SoftMaker Office 2006 Now Shipping

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofp_en.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofp_en.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"In an ideal world, you could create a Microsoft Word or Excel document on your desktop computer, put it on your Pocket PC, edit and format it on the road, and then send it back to the office as a .DOC or .XLS file, with content and all formatting still intact. This is what Pocket PC users expect from their mobile computers. Unfortunately, this is not how it works right now."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hisham-20061108-pmp06_en.png" /><br /><br />Textmaker and Planmaker have been two of the most useful, if pricey, applications I've ever used on Windows Mobile - the state of Word Mobile and Excel Mobile in terms of useful functions, to say the least, leaves much to be desired. Softmaker stepped into the gap with their multi-platform office suite, and have just released the latest iteration for Windows Mobile. If you've ever lost formating in synced documents from using Word and Excel Mobile, I'd encourage to take a look at these programs - that is, if you can get over the sticker shock ;). The Softmaker Office Suite is available as a standalone product for $69.95, or bundled with Windows versions for $99.95. A discount is also available for registered users of Textmaker 2002 (purchase price $49.95 for standalone, $59.95 with Windows versions), and Planmaker 2004 ($34.95 for standalone, $49.95 with Windows versions). You can also purchase the applications separately.

[Jason Lee]

I purchased the original text maker long ago during the first carnival sale and picked up plan maker the same way a few years later. Honestly I have never used plan maker. ever... Pocket excel was much faster and handled the simple spreadsheets I was using.
I think I have only used text maker maybe 3 times since I bought it to view a very complex document, which actually displays perfectly fine in the new word mobile.
I never bothered to compose a document in text maker either. pocket word was faster. If I ever needed complex formatting I would copy it to me desktop to finish it off. I have written many a paper on my pocket pc for college course. Even a large part of one on a thumb keyboard. (i was on the go and had a deadline)
I don't think I can justify the price for the new versions, especially considering I don't use the old ones. hehe.. the only reason I have plan maker is because it was on sale. :lol: Impulse buy!

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Yeah...if your word-processing/spreadsheet needs aren't overly complex, you don't need much more than what's available in Windows Mobile. But if you have to deal with complex calculations and formats, then I think Softmaker Office is pretty essential. I'm trying to track down the changelog right now to see what significant changes have been made (apart from WM5 compatibility).

[gavinfabl]

For more complex stuff, Softmaker solutions are needed. But I would hold fire on that purchase as Softmaker are shortly about to get a major bit of competition from a major company in Jan 07 by the name of Dataviz.

[jaytee]

Only problem I had with the previous verisons was that they were memory hogs. I don't know about the latest version, but I don't even use Word much (rather use text editors, fast and functional!). For spreadsheets, I use the awesome and fast Z4soft PTab. Good enough for me!

[CESkins]

I own both PlanMaker and Textmaker 2006. The new versions appear to be faster but they still require a bit of memory. I need the features/extra capabilities that the Softmaker Office suite offers. I work in the medical field and use Textmaker to write my notes. Smart text features which expand my frequently used abbreviations as I type (I know that Fitaly can do the same thing but I prefer to use my ThinkOutside keyboard) and the new table formating options are invaluable to me. There are lots of other nice touches that I just don't see in the built-in PocPC word processor/spreadsheet such as customizable toolbars which help to speed things up. There is a new format painter (ala Word) for quickly transferring formating info from one block of text to another. The price is somewhat high but for the features it offers me, I think it is worth it. Softmaker always has a sale later on, so if you are willing to wait you can probably pick both of them up for $1 a piece. It will be interesting to see what Dataviz has up their sleeves.

A comparison table with features can be found here (http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofpcomp_en.htm)

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I just got an email from Softmaker pointing out the new features. If anybody is interested, they're here (http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofppm_en.htm) for Planmaker and here (http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofptm_en.htm) for Textmaker.

The new versions appear to be faster but they still require a bit of memory.

That's great to hear - I've got plenty of free RAM but the one thing that's always bugged me about the previous versions were how occasionally slow they were to respond.

[Marcel_Proust]

For more complex stuff, Softmaker solutions are needed. But I would hold fire on that purchase as Softmaker are shortly about to get a major bit of competition from a major company in Jan 07 by the name of Dataviz.
Do you have any more info on the Dataviz entry?

[Craig Horlacher]

They are expensive but to me it's worth it because I can read and write word and excel documents natively - without passing them through activesync. This is good because I can take files right off flash storage onto my pda. It wouldn't be such a big deal if word and excel supported the pocket pc formats. OpenOffice has for a few years:)

[Pony99CA]

I don't think I can justify the price for the new versions, especially considering I don't use the old ones. hehe.. the only reason I have plan maker is because it was on sale. :lol: Impulse buy!
Yeah, I bought TextMaker for the same reason, but have never really used it.

However, if you can't justify the price, wait two days. SoftMaker has sold all of their software for $11.11 on 11/11 the last couple of years, I believe.

Steve

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, I bought TextMaker for the same reason, but have never really used it.

However, if you can't justify the price, wait two days. SoftMaker has sold all of their software for $11.11 on 11/11 the last couple of years, I believe.

Steve

They said there would be no sale this year because of the new launch.. so maybe i'll get them next year. :D

[Peseta]

Only problem I had with the previous verisons was that they were memory hogs. ...

I run Textmaker for years directly from a SD-card without any problems.
I use Textmaker about twice a month, when I I'm travelling or waiting somewhere and I need to read, proof or edit a Worddocument.

The possibility to do that with the assurance that the format of the document is kept intact, is already worth the licence fee after 2 times from a businees point of view (against the time otherwise used to compare the edited document with the original and correct any format changes).