Ability Office Suite

Ability Office Suite

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Is Ability Office as compatible with MS Office applications as it suggests?

A client has bought it and raves about it - any observations?

Thanks in advance

Julian Tomsett
www.tomsettaccountants.co.uk
Julian Tomsett

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By AnonymousUser
10th Jun 2003 11:28

Databases
Tried a few of these now, the ability office one being usable and able to open microsoft .mdb files, but lacks the ease(!) with which data can be manipulated in Mircosoft Access, but then again it is not in the same league. Recently tried a free version of 4D, and that looks a bit dated, and was not too intuitive, but seems powerful enough, and as for the Lotus version, don't go there, not worth it.

Due to the steep learning curve on databases, once you take your pick it will take a lot of commitment to adjust to the foibles of another package.

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By DavidT
10th Jun 2003 11:33

Testing them now!
I think its the current issue of either Computer Shopper or PC Adviser that has a several page review of Star Office tested by 200 people.

We have been looking at both and the one thing we have found is that opening linked worksheets in Star Office/Open Office works far better than Ability Office which really struggles.

Most of the reviews I've seen do favour Star Office/Open Office over Ability Office.

The difference between Star Office and Open Office is that with Star Office you get a database program, ADABAS? I think, whereas with Open Office there is no database.

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By asdesign
09th Jun 2003 22:14

Another freebie
www.software602.com
Free office software no database but spreadsheet and handles word better than ability.

Whilst all the alternatives are great one point to bear in mind is that accounting software developers generally create the links in their packages to link or output to word or excel and the other choices whilst very good may not be able to take advantage of these options

Yours


Viv Burrows


[email protected]

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By User deleted
09th Jun 2003 14:39

Why pay more?
Star Office 6 at £44.99 from Amazon includes not a bad clone of Power Point, and does the business .

If that's too expensive, you can download the earlier version FREE on www.openoffice.org !

There was a comparative review in PCW in April 2003 which found Ability better, but it does not include even a basic presentation module. Horses for courses. I have no interest financially in any of the suppliers, but use both Microsft and OpenOffice quite happily.

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