NEW - Softmaker's "Textmaker" as a stand-alone WP

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Mike Walsh · #1 Post by **Mike Walsh** » Fri 05 Jun 2020, 15:39

Afternoon, all.

There's been a lot of talk on the Forum this last year or two, with regard to how newer versions of Puppy's default word-processor, Abiword, are becoming almost impossible to use.

I've been a fan of SoftMaker's FreeOffice for quite some time, although like many of us, I guess the word-processor is probably the most oft-used component by a country mile.

Following some info from Mikeb yesterday, I now realize that Softmaker have built FreeOffice in such a way that it's possible to segregate any of the individual components, and run them independently of the rest of the suite. So; a plan hatched.....and, following some head-scratching, experimentation and general trial & error, I've isolated the Textmaker components of the FreeOffice 2019 'update'.

Here, for your perusal, is Textmaker, running as a stand-alone word processor.....a task at which, I might add, it performs very well.

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I've packed these as SFSs. There's a 32-bit variant, and a 64-bit one. I've included the English locale stuff as standard; for those of you who want other languages, etc., I've supplied them as an 'add-on' SFS. Just load it if required.

It's not perhaps as svelte as Abiword, but it is one hell of a lot more stable, in addition to possessing full compatibility with modern M$ Office formats.

Downloads at the following link:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Hope some of you perhaps find this useful!

Mike.

enrique · #2 Post by **enrique** » Fri 05 Jun 2020, 15:51

Downloading.

OHHH I know I will enjoy this one. Yes I am one of the people that claim why install a bloated office sfs when I personally need only a better than abyword, THANKS

mikeslr · #3 Post by **mikeslr** » Fri 05 Jun 2020, 22:09

Hi Mike,

Yesterday, I read the discussion about this and said to myself, "Something to work-on/puzzle over

...But wait, let's see if Mike does it.

" So, a very big thank you.

Tried out the 64-bit SFS under Bionicpup. It works very well. It wasn't immediately apparent that Textmaker could write odt files, but it does. It was able to spell-check, insert a graphic and (occasionally important for me) insert a Table. It took a while to figure out how to SUM a column. Rather than from the Table Submenu, calculations are inserted from the insert menu. Then I had to figure out what 'dialect' was used. Guessed wrong a couple times; then went online and found a User's Manual. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... 3-yxVR__Wp. When all else fails, read the manual.

Most things worked pretty much like whatever Wordprocessor you may be used to. But storing the manual someplace isn't a bad idea.

For those who need a spreadsheet once in a while, I don't recall anyone ever complaining about Puppy's builtin gnumeric. For those who also need a Presentation Application, well by this time there's little to be gained by not using the entire suite.

Mike Walsh · #4 Post by **Mike Walsh** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 00:16

@ Mike:-

Menu->Help->User Manual. The PDF's included; if you've got a default PDF reader set-up, it opens right up in it, straight away.....

T'other Mike.

O.F.I.N.S.I.S. · #5 Post by **O.F.I.N.S.I.S.** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 01:18

I'm using Open Office Word Processor regularly which is in .sfs at 158 MB. Rarely using anything else from the OO Suite.

Downloaded Textmaker plus the langpack .sfs, combined both and removed everything that's not DE. Repacked it and it's now at 27 MB and started out of the box.

When I will get familiar with it, I might switch to Textmaker.

However: thanks for putting this together.

nic007 · #6 Post by **nic007** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 02:54

Unfortunately this FreeOffice is a cutdown version of Softmaker's commercial version. Quite a lot of features omitted in the free version. Okay but not great.

Mike Walsh · #7 Post by **Mike Walsh** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 11:29

nic007 wrote:Unfortunately this FreeOffice is a cutdown version of Softmaker's commercial version. Quite a lot of features omitted in the free version. Okay but not great.

@ Nic:-

I never pretended otherwise, mate. It's not perfect; few apps ever are.

It's a 'standalone' word processor, since lots of folks have been moaning about Abiword recently. There's plenty of other options available, so any dedicated 'Puppian' should be able to find something to suit them.....between us, we create as big a selection of alternatives as we can. Not everybody wants the same things out of an application.....certainly, for me the only part of an office suite that ever gets used IS the WP, so this works for me.

As always, my motto for Puppy is 'Choice in all things'.

Mike.

nic007 · #8 Post by **nic007** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 11:38

There are important features missing in this free version in comparison to their commercial text editor product. A basic comment, nothing to do with your compilation.

Mike Walsh · #9 Post by **Mike Walsh** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 14:48

nic007 wrote:There are important features missing in this free version in comparison to their commercial text editor product. A basic comment, nothing to do with your compilation.

Mm-hm. I agree with you.

Probably also denotes the difference between your average home user who may only type half-a-dozen letters a year, and someone who uses a word processor on a professional or semi-professional basis, needs it every day, and must have maximum features in addition to complete M$ Office compatibilty... I think it goes without saying that free versions of anything are never as feature-laden as their paid counterparts. This still ain't bad for a 'freebie', even so; I guess it'll meet the needs of a fair number of people.

I definitely fall into the first category!

Mike.

mikeb · #10 Post by **mikeb** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 15:31

Being bombarded with documents due to sons a level studies and softmaker handled multimedia better than same era libreoffice.
Its the sheer speed that always impresses me which i assume as its built directly in something like c or c++
Mike

nic007 · #11 Post by **nic007** » Sat 06 Jun 2020, 16:27

OpenOffice is probably the best free product with all the bells and whistles. I used it years back on my old Windows machine. Very heavy and big though so I switched to Atlantis Word Processor.

mikeslr · #12 Post by **mikeslr** » Wed 01 Jul 2020, 19:04

I recommended Softmaker/Freemaker Office a while back as I could run it as an External. As an External, however, there's a bit of work involved if you want to setup the components as your default applications. No such problem with Mike's Standalone Textmaker.

Problem was that the default font was too small for these old eyes. Took some googling and guess-work to figure out how to permanently change the default. So I figure I'll save you that effort.

Textmaker uses a template in /root/SoftMaker/Templates 2018/English named Normal.tmvx. In its absence it uses a builtin default style. And in its absence, trying to change the default style produces a 'file-not-found' error. So, here's what you do: Bolding below for Emphasis/Clarity.

File-browse into /root/Softmaker/Templates 2018, Right-Click>New Directory and name it English.
Open TextMaker to a blank document. On the toolbar, at the far Right, 2nd from the End, is an Icon with the symbol "A". Hovering will provide the Tool-tip "Change character formatting". Left-Click the Icon.

Change the settings to your preferences. When your satisfied, Click the "Set as default..." button at the bottom. Check the radio button next to "Change in this document only"

Now File > Save the document AS a Template*.tmvx --2nd listing from the top offered by scroll-bar-- with the name Normal --capital N required-- into /root/Softmaker/Templates 2018/English. [Assuming Frugal, remember preserve this change: Execute a Save].

In the future you can change Your default settings as above, except that after clicking "Set as default" you can choose "Change for all documents..."

mikeb · #13 Post by **mikeb** » Wed 01 Jul 2020, 19:48

Yes changing defaults is a bit of a puzzle.

Problem was that the default font was too small for these old eyes.

I wonder if squinty vision was developed by bill G. Perhaps MS devs did not notice monitors getting bigger.
One of the joys of linux is usually nice smooth readable text.

I am allowed an ms dig after they took 1.4gb inspite of ticking dont download updates....thats 50p on smarty.

Michael

tallboy · #14 Post by **tallboy** » Thu 02 Jul 2020, 00:18

Hallo Mike, you've done it again!

I never had problems with my old Abiword in old Lucid, but after that the problems krept up all the time, but usually only very small. Until now; the Abi in tahr64_6.0.6 won't even save additional text to Abi's own old .odt documents. It reminds me of some of the problems I have heard about early/late Word docs not being recognized.
This Textmaker has all I need, the next step would be something like Scribus or LaTex, but they are over-complicated, they require too much brainwork for my 2 cells.

tallboy · #15 Post by **tallboy** » Thu 02 Jul 2020, 00:45

Mike, is this a 30-day free version, or permanently free version?

Mike Walsh · #16 Post by **Mike Walsh** » Thu 02 Jul 2020, 12:48

@ Olaf:-

tallboy wrote:Mike, is this a 30-day free version, or permanently free version?

Good question, mate. I meant to address this further back in the thread.

It is permanently free. Initially, there's no mention of this anywhere, but, after a few uses, you'll then find a small window appears requesting that you input a 10 or 12-digit code in order to get permanent free use. No 'biggie'; the same window has another button on it that allows you to download said code there & then, within Textmaker itself. I can't remember if it then wants an e-mail addy & sends it there; it's a few weeks since I last did this, but I think that's what it does. I've got an email from SoftMaker with my code that I've archived, so.....

But to answer your question, yep; permanent FREE USE!!!

Mike.

mikeslr · #17 Post by **mikeslr** » Thu 02 Jul 2020, 16:23

Had tallboy's question; didn't know Mike's solution. Figured, as long as I'm going to have to provide an email, might as well download the Suite. As I mentioned, it can be run as a portable. After registering the suite, MIke's Standalone Textmaker seemed happy and stopped nagging. My guess, both use the same profile.

That doesn't hold true if you have both the 32 and 64 bit versions; nor the Windows version. Each system requires its own registration.

tallboy · #18 Post by **tallboy** » Thu 02 Jul 2020, 16:54

Thank you, Mike².

tallboy · #19 Post by **tallboy** » Fri 03 Jul 2020, 00:23

Mike W., for your info, the /root/SoftMaker/ dirs Designs 2018 and Templates 2018 are empty, which means you cannot start a new document in a format you want. Could the fact that the Menu/Document/ entry says TextMaker 2019, and not 2018, have something to do with it?

I don't know if it has any significance when using it for most normal writing tasks, because even if the .tmvx is the default document format, TextMaker both open and save to a lot of doc formats. But if you expect to find, for example, a template for markup languages, you'll be disappointed.

tallboy · #20 Post by **tallboy** » Fri 03 Jul 2020, 01:47

Bummer!

FreeOffice: In SoftMaker FreeOffice, .odt files can only be opened. Saving files in this format is not supported.

Yippee, back to Abi...

Which means I have to use the stable Abiword in my old Lucid to edit all genealogical docs I have, and tahr64 for browsing. Oh, well.

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

NEW - Softmaker's "Textmaker" as a stand-alone WP

NEW - Softmaker's "Textmaker" as a stand-alone WP

Thanks, and about a spreadsheet

Changing defaults