Microsoft Office replacement

Hi all,

Part of some of the stuff I did at the conference this weekend involved demoing a product I found called Kingsoft Office 2009. It is a direct replacement for MS Office. And at $69 it is an absolute bargin. They have various pricing which I can't seem to locate right now but it was somewhere around 30 users for 599 and unlimited for $3999. This could have changed as their pages changed while I was at the conference.

At any rate, one of the questions at the conference was, does it have an API that we call for automation. The answer back from Kingsoft was YES it has a direct replacement API for office. And sure enough I have tested this with the following code;

====================================
gpclMyExcel is object Automation dynamic

gpclMyExcel = new object Automation "ET.Application"


sFile is string = fSelect("", "", "Select a file...", "Excel Files (*.xls)"+TAB+"*.xls"+CR+"All Files (*.*)"+TAB+"*.*", "xls", fselOpen+fselExist)

IF sFile <> "" THEN

gpclMyExcel>>WorkBooks>>Open(sFile)
gpclMyExcel>>visible = True

END
=========================================

Changing the above ET.Application to Excel.Application will fire off excel. This is by no means an exhastive test of the API, but it shows that it does in fact function.

I'd be interested in hearing how many of you end up using the product or have been using it.

Also I believe there is a promo code of "forum promo" that will get you $20 off of the product. It came up in the right side of the program (tips section) while I was working today.

Cheers!
Ken

I downloaded the Kingsoft Office product and it seems to be such a great replacement. My only wish at this point is that they would have an MS Access alternative.

Their Word and XLS alternatives are really great.

Glenn Rathke

Hi Ken,

I do not want to spoil your exitement for Kingsoft Office 2009, it sure looks like a nice *English* alternative to M$ Office.

For those of you who would like to pay nothing, nada or even nix for a great office product in English and most any other language than English (80+ different ones!), should remember Open Office org. 3.1 [www.openoffice.org] - which offers all parts of a good office product: text, spreadsheet, desktop publishing, database and presentation.

Kind regards,
Guenter

Hi Guenter,

By no means are you spoiling my excitement. I am well aware of the OpenOffice alternative as I'm sure everyone else here is. The BIG! difference is the fact that you don't have to recode an entire project to support OpenOffice.

While OpenOffice is a wonderful and completely free product, we've found that there a quite a few inconsistencies with how it handles various documents created in the Microsoft comparable product. This was another reason I was really excited.

At any rate you are correct about OpenOffice and thanks for remembering to add it to the mix.

Cheers!
Ken