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Office suite

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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

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, GNU/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

Office suites for Mac OS X

Proprietary suites

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 No [3] (With several free plugins, native support from version 2008) Proprietary Celframe Office Online - 2009
WordPerfect Office Corel 1991 WordPerfect (1982) X4 Windows (import only) (import only) Proprietary ?
GNOME Office GNOME Foundation
AbiSource 		? — 2.4.5/1.6.3/1.9 & 0.62 Cross-platform (Gnumeric has limited SpreadsheetML support) (Gnumeric has limited ODF support) GPL ?
GobeProductive Gobe Software 1998 — 3.04 / 2.01 Windows and BeOS No No Proprietary ?
Google Apps
Google Docs 		Google 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) 2009 Windows and Linux (Import only, beta support) No 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, Linux and Mac OS X 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 (12.1.5) (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) 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 (Import only) 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

Word processor Spreadsheet Presentation Email Notetaking Flowchart Graphics: raster/vector Image viewer Formula editor Database Project management Desktop publishing Web design Collaboration PDF export
Ability Office Ability Write Ability Spreadsheet Ability Presentation No No Ability Draw Ability Photopaint/ Ability Draw Ability Photoalbum No Ability Database No No No No Yes
AppleWorks Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes
Celframe Office Celframe Write Celframe Spreadsheet Celframe PowerPresentation Celframe Mail Celframe Note Taker Celframe Draw Celframe Studio Celframe Photo Album Celframe Spreadsheet Inbuilt Celframe DataAccess Celframe Project Celframe Publisher Celframe Publishing, Celframe Write Inbuilt Google Docs, plugin in all apps With Adobe Distiller functions
GNOME Office Abiword Gnumeric No Evolution[11] No Dia[11] GIMP/Inkscape[11] F-Spot[11] built into Abiword GNOME-DB Planner[11] No No No No
GobeProductive Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Google Apps Google Docs Google Docs Google Docs Gmail Google Notebook No No Picasa, Picasaweb No No No No Google Page Creator Yes Yes
iWork Pages Numbers Keynote Mail[11] Stickies[11] No No iPhoto and Preview[11] No No No Pages iWeb [11] No Yes
Kingsoft Office (WPS Office) Kingsoft Writer Kingsoft Spreadsheets Kingsoft Presentation No No No No No Equation Editor No No No No No Yes
KOffice Kword KSpread KPresenter Kontact[11] BasKet[11] Kivio, Kugar, Umbrello and KChart Krita/Karbon14 Digikam[11] KFormula Kexi KPlato Kword Quanta+[11] No Yes[11]
Lotus SmartSuite Lotus Word Pro Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus Freelance Graphics No No Lotus Freelance Graphics No No built in Lotus Approach Lotus Organizer No Lotus FastSite Yes No
Lotus Symphony Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No Yes
MarinerPak Mariner Write Mariner Calc No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Microsoft Office Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Entourage Microsoft OneNote Microsoft Visio Microsoft Visio Microsoft Office Picture Manager Equation Editor Microsoft Access Microsoft Project Microsoft Publisher Microsoft SharePoint Designer Microsoft Groove Yes [12]
Microsoft Works Microsoft Works Word Processor Microsoft Works Spreadsheet Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer No No No No No No Microsoft Works Database No No No No ?
NeoOffice NeoOffice Writer NeoOffice Calc NeoOffice Impress No No NeoOffice Draw NeoOffice Draw No NeoOffice Math NeoOffice Base No NeoOffice Draw NeoOffice Writer[13] No Yes
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org Calc OpenOffice.org Impress No No OpenOffice.org Draw OpenOffice.org Draw No OpenOffice.org Math OpenOffice.org Base No OpenOffice.org Draw OpenOffice.org Writer[13] No Yes
ShareOffice iNetOffice EditGrid Preezo No No No No No No No No No No Yes No
SoftMaker Office Textmaker PlanMaker Presentations No No No yes[14] No DataMaker[14] DataMaker[14] No No No No No
StarOffice StarWriter StarCalc StarImpress No No StarDraw StarDraw No StarMath StarBase No StarDraw StarWriter[13] No Yes
WordPerfect Office WordPerfect Quattro Pro Corel Presentations WordPerfect MAIL No Corel Presentations No No Equation Editor Paradox Yes No No No Yes
ZCubes ZText Editor Calci Yes No No ZCharts VML/SVG Editor Yes No ZPlatform Yes No Yes Yes No
Word processor Spreadsheet Presentation Email Notetaking Flowchart Graphics: raster/vector Image viewer Formula Database Project management Desktop publishing Web design Collaboration PDF export

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).
  • Q&A (software) - Featured a database management system, "intelligent assistant", and integrated word processor.
  • WindowWorks — Successor to LotusWorks above.
  • Xoom Office — Historical but still available on eBay and elsewhere. Produced by the former makers of WordStar.

See also

References

  1. ^ Online office suite-The winner is clear
  2. ^ a b NOVELL: SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop: OpenOffice.org
  3. ^ Celframe Office 2008 has no support for Microsoft Office 2007 files [1]
  4. ^ "Apple Unveils iWork '05". Apple, Inc. 2005-01-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessedate= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Release date of Lotus SmartSuite from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3563/is_n7_v9/ai_14346979
  6. ^ No OOXML in Office 2007 service pack
  7. ^ Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office
  8. ^ Only Abiword, Gnumeric, GIMP and Inkscape are available for MS Windows.
  9. ^ Only Abiword is available as a native application. Using X11 one can run GIMP and Inkscape. With X11 and DarwinPorts - also Gnumeric.
  10. ^ Kexi is available for Windows as a commercial product. A Cygwin port of KDE[2] (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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ With free Microsoft plugin [3]
  13. ^ a b c When in WYSIWYG HTML editing mode.
  14. ^ a b c german only
  15. ^ Evans, Jonny (2007-08-15). "Apple cans AppleWorks". Macworld UK. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
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