Forum:Office software options

To me, the provision of office software is much worse now than it was before IBM bought Lotus. I lost track of how the field developed but marketing destroyed technical proficiency because the public succumb to the former and do not recognise the latter.

Those looking for choice are frustrated and this wiki, if it seems worthwhile, would be a way for people to express their wishes and offer comments on the ways in which available software performs satisfactorily and those in which it falls short. The wiki may, in other words, perform two functions :


 * 1) inform users about the relative merits of software choices
 * 2) inform developers of how their software compares and what users are seeking

There is a list of office suites here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_office_suites

There is a comparison of "open document" software here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_software_comparison

Some other software is available as standalone applications. Some references :

desktop publishing : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_desktop_publishing_software

html editors : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTML_editors

information graphics software : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_information_graphics_software

project management software : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_project_management_software

spreadsheets : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spreadsheets

word processors : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_word_processors

Standards and collaboration
There are many different file formats in use for storing documents. Some attempts have been made to standardize document formatting, but until recent years those attempts have given less than optimal result. A governing body of some sort may be needed to achieve a usable standard. Keme 11:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)