ThinkFree Office 3

ThinkFree Office 3 offers two productivity suites in one: a conventional desktop package with word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs, and a free Web-based version, ThinkFree Office Online, that runs inside your browser. Since both versions use Microsoft file formats -- including the ubiquitous DOC, XLS and PPT -- they're ready for MS Office users willing to defect. But ThinkFree Office isn't a clone of Microsoft Office; it covers the basics well but lacks essential features. ThinkFree's Write word processor, for instance, lacks the collaborative editing tools of Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. In our tests, ThinkFree's Show presentation program wouldn't play audio clips from PowerPoint presentations. Similarly, ThinkFree Office Online is a clever idea but needs more polish. This free, Web-based suite provides a generous 30MB of online storage and runs on Linux, Mac and Windows systems. The Web-based tools may come in handy if you use the desktop version of ThinkFree Office and need to access your files and functions online while you travel. But the beta version of ThinkFree Office Online has several shortcomings. For instance, you can open only one file at a time per application. So while ThinkFree Office has great potential, we hope that the next version will offer improvements that make it more worth our while.

Setup & interface

The ThinkFree Office 3 desktop suite is available via CD or download, and it runs on Linux, Mac and Windows systems. Version 3 installs easily, and setup took only five minutes on our Windows PC. The Web-based, Java-enabled version, ThinkFree Office Online, runs inside any Web browser via a high-speed Internet connection. There's no setup involved, although you will have to register to use the program.

One caveat about ThinkFree Online: the first time you use one of its three applications (Write, Calc or Show), be prepared to wait a couple of minutes as ThinkFree caches the program on your hard drive. This process is painfully slow, but luckily it's just a one-time inconvenience. The next time you use the program, it should load quickly. In our tests, for instance, Write took more than two minutes to load the first time we ran it, but only 20 seconds the second time. Keep in mind, however, that if you clear your browser cache -- regular maintenance that you should do periodically -- you'll return to ThinkFree Online's agonisingly slow two-minute launch.

With its emphasis on interoperability with MS Office, it's no surprise that both the desktop and online versions of ThinkFree Office mimic Microsoft's look and feel. The toolbars and the icons vary slightly, but MS Office users will feel right at home. Of course, this cosy, seen-it-all-before feeling is the goal, to encourage Microsoft users to give ThinkFree a try. In fact, the first time we launched Show, we thought we had loaded PowerPoint by mistake. Similarly, Write and Calc do their best Word and Excel impersonations.

Features

Like its online counterpart, ThinkFree Office 3 provides the core applications that people use the most: a word processor, a spreadsheet maker and a presentation-graphics creator. Affordably priced at $49.95 (~£29), this suite lacks extras such as a database, a contacts manager and an email client. By contrast, Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 has Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook and lists for £119.99, although street prices are significantly lower. For true bargain hunters, OpenOffice.org 2, the open-source version of Sun Microsystems' solid productivity suite StarOffice 8, includes a database (but no email) and won't cost you a penny.

ThinkFree's Write, Calc and Show are decent Microsoft copycats. Write, for instance, uses Word's DOC file extension as its de facto format, but it also reads and writes RTF (Rich Text), SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) and PDF (Adobe Acrobat) formats. ThinkFree's ability to export Acrobat files is noteworthy because Microsoft Office 2003 can't do this, although Corel's WordPerfect Office 12, StarOffice 8 and OpenOffice.org all can.

But ThinkFree Office 3 lacks some essentials, too. Calc, for instance, doesn't support hyperlinks in spreadsheets (Excel does); Write doesn't offer advanced tools such as Word's Smart Tags (pop-up icons that provide fast access to other Office tools); and Show won't play the sound, movie and animation effects in PowerPoint 2003 files. ThinkFree officials say these features are under development.

What about the online version of ThinkFree? It resembles its desktop counterpart, with some notable exceptions. First, each application allows only one open file at a time. In Calc, for instance, you have to close one spreadsheet to load another. This gets tedious in a hurry. Second, when you close a browser window, ThinkFree Office Online doesn't ask if you'd like to save changes to the file. We hope that the final version of Office Online will build in a frequent autosave feature; otherwise, you run the risk of losing your work, especially if you happen to be surfing the Web on, say, a flaky wireless connection. Third, online storage on the ThinkFree server is limited to 30MB, although you can buy more space (prices weren't set at press time). Finally, you can open and save documents stored on your PC, but you can't access files stored on other Web sites, such as Yahoo or Google. To be fair, ThinkFree Office Online is in beta testing, and hopefully the company will address these issues with the final release. Overall, the combination of ThinkFree Office 3 and its online counterpart may suit you if you're in the market for a no-frills, low-cost package of tools that lets you access and edit files on the road.

Service & support

ThinkFree provides free email support, but no phone or online chat assistance. Our support experiences were mixed. The company answered one of our email queries within eight hours, but another question went unanswered for several days. Still, the replies were succinct, polite and professional. The vendor's support Web site provides a limited selection of FAQs and a sparse knowledge base that needs more nitty-gritty details on product features and troubleshooting issues.

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