NeoOffice is a welcome open source alternative to the pricier Microsoft Office and iWork'08 office suites. The application carries with it all the applications that you'd expect: word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, database and drawing.

You'll find the interface of NeoOffice and the range of tools in the office suite very similar to what you'd find in Microsoft Office. However, NeoOffice does load up much faster when opening up any document. Most tools open up in a new window so make sure you don't have too many open, otherwise the interface will look really cluttered.

All the different applications in the NeoOffice suite work well and are more than worthy replacements to the options available in Microsoft Office and iWork'08. The presentation tool is the only one I was disappointed with, as it doesn't offer as many templates or tools as I expected to create a shiny, professional presentation.

You'll find very thorough help docs and excellent wizards to master all elements of NeoOffice.

Although the presentation tool is a little weak, the rest of the applications in NeoOffice make for a very good free office suite.

Download NeoOffice 2.2.5 Patch-1 in Softonic

Are you unsatisfied with the statistical analysis features found in Microsoft Excel? StatPlus:mac offers even more data and statistics tools to work with.

Once you have your Excel document open, just launch StatPlus:mac. You'll be able to choose the analysis you want from the menu bar. Just like with any Excel formula, a new window will appear and you will have to select the ranges of data you want to work with.

I found it a little confusing having to open up both Microsoft Excel and StatPlus:mac, and was a little disappointed that it only worked with the Office application and not other spreadsheet applications.

However StatPlus:mac comes with many tutorials and loads of example documents to get started with the program. If you are familiar with statistics though, you won't have any trouble working with StatPlus:mac.

Although a little confusing to use, StatPlus:mac provides advanced statistics tools for your Excel documents.

Download StatPlus:mac 4.8.0 in Softonic

The highly awaited new version of Messenger for Mac is finally out. While it keeps a slightly similar interface and same set of features, Messenger for Mac comes with some extra features.

You will still have to sign in using your hotmail or Windows Live account. Once installed, you'll see Microsoft Messenger 7 offers a slightly updated interface, yet overall very similar to that of version6. Messenger now offers Bonjour support, so you can detect and connect with users on the same local network as you. Features like sending files, displaying a picture or emoticons are unchanged. You can change your display name and add a personal message just by clicking on them. One new feature is that you can give nicknames to your friends. Just click on their display name and start typing. We also liked the search feature, which is really handy to quickly find a contact or email address.

It's obvious that this upgrade is aimed at corporate users as they get the most significant updates though. The highly touted audio and video feature, with which you can have videoconferences with your contacts, is only available to them. The same goes with detailed presence information, as you'll need a version of Office Communications Server 2007 to use it.

Corporate users will love the new features in Messenger for Mac 7, like Bonjour Support, detailed presence information and especially audio and video. Personal users will find barely anything different from version 6.

Download Messenger for Mac 7.0.1 in Softonic

There's no better way to explain a project than via a diagram. OmniGraffle is an excellent application to create complex graphs, layouts or charts.

As with other Omni Group applications, OmniGraffle is very intuitive, and offers a well structured interface, with easy access to your projects, tools, styles and other menus. OmniGraffle is a great program partly due to the tools it includes like Bézier lines and shapes, stencils or connection magnets. To improve the looks of your shapes you'll have to work with visual styles and smart guides to improve the look and structure of your diagrams.

Apart from powerful tools, a good diagramming program needs to give you a clear outlook of your project, even if it is very complex. The outline view in OmniGraffle gives you a clear view of the whole diagram and comes in really handy ton control changes as you're working. You can also use the Automatic Layout inspector to arrange your project in the best way possible. In case you need to insert multiple areas in your project, OmniGraffle integrates subgraphs, to collapse more content into sections and keep your graphs clear.

OmniGraffle will also let you import Microsoft Visio VSD files, meaning you can work on diagrams with PC users and not worry about compatibility issues.

There's no doubt about it, OminiGraffle is a powerful application, replete with tools and styles to design great looking complex diagrams. It's no surprise then that the program has a price tag of $199.95, which not all users will be ready to pay.

If you're looking for a professional application to create complex diagrams and aren't worried about the price, then OmniGraflle is definitely the program for you.

Download OmniGraffle Professional 5.0 in Softonic

Art Text is an application to create high quality textual graphics, headings, logos, icons, web banners and buttons. The program implements the latest Mac OS X technologies which allow you to easily modify any texts and vector shapes into a fancy graphic. Use the result with iWork, Microsoft Office, BeLight applications and other programs. Create more compelling business presentations, brochures, flyers, postcards, business cards and Web sites with the program.

Pre-designed styles, shapes, icon art images, shading materials and other advanced visual effects make Art Text a powerful and intuitive program, which is a great example of delivering Mac OS X technologies to everyone. Not only professionals, but anyone, who wants to make his text work look attractive, will find a use for the program.

Key Features:

• Art Text Screenshot80+ pre-designed styles to get you started;
• Text and special artwork content (about 460 pictograms) as a source;
• Shading Pro tool (ability to cover/shade anything with shading material — any object can get the glassy, plastic or metallic look, it is also possible to add the effect of smooth or rough surface to any of the objects);
• Option to fill and outline text or artwork with different colors, gradients or textures;
• Apply shadow and glow effects;
• Ability to combine text with background image;
• Bend text using 22 adjustable vector transformation shapes or Bezier splines;
• Ability to export into a file or clipboard in TIFF, JPEG, PDF, PNG or other formats.

Download Art Text 1.2.2 in Softonic

iWork’08 is Apple's response to Microsoft Office. The suite offers the Pages text editor, Numbers spreadsheet application and Keynote tool for making presentations. At 469 MB, the pack makes for a chunky download. You’ll have to be patient with it as it installs on your Mac. Afterwards, all you need to do is click on one of the applications, Numbers, Pages or Keynote to get started. Annoyingly, a start-up screen from where you can choose to buy or try the program will pop up every time you launch one of the applications.

All three programs are sleek, colorful and intuitive. We were anxious to finally get our hands on Numbers and were not disappointed. The application makes it really easy to add all sorts of formulas and enter multiple information into your cells. It doesn't show the traditional Excel grid view and lets you add different styles to your tables instead.

All of the apps offer loads of templates to start off from. Controls are easily accessible and Apple seems to have made an effort on elements like page layout in Pages, intelligent tables in Numbers and smart builds in Keynote. We were also very much impressed with the quality of the charts available for each application. Keynote was probably the most intuitive of the three applications and it allows you to create great looking presentations in seconds.

iWork'08 is a powerful suite which brings on many new features that you won't find in Microsoft Office. Mac users finally have their own batch of text editing, spreadsheet and presentation, all in a sexy and very intuitive interface.

Download iWork '08 in Softonic

FontNuke is a utility application for Mac OS X Tiger that removes corrupt / troublesome font cache files. FontNuke removes system font caches, Adobe font caches (*.lst), Microsoft Office font caches, and now also (as of version 1.0.6) QuarkXPress 6.x/7.x font cache files.

Download FontNuke 1.11 in Softonic

With the Office Open XML Converter, you can convert Office Open XML files to a format that is compatible with Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Office v. X for Mac. You can choose to convert and open one file, or convert a large number of files. This version of the Office Open XML Converter can convert the following Office Open XML file formats:

• Word Document (*.docx)
• Word Macro-Enabled Document (*.docm)

These files are converted to Rich Text Format (RTF), which can be opened in Microsoft Word 2004 and Microsoft Word X.

Download Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.1b in Softonic

ThinkFree Office 3 is a suite of Microsoft® Office compatible-applications. It includes word processing, spreadsheet and graphical presentation applications that let users create or edit their documents and files. This revolutionary software is platform independent and compatible with Windows, Linux and Macintosh systems; enabling almost anyone to use it-no matter what operating system they're running.

Download ThinkFree Office Desktop Edition 3.2.0785.07 in Softonic

Translation Service allows you to replace the selected text with a translation in any of several languages—in just one click. It works in any Mac OS X program, so you don't have to copy and paste text back and forth. Services work in applications that were designed for Mac OS X ("Cocoa" applications), such as TextEdit, Mail, Stickies, OmniWeb, Safari, Keynote, and Xcode.

Services do not work in most applications that were ported from Mac OS 9 ("Carbon" applications), such as Microsoft Office, AppleWorks, or America Online. However, services do work in some updated Carbon applications, most notably BBEdit and the Finder.

Further, the selected text must be editable, since Translation Service replaces the selected text with a translation. For example, you can't translate the text in a web page, an incoming mail message, or a PDF. In these cases, you should copy the text to a compatible program, or use the translation window. To translate an incoming message in Mail, just hit reply and translate the quoted message.

Download Translation Service 1.2.6 in Softonic

Adobe Contribute 4 enables anyone to quickly, easily, and safely update existing websites and blogs. With Contribute 4, content authors can post and publish content to multiple websites and blogs from a single application or publish directly from within Microsoft Office applications. And because Contribute 4 works seamlessly with Macromedia® Dreamweaver® from Adobe, website integrity is not compromised — even when multiple authors update content across the site.

Purchased separately, Adobe Contribute Publishing Server (CPS) is a flexible, scalable solution that works with Contribute 4 and Dreamweaver 8 to allow IT administrators to easily control, manage, and analyze web content.

Download Adobe Contribute 4 in Softonic

Halo: Combat Evolved, also known as Halo 1, is a very successful first person shooter (FPS) for Microsoft's Xbox. This Mac port is a faithful adaption of Halo: Combat Evolved to the Mac OS platform.

In Halo: Combat Evolved, as Master Chief Petty Office John-117, one of the remaining super-soldiers of the Spartan II project, you take on the Covenant alien race in a holy war which might determine whether or not the human races survives.

The controls in Halo: Combat Evolved are as good as any FPS and you'll immediately feel at ease blasting away alien intruders, launching grenades and strafing behind pillars and walls. As you proceed through the game you are joined by other Spartan II super soldiers who help you annihilate the aliens.

The graphics are a little outdated, after all this is a game released in 2003, yet you won't suffer any lags and scenery and little details are on the whole satisfactory. At least it won't distract you whilst on your various missions.

One of the great features of Halo: Combat Evolved is the number of vehicles and weapons at your disposal like the Warthog or Banshee.

The artificial intelligence (AI) in Halo: Combat Evolved is well developed and the three levels of difficulty should keep you well occupied.

Another great feature in Halo: Combat Evolved is the multiplayer, with classic deathmatch, capture the flag and king of the hill games great fun among friends.

Although it's certainly aged a little (check the graphics) Halo: Combat Evolved is still great fun and an excellent fps.

Download Halo: Combat Evolved 1.5.2 in Softonic

For those of us who can't afford to dish out the hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office, we're put on the seemingly impossible quest of finding a decent cost-effective text editor. There are plenty out there, but none that qualify as a Power Text Editor like Blaze does with its numerous time saving features!

International spell checking, text to speech, Rich Text Format (RTF) support, and document statistics are some of the reasons Blaze, quite seriously, "blazes" past the competition. Also, convert line breaks to Mac, UNIX or Windows format in seconds, paste the clipboard contents with or without custom styling, export as an HTML web page, strip HTML tags, smarten or stupefy quotes, and strip styles from a document.

However, two of the most time saving features in Blaze are the styles copier and shortcuts. You can select text, copy the font, style, color, and size from it, select additional text and choose paste. It won't paste the old text, but instead make the selected text match the styles of the previous! You can also say goodbye to shorthand, and hello to shortcuts! Shortcuts are user-defined snippets of text which can be inserted with the stroke of a key.

Let Blaze make typing more efficient and less time consuming for you with its powerful feature set and user friendly non-bloated interface. Download the free fifteen day trial — there's literally nothing to lose except the extra work you're still doing!

Highlights:

• Recent File List
• Send E-Mails
• Go to Top, Bottom, Line
• Copy and Paste Styles
• Paste With or Without Styles
• Insert Date & Time
• Jump to Selection
• Replace, Replace All, Replace and Find
• International Spell Checking
• Text to Speech
• TTITLECASE, Sentence Case, lowercase Text
• Strip All Styles
• Strip HTML Tags
• Line Ending Conversion
• Show/Clear Clipboard
• Print Document
• Smarten or Stupefy Quotes
• Set Font, Size, Color, and Style
• Export as HTML or Plain Text
• Shortcuts
• Import Text
• Rich Text Reading and Writing

Download Blaze 2.6.1 in Softonic

Use icWord or icExcel to easily open on your Mac any of the following files:

• Word (version 6 to 2004)
• Excel (version 95 to 2004)
• PowerPoint
• AppleWorks (version 5 or 6)
• ClarisWorks (version 5)
• The display on your screen matches the original, showing you the document as it was created on a Macintosh or a PC.

Use icWord or icExcel to:

• View documents
• Convert to other formats
• Copy/Paste text and graphics into other applications
• Print documents

Download ICWord 4.1 in Softonic