Whenever I hear the word "Pro" and "Microsoft" in the same package, I get inherently nervous because it's often nothing more than a few add-ons for hundreds of dollars more.

The first thing to warn you about is upgrading from Office 2007 with this package. You are almost certainly going to experience a myriad of upgrade problems, compatibility issues and goodness knows what else. certainly. Note that you'll certainly need a considerable amount of time to adjust to upgrading to this new version of Office although those used to the Classic version will probably have least problem and for the cost of the upgrade, it's debatable whether it actually increases productivity or speed of use at all. The ribbons in particular are still cluttered, poorly organised and occupy too much of the desktop. In addition, there's not much added functionality although they have manged to make sure that the ‘saved’ file sizes are smaller. I really can't see much reason in upgrading from Office 2003 based on this very frustrating version of 2007 but if you really do enjoy constant technical hiccups and error messages, then go ahead.

This is one Microsoft upgrade to definitely avoid although the one advantage is that saved file sizes are smaller.

Download Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Beta 2 in Softonic

One of the most popular downloads on the Softonic site continues to be SPSS, allowing you to make complex graphs and illustrations from statistical data. The package is mainly aimed at those that want to solve business and research problems and features a wide range of analytical functions that take the pain out of collating data.

After the pretty quick installation procedure, you can generate graphs, pie-charts and timelines to impress your boss and present your results with some good-looking tabular and 3D graphical features. It also includes a convenient web-share function so that you can publish your results for colleagues via SPSS’s online database rather than send them by e-mail.

SPSS also offers more detailed analysis options to look deeper into your data and spot trends that you might not have noticed. You can test out hundreds of different variables on your data to see how figures or performance would change under different circumstances.
Whilst business users will find this an immensely useful program, it does take some time getting used to. In many ways, its a glorified version of Excel but with far more options and more intuitive to use. Domestic users may be intimidated by the size of the program and would be better off using something simpler although once mastered, its fairly simple to use.

Download SPSS 16.0.1 a in Softonic

There are many reasons you might want to use Microsoft Office Word Viewer: perhaps you need to check a document on a public computer or maybe you've been sent a Word document but don't have time to install Microsoft Office in its entirety. Whatever your reason, if you need to view or print any Microsoft Word document quickly, this tool could prove to be a real lifesaver.

After a simple install process, run the app and you're presented with an Open File dialog window. Remember: you can't create, change or save any document in Word Viewer. Select your chosen file (the viewer supports .docx files via a converter, as well as older .doc and other formats).

Upon opening your document, you'll see that it displays just as it would in Microsoft Word, only without any of the editing tools. This means that you can see editorial notes and changes, if they have been tracked on the document. Additionally, you may access the file's properties window which will display statistics and authorship information, along with other details.

While you cannot export or save any document from Word Viewer, you do have two options for obtaining a copy of the text. You may either print the document (which works just as well as printing from the full version of Word), and you're also allowed to copy the text and paste it into another application.

In all, Microsoft Office Word Viewer is a small and useful application. While it has no editing functions, it lets you read documents from any version of Microsoft Word with ease.

Download Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003 1.2 in Softonic

Adobe Reader is the standard application needed for PDF viewing on the Windows platform. It has been in existence for over a decade now and has gone through various evolutions during this time. One result of this is that it has been increasingly loaded with plugins and extensions which mean that it's consistently criticised as being bloated and slow.

This is true to a certain extent although it still has much to offer. With this release, Adobe have addressed some of the speed issues and the memory footprint has been improved consistently throughout the development of version 8. The biggest problem with this program however is and continues to be security. It has too many features that most people do not need which not only slow it down but also leave it very vulnerable to attack. However, it does a very good job of allowing you to scroll through documents, jump to certain pages, copy text and print.

Adobe Reader is a well designed application that still performs effectively despite its size and will continue to be an essential application for producing documents.

Download Adobe Reader 9 in Softonic

Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, the current version of this popular add-on for Microsoft PowerPoint, can help you easily capture, synchronize, and publish audio, video, slides, and images. It's the ideal tool for creating engaging presentations, training, and business communications.

Whether you're a content professional, media professional, or information worker, with Producer 2003 you can create dynamic presentations and training cost-effectively. At the same time, you can increase comprehension and the number of people you reach. Producer 2003 addresses a wide variety of communications scenarios by making it easy to work with audio and video. Use it to:

Develop training content

Content providers, media departments, or training groups can create on-demand content that engages users and complies with eLearning standards developed by Instructional Management Systems (IMS) Global Learning Consortium, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Defense Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM).

Generate high-quality online presentations

Companies of all sizes can create rich-media presentations that can help them meet important business goals, such as introducing a new product.

Create informal business communications

Business professionals can use Producer 2003 to create informal, yet effective presentations, such as an audio description of quarterly results.

Produce on-demand executive broadcasts

Capture the audio and video of a live broadcast and then use Producer 2003 to integrate slides and other related elements. Then, post your presentation for on-demand viewing.

Archive departmental meetings

Workgroups can use Producer 2003 to capture meetings, quickly add entries to the table of contents, and then post the indexed content for others to access from their computers.

Index archived videotapes

Take existing video training content, synchronize it with PowerPoint slides, and then publish your updated content to the corporate network to reach users in a cost-effective and engaging way.

Download Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2003 2.0 in Softonic

PowerPoint Viewer 2003 lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions. This viewer also supports opening password-protected Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. You can view and print presentations, but you cannot edit them in the PowerPoint Viewer 2003.

Download Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2003 6.0.2600.0 in Softonic

Those wishing to read PDF documents on their PCs now have an alternative choice when it comes to viewing these files - PDF-XChange Viewer. This PDF viewer is is smaller, faster and more feature-rich than other available readers.

You might be surprised just how quickly your large PDF files open and pages smoothly refresh as they are scrolled. So, why not speed up and improve your PDF viewing experience by downloading this viewer and trying it out?

In addition to all the standard functions here are some of the features available in the PDF-XChange FREE Viewer:

• Add comments and annotations to any PDF file
• Markup pages with text and objects
• Type directly on any PDF page
• Export PDF pages or entire files to BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG and more
• Extract text from a PDF page or file
• Make your navigation of large PDF files both simple and enjoyable with the Loupe and Pan tools

Download PDF-XChange Viewer 1.025 in Softonic

The productivity suite market is generally dominated by two main options: you either use the proprietary Microsoft Office suite or its open source alternative, Open Office. But if you don't like any of them, I'm glad to inform you there's a third choice.

Kingsoft Office is a fully featured, completely free office suite you can use for your daily work tasks. It includes three main applications: Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, to create DOC, PPT and XLS files respectively. The three of them are installed and launched separately – unlike Lotus Symphony, which uses a common interface. There are no apps for databases, email, or web publications.

I must admit these three apps are almost identical to their Microsoft Office equivalents, so identical in fact I'm beginning to wonder if it's just a copy. Whatever the Kingsoft developers thought about when creating the suite, I'm happy to be able to use a complete suite without having to pay for it. Also, the fact that it's so similar to other suites you may have been using up to know makes the learning curve practically non-existent.

Kingsoft includes interesting options such as the ability to export any document to PDF format and support for document encryption. On the downside, the suite felt a bit unstable during our tests: the Spreadsheets app, for example, crashed on one of our machines but worked perfectly well on a different one.

In any case, Kingsoft Office 2007 is a great free alternative for productivity suite users who don’t want to tie themselves to the same old choices.

Download Kingsoft Office 2007 6.3.0.1371 in Softonic

OpenOffice.org is both an open-source product and a project. The product is a multiplatform office productivity suite. It includes desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation manager, and a drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to those of other office suites. OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.

Localizations of OpenOffice.org are available in 27 languages, with more being constantly added by the community. OpenOffice.org runs on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), and Windows. Written in C++ and with documented APIs licensed under the LGPL and SISSL open-source protocols, OpenOffice.org allows any knowledgeable developer to benefit from the source.

Download OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 in Softonic

Mindjet® MindManager® Pro 6 transforms brainstorming ideas, strategic thinking, and business information into blueprints for action, enabling teams and organizations to work faster, smarter, and with greater coordination. It extends core mapping functionality with a host of simple tools–collaboration, distribution, administration–making it easy for business professionals to quickly deliver bottom–line benefits enterprise–wide.

With Mindjet MindManager Pro 6, you will:

• Capture, analyze, and repurpose information from a variety of sources
• Streamline business processes and speed decision making
• Easily ensure all “stakeholders” stay informed, involved, on task

Download MindManager Pro 6 in Softonic

Microsoft has added new file formats to the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to reduce file size, improve reliability, and enhance integration with external sources.

To help ensure that you can exchange documents between Microsoft Office releases, Microsoft has developed a Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. By installing the Compatibility Pack (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) alongside Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, save, and create files using the robust file formats new to the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack 2007 Beta in Softonic

After a few betas and four release candidates, OpenOffice 3.0 Final has at last hit shelves and has even celebrated it with a launch party in Paris.

If you’ve already tested any of the previous development versions, you won’t notice much of a change. OpenOffice 3.0 reveals itself as a very decent competitor to other popular proprietary office suites: it’s light on resources, easy to use and offers full compatibility with standard document formats – including the latest docx, xlsx, pptx and so on from Office 2008.

OpenOffice includes six different apps that enable you to work with text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, vector-based graphics and mathematical formulas, respectively. All six apps are easily accessible from a launcher ("Start Centre") with freshly designed icons, as well as from an OpenOffice icon (“Quickstarter”) in the system tray. Both the launcher and the Quickstarter icon include a handy template manager as well, though most templates are to be used only with for presentations.

The suite's applications met our expectations in every aspect: they're easy to use (especially if you're used to working with Microsoft's suite) and feature all the necessary tools to create complete documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases and more. They’re also thoroughly documented so, in case you get lost you’ll surely find a way out by clicking on the Help menu. I particularly liked the wizard-style interface in Impress (the "Power-Point" app) which enables you to create presentations in no time. But the best thing about OpenOffice is probably the possibility to improve and customize your suite with new templates and extensions, downloadable directly from the developer’s site.

OpenOffice 3.0 left a very good taste in our mouths. It's a very decent alternative to other suites and can be easily customized with new extensions. Definitely worth a try!

Download OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 in Softonic

eToro is not a bullfighting game, although this is the impression you get from its name. In fact, it's a game about trading foreign currencies and making money out of it.

You can play eToro just for fun or for real money. In both cases, transaction values are authentic and obtained live from stock markets. However, we strongly recommend you to practice a little bit before putting your money into any real risk.

The game looks really complicated at first sight, but fortunately it includes a complete Help area with highly detailed tutorials. I particularly like having an embedded chat client to hang out with other traders while you wait for the right moment to buy or sell.

eToro enables you to learn the basics of Forex trading and make some real money.

Download eToro 1.3 in Softonic

Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Macintosh, VMS, Atari and many other platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely distributed (i.e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally intended as to allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. It does this job pretty well, but has grown to support many non-interactive uses, including web scripting and integration as a plotting engine for third-party applications like Octave. Gnuplot has been supported and under development since 1986.

Gnuplot supports many types of plots in either 2D and 3D. It can draw using lines, points, boxes, contours, vector fields, surfaces, and various associated text. It also supports various specialized plot types.

Gnuplot supports many different types of terminals: interactive screen terminals (with mouse and hotkey functionality), pen plotters (like hpgl), printers (including postscript and many color devices), and printings to output file as vectorial pseudo-devices like LaTeX, metafont, pdf, svg, or bitmap png. Gnuplot is easily extensible to include new devices.

Download gnuplot 4.0 in Softonic

602PC SUITE is an integrated office suite compatible with Microsoft Office documents (DOC/XLS format). The suite is composed of four applications: a word processor, spreadsheet, photo editor, and digital photo organizer.

602Text is a powerful word processor compatible with Microsoft Word (DOC 9x/2000/XP/2003, RTF, HTML) supporting multiple languages per page and spelling for English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

602Tab is a Microsoft Excel (XLS, DBF, CSV) compatible spreadsheet with over 150 functions and ODBC support. 602Photo is a photo editor designed for digital camera and scanner image editing with support for over 15 graphic formats (.JPG, .TIFF, .PSD).

602Album is a digital photo album with thumbnail view, slideshow, enhanced photo printing, batch photo resize / rename, photo CD creation and upload to the web support. Try out this complete suite of office applications.

Download 602Pro PC Suite 4.2.06.0213 in Softonic

Although it is true that standalone computers are always more powerful, it is also true that for portable devices, the need for light applications is always strong. If the portable device were to be a USB pen drive this need is even greater.

In modern life, its useful to have all our document, photos, videos and contacts with us all the timeIts nice to feel free to send a document we have just created at any moment if we need to. The release of very thin and hybrid devices, notebooks with a very small screen try to answer to this need and this life style change. So far though, these devices are not that powerful and they don't have so much storage space. Having a tiny application then is still important and this is why this set of programs may come inhandy.

Tiny USB Office allows you to create text file, export them topdf, use a basic MSN Instant Messaging service, and create spreadsheets. Do not think you can open and modify your doc or xls files though. The application, at least for the latest file uses a proprietary format not compatible with Excel, despite what the developer says. I've actually tried creating simple excel files and the Tiny USB Office couldn't open them. The utility is of course reduced, but you might find useful to have a little office of just 2.3Mb, always available on your USB drive.

The idea of a portable office is great, but I would have allowed compatibility with MS Office; if not the portability is zero and the utility greatly reduced.

Download Tiny USB Office 1.0 in Softonic

Microsoft Money Deluxe helps you stay on top of credit and debt while keeping daily finances simple. From balancing your checkbook to raising your credit score, Money 2007 Deluxe can help you get — and stay — organized. Money automatically consolidates all of your accounts in one place and provides all the time saving features and benefits of Money 2007 Standard plus tools to help you organize your taxes and help reduce debt.

Download Microsoft Money 2007 Deluxe 1.0 in Softonic

ASAP Utilities contains over 300 useful and powerful utilities to fill the gaps in Excel, and automate frequently used tasks. Here are just a few of the tools that you will find in this program:

A few of ASAP's popular tools:

• Deselect cells
• Apply formula to selected range
• Conditional select cells (i.e. cells > 12 or red cells)
• Copy a worksheet's page and print settings
• Vision control, view workbooks, sheets and easily change their settings
• Print multiple sheets
• Color each n'th row or column
• File import and export (txt, csv, dbf, xls, gif, jpg, etc.)
• Export selection as HTML table (including formats, colors etc.)

Download ASAP Utilities 4.2.1 in Softonic

OxygenOffice Professional is an office suite completely based on the famous open source package OpenOffice, but with more templates, cliparts, samples and fonts. All six applications included in OpenOffice are present, but if you click on File, New, Templates and Documents, you’ll find ten categories to choose from with dozens of pre-formatted documents, so you can save time and have more eye-catching works in minutes.

The categories go from Business Correspondence to Presentation and Education. In each one you can find templates for different type of files, like spreadsheet, presentation, andwriting documents.

Although it’s appreciable the effort of providing more materials to work with, OxygenOffice doesn’t add that much to OpenOffice. Having aimed to be more graphically efficient, the program could have improved the general GUI of the Open Office application. In this case it would have been a real plus and people would have had more reason to use it.

OxygenOffice offers many templates and cliparts for you to be more creative while creating personal or professional documents. It would have been nice if the program had improved the GUI also to differentiate the package from OpenOffice though.

Download OxygenOffice Professional 2.4 in Softonic

Wouldn't it be nice if you could edit PDF documents in the same way that you edit Word documents?

Well you can with Abdio PDF Editor (formerly known as Microadobe PDF Editor) which is a professional PDF editing application. Abdio PDF Editor aims to make creating and editing PDF files just like using Mircosoft Office Word and for the most part, it succeeds. Abdio PDF Editor also allows you to work with a wide range of file formats such as native Word and HTML files.

Creating a new PDF is easy in Abdio PDF Editor. Simply open a new project, select the page size you require and the background color. Next you have the option to import a document into Abdio PDF Editor. You can import by selecting "File" and then "Import" Word (DOC), RTF, TXT, HTML and XML formats. From here, you can edit text much as you would in Word. You can insert images and tables, hyperlinks and edit the header and footer just as you would with any Word document. To secure your document at the end, you can define a password so that it can only be opened by authorised users in Abdio PDF Editor.

If you're not a big fan of editing in Adobe's PDF own editor or are a grand master at using Word, Abdio PDF Editor is a considerably easier way of editing PDFs.

Download Abdio PDF Editor 8.6 Build 80705 in Softonic