, Table and Equation. Island Draw was, at the time, an extremely powerful PostScript editor. The company that created this software was/is called Island Software.
- Lotus Symphony — Following the popularity of office suites made by competitors, the makers of the wildly popular Lotus 123, tried their hand at a suite for Windows. (Name resurrected by IBM in September 2007 as a free OpenOffice based suite)
- Lotus Jazz — Mac sister product to Lotus Symphony.
- LotusWorks — DOS and Windows suite containing a word processor, spreadsheet, database, graphing tools and telecommunications (modem terminal) module.
- Open Access — Integrated software by Software Products International (SPI).
- WindowWorks — Successor to LotusWorks above.
- Xoom Office — Historical but still available on eBay and elsewhere. Produced by the former makers of WordStar.
See also
- List of collaborative software
- List of online spreadsheets
- List of word processors
- Online office suite
- Office Open XML software
- OpenDocument software
- Web desktop
- Web operating system
References
- ^ Online office suite-The winner is clear
- ^ a b NOVELL: SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop: OpenOffice.org
- ^ MacTech Editorial Staff. "Office 2004 Benchmarks on Intel-based Macs", MacTech. Retrieved on 6 April 2008.
- ^ "Apple Unveils iWork ’05". Apple, Inc. (2005-01-11).
- ^ Release date of Lotus SmartSuite from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3563/is_n7_v9/ai_14346979
- ^ No OOXML in Office 2007 service pack
- ^ Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office
- ^ Only Abiword, Gnumeric, GIMP and Inkscape are available for MS Windows.
- ^ Only Abiword is available as a native application. Using X11 one can run GIMP and Inkscape. With X11 and DarwinPorts - also Gnumeric.
- ^ Kexi is available for Windows as a commercial product. A Cygwin port of KDE[1] (which includes KOffice) is in progress although the status of that port is poor. With KOffice 2.0 based on KDE4 native MS Windows and MacOS ports will be available.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Not included in this office suite, but provided in the OS.
- ^ With free Microsoft plugin [2]
- ^ a b c When in WYSIWYG HTML editing mode.
- ^ a b c german only
- ^ Evans, Jonny (2007-08-15). "Apple cans AppleWorks", Macworld UK. Retrieved on 15 August 2007.
External links
- DMOZ / Office Suites
- Comparison of online office suite with reviews and cost
- Free Web-based Office alternatives
Why are we here?
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