Ashampoo Office 2008 3.10

Ashampoo Office 2005 is an office suite with just two applications: a word editor called TextMaker, and a spreadsheet editor called PlanMaker. Textmaker looks like a combination between the Windows Wordpad application, and Microsoft Word. It has all the functionality required to edit any kind of documents, and can save using either a proprietary format (TMD), or using text, RTF, Word 95, 97, 2000, or XP formats. PlanMaker can edit spreadsheets created in Excel, and it features advanced functions (though not so many as Microsoft Excel), which help you get your job done.

The main characteristic of this software is that it's easy to use. If you are familiar with Microsoft Office, you should have no problem getting used to this software. PlanMaker's and TextMaker's menus are very similar to those of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. However, the publisher introduced easy access to some features, which are harder to use in the Microsoft Office suite. For example, it's very easy to insert footnotes, smart text, and so on.

If you never felt comfortable configuring Microsoft Office, you'll be surprised how easy it is to customize the look, feel, and functions of Ashampoo Office. The configuration dialogs are easy to understand, even if you are not familiar with this software.

Pluses: TextMaker features spell checking, a function for creating table of contents easily, and mail-merge capability. You use mail merge when you want to create a set of documents that are essentially the same but where each document contains unique elements. For example you could easily create invitations for a birthday, each one with a different name on it.

Drawbacks / flaws: Sometimes the documents saved by TextMaker look different in Microsoft Office. I tried to add shading to a line of text in my document, and I saved it using Office 2000/XP format. When I opened the document in Microsoft Word Viewer, the shaded line wasn't displayed correctly.

In conclusion: Ashampoo Office 2005 is a valid alternative for the Microsoft Office suite.

version reviewed: 2005