Lightweight Office Suite

[Graham Todd]

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On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:19:10 -0400
Scott <slewin at bmts.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> 	as a home user I use a spread sheet and word processor on
> occasion, but when I use them I only need the most common features.
> Using open office feels like using a Ferrari when all I need is a
> Echo.  Does anybody know of a good, lighter, spreadsheet and word
> processor program out there.
> 

It always depends on what you mean by "the most common features".

The alternative word processors that I have been able to find to
OpenOffice Writer are KWord (part of the KOffice suite), Pathetic
Writer (part of the Siag Office Suite) and Abiword.

KWord uses  a text layout system similar to Adobe FrameMaker, in which
text is written in frames or in page layout mode.  It is similar to the
layout systems used in Desk Top Publishing programs without having the
complexity of most of those.  However, it doesn't have many of the
facilities I need easily accessible.  Moreover it has no .doc (MS Word)
export format and as a university student, I often have to supply
electronic copies of documents in electronic .doc format, and these are
scanned for plagiarism so have to be near M$ Word compatibility.  KWord
is the worst of the three for this and depending upon your need for
this facility made rule KWord out completely.

Abiword is fairly lightweight yet is a full featured word processor in
the classic mould.  Its menus are intuitive and Abiword has all the
facilities I need.  Moreover, apart from Open Office Writer, it has the
best compatibility with M$ Word .doc format.  (I remember the designer
being reported to say that the team could reproduce the bugs in Word
more easily, some years ago!).  Abiword would definitely be my
alternative choice as a word processor.

Pathetic Writer is as lightweight as you can get for a word
processor without it being a glorified editor.  Its only capacity for
export in M$ Word format is to export in .rtf format...but that might
be all you need.  Antiword is a separate program you might need to
enable Word .doc programs to be converted for import.  However, that
said, Pathetic Writer has all the major tools for processing text; they
just might not be enough for your purpose.

Spreadsheets are more problematic.  Their mathematical functioning has
to produce the same level of accuracy as many other spreadsheets on
many platforms.  Siag, the spreadsheet in the Siag Office suite is
(like Pathetic Writer) ultra lightweight and has a range of facilities
not found usually (such as webserver integration) but it depends on
what you require.  A good place to start looking in Christopher
Browne's Linix Spreadsheet Page at:

http://cbbrowne.com/info/spreadsheetsfree.html

KSpread is the spreadsheet that is part of the KOffice suite and worth
a look at, but when looking it up keep in mind what you want it for.
There are many other dedicated applications which fulfill the purpose
for which I'd use a spreadsheet, so I don't use one.  As an example, if
all you are going to use it for is to keep track of your bank
statements, I'd first suggest you look at Kmymoney2 or Equonomize!

But if you need a fully featured spreadsheet, the choice is between
OpenOffice Spreadsheet or Gnumeric.  Of the two, I recommend Gnumeric.

HTH

- -- 
Graham Todd
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