Ability Office
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Ability Office is an office suite for Microsoft Windows published by Ability Plus Software. An alpha version of Ability Office for Linux has been developed but work has stalled on this version.
Ability Office is a low-cost (although not free like the similarly-featured OpenOffice.org) alternative to Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Office. Version 4 of Ability Office offers Office 2003 look and an expanded number of applications.
Ability Office is popular with OEM system builders in the United Kingdom[citation needed]. Ability Office provides more features than Microsoft Works at a similar OEM price.
Ability Office also supports Microsoft Office and other popular file formats, for import and export of files - so users can easily share files with users of Microsoft Office.
On 1 October 2006, it was announced that the UK supermarket, Tesco, would distribute its own-brand budget software packages in a deal with Formjet, Ability Software's exclusive distributor[1]. As an office software was included, a rebranded version Ability Office, was made and it retails under £20 GBP. It is called Tesco Complete Office.
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[edit] Version 4
The latest version of Ability Office is version 4, released in 2004.
Features of version 4:
- A similar interface as seen in Microsoft Office 2003, although the user can choose to revert back the older interface (Office 2000) or the Windows XP interface seen in applications such as Microsoft Office 2002.
- AutoSpell in Write, a function that automatically highlights incorrect spellings as you type them and when the user right clicks over the incorrect word, a list of suggested correct spellings are shown. This functionality is also seen in Microsoft Word.
The following modules are included:
- Write - A word processor similar to Microsoft Word.
- Spreadsheet - A spreadsheet equivalent to Microsoft Excel.
- Database - A relational database manager in the category of Microsoft Access
- Photopaint - A bitmap graphics editor.
- Presentation - A new module in Version 4 similar to Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Photoalbum - A photo application.
[edit] Release History
| Product | First Released | Most Recent Update |
|---|---|---|
| Ability Office version 4 | 2004 | June 2006 |
| Ability Office 2002 | 2002 | Dec 2003 |
| Ability Office 2000 | 2000 | March 2001 |
| Ability Office 98 | 1998 | Nov 1999 |
| Ability for Windows 1.5 | 1995 | Sept 1996 |
| Ability Plus 3.0 | 1995 | June 1997 |
| Ability Plus 2.0 | 1992 | Jan 1997 |
| Ability Plus 1.0 | 1987 | April 1991 |
| Ability 1.2 | 1985 | July 1987 |
| Product | First Released | Most Recent Update |
