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Free software suite for the office that comes packed with the essentials

Free software suite for the office that comes packed with the essentials

Vote: (90 votes)

Program license: Trial version

Developer: Kingsoft Office

Version: 2013 9.1.0.4060

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(90 votes)

Trial version

Developer

Version

Kingsoft Office

2013 9.1.0.4060

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Fast and lightweight
  • Works with many different file formats
  • Opens documents created on other OS platforms

Cons

  • Spell checker might not catch grammatical errors
  • Presentation tool is somewhat limited

Kingsoft Office Suite is an alternative office application that works with many of the same file formats you'd expect from a more completely product. It includes a variety of tools that are designed to work like full-sized office apps without slowing you down. Content creators and students may find that Kingsoft's suite is quite a bit snappier than what they're used to working with.

In spite of the fact that it's designed to be as lightweight as possible, Kingsoft Office has a few features that are really surprising. For instance, users are only ever a click away from a built-in PDF converter that can turn a user-created file into a professional-looking document. PDF files authored with Kingsoft Office should work with any modern PDF reader, which helps to improve interoperability between devices.

Those who find themselves doing any kind of serious writing will appreciate the automatic spell check feature. It points out misspelled words while users are typing, so they won't have to go back and correct them later.

Perhaps the most unusual facet of the software is the included tabbed document bar. This gives you the freedom to load a virtually unlimited number of documents and then scroll through them just like they were tabs in a web browser or file manager. If you've ever had to work on more than one file at once, then you can probably imagine just how useful this feature can be.

Computers with relatively poor hardware specs should still be able to run the lightweight Kingsoft Suite without any trouble. Users who find that the software still isn't snappy enough can turn off the print preview window and the side rulers to save a little more RAM. Even those who are dealing with low RAM errors or a slow CPU can still take advantage of built-in support for document encryption and other advanced features. These were designed to work with older machines and they use highly optimized algorithms to help reduce overhead.

That being said, there's no reason that you couldn't run the Kingsoft Office Suite on powerful modern hardware. It'll absolutely shine in this kind of environment, and its comparatively low hard disk footprint will leave you with more space to store documents you create. Users can push a button to add blank documents to any project they might be working on. While it's small presentation tool can't compete with many commercial grade applications, it still enables you to create slideshows that look like they were made by a professional.

If you collaborate on projects with other people who use a variety of solutions, then Kingsoft has you covered. It can both DOC and DOCX files created with both Windows and Macintosh computers. It has an integrated spreadsheet tool that works with CSV, XLS and XLSX files. There's even an integrated HTML designer, so you could theoretically use it to author web pages.

Most importantly, Kingsoft Office Suite can save your work as plain or rich text. Almost every device can load a plain text document, and the office suite is capable of editing files created by GNU/Linux-based applications. That gives you even more freedom to exchange files with people who work with other operating systems.

No matter what kind of document you're using, Kingsoft Office Suite will allow you to use any typeface you have loaded on your computer inside of it. That means you could customize spreadsheets or business correspondence with something more than just the fonts that came with your computer. Since it offers a genuine WYSIWYG interface, you might even be surprised just how good those default typefaces look. It even supports font rounding, so documents made with Kingsoft should appear on screen the same way they would have if they were printed.

Pros

  • Fast and lightweight
  • Works with many different file formats
  • Opens documents created on other OS platforms

Cons

  • Spell checker might not catch grammatical errors
  • Presentation tool is somewhat limited