Efficient Word Processing for Linux

[Suramya]

Not posting a question for a change.

I was looking for a wordprocesser for Linux and stumbled across 'TextMaker for Linux'.

It is a really cool software that reads and writes Microsoft Word 6/95/97/2000/XP/2003 files without losing formatting or content (Mostly) and it looks pretty nice too.

The download is not that big and doesn't need any configuration. All I had to do was uncompress the tar.gz and run the program.

Its not opensource or freeware (Costs $49) but I think that it is worth it. You can download a 30 day trial from the site to try it out.

Url: http://www.softmaker.de/tml_en.htm

Check it out.

- Suramya

[madcompnerd]

Wow, $50 instead of 50 Euros, that's a deal..

[j79zlr]

Originally posted by madcompnerd
Wow, $50 instead of 50 Euros, that's a deal..

Not bad compared to OpenOffice or AbiWord

[irlandes]

That was also my first thought, why pay $49 USD when Open Office are available for download, or with distros. However, after a few second of thoughts, I remembered that many complain about size and slow loads of OO. So, since linux is about choice, if someone wants to pay $49 for more speed and smaller size, sounds good to me.

I did not know Abiword was also compatible with those formats. However, sometimes we get locked into our decisions. With Mandrake 8.0,. I tried a bunch of the Word processors, and found them lacking. At that time, for example, OO was the only one which would handle a text file of many MB, so I rejected the others since I do use large files at times.

Having many things to do with my time, I have simply not re-investigated these other apps. I suppose I should, huh?

Originally posted by j79zlr
Not bad compared to OpenOffice or AbiWord

[oilyfish]

My wife has been using it for a year or more and really likes it. She started because everything else was just too slow on her old pentium2 laptop and this moved right along. Didn't mind paying the 49 bucks.

O.F.

[irlandes]

Exactly my point. LInux is all about choice, and yours was valid for you. I learned something here, thanks. One of the reasons there are not more apps for linux is that most linux users prefer the free options. It takes actual cash paid to produce more apps.

[oilyfish]

I just remembered a cool thing it would do - you can use it to rescue text out of otherwise boogered up files. For instance, my wife had a whole bunch of docs in MS Works 3 format and no way to convert. Textmaker could pull the plain text right out them.

O.F.

[Fryguy8]

the command "strings" does the same thing..

[oilyfish]

cool, didn't know - nice to learn something new.

O.F.

[EnigmaOne]

::: shrug :::
StarOffice 5-7 I have already, and will keep current with their releases unless they do something to piss me off. (Sun is getting close to that point, though.)
OOo is cranking out versions fast enough for me.
strings will get the essentials out of a hammered file.

I really haven't had a problem converting a file from a closed '.doc' format, editing it and sending it on its way in '.ps' or '.pdf' formatting--the criticisms on the site seem to be a bit overblown.

I do have a problem with furthering the entrenchment of microsoft file formats, particularly if I perceive that any portion of my money is eventually going to end-up someplace in Redmond. My gut says that some of that money is going to be (if not already) spent in licensing '.doc' internal specs from ms.

Nice that we all have the freedom of choice.

[Suramya]

The main problem I have with OO and StarOffice is that they look ugly and don't convert all the document layout properly.

Before I found this software I usually ended up connecting to my windows machine when I had to work with .doc files. Now I can open and edit them on my linux machine without any problems.

I prefer saving files as .html or as .txt's rather than .doc or pdf's 'cause they are easier to maintain/convert to other formats.