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Friday, September 28, 2007 IBM's Symphony for the Office WorkerCould the new productivity suite from IBM threaten Microsoft's popular Office software? By John Borland
Like the Web-browser world before Firefox, the market for so-called productivity software--word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation tools--has been torpid for years, dominated almost completely by Microsoft. But no longer. IBM's release of a test version of the Lotus Symphony productivity suite earlier this month adds another option to the list of free Microsoft Office alternatives, which already include Google's Docs, Apple's iWork, and the open-source OpenOffice programs, on which Symphony itself is based. A utilitarian package with a few thoughtful design innovations, Symphony lacks many of Office's new advanced features, but IBM's brand and promises for "aggressive" development could make it increasingly attractive over time. (Symphony is only available for Windows and Linux users today, although a Mac version is in the works.) Ironically, computer users familiar only with older versions of Office may find using Symphony easier than switching to Office 2007, which featured Microsoft's first radical face-lift in years. Symphony's components retain a familiar look, with traditional drop-down menus such as "File," "Edit," and "Tools," and a customizable toolbar along the top offering one-click access to specific file-, text-, and image-handling features. However, Symphony does offer two main interface innovations of its own. First, the suite offers a tabbed interface similar to that of a modern Web browser, with each tab representing a different open document. Tabs for word-processing documents, spreadsheets, or PowerPoint-style presentations can sit next to each other, making it simple to move between these programs--a particularly welcome feature when sharing information between them. Perhaps less successfully, all three programs provide a detachable sidebar that controls the properties of whatever kind of content is active or selected--text-, page-, and paragraph-formatting options in a text document, or table-cell properties for a spreadsheet, for example. This can be helpful when building a slide show, in which text frequently changes size or look. I found it simply distracting in an ordinary word-processing document, but to Symphony's credit, the feature is easy to hide. The word processor itself will be familiar to anyone who has used Microsoft Word, as it offers most of the same basic features. Text is easy to add and manipulate, tables can be added or drawn by hand, and graphics can be inserted and resized. It can open and use a variety of formats, including documents created by versions up through Office XP, but not Office 2007's .docx format. A few new features of Symphony are handy in a Net-centric world, including the ability to click on a URL and have that page open as a tab inside the program itself, rather than in an external Web browser. However, unless users also have Lotus Notes installed, Symphony doesn't connect to external e-mail programs well. Nor does it offer easy collaboration features like Google's online Docs word processor. The uncluttered look of Symphony Documents is overall a plus, particularly for those overwhelmed by Microsoft's new feature-cluttered design. However, the same minimalism in the Spreadsheets and Presentations tools slips dangerously close to being simply bare bones. PowerPoint has become an industry standard because it allows even the most tech-phobic of executives to create a professional-looking presentation in minutes. Symphony Presentations allows this too, but the tools are slightly clumsier to use and more limited in scope, and the end result isn't quite as slick. |
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Comments
boustrephon on 09/28/2007 at 2:40 AM
5
weee on 09/28/2007 at 3:11 AM
31
nostromo29 on 09/28/2007 at 7:30 AM
1
Main reason is that there is no such thing as "Microsoft Office format". There is the format used for .doc and .xls files today. Which is different from the format used for .doc and .xls files a few years ago! If you have a program that claims to save in Microsoft Word format, Microsoft can break it anytime they want, just by releasing a new version of Microsoft Word with a changed format.
It would be pretty dumb of IBM to give their main competitor the power to make them look bad anytime the competitor wanted to.
If you ever want to have control over your own documents, the time to start refusing to deal with Microsoft formats is today. Yes, people will accept .pdf files, etc if asked politely.
bspatial on 09/28/2007 at 9:09 AM
1
brunascle on 09/28/2007 at 11:35 AM
Web Developer
69
and the ISO standardization process is not going well for MS. it was rejected for fast track approval, and it's also come to light that MS bought Sweden's vote. (later Sweden's vote was declared invalid.)
plus, MS can still pull the rug out from under OOXML and make the next version closed and incompatible, and we're back to square one.
OOXML in itself is not that bad a format. the problem is in giving Microsoft the job of making competing applications compatible with their own, when it doesnt make business sense for them to do so.
gabrielg01 on 10/01/2007 at 10:02 PM
285
IBM dumped its laptop business, claiming that laptops are becoming commoditized. True. But then they keep developing the mundane office software business. Just what the world needs...another office suit. Maybe IBM should buy back their typewriter business too.
It used to be that IBM was a bleeding edge innovator, far out there leading the way.
What happened?
fixerdave on 10/04/2007 at 12:28 AM
5
IBM appears to be jockeying for position when Microsoft loses the desktop. Maybe this whole Lotus bit is nothing more than an attempt to speed Microsoft's demise, an attempt to shoot the competition's cash-cow.
Think about it. What would happen if IBM put it's world-class heft behind a MS Office competitor? A product that provides real version stability, unlike the often-hyped but never delivered "compatibility" of Microsoft. And, then, they just gave it away for free. I guess we're going to find out.
Anyway, the Brotherhood Against Microsoft (BAM!) welcomes a new ally to the fight. Long live opensource :)
shobhit.shri on 10/05/2007 at 1:23 AM
2
It's just that they can't beat microsoft by fair means through lotus so they resorted to dumping.
rlounsbu on 10/12/2007 at 11:20 AM
1