Free Lotus Symphony Office Suite – your office in a box for tough economic times.
When I heard the words “Lotus Symphony” recently, I had a quick flashback to the “good old days” of MS-DOS. Sort of like a “back to the future” moment.
Symphony was the first “all in one” software package (text, spreadsheet, etc.) I bought for my IBM DOS OS computer, back in 1984/85. It seems to me, I paid something like $700/800 for this innovative (for then), software. According to the Inflation Calculator, that translates into $1,600 in today’s dollars.
Today, Lotus Symphony Office Suite ( a cross platform application), can be had for the grand sum of $zero. How times have changed!
Lotus Symphony Office Suite, offered by IBM, is a fairly basic, free (open source) substitute for Microsoft Office.
The principal components of Symphony, as with MS Office are:
Word Processor
Spreadsheet
Presentation Graphics
Fast facts:
Free
Reads and writes Open Document and MS Office formats
Macro support
Context-sensitive menus
Supports PDF conversion
Plug-in support to increase functionality
Multilingual supports 28 languages
If you are running a small office and you’re finding it tough going making ends meet, like the rest of us I suspect, the word “free” can be music to the ears. Lotus Symphony Office Suite while not a perfect replacement for MS Office, will meet your basic business needs.
IBM offers great support for this application, including plug-ins, downloadable clipart, and more.
System requirements: Windows XP and Vista; Intel Macs – OS X 10.5, Linux – Ubuntu
Download at: IBM
Open Office is another free Office Suite that is extremely popular and is worth a look.
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