Best Office Productivity Suites for Professionals

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Content writers and web professionals make use of different types of applications—on a daily basis—to get their job done. Office suite application such as a word processor or a spreadsheet program is one such type of application used by every professional. Today, we’re going to look at some of the best office productivity applications built for both regular and professional users. Some of these office applications are free while others offer a premium version as well. A good number of these office applications have both the desktop and mobile variants. If you think your current office productivity suite is not able to fulfill your needs, look no further and try out some of the alternatives from the handpicked options mentioned below. Both cloud-based and desktop solutions are included in the list. I’ll suggest trying several applications before making a final decision to make sure the selected office suite meets your business needs. Let’s get started and quickly check out some of the best office productivity applications.

If you just want simple text editing capability, an office suite may be an overkill. In that case, light and distraction-free editor is all you need. So, before going ahead, make sure you’re not investing your time and money on an advanced solution.

I’ll recommend choosing an office suite having both cross-platform and mobile versions. This can help you get work done from almost anywhere. So, here we go!

1. Microsoft Office (Desktop and Cloud Apps)

Whenever we talk about office applications, this is the first solution that grabs our attention. In fact, most of us are already familiar with this widely popular office suite.

It has both the desktop and web versions which can be used in conjunction as and when required. Different variants for both the home and business users are available. Though old and loyal user base prefers the classic desktop application suite, the web version is preferred by most of the new users.

• All-in-one bundle – This office suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Access applications in the base package.

  Depending on your subscription plan, it may also include OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, Skype, and Microsoft Teams services to manage your business in a much better way.

• Refined interface – It’s one of the oldest productivity suites with a large user base. With the help of continuous user feedback over the long years, Microsoft has made the interface of these office applications—above excellent.

  Though a new user may feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of available options and features, using and accessing them is not difficult due to a meticulously designed interface.

• Liberal storage space – For both files and emails, this application suite provides you with ample space to store years of archived data, without any kind of issues.

  One can get up to 50 GB space for the Outlook email inbox and up to 1 TB OneDrive storage space through the standard subscription plans.

• Active support and updates – This is a mainstream and a flagship product of the company and hence it is actively developed throughout the year to add new features and to squash bugs.

  Rich documentation and strong support network makes it an ideal choice for businesses and professionals. Both online and offline product documentation is available for this powerful and user-friendly office productivity suite.

Download: Microsoft Office

2. Google Docs

Now, this one is my favorite and I use it on a daily basis. It’s a cloud-based office productivity suite which is part of the bigger G Suite product. You need a valid Google account to use this solution.

The apps included in this productivity suite are viz., Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings, My Maps, and Sites. The advantage of using a cloud-based solution is that you can use it almost anywhere without any compatibility issues. Following are some of the highlights of this office suite.

• Tons of Add-ons – If you want to add different types of added features to these office web apps, a large collection of add-ons is available to choose from.

  Both the activation and removal of these add-ons is dead simple and even a layman can use these powerful extensions with ease.

• Scripting support – Power users can take advantage of the Apps Scripts to implement highly-customized functionalities for these office apps.

  Web developers can learn this scripting language in no time and can enhance the power and features of this popular office productivity suite. Readymade scripted solutions are also available.

• Auto-save to Google Drive – Another advantage is that documents and files created through this office suite are automatically saved to Google Drive.

  And, through a backup and syncing application, you can access these files on your desktop in an offline mode too. The backup feature can be used smartly to keep an updated archive of your office files on your system.

• Useful pre-made templates – And last but not the least, an avid office suite user often looks for ways to speed up his daily workflow.

  Thankfully, with the help of commonly-used pre-made templates, one can easily get a base to work upon. This way, you can easily build and edit your important office files in no time.

Access: Google Docs

3. LibreOffice

This one is the most popular, open source, and free office suite having a large user base. This powerful productivity applications bundle is multi-lingual and is quite easy-to-install.

This office suite includes Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math as part of the bundle. A Charts module is also available for the users. Apart from regular desktop versions for various platforms, it’s also available for the Android smartphones.

• Large developer community – The future of a software depends on the developer base—it has. Fortunately, this office suite has a large community of developers actively enhancing it with each passing day.

  In fact, if you want the join the community and want to contribute to the development of this office suite, you can do so—quite easily.

• Rich file format support – This is one of the few office suites which supports a wide range of file formats. One can directly import these files without any need for conversions by 3rd party apps.

  The good thing is that the support of types of file formats is growing at a steady pace making it an ideal choice for web professionals and freelancers.

• Powerful extensions – There are hundreds of extensions which can be plugged in to add more power and custom features to the existing applications.

  These extensions include powerful grammar and spell check modules. The extension library itself is regularly updated to give you compatible and functional modules that work seamlessly with the new releases.

• Extensive help documentation – A good software comes with equally good help manuals. For all the office apps, you can find separate help documentation which can be downloaded in different formats.

  If you’re not a fan of reading long manuals, support forum, IRC live chat, and mailing lists can be utilized to get quick answers of your problems.

Download: LibreOffice

4. OfficeSuite

This office suite has millions of users and is known for its flawless and smooth functionality. Like other professional solutions this one too works seamlessly both on a desktop and on smaller devices.

It can create and edit Microsoft Office compatible files out-of-the-box. The free edition is good for a daily home user. It includes free 15 GB cloud storage space. If you’re opting for a premium edition, you get lots of extra power and goodies to manage and edit your office documents—like a pro!

• Cloud storage integration – Apart from the default cloud storage option, one can also connect some of the most popular cloud storage services to save the official documents at multiple locations.

  Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive cloud storage services can be integrated with a click of a button. Business users find this feature very useful.

• Slick interface – Although other office suites have quite good interface, this one is slightly better than others. It’s simple, clutter-free, and pleasing to eyes.

  Its interface rocks even on smaller screens letting you manage complex documents quite easily, while on the go. The interface’s default color scheme is very good.

• Powerful PDF tools – The premium version includes 2-way PDF conversion options. This feature facilitates easy office files to PDF conversion and vice versa.

  The free version includes a flexible and lightweight PDF viewer. I’ve used its PDF conversion tool and found the result—almost flawless.

• Best mobile version – If you frequently work with your office files on smaller devices, this is the product to select. Both Android and iOS versions are available.

  The experience of this office productivity suite is above excellent on tablets. Spreadsheet application too is easy-to-use on smaller screens.

Download: OfficeSuite

5. WPS Office

Here’s another office productivity suite packed with features and functionalities. It has all the necessary office apps including PDF tools too. Both free and premium versions are available.

It’s one of the most compact and light office suites among the available options. One also gets free cloud storage with this multilingual office suite. Apart from Windows, it’s also available for Android, iOS, and Linux platforms. Following are some of its useful features.

• Easy cloud-based sharing – If you are working with a team and want to share your office documents with them, use the link sharing feature.

  Through this option, multiple users can access and work on the same document. File owner can set the permissions for the users to ensure unauthorized edits do not take place.

• Drag-and-drop editing – Word documents often include complex layouts with custom indentations for multiple sections. Managing all this through a keyboard can be a cumbersome process.

  To ease things, use its user-friendly drag-and-drop feature to easily manage indentations and the size of the sections. The feature saves your lot of time.

• Large template library – Templates are always a life saver feature for professional users. The richer is the library, the more are the options to quickly build different types of documents.

  You get a large library of templates with this office suite. All the templates are professional-grade and require minimal editing efforts to quickly start with a base structure.

• Multi-tab support – Capability to open and work with multiple documents is one of the important prerequisites for a good office productivity suite.

  The same is available with this solution enabling you to edit multiple documents within multiple tabs which are closely connected with each other.

Download: WPS Office

6. FreeOffice

This free and powerful office suite is available for both Windows and Linux platforms. The bundle includes TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations. It also has a PDF editing application.

An Android version is also available for the smartphone users. It’s almost identical to Microsoft Office and hence gives you more or less a similar experience. All the applications included in this office suite are optimized for touch screens.

• Light and fast – This office suite is known for running quite smoothly on low-end systems too. So, if you’re using a slightly old PC, install this office suite for a good editing experience.

  Its performance on a Linux system is excellent. I’ve tested this office suite on an old Windows 7 system. It ran without any lags and was quite light on the system resources.

• Customizable interface – A good office application is more useful and effective if you’re able to tweak and customize its interface as per your needs.

  You can either use classic menus and toolbars or can go ahead for a modern ribbon interface. Both the options are customizable to keep the frequently used options—handy.

• Multi-language dictionaries – Almost every office suite is multilingual but there’s another feature which is not available with every such solution.

  This office suite includes language-specific dictionaries to enable users from different locations on the globe to write with confidence with minimal errors.

• Flexible import-export options – Import of different file formats and vice versa is supported by this productivity suite.

  Both PDF and ePUB file export feature is present. While exporting documents in different formats, its conversion engine works swiftly without any significant or noticeable latency.

Download: FreeOffice

7. Thinkfree Office

This office suite offers 3 different ways to use its applications. There’s a web version, a mobile version, and a regular desktop version. Its help center of has a full-fledged knowledgebase to resolve the usage issues if any. A dynamic help information search bar is also available.

Its document conversion tool is quite powerful and works without any issues. For example, a word document can be converted into text, HTML, PDF, JPG, and various other formats.

• Cloud storage support – This one is an essential and much-needed feature of a modern office productivity suite. Nowadays, local storage of office documents just doesn’t cut the ice.

  Its cloud connection module is made for saving your office files to your preferred cloud storage platform. Its information synchronization feature works well with remotely stored files.

• Convert PDF to a document format – One of the powerful features of this productivity suite is the ability to convert a PDF file into an editable document format.

  This feature is very handy when converting pre-made PDF templates into editable documents to speed up the entire exercise. During conversion, layout and structure is preserved to the closest.

• Secure from malware – When working with important business files, security is of prime importance. Often malware and infected macros corrupt office files without user’s knowledge.

  This excellent office suite can prevent the execution of malicious code through real-time detection. This way, your office documents remain safe from any kind of infection.

• Translation and ODF support – Another important feature for business users working with global teams is the document translation facility which saves a lot of time.

  An OpenDocument (ODF) format saves the file in ISO-standardized file format. This facilitates preservation of information in a standard format and the ability edit the file via compatible apps.

Download: Thinkfree Office

8. ONLYOFFICE

The free version of this office suite is open source. It’s extremely lightweight with a soothing interface. A cloud version, a self-hosted version, and classic desktop applications are available for the users.

It is compatible with both ODF and Microsoft Office file formats. One can use it on Mac, Linux, and Windows. A dedicated support forum helps you in resolving usage problems in a fairly quick time. For personal and home use, a free web-based version is also available.

• Real-time co-editing – If an office suite is providing multi-user live co-editing support, it’s an ideal choice for business and professional users.

  This office suite’s collaboration feature offers the same with added support for real-time chat and communication. Visual indicators and one-click synchronization are supported too.

• Add-on support – Like every mature office suite, this one too support integration of plugins or add-ons. Custom macros are also supported for the advanced users.

  The development of these add-ons is simple and an intermediate level user having basic coding knowledge can build one to add new functions to the office applications as per his requirements.

• Developers API – A powerful, flexible, and feature-rich API is available for programmers. One can use it to create, edit, and manage office documents—programmatically.

  Plugins and macros can also be made through the API library. Web developers can use its JavaScript API to create and embed documents within web pages—on the fly.

• Apps for iOS and Android – Full-fledged apps for both the mobile platforms is available for the users. On smaller devices too, you can use its collaboration and cloud storage features.

  Its file management system too is user friendly and enables you to browse, access, and share office documents, with ease. Mobile app interface for both the platforms is clutter-free.

Download: ONLYOFFICE

9. Polaris Office

It is one of the few office suites having a very large user base on Android platform. Both free and premium versions are available and that too for all the popular platforms.

Even if you’re running an old PC with Windows XP, this office suite runs on it, without any issues. With a wide range of file format support including ODF, it can be used to edit and manage files created by external office applications.

• SDK for power users – This one too provides a feature-packed SDK for developers. Through it, one can easily create custom office suite applications.

  It includes UI customization and security enhancements for the custom application. Integration with 3rd party software system can also be achieved through the SDK.

• Professional file converter – Its premium file conversion utility is a must-have for every professional user. This converter can run both on Linux and Windows systems.

  With one-click blazing fast file conversions, a user can generate the content in his preferred format—quite easily. This powerful converter is best suited for business environments where large-scale and automated file conversions are required.

• Co-editing support – Businesses can use its powerful co-editing feature to enable multiple users work on a large document from different locations.

  Invitation, communication, and synchronization is taken care automatically by the co-editing system so that users can focus on their primary document editing task.

• Unified file viewer – Generally, for different types of office files, one has to open it with the respective application even if one just needs to view it.

  Through a unified file viewer powered by HTML5, one can view all types of office files through a single application. This way, you can view both word and excel files simultaneously within the same application window.

Download: Polaris Office

10. SoftMaker Office

This robust and multi-platform office suite deserves a mention in this list. It automatically saves the documents in Microsoft compatible format so that there is no need for any conversion.

Both ribbon and classic menus are available for the users. It also includes an extended and enhanced version of Mozilla Thunderbird to power your business email communication. Additional dictionaries can be downloaded and added to this office suite.

• Support for 4K screens – Users who want to edit graphic-intensive large documents in an easy way should definitely go for this office suite.

  It has support for big 4K screens out-of-the-box. It’s best suited for both slide and spreadsheet documents that not only grow horizontally but also include a lot of graphics.

• File version management – While working with a large and complex document and that too in a collaborative environment, maintaining all the old versions can be a headache.

  Fortunately, this office suite has a powerful version management system so that you can easily roll back to a previous state, as and when required.

• Run from USB – Often office suites are bulky and need a proper system or device to function. But several users travel frequently and sometimes cannot carry their devices, everywhere.

  This office suite can run even from a USB stick. This way, you can not only carry it easily in your pocket but can run it on almost any device.

• Touch screen support – Users who prefer to interact with the applications through a touch screen even on desktops can take advantage of this feature to the fullest.

  This feature is specifically useful when working with a large document or when frequent switching to different sections within the document is required—repeatedly

Download: SoftMaker Office

Bonus Tool: Canva’s Summarizer Tool

A text summarizer tool has become a vital tool in the world of office productivity suites for professionals who are struggling with information overload. Canva’s suite of tools includes a Summarizer feature that serves as an example of how these technologies simplify work processes.

The function of summarizing text:

• Information management: Summarizing long texts makes them easier to understand quickly in the midst of a flood of data.
• Time Efficiency: Cutting down on time spent on lengthy reading in favor of quickly obtaining the essential ideas.
• Clear Communication: Precise transmission of important information is improved by concise explanations.

Benefits of Canva’s Summarizer:

• Ease and Quickness: Canva’s application provides an easy-to-use interface for quick summarizing without being complicated.
• User-customizable summary length allows for a balance between depth and brevity.
• Integration: Improves workflows for content production by integrating easily with Canva’s suite.
• Cooperation: It is simple to share summaries, which encourages cooperation and productive dialogues.
• Remote Accessibility: Widely used, this internet resource facilitates distant work circumstances.

To sum up, text summarizing features are critical to excellent office productivity packages. They enable professionals to efficiently communicate, manage a deluge of data, and make decisions, eventually increasing productivity and efficiency.