If anyone is looking for a change in their word processing or office suite software, and might also like a pretty darned good graphics package, SoftMaker has a deal going on to get their professional office suite bundled with Corel PaintShop Pro 2021 for a very attractive price. https://www.softmaker.com/en/softmaker-office-promotion You can choose either a one-time ("perpetual") purchase for $39.95, or a subscription for $29.95 for the first year. Personally, I don't like the subscription model so I just bought the perpetual license. I have been using the freeware version, FreeOffice 2018, for more than a year alongside Word 2003, Word 2016, and LibreOffice. SoftMaker Office isn't perfect, but I know people who use the free version as their only office suite, and it's as good as the others -- and better in some respects. The extra features that come in the paid version weren't enough by themselves to make me buy the paid version, but when they threw PaintShop Pro into the bundle, I was hooked. I've already found things I can do with it that I can't do with Microsoft paint or Gimp. The license for SoftMaker Office allows you to install it on up to five computers in one family. The license for PaintShop Pro is good for two computers belonging to one person, but you can only use one copy at a time. If you might be interested, it appears the deal expires on Sunday. Disclaimer: I have nothing to disclaim. My only affiliation with SoftMaker is as a prior user of their FreeOffice suite, and a purchaser of their MegaFONTS Now font collection.
I would agree that SoftMaker Office is an unrecognized gem. SoftMaker is from Germany, which may help explain it, but the program comes to those of us in the U.S. in English, there is a downloadable user manual in English, and their support forum is English-only. It's also cross platform -- the version in this offer is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. There is also an Android version (which is not part of this offer but which is in the Google Play Store). One unique feature is that SoftMaker Office offers a choice of user interface. Those troglodytes like me who prefer a "classic" menu structure can have that, while those who like the newer, ribbon interface introduced by Microsoft with Office 2007 can have that. The word processor (TextMaker) exports directly to EPUB. I have mentioned in a thread on EPUB conversions that I find SoftMaker's conversion to be better than Libre Office, and infinitely better than Microsoft's stand-alone EPUB converter. Yes, I know I sound like a shill for SoftMaker. I'm not. I'm just very impressed with their products. (I also bought their PDF reader/editor. It doesn't completely replace Adobe Acrobat, but it's pretty good.)
