Thinkfree Office for OS X

Rating:
Summary: Not the best choice ...
Review: I had to purchase this product for OSX while waiting to be able to upgrade my Microsoft Word program. It opened slowly, and much of the formatting I regularly use - including headers, footers, and tables - were lost when I attempted to open the documents. It seems to be a simple upgraded version of Simple Text. If you need something a bit more Word compatible - I'm afraid you'll have to buy Microsoft Word - even a much older version running on Classic 9 does better.

Rating:
Summary: Worst software in 16 years !
Review: It doesn't work. Period.
No response from tech support after 2 inquiries over 10 days.
History: it wouldn't open _any_ of my word doc's: tech support advised re-install. [no-brainer, non-responsive advice] Nontheless, I did this TWICE, and it still wouldn't work. Emailed tech again, twice, still no response after 11-12 days. In other words, there is no tech support.
I got a trial .v of icWord, and it did everything AND it costs less.
[My platform: iBook w/640Mb ram on OS 9.2.]

This is first junk software I've had in 16 yrs as a Mac user. There should be a no-star rating for these guys.

Rating:
Summary: Worst software in 16 years !
Review: It doesn't work. Period.
No response from tech support after 2 inquiries over 10 days.
History: it wouldn't open _any_ of my word doc's: tech support advised re-install. [no-brainer, non-responsive advice] Nontheless, I did this TWICE, and it still wouldn't work. Emailed tech again, twice, still no response after 11-12 days. In other words, there is no tech support.
I got a trial .v of icWord, and it did everything AND it costs less.
[My platform: iBook w/640Mb ram on OS 9.2.]

This is first junk software I've had in 16 yrs as a Mac user. There should be a no-star rating for these guys.

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly inexpensive software with expected limitations
Review: Thinkfree Office is a simple and inexpensive software program that allows you to read and write MS documents without actually owning Microsoft Office.

If you can't afford and/or don't like MS Office, for whatever reason, and you're looking for something that will allow you to access MS created documents and share with others, this product is for you.

Drawbacks: The largest is that Thinkfree Office does not translate everything. It seems to have most trouble with formating and special fonts. However, it always gets the actual text correct. Secondly, it's also on the slow side. And lastly, it's interface doesn't feel Mac friendly. You can definitely see its roots with Microsoft.

I would have to disagree with those who say that the Write module is simply an upgraded version of SimpleText or TextEdit. Write has a menu bar that competes easily with AppleWorks. I was honestly amazed when I saw the features it had given what I paid for the software.

MS Office sells for several hundred dollars and is a RAM and hard drive pig. Thinkfree is an exceptionally inexpensive (especially if you buy it used) alternative that will allow you to access MS documents and create new ones. It has its problems, yes, but if you're getting what you pay for. If you want something that works exactly like Word, Excel or PowerPoint then you'll have to buy MS Office.

Rating:
Summary: A reasonable alternative to Microsoft Office
Review: ThinkFree Office is solid office software with all the features you would expect to see in a professional package. There is a learning curve as things don't all work as you might expect them to, assuming that you are accustomed to Microsoft Office. The thing that can be a real headache is when documents are not 100% compatible - Word does not seem to have much of a problem importing ThinkFree documents but I've had some formatting issues importing MS Office documents. It can be a great solution if you can put your whole office on this product - what you save is well worth the minor issues you'll have and since your co-workers are using it compatibility issues are significantly reduced.

Rating:
Summary: Anything but Micro$oft Office
Review: ThinkFree Office v2.2 for OS X is a very reasonable alternative to M$ Office. There is one bug that emerged with the OS X 10.2.6 update - when opening ThinkFree write, it creates a odd tiny window 1-2 pixels wide. I've found some workarounds that allow the app to function, though; and the e-mail support was excellent.

As others have noted, there are some compatibility issues when importing M$ documents. These can be anywhere from minimal to irritating. The main problem that I've seen relates to the placement of graphics. Calc, the spreadsheet, seems to be the most compatible. I do not use the presentation product, preferring Apple's Keynote instead.

Written in Java, I had some concerns about speed. Running ThinkFree v2.2 on a Mac 9500 with a 400 MHz G4 card and a 9600 with a 500 MHz G4 card was slow. Typing frequently outpaced the character display. On the other hand, running it on my 1.25 GHz G4 DP MDD showed no adverse speed issues.

The bottom line is that this suite works. Among the alternatives to M$ office for OS X, it is probably the best. The other wold be OpenOffice, which is improving, but you have to fuss with an X-window environment and though they state that anti-aliasing of fonts should work in the latest version, I could never get it to work.

It is relatively inexpensive and from my perspective worth a try. I currently use it daily as my productivity suite.

Rating:
Summary: Anything but Micro$oft Office
Review: ThinkFree Office v2.2 for OS X is a very reasonable alternative to M$ Office. There is one bug that emerged with the OS X 10.2.6 update - when opening ThinkFree write, it creates a odd tiny window 1-2 pixels wide. I've found some workarounds that allow the app to function, though; and the e-mail support was excellent.

As others have noted, there are some compatibility issues when importing M$ documents. These can be anywhere from minimal to irritating. The main problem that I've seen relates to the placement of graphics. Calc, the spreadsheet, seems to be the most compatible. I do not use the presentation product, preferring Apple's Keynote instead.

Written in Java, I had some concerns about speed. Running ThinkFree v2.2 on a Mac 9500 with a 400 MHz G4 card and a 9600 with a 500 MHz G4 card was slow. Typing frequently outpaced the character display. On the other hand, running it on my 1.25 GHz G4 DP MDD showed no adverse speed issues.

The bottom line is that this suite works. Among the alternatives to M$ office for OS X, it is probably the best. The other wold be OpenOffice, which is improving, but you have to fuss with an X-window environment and though they state that anti-aliasing of fonts should work in the latest version, I could never get it to work.

It is relatively inexpensive and from my perspective worth a try. I currently use it daily as my productivity suite.

Rating:
Summary: Piece of junk ...
Review: What a piece of junk! It's slow to load and it misses many basic conversions when opening Word documents. The PowerPoint function borders on useless. I also cannot get my version to print. A similarly priced downloadable word processor for Mac OSX, Mellel, is far superior. It even does a better job of opening Word documents, and it doesn't advertise that function as a major feature, the way Thinkfree does.