DocMazy is a novel kind of search engine exclusively dedicated to finding documents. Instead of returning websites, it digs up PDFs, DOCs, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and text files. DocMazy was designed to find information that gets buried in other search engines because documents often don't score well in search engine algorithms, or aren't indexed by search engines at all.

Once you find the doc you're looking for, you can download it or view it online. DocMazy uses iPaper, which opens a preview without making you leave the results page. All in all, it's a pretty nice tool if you're looking for the kind of longer, more detailed information that often isn't published in its entirety on a webpage.

You may not have read much about Lotus Symphony - OpenOffice.Org casts a pretty big shadow over other free Office competitors. Like OpenOffice, IBM's cross-platform office suite is based on the Open Document format and is a very capable alternative to Micorosoft Office.

Symphony doesn't provide the same number of tools as Office or OpenOffice, but it does handle word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tasks. The latest release adds a much needed piece of functionality to Symphony - the ability to open files created using Microsoft Office 2007 (though files can only be saved in 2003 or 2000 formats). A Flash-based presentation of Symphony's features is available for viewing, and there's also a transcript available if you would rather read them yourself.

One I particularly like is the tabbed interface. As with the tabs in my browser, it keeps my workspace just as tidy whether I've got a single document or dozens open at the same time.

The suite is roughly a 200Mb download for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and is available from the IBM web site. There's also a large, online library of clipart for you to utilize in your documents.

While some modern browsers include built-in spell checkers, and some operating systems include built-in spelling and grammar checkers, there are people out there using operating systems and browsers that do not have these features.

If you're looking for some help with your writing and don't have access to Microsoft Word or a similarly-powered word processor, there is a solution available on the web called After the Deadline. The site (at the memorable URL polishmywriting.com) offers spelling and grammar help, and even writing style suggestions.

Adobe has taken the beta label off of its web-based Acrobat.com office suite. And while you can still create and share text documents and presentations for free, you'll need to upgrade to a paid account for up to $39/month or $390/year to unlock advanced features like the ability to create unlimited PDF files, share larger files, or host meetings with up to 20 people. Acrobat.com Premium users also get paid support.

If you don't sign up for a premium account, you'll be limited to creating 5 PDF files per month, web conferences will be limited to 3 users, and you'll be stuck with just 100 file downloads per month. There's also a cheaper plan for $14.99/month or $149/year that falls somewhere between the free and Premium Plus plans.

Adobe is also rolling out an experimental spreadsheet app called Tables as part of Acrobat.com Labs.

I can understand why Adobe would decide to create a subscription-based service in order to make some money off of their product. What I can't understand is why anyone looking for an office suite for personal use would choose to use Acrobat.com instead of alternatives like Zoho Docs, Google Docs, or even a desktop application like Microsoft Office, which might cost more up front, but which doesn't have ongoing subscription costs.

Then again, maybe the goal was never to market Acrobat.com to personal users. The key may be the web conferencing and support features, which could make Acrobat.com an attractive option for small businesses in need of collaboration tools.


[via CNET]

While there are dozens of excellent word processors available for Windows, Microsoft Word is the de facto standard. Whether you have Microsoft Office and/or Word or not, odds are you have to deal with Word documents every now and again when someone sends you a file attachment. If you don't have Word, there are a number of ways to deal with those documents. Word Reader 5.0 isn't necessarily the best, but it's one of the simplest.

Basically, Word Reader will let you open and read DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, or HTML files. You can't create or edit files. Just open and read them. It handles formatting pretty well, although it seems to have issues importing some images.

Microsoft also offers a free Word 2007 viewer for Windows, but the Microsoft viewer weighs in at 25MB, while Word Reader 5.0 is just a 5MB download. So if you've got limited bandwidth, this could be the way to go.

Alternately, you could install OpenOffice.org or Abiword, or use an online office suite like Google Docs or Zoho Writer to open Word files. Or you could use online file conversion service Zamzar to convert the docs to a format you can read.

[via Technix Update]

It's been a long-debated topic as to the pricing (and availability) of Apple's next operating system release: Mac OS X 10.6 - a.k.a. Snow Leopard. However at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco Apple has (if you'll excuse the pun) let the cat out of the bag and announced that Snow Leopard will be available in September for $29 (if you're upgrading from Mac OS X Leopard), with Family Packs for up to 5 computers costing just $49 - again, if you're upgrading from 10.5.

Long-touted as 'just' a behind-the-scenes update, Snow Leopard features support for Microsoft Exchange, a re-written Finder and an all-new QuickTime player with hardware acceleration and built-in YouTube uploading. There's also a tonne of new developer technologies to allow developers to handle multi-processor machines with Grand Central, and an all-round speed increase for all the OS components.

Apple's official web pages have yet to be updated with the pricing details or more information beyond the original holding pages, however in today's WWDC keynote Apple confirmed dates, pricing and some more features - as well as confirming that Mac OS X Snow Leopard is indeed going to only run on Intel-based Macs.

If you're running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on an Intel machine, the options are between a Mac Box Set (featuring Snow Leopard, iLife '09 and iWork '09) for $169 or 5-User Family Pack which brings you the iLife, iWork and Snow Leopard package for $229.

If you're wanting to stay up to date on everything at WWDC, be sure to stop by our good friends at TUAW who're covering the conference throughout this week.

ThinkFree offers a cross-platform suite of office applications that can be used on Windows, Mac, Linux, or on the web. And now it looks like the company is developing a full office suite for Google Android as well.

ThinkFree Mobile for Android will provide Google Android users with spreadsheet, presentation, and word processing applications. The application is compatible with Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP, 2003, and 2007.

Users will also be able to store up to 1GB of data online using ThinkFree's web based office suite, which means you can begin editing a document on your computer, sync it to the web, and continue editing on the go with your mobile device.

There's no word on pricing yet, but ThinkFree Mobile for Android is due out later this year. In July an initial version with document viewers should be available. A full version with document editing capabilities should follow in Q4 of 2009.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Google now lets users import .docx or .xlsx files into Google Docs. In other words, next time someone sends you a document created in Word 2007 you don't need to convert it into a format that your aging copy of Microsoft Word 2000 can handle. You can just load it up in Google Docs and read or edit the document online.

This brings the complete list of file formats supported by Google Docs to DOC, DOCX, HTML, TXT, RTF, XLS, XLSX, ODS, CSV, TSV, TSB, PPT, and PPS.

Of course, Zoho Docs has supported Office 2007 files since last year. Zoho Docs also lets you export files in those formats, while Google Docs will only let you import Office 2007 files.

KOffice is the open source, cross-platform office suite that isn't OpenOffice.org. You may not have heard much about KOffice unless you've used a Linux distribution using the KDE desktop environment. But KOffice and KDE have come a long way in recent years. You can run KDE apps like KOffice in Windows, although installation is still a lot simpler in Linux distributions like Kubuntu or OpenSUSE.

This week the KOffice team released a preview of KOffice 2. It's not really aimed at end users yet, and KOffice 2.0 is actually missing some of the features found in KOffice 1.6. Most of those features will return in versions 2.1 or 2.2. But the new version does have a number of new features, including:

• Better integration between applications
  
• New GUI designed to work with widescreen monitors
  
• Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Native support for OpenDocument Format

It's also much easier for third party developers to create add-ons that will add new features and customizations. The goal is to make these add-ons as easy to install as Firefox extensions.

KOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet utility, presentation manager, project management softwre, a vector graphcis editor and a raster graphics editor.

[via Slashdot]

When Adobe launched its online office suite at Acrobat.com last year the site was a bit on the anemic side. Sure, it featured the slick Flash-based Buzzword word processor. But it lacked a good spreadsheet or presentations application. There's still no spreadsheet app in sight, but today Adobe added an attractive tool for viewing and editing presentations to Acrobat Labs.

Like Buzzword, Acrobat Presentations is built on Flash. It features the smooth and attractive animations you'd expect from a Flash-based application. But it's also fairly intuitive to use. At the top of the screen are a series of icons which expand into toolbars to give you access to the features you need at any given moment. The left side of the screen shows thumbnails for each slide, while the slide itself hangs out in the center for your viewing, creating, or editing pleasure. Or you can hit the Play Slideshow button in the bottom right corner if you just want to sit back and enjoy the show.

Because the application is built on Flash, the right-click button on your mouse is useless which MS Office addicts might find frustrating at first. But Acrobat Presentations does give you most of the tools you'd expect from a presentation application, plus online collaboration tools. You can share your presentations with other users and let them edit your files.

[via VentureBeat]

Sometimes it's hard to make yourself hunker down and write something, whether it's an important email, a lengthy diary entry, or a report for school or work. It's just so easy to take get distracted by email, instant messaging, or Minesweeper.

There are a handful of word processors and text editors designed to give you a distraction-free writing space by blocking out everything except for the words you're typing. for instance, Dark Room shows you nothing but a black screen and green text, giving you that matrix/old school computing vibe.

But if you want something a bit more modern, and with a few more controls, you might want to check out FocusWriter. By default, FocusWriter opens in full screen mode. But if you scroll your mouse over the top of the screen a toolbar will appear allowing you to exit fullscreen mode, adjust your preferences, save, rename, or print a document.

FocusWriter isn't by any means a full fledged word processor. There's no spell checking. And there's no formatting. You can't embolden, embeggin, or center text. All you can do is write. If you need those features, you might want to invest in a heavy dose of discipline rather than a distraction-free text editor.

[via instant fundas]

If you often transfer files back and forth between Microsoft Office apps on your desktop and Google Docs online, OffiSync might be exactly what you need. It pulls Google Docs functionality into Office, letting you save, manage and browse your Google Docs as if they were in a directory on your hard drive. You can also share docs and add collaborators, and send email and notifications, all while you're writing up that next draft in Word.

The first version of OffiSync is apparently close to launching, and you can sign up for the beta right now. It's initially going to roll for Windows XP (SP2), Vista and Windows 7, but a version for Office Mac is also in the works. The idea is pretty interesting, and it looks like OffiSync could be an extremely useful product if it ends up working as advertised.

Who wants to wait until July 1st to try out Microsoft Office 2010? Heck, even if you do want to wait and register your name, you still might not be chosen as a tester.

Fortunately, your friends at the Internet have got your back once again. Yes, the Office 2010 technical preview - like every build of Windows 7 that ends with an odd or even number (or zero) has been leaked to torrent trackers.

This time, Wzor.net didn't just share screenshots of the leaked apps, they've actually provided links to the torrent files themselves.

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but remember: if you do decide to download the leaked ISOs, make sure you take the necessary precautions. No, that doesn't mean putting on your tin foil hat.

Thanks, Sandip!

update (5/16/09 7:17 ET): screenshots coming up after the break - stay tuned!

Recently, a critical Javascript vulnerability was discovered in Adobe Reader which affected several versions on all platforms. It was the second major exploit this year targeting the application.

Adobe has responded quickly, putting together updates for Windows, Mac, and Linux in less than two weeks. While an immediate "Patch Tuesday" fix a la Microsoft would have been even better, it's good to see Adobe prioritizing security.

That's an important and necessary step. Unwary PDF users will continue to be an attractive target for hackers and Adobe must be increasingly vigilant.

If you took F-Secure's advice and temporarily switched to another PDF reader temporarily, the newly-patched Reader is ready for download if you are. I've not been a fan of Reader in the past - due to its footprint and sluggish startup times - but version 9 is a major improvement over older versions.

More details about the exploit and download links for all platforms are available from the Adobe security bulletin.