Ashampoo Office 9 2024.8.29.1106

Overview

Ashampoo Office 2016 is an Office suite for users who wish to avoid the expense of using Microsoft Office.

The Textmaker word processor is elegantly laid out and functions well. There is an auto-formatting option which can take the hassle out of formatting large amounts of text correctly.

The Planmaker is the spreadsheet app which has over 350 different calculations built into the app to make it easier to create complex spreadsheets that are fully compatible with Excel.

Presentations can be created easily using the Presentations app. There are many design templates included to get the user started and give them ideas for how to layout their own presentations. The presentations can include video, animations and sound.

Full compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats ensures that the user can rely on Ashampoo Office to provide compatible files which can later be used by other Office apps including the one from Microsoft.

Installation

The installation completed without any issues.

There was no adware, toolbars, spyware or malware included with the setup package.

Ashampoo Office 2016 requires Windows Vista, XP, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

Interface

The interface for each application is professionally designed.

The menu systems are extensive with numerous top-level menus that run deep. There are also commonly several levels of small toolbar buttons to access key functions more quickly with the word processor, spreadsheet or presentation app.

The interface is clean and simple. It lacks the overly complex look of the Microsoft Office 2013 interface which is a pleasant surprise.

Pros

• Office suite that is compatible with Office 6.0 to Office 2013
• TextMarker word processor
• Create articles, letters, newsletters and greeting cards
• PlanMaker spreadsheet with 350 calculations, support for 1 million rows and pivot tables
• Presentations app can help to make presentations quickly and easily
• Includes design templates to create new presentations faster
• Alter images and re-position them perfectly
• Preview documents in real-time in different formats
• Worksheets use colored tabs
• Preview formatting changes before making them final
• Excellent, clean user interface with each app that doesn't confuse Office users once it is learned

Cons

• The different user interface will take time for new users to adjust to when coming from a different Office suite

Alternatives

OpenOffice is an open-source, free alternative Office suite with a word processors, spreadsheet and presentation software which is regularly updated with new features and has support for Microsoft Office file formats too. Other similar office suites are LibreOffice, Kingsoft Office Suite.

Conclusion

Ashampoo Office 2016 is a professional Office alternative that includes a very capable spreadsheet, word processor and presentation application.