Softmaker FreeOffice 2021 now available

[fox]

This is a Microsoft Office equivalent which sometimes does a better job at retaining MS software formats than LibreOffice. The app is updated from the 2018 version. You can read about it and download it from here.

[ssfc72]

Thanks Fox for the info about the latest FreeOffice software.  I have made use of it in the past to render an MS document correctly, that LibreOffice did not.

[Jason]

Interesting. Thanks for letting us know, Fox. Have you had a chance to try it?

Thanks for our input, too, Fleming (okay to you call you that, B. to preserve your anonymity?).

I don't create Microsoft documents very often but once when I did, it was for a syllabus for a course and my boss said that it had streaks in it. Of course, she had sent it to me in DOC format, I had changed it in LibreOffice (and saved it that way), then exported it to her in DOC format. So maybe something got lost in translation. It wasn't that complicated but it did have a table in it with a lot of entries. It broke down the course into each lesson. I can't remember if I opened the DOC format in LibreOffice to see what it looked like there before I sent it to her. I probably should have just sent her a PDF since she didn't really need to edit it.

What issue did you have outputting it, Fleming?

[ssfc72]

I think the issue was the MS doc that someone created had a header portion at the top of the page, that included text on a coloured backgound and perhaps a grahic/image file.
this info was completely not showing or missing when viewed with Open/Libreoffice.

[Jason]

I think the issue was the MS doc that someone created had a header portion at the top of the page, that included text on a coloured backgound and perhaps a grahic/image file.
this info was completely not showing or missing when viewed with Open/Libreoffice.

Curious. It could have been some fancy MS Office feature. They used to have a feature that did fancy things with text and maybe still do.