Essential Office — Fewer bells, fewer whistles

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FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen My husband bought me a smart watch a few years ago. I use it the same way I used my old Timex — to tell me the t
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oldfry, lmacri, WCHS, fisher75, DLivesInTexas, abbodi86

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We just updated the version of Essential Office to v2.6.1.  Here are all of the changes since this article was written:
29/08/23 v2.6 Windows 10/11 Dark Mode support added
31/08/23 v2.6.1 Close button added to PDF viewer
French, German and Spanish dictionaries added to Word Processor (default can be set in Options)

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Susan, this looks worth investigating. Do you know if this product has a particular software heritage or is it completely new?

I’m using Libre Office but can’t say I like it 100%. It is buggy and all the modules are prone to files corrupting when saving. It also mimics MS Office whose interface I’ve never liked. Seems to be based on a typewriter model rather that DTP model.

My all time favourite was Ami Pro for it’s excellent paragraph styling but of course no spreadsheet – I do think MS Excel was great. Before Ami Pro, TimeWorks Desk Top Publishing on an Atari 1040ST with GEM desktop graphical user interface – that predates Windows! and was so liberating after DOS based character based word processors.

I do sometimes think it is coming to the end of the road for these big office packages. So many people do not have PCs and now use messaging and texting to communicate. Even email seems to be incline. It’s now sometimes impossible to email organisations and to send attachments. Even my UK major bank does not have email, contact us forms or even chat. You have to call (long waits) or use messaging (not private) or use the postal system.

 

 

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oldfry

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Deanna,
I’m looking for something even simpler, a standalone freeware alternative for WordPad, which will be dropped from future versions of Windows, presumably as soon as 2H23. I’ve Googled “alternatives to WordPad” without much success. Essential Office would work if there were a way to install only the word processor, but I think there’s not.
Perchance do you have the tool I need in your cupboard at OlderGeeks?

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I’m pretty sure you can copy Wordpad from Windows 10 to Windows 11. On my PC, the necessary files (wordpad.exe, WordpadFilter.dll, and a folder named en-US) are located in the two folders below.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows NT\Accessories
C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories

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milleron, Cybertooth

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Many thanks, zat_so. I’m not competent enough to identify “necessary files,” as Windows has so many places that they can be hidden. I hope this works.

On OlderGeeks, I found the apparently ideal substitute, Jarte, <i>but</i> it’s no longer being developed, and, most importantly, from it’s description it appears that it’s simply a glossier GUI for Wordpad — i.e.,  I suspect that without Wordpad being built into the OS on which it’s installed, Jarte won’t  function. Can’t communicate with the author about that because the website no longer has any contact information, but  it’s conceivable that this freeware may be useful in the future.

If Microsoft has any decency, they’ll put Wordpad on the Microsoft Store for future users who value a small (in disk space required), efficient, quick-launching RTF processor that’s sufficient for 95% of their needs. Until then, I sure hope that preserving the Wordpad files for pasting into future Win11-12 Program Files (86) and Program Files will do the trick

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To be clear, you shouldn’t need to put the files in both locations I gave. One or the other should suffice. I listed both in case the files weren’t in one of the locations on someone else’s PC.

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For files created in Essential Office, will MS Office be able to read them, should you need to send the Essential Office document to someone who has only MS Office – i.e. will the word processor files open with MS-Word and the spreadsheet files open with MS-Excel?

What about Essential Office files sent to someone who uses only LibreOffice?

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According to Major Geeks : Essential Office is designed to work seamlessly with Word and Excel documents in various formats, including .doc, .docx, .xls, and .xlsx. This compatibility extends to files created using Office versions ranging from 97 to 2021. With Essential Office, you can rest assured that your important documents and spreadsheets will remain accessible and editable.

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So, this answers the question about someone with MS-Office being able to open the Essential Office documents.

And what about Essential Office files sent to someone who uses only LibreOffice? Will the LibreOffice person be able to open the Essential Office files?

I ask because LibreOffice files and MS-Offices are compatible with one another. And since Essential Office files and MS-Office files are compatible with one another, maybe that translates into LibreOffice and Essential Office files are compatible with one another, too.

But, maybe logical equivalence (A=B and C=B, therefore A=C) doesn’t work here.

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.docx format is .docx format in MS Office, Libre Office, Essential Office, Open Office, etc, etc

.lxsx format is .xlsx format in MS Office, Libre Office, Essential Office, Open Office, etc, etc

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PKCano wrote:

.docx format is .docx format in MS Office, Libre Office, Essential Office, Open Office, etc, etc

.lxsx format is .xlsx format in MS Office, Libre Office, Essential Office, Open Office, etc, etc

That’s true.

If I create a word processing file in LibreOffice, it has the extension .odt. I can open .odt files in MS-Word. I don’t know what the extension would be for a file created in Essential Office, but let’s say it is .aaa. From the answers here, it looks like I can open an .aaa file in MS-Word, just like I can open an .odt file in MS-Word.

WCHS wrote:

What about Essential Office files sent to someone who uses only LibreOffice?

But, my question is this: Can someone open an .aaa file in LibreOffice?

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In Libre Office, you can save it as with a docx format. Under the Settings/Preferences you cam make the docx. xlsx, pptx, etc format the default so you don have to worry with the Office Document format. Look through the settings in Essential Office – it’s there too.

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WCHS

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PKCano wrote:

In Libre Office, you can save it as with a docx format. Under the Settings/Preferences you cam make the docx. xlsx, pptx, etc format the default so you don have to worry with the Office Document format. Look through the settings in Essential Office – it’s there too.

OK, I get it now. Using LibreOffice or Office Essentials, you save the file with a MS extension. Then someone who receives the file can read/modify it, no matter what is on their system – MS Office, LibreOffice, and/or Office Essentials.

Thanks to pointing me to LibreOffice’s Options > Load/Save > General for doing this.

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Good recommendation.  I’m still using MS Office, but when I get a new Windows 11 PC I may not buy it again.  This looks like a very stripped down version of Office/LibreOffice/OpenOffice.

I got my almost 90 year old dad to start using LibreOffice rather than subscribe Office 365.  He might like this one even better.

Custom Build - Intel i5 9400 5 Core CPU & ASUS TUF Z390 Plus Motherboard
Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 22H2
OS build 19045.3693

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