Softmaker Office 2016 released

[tomos]

Just a heads up that Softmaker Office 2016 has been released.
http://www.softmaker.com/english/index_en.htm

I havent upgraded myself yet, so not sure what changes.
Also, pricing appears to be different for German locations, so not sure what pricing you will see - probably 89.95 $/€ full price; 59.95 upgrade price (?)

Note:

• 1) there appears to be only the Pro version now
• 2) there's one upgrade price for all (even from free versions)
• 3) they have moved from eMclient to Thunderbird for email

Overview:
http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofw_en.htm

Features
http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofwfeat_en.htm

Looks good to me, I will be upgrading at some stage in the near future.

[tomos]

Softmaker Standard *will* also be released in the near future.

See this thread page for discussion of Softmaker Office pricing etc.:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=40165.25

[4wd]

Considering that the only difference between Standard and Professional in the previous version was four dictionaries and an email client, (which is now essentially a free program included in the suite), you have to wonder how crippled a Standard version will be that would make the creation of it viable.

[TaoPhoenix]

Considering that the only difference between Standard and Professional in the previous version was four dictionaries and an email client, (which is now essentially a free program included in the suite), you have to wonder how crippled a Standard version will be that would make the creation of it viable.

Going slightly sideways on the topic, I always thought that the best diff split between "standard" and "Pro" was/were a few narrow but insanely useful features, which do chew up dev time to make them usable. I've only come across a few programs like that, but the balance does exist.

[tomos]

Considering that the only difference between Standard and Professional in the previous version was four dictionaries and an email client, (which is now essentially a free program included in the suite), you have to wonder how crippled a Standard version will be that would make the creation of it viable.

I was wondering how they would approach the Pro/Standard 'situation'.
I cant see them crippling the standard version - I reckon that would be shooting themselves in the foot; yet the Pro version isnt currently offering much more... May be why they just offered the Pro version initially, in the hopes that people would go for it. We shall see...

[Curt]

I have always felt it weird that Ashampoo could offer their version at merely a fraction of SoftMaker's original price. MAYBE (and I am totally guessing here) maybe there will be no SoftMaker Standard, but Ashampoo?

[tomos]

OK
Softmaker 2016 'Standard' has been released.

The only difference between the two is that 'SoftMaker Office Professional adds four high-quality Berlitz dictionaries for translations from/to English, Spanish, French, Italian and German – a great resource when you need to create foreign-language documents.'

Prices are same in US$ or Euro:
Standard is 60 full-price, and 40 upgrade
Pro is 90 & 60

The full price of Pro is 10$/€ more in Germany - I dont know exactly why (possibly because the Pro features are more aimed at German language use).

[4wd]

I think they can count me out as a potential upgrader, (at least until I find a really good discount somewhere), since for me there just isn't the necessity for four dictionaries I'd never use and an email client I already have.

FWIW, you can also get the upgrade price if you download the FreeOffice version and upgrade from that - avoids some of the sticker shock if you're a new user.

[superboyac]

Can someone help me figure out what kind of users prefer softmaker office?  I've always wondered...those who use MS office are not really going to use it.  And those who don't want to pay seem content with using the free stuff or google docs.  So which users like softmaker?  thanks

[tomos]

Can someone help me figure out what kind of users prefer softmaker office?  I've always wondered...those who use MS office are not really going to use it.  And those who don't want to pay seem content with using the free stuff or google docs.  So which users like softmaker?  thanks

I like it for two reasons:

• files created with Softmaker (Textmaker & Planmaker anyways) are very compatible with Microsoft Office - also works well in the other direction. I like and occasionally use Libre Office, but it is well behind in this category.
• forum support is good - I have gotten a lot of help there (especially with spreadsheet formulas). They seem to have implemented a few requests of mine in the new version (but I havent upgraded/tested properly yet).

I'd add to that: for commercial use it's good value imo.

[Jibz]

Can someone help me figure out what kind of users prefer softmaker office?  I've always wondered...those who use MS office are not really going to use it.  And those who don't want to pay seem content with using the free stuff or google docs.  So which users like softmaker?  thanks

I started using it because I had an old computer at the time, and the difference in install size and speed between SoftMaker and MS Office was huge. The difference in price was a nice bonus.

I don't know how much MS Office takes up today, but I can see the system requirements page lists 3 GB of HDD space. My SoftMaker install is 79 MB.

My experiences with the OpenOffice (and derived) suites were also from that machine, and back when they used more Java internally. They were so slow they were almost unusable.

[4wd]

And you can install SMO to a flash drive for portability, which I found very useful.

[cyberdiva]

Can someone help me figure out what kind of users prefer softmaker office?  I've always wondered...those who use MS office are not really going to use it.  And those who don't want to pay seem content with using the free stuff or google docs.  So which users like softmaker?  thanks

I've been happily using SoftMaker Office for several years.  I started with a free version that they offered after a newer version came out.  I then was able to upgrade to the newer version for very little money.  And I went on from there.  I paid for the 2012 update and will probably do so for the 2016 update as well (the Standard version in both cases). 

I like SoftMaker office because it can read and edit files people send me in MS Office, and MS Office can read and edit files I've created in SoftMaker (I'm talking primarily about TextMaker/Word, but also PlanMaker/Excel, which I use much less often).  SoftMaker also has a smaller footprint, and I have found its support forums quite helpful. 

[Josh]

Am I the only one getting annoyed with the labeling of products as "2016 edition" well before 2016 (even the fiscal year) even arrives? The car industry is notorious for this, but it appears to be hitting the software world too. Is there some psychological aspect to make people think "Wow, they released the 2016 edition in the middle of 2015, this must be that much better!"

</rant>

[TaoPhoenix]

Am I the only one getting annoyed with the labeling of products as "2016 edition" well before 2016 (even the fiscal year) even arrives? The car industry is notorious for this, but it appears to be hitting the software world too. Is there some psychological aspect to make people think "Wow, they released the 2016 edition in the middle of 2015, this must be that much better!"

</rant>

Something like that, and also stuff like "well, there were pretty big changes between 2003 edition and 2010 edition, now we just changed the dictionaries, so let's call it 2016!" It's like a bit of desperate cheap psychology when a manager suddenly notices a revenue stream is drying up!

[tomos]

^in fairness, apart from any changes, you're also paying for multiple service packs over the next few years. But yeah, it is the problem as described above (how to get revenue).

[TaoPhoenix]

^in fairness, apart from any changes, you're also paying for multiple service packs over the next few years. But yeah, it is the problem as described above (how to get revenue).

The problem here for me is that it's drifting over into abusing truth-in-advertising. "____ Edition" to me, means a fairly big package, full of stuff, and yes, it happens to update the support.

I don't buy "new edition, same as the old edition, because it has new service packs". If it were called "bundle of 3 years of service packs", it wouldn't look as flashy now would it?

Revenue aside/sideways, it's also abusing the much older tech culture where we wanted to be on the cutting edge with betas, new editions, new features/tech/stuff. Now if we turn to a typical smart analyst we trust to vet it for us, and the report comes back "bleh, 2010 version is fine, this just adds Belgian language support", some of us who don't need the bleeding-with-a-razor-burn edition can just go our way satisfied that we have all the core features that matter.

[tomos]

^ yeah, I'd say 2012 version is fine (2010 not). Having used it a fair bit though, I'm looking forward to minor changes in 2016 UI (some of which I requested).

TBH, it's mostly UI changes that interest me in upgrades - more often then not the new features are thing I dont use. (This applies to almost all the software I use.)

I still think you're being harsh on Softmaker in particular - as said, this is a problem for all software developers. I'm happy to pay for that "bundle of 3 years of service packs" - no matter how it's dressed up. And let's be honest, no software markets those three years of updates, but many do just that - and much of it very good software (Syncovery comes to mind). The other option is subscription which I dont want. Or free e.g. Libre Office, which, while good, is not up to the compatibility standards I need.

[TaoPhoenix]

...
I still think you're being harsh on Softmaker in particular - as said, this is a problem for all software developers. I'm happy to pay for that "bundle of 3 years of service packs" - no matter how it's dressed up. And let's be honest, no software markets those three years of updates, but many do just that - and much of it very good software (Syncovery comes to mind). The other option is subscription which I dont want. Or free e.g. Libre Office, which, while good, is not up to the compatibility standards I need.

Well, it's a Softmaker thread so there's always the tug between specific and general.

"Epochal" software is only X % of the mix - the others are varying stages of in between. Certainly I am pondering the same overall theme across the sweep of software, office and not. And I'm certainly no Softmaker expert - I know almost nothing about it, except a quick glance a while back. And I'll take your word for "which year means what". "2010" came in fact from my experience of Microsoft Office 2010, which to me felt like a solid jump up from 2003 / via-tangentially  2007 / when they made it so you could custom design ribbons down to the micro-function almost anywhere in the program. So, to me, as a "way station", it felt to me like one of the "stopping points" that would have been "enough" over 2003, and then park there again. It also felt like a waystation before all the "cloud/saas/other" experiments began to go on there.

That's my overall strategy for upgrades - every X one has something new and powerful, and the kicker point is often the upgrade prices between two versions are more "mechanically" determined, making one upgrade the good value, the other only medium.

[tomos]

Softmaker have uploaded a couple of reviews:

c't 15/2015 »Summary: "SoftMaker Office 2016 convinces with sheer speed and compatibility with Microsoft Office." About TextMaker: "Exchanging documents in Word format works much better in TextMaker than in OpenOffice Writer. TextMaker renders all formatting, including the page layout, true to the original. Plus, TextMaker 2016 now also displays SmartArt graphics from Word 2007 and higher." About PlanMaker: "Especially the introduction of pivot tables makes PlanMaker an interesting proposition for companies. Thanks to the improved conditional formatting, worksheets with huge columns of figures can now be formatted as clearly as in Excel." About Presentations: "The new magic guides make it much easier to automatically align text frames, picture frames etc. exactly to other objects. The objects snap automatically to the magic guide."

Tom's Networking Guide » In our tests, SoftMaker Office 2016 ran with breathtaking speed. Compatibility with Microsoft Office was very good – something that free applications such as OpenOffice cannot deliver at this level. SoftMaker Office 2016 is the perfect alternative office suite if you value comprehensive technical support. This is an important issue when you use an office suite in your job, but especially if you deploy the software in corporate networks. Here, reliability and service play a pivotal role for network administrators. The price-performance ratio of SoftMaker Office 2016 is excellent.

[tomos]

They're offering 20% off at the moment - it's unclear, but I think it's until midnight tonight CET - which means only for the next hour and a half...

http://shop.softmaker.com/shop/shop.php?lang=en

EDIT// went for the standard version upgrade for 32€ -- not sure what the US dollar cost is for the upgrade.
It's also unclear if you need a key for a previous version for the upgrade - I logged in before buying so they know I have a key for the 2012 version. Yet they offer the upgrade price from the free version of Softmaker -- not sure how that works...

[tomos]

Owners of 2012 should have gotten an email with upgrade price of 20 euros which prices includes vat/sales-tax -- no idea what the US$ offer is.

What makes it more interesting is that they are offering a free copy of Macro Express with an upgrade purchase.
Note: it's not clear what the licencing terms for Macro Express are. And I'm not sure of its development status (forum is there, and it supports win 10, so alive at any rate)

EDIT//
I guess it's okay (?) to post the code for the upgrade offer:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

o12to16

Shop link is:
https://shop.softmaker.com/shop/shop.php
(Macro Express is currently being offered with any purchase)