Tags: Microsoft

Sun updates their StarOffice 8 Office Suite

The competition for the Microsoft Office has just gone stronger. Sun Microsystems has finally launched the much-awaited update for their StarOffice suite of applications, which is now in its version 8. It is perhaps the first commercial office suite to provide support for the much in news OpenDocument format that was recently adopted by the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This office suite uses the same code and structure as the open source offering OpenOffice which is also due to be launched in its version 2 sometime soon. The package includes applications for word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database applications. This upgrade improves upon compatibility with Microsoft Office, including support for password-protected Microsoft Word and Excel files and support for PowerPoint presentations with animations, autoshapes, and slide transitions.

This compatibility with the world’s most popular office suite application is necessary so as to help the companies continue to work with already existing files made in the proprietary formats. Microsoft as of now does not support saving files in OpenDocument format. Moreover, this open source format is not yet popular enough to enable people share files and hence support for MS Office formats is required pretty frequently.

StarOffice 8 was in beta testing since February and was originally scheduled for launch in July. However, the release was delayed due to marketing reasons as per the company sources. For enterprise customers, StarOffice 8 software is priced from $35 (£20) per user. Consumers can download the software for $69.95 or buy the packaged product for $99.95.

Checkout: StarOffice 8