A new version of the free Office suite FreeOffice 2018 by SoftMaker called the Anniversary Update is now available for all supported desktop operating systems.

FreeOffice 2018 by German company SoftMaker is a free Office suite that includes the word processor TextMaker, the spreadsheet application PlanMaker, and the presentation software Presentations.

The updated version is already available for Windows, Mac and Linux desktop systems. The Windows version is compatible with Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows as well as Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer, the Mac Os X version requires at least version 10.10, and the Linux version runs on pretty much any Linux distribution.

FreeOffice 2018

The Windows version has a size of about 116 Megabytes when downloaded to the system. The installer holds no surprises and you may install any of the three included applications or all of them using the installer.

Users who dislike ribbons have reason to rejoice; FreeOffice displays a prompt on first start that lists alternative display options for the toolbars. Options include a traditional menu bar or a touch-optimized interface.

The programs are fully compatible with Microsoft Office formats. You can load doc, docx, xlsx, or pptx files into the FreeOffice applications to read, change, and save them.

One of the changes of the new version of the Office suite is improved compatibility with Microsoft Office. The new version is fully compatible with Microsoft Office 2019, the latest version of Microsoft's Office suite.

The new version features numerous improvements over previous versions. Menu users get a redesigned interface that improves accessibility, and all users may use new keyboard shortcuts, e.g. to copy and apply formatting by using Ctrl-Shift-C and Ctrl-Shift-V, or to promote or demote paragraphs using Shift-Ctrl-Left or Shift-Ctrl-Right.

Another new option is the ability to drop any Unicode character on Windows using the keyboard shortcut Alt+nnnn (nnnn is a number, e.g. Alt-8364 to type the Euro sign.

Other new features include an overhauled database module in TextMaker that improves working with CSV files or 50 new computation functions in PlanMaker.

Mac and Linux: Support for TrueType Collections.

All: Option to print selected text.

Mac: Support for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese text.

All: French typographic rules support.

All: Polish user interface is available.

All: Better Smart Quotes support in German.

All: A click on the language name in the status bar lets you change the language of the text.

All: double-click on fields to edit them right away.

All: Field functions "Page count in chapter" and "Actual page count in chapter" added to Insert|Field.

All: RTF Export saves paper tray settings.

All: Improved automatic capitalization.

All: Planmaker Supports Precision as displayed option

All: Planmaker Option to insert copied cells.

All: Planmaker Improved AutoFilter function

You can check out the entire changelog here.

Closing Words

FreeOffice is a well designed Office suite that does not have to hide behind favorites such as LibreOffice. Users who need a text editor, spreadsheet application, and presentation software might want to give it a try as it delivers exactly that.

Commercial versions are available that extend the functionality.

Now You: Which Office application do you use, and why?

Summary Author Rating 5 based on 4 votes Software Name FreeOffice 2018 Operating System Windows Software Category Office Landing Page https://www.freeoffice.com/en/

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