Microsoft Office remains top of the stack of office suites A Microsoft Office 2016 Preview:Smart and Subtle Changes A Microsoft Office 2016 Preview:Smart and Subtle Changes Office 2016 for Mac has just been released and the Windows version will follow in the fall. We show you the new look and features of the world's most popular productivity suite. Will you update? Read more . It is a difficult giant to change for several reasons. However, there are challengers to the crown. Depending on your requirements, your office alternative may be free Is OpenOffice shutting down? 4 Great Free Office Suite Alternatives Is OpenOffice Shutting Down? 4 Great Free Office Suite Alternatives OpenOffice is no longer a free Microsoft Office alternative you can count on. We've compiled the four best options for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Read More Try FreeOffice 2016 Need an alternative to Microsoft Word and Office? Try FreeOffice 2016 Microsoft Office is the most advanced office suite on the planet. But why shell out money when you can use a free alternative that still offers everything you need? FreeOffice 2016 could be suitable for… Read more .
OnlyOffice ticks some of the boxes mentioned above. It's free, it's open source and cross-platform, and it's relatively feature-rich. Let's take a look at OnlyOffice and see if it fits your office suite requirements.
OnlyOffice is a complete office suite. The suite, formerly known as TeamLab Office, offers users an integrated platform with a core of document editors. OnlyOffice features document, spreadsheet, and presentation editors, sort of between Google Docs and recent versions of OpenOffice. In that, OnlyOffice's aesthetic is clean, clutter-free, but it can feel a bit dated compared to Microsoft Office 2016 13+ Reasons Why You Should Upgrade To Microsoft Office 2016 13+ Reasons Why You Should Upgrade To Microsoft Office 2016 Microsoft Office 2016 is here and it's time for you to make a decision. The productivity question is:should I upgrade? We give you the new features and the new reasons to help you ... Read more .
OnlyOffice expands at its core with third-party plugins like templates, integrated YouTube video embed, and even a handy chess game. 10 creative ways to supercharge your chess training. 10 creative ways to supercharge your chess training. You practice on many daunting games, so let's look at some of the ways you can bring fun and creativity to your chess training. Read more . You'll find third-party plugins on the OnlyOffice Github, and there's a handy video below that details how to install them.
Microsoft Office dominates the office suite market. As such, competitors must ensure that their software supports the full range of Microsoft Office document formats. 9 Weird Office File Formats You Should Know About 9 Weird Office File Formats You Should Know About Have you ever come across weird file formats in your office suite? We'll give you a quick introduction to the unusual but useful Office file types and what you can use them for. Read more . OnlyOffice works with many of the most popular office formats including DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT, PDF, HTML, EPUB, XPS, DjVu, XLS, XLSX, ODS, CSV, PPT, PPTX, ODP.
OnlyOffice uses a tabbed document system 3 Tools to Add Tabbed Browsing to Windows Explorer 3 Tools to Add Tabbed Browsing to Windows Explorer Tabbed browsing is a feature that I first came across 10 years ago in the version previous Firefox, Firebird. Since then, tabs have appeared in almost every field related to user interfaces. They make it easy... Read More This means you can edit multiple types of documents from a single window.
While it's not a groundbreaking feature, it's certainly nice not having to scroll between multiple editors to find a specific document. On the contrary, that offset also helps to keep the documents separate, so it depends on your personal preferences.
OnlyOffice is free, but what do you get? What makes it worth changing?
OnlyOffice's document editor is a nice working environment. The flat, black, white and gray workspace offers little distraction. In addition to this, I found the toolbar to be extremely easy to navigate, featuring all the tools expected in a document editor.
Document Editor also comes with a number of pre-installed themes so you can quickly customize your document How to Customize Microsoft Word Design Settings How to Customize Microsoft Word Design Settings Microsoft Office comes with many useful templates, styles, and themes. We'll show you all the settings you need to create your own custom layout in Word 2013 and Word 2016. Read More
OnlyOffice Spreadsheet faces a tough opponent. Microsoft Excel is still an excellent piece of software. That said, the spreadsheet editor works fine. It has a wide range of pre-programmed functions that appear easily as you type. Similarly, there are many charts and chart styles to choose from How to Create Powerful Charts and Charts in Microsoft Excel How to Create Powerful Charts and Charts in Microsoft Excel A good chart can make the difference between getting your point across or letting everyone down. asleep. We show you how to create powerful charts in Microsoft Excel that engage and inform your audience. Read More
Advanced Excel users may find the now built-in Excel power tools missing. How to visualize your data analysis with Excel power tools. How to visualize your data analysis with Excel power tools. Excel is killing it with its advanced data management features. Once you've used one of the new tools, you'll want them all. Become a master of your data analysis with power tools! Read more frustrating. To that end, OnlyOffice Spreadsheet caters to a slightly more casual user base. But it will be a great tool if you are part of that demographic.
OnlyOffice Presentation offers a robust slideshow experience. Similar in scope to OnlyOffice Spreadsheet, advanced users of Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 10 Tips to Make Better PowerPoint Presentations with Office 2016 10 Tips to Improve PowerPoint Presentations with Office 2016 Microsoft PowerPoint continues to set new standards. The new features of PowerPoint 2016 show its top spot as the best choice for smart and creative presentations. Read More However, the presentation has absolutely all the tools to make a great presentation. It is a more than competent replacement for PowerPoint.
The presentation includes a number of default slideshow themes, the ability to switch between standard and widescreen slides, and all the standard presentation tools you'd expect. 10 Tips for Using PowerPoint Online 10 Tips for Using PowerPoint Online You can easily collaborate in real life. Time with PowerPoint Online. Bring your PowerPoint experience to the web browser with these tips for better presentations. Read more:times, awkward effects and fades.
Indeed there is!
OnlyOffice offers a free community server. This is a free open source system that you can install on your server. The OnlyOffice community server dramatically increases the functionality of the office suite. Instead of just an editor for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, you'll have access to:
Incredibly, that's not all that's on offer. OnlyOffice community server, document server and mail server can be found here.
There are a number of little things that count against OnlyOffice. For example, merge formatting during a copy and paste. It just doesn't happen. In that sense, OnlyOffice remains rooted in its past in the online document editor. Another example is keeping times. This review was written in OnlyOffice and is only 1,000 words long, but the time it takes to save my document is extensive. There is also a distinct lack of advanced options, related to my first issue.
Confusingly, OnlyOffice's window size cannot be reduced below 800 pixels wide. Similarly, the height can only be reduced to 600 pixels. While working on a single 24-inch monitor, I prefer my document editor to sit in the corner, relatively small, in a much larger browser window. Style presets disappear from the window at that size, with no button to scroll through the toolbar to find them. I thought I was going crazy, but I found the same restrictions on my laptop.
These are just minor complaints. Maybe I'm being annoying? However, they impressed me during my test.
OnlyOffice gets an Aye from me. Despite the small list of complaints, OnlyOffice offers a robust, community server-powered office suite experience. OnlyOffice desktop client is completely free and available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
As with most Microsoft Office alternatives, don't buy Office 2016! Here's why you don't need it Don't buy Office 2016! Why don't you need it? Should you buy the standalone suite version of Office 2016? We make our case for why we think you shouldn't and show you what you can do instead. Read More Some aspects will be a perfect fit for you and/or your team, while the lack of certain tools will be a game changer for others. However, it's worth a look.
What is your office suite of choice? Do you stay with Microsoft? Or are the free alternatives now simply too good to ignore? Let us know your thoughts below!
