BEST SOFTWARE REVIEWS
BEST OFFICE APPS SUITES
Whether we like it or not, Microsoft Office is by far the best office apps suite out there. I am talking about Office 365, of course, which was recently renamed to Microsoft 365, because it includes many more features besides the famous Office apps we all love or hate.
Your $100/year subscription will allow you to install the applications on several devices, including smartphones, tablets, etc. Additionally, you will get 1 TB of cloud storage space, 60 Skype minutes per month, free tech support, and more. And let's not forget that unlike the desktop suite, Office apps get updated regularly, receiving powerful new features.
The good news is that you can use MS' Web-based office apps without paying a dime by clicking this link and creating a free account, in case you don't have one already. You won't get access to all the features, but you'll get free access to powerful office software that can get the job done.
Well, you've probably guessed by now that I am an Office 365 fan. However, this does not mean that I want to convert all my faithful readers to Microsoft's ecosystem. There are lots of Office suites out there, and the ones below are among the best.
The search engine giant has provided an online-based office package for quite some time now. And it's not just about docs, of course; Google's suite also includes applications that can create slides, sheets, forms, and more. I wasn't a fan of the old user interface (frankly, it was quite ugly) but Google has recently redesigned the UI, and Gmail has gotten a new tab which includes the Meet, Chat, Docs and Rooms apps. Add to that the already existing Calendar, Google Plus and Drive integrations, and you've got access to an impressive office productivity suite, which contains powerful apps that can exchange data flawlessly, on any of your Android-based mobile devices.
If you choose to use Google's office apps, you will be able to create, save and share your files online, without installing anything on your computer or mobile device. If your device's limited storage space is an issue, or if you need to work and/or collaborate with others remotely, Google's offer is definitely an attractive option.
This office apps suite includes a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet editor (Calc), a presentation maker (Impress), a drawing application (Draw), a database maker (Base), a formula editor (Math) and a powerful chart maker (Charts).
Libre Office is the successor of OpenOffice, a 100% free, open source package. It is compatible with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher, but it provides support for the Open Document Format (ODF) standard as well.
The package can be improved even further by installing a set of powerful extensions, which can be downloaded from here. You can get access to a clipboard extension which stores and displays various images, graphics, text, shapes, etc. at the same time, install the AddPics extension to create a fully editable document using scanned images, and so on. There are several hundreds of extensions at the moment, and their number grows each month.
If you prefer to use an office suite which has a user interface that's strikingly similar to Microsoft's products, WPS Office is the best option by far. Furthermore, this is one of the very few products that runs on Mac computers, PCs, Linux machines, Android and iOS-based mobile devices.
WPS Office includes the Presentation, Writer, Spreadsheets and PDF apps, being compatible with Google Docs and Microsoft Office. And yes, "PDF" can edit and convert Adobe PDF files, which is a great plus.
This office suite includes OCR features, file repair tools, and gives its users 1 GB of free, cloud-based storage space. Also, the lightweight installation package makes the apps run really fast; therefore, it is not a surprise that over 600 million people worldwide choose WPS Office.
