I have often wondered why so many companies and individuals continue to pay big bucks for Microsoft Office when there are a number of outstanding free alternatives to choose from.
I haven’t owned a current version of either Microsoft Word or Excel for over a decade, and the free software on my PC can read and write those files just fine.
I have used Apache OpenOffice for some time and highly recommend it, but I recently downloaded and began testing Kingsoft Office. So far I find myself very impressed. Here’s why:
First of all, Kingsoft’s user interface is more like the one in Microsoft Office than any other Office “clone” I have ever used. Microsoft users will feel right at home.
Second, Kingsoft can open virtually all of the file types that Microsoft Office can open, offering all the compatibility one needs in order to facilitate file/work sharing.
It’s still too early to tell whether I’ll ditch OpenOffice for Kingsoft Office, but unless I run into a major glitch it’s a fair bet that I will. Well, actually there is one glitch that I need to mention. There are only three modules available in Kingsoft Office:
1 – Kingsoft Writer (An excellent MS Word clone)
2 – Kingsoft Presentation (PowerPoint)
3 – Kingsoft Spreadsheets (Excel)
That being said, each of the three modules mentioned above work extremely well and are easy for a Microsoft veteran to get used to. Countless users never use anything besides Word and Excel anyway, so switching to Kingsoft should be rather easy and painless.
A huge bonus is Kingsoft’s free Mobile Office app that allows you to work with Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents right on your Android device (an iOS version is on the way).
Bottom line: If you’re tired of handing over big bucks to Microsoft every time they decide you need an “upgrade”, why not give Kingsoft Office a try? You can learn more about Kingsoft Office and download it for free at www.kingsoftstore.com.
If you think your friends would like this post, I’d love you to share it! Thanks a bunch!