2012/01/05

New: Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012

A new suite of office software applications (freewae) was added in 2012, a new name to keep in mind, is: Kingsoft Office 2012 Suite Free.

This set of applications to be used as an alternative to Microsoft Office, contains the free version of:
  • a text editor (like Word)
  • a spreadsheet (like Excel)
  • a presentation software (like Power Point)



The strong points in my opinion are:
a. High compatibility for both reading and writing files with Microsoft applications, it allows you to:

Open, view and edit Word (97/2000/2003/2007/2010) .doc, .docx, .wps and .wpt formats; output to (97/2000/2003) .doc, .wps and .wpt format.
Open and view Excel (97/2000/2003/2007/2010) .xls, .xlsx, .et and .ett formats; edit and save (97/2000/2003) .xls, .et and .ett format.
Open and view PowerPoint (97/2000/2003/2007/2010) .ppt, .pptx, .dps and .dpt formats; edit and save (97/2000/2003) .ppt, .dps and .dpt format.

b. graphical interface of the three applications familiar to those who already uses Microsoft software (version XP/2003).
c. ability to convert a file directly to PDF.
d. use of the product completely free without any limitation


Required Operating System:
Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows Vista(32bit,64bit) / Windows 7(32bit,64bit)

Basic Configurations:
CPU: Pentium II 266 MHz or higher
Memory: at least 128 MB
Hardware: at least 200 MB available space

Recommended Configurations:
CPU: Pentium III 450 MHz or higher  Memory: 256 MB or larger
Hardware: 250 MB available


Consistency of Document Layout 
Open a 157-page word document (in *.docx format) with Kingsoft Writer and Microsoft Word 2007:

The number of pages are totally the same, which means the page margin, line spacing, character spacing, picture and all the content in the document are displayed according to the same parameters. When we tried to open the same document with other word processors, like OpenOffice.org Writer, the number of pages changed to 184. In this respect we can clearly see that different word processors usually apply different layout standard. However, Kingsoft Writer keeps the same with MS Word. Similar with Spreadsheets / Presentation, when we open *.xls / *.xlsx / *.ppt / *.pptx files created with Microsoft Excel / PowerPoint with corresponding Kingsoft programs, the layout and functions are successfully inherited and displayed. Conclusion: By installing Kingsoft Office, when you send or receive documents, you don't need to worry about file compatibility and layout issues. You can open Microsoft Office documents with Kingsoft Office, and others can open your documents created with Kingsoft Office with their MS Office.

Click here to reach the site where you can download Kingsoft Office 2012 Suite Free 

Upgrade 21/12/2012

The following is a list of updates for Kingsoft Office Suite. The list order is from the latest version to the initial version. Each version description includes the version number, release date and the update details.
Note: Features with * marks are only available in Professional and Standard Editions.

Kingsoft Office 2012 New Features List

Release Date: 17-09-2012

[Office Suite]
1. * Support various interface color schemes
2. * In the 2012 interface, support customization of Quick Access Toolbar
3. * In the 2012 interface, support CommandBar API
4. Support Ctrl+P Print Options, the cursor can be positioned at the Score option
5. Support Shift+F10 to call up the context menu
6. Support recently used document management function
7. Support recording recently used font list, memory task pane settings and memory to display or hide the function area feature.
8. * In the 2012 interface, the tab supports mouse wheel control horizontal scroll function
[Writer]
1. Support recording formats amendment
2. Support arranging windows side-by-side
3. Support watermark function
4. Support amendment function and recording revised format
5. Support background color for inserted text annotations
6. In the "Page Layout" tab, support 6 text direction options, and in the "Text direction" dialog box, support two direction functions
7. Support directly entering a space before the first word in the paragraph wrap
8. Support page background function
9. Support memory document map width function

[Presentation]
1. Support converting Kingsoft Presentation files into Kingsoft Writer file format
2. * In the "Home" tab of 2012 interface, added "Slide Show From Beginning" and "From Current Slide" quick play entrance

[Spreadsheets]
1. Support editing link function
2. Support "Pick From Drop-down list" option in the right-click menu
3. In the "Home" tab, on the "Paste" drop-down list, added "Paste As Unformatted Text" option
4. Support the formula evaluator by single-step function
5. Support edit and open file function
6. In the Equation Editor mode, support function insertion in name box
7. The statistical results of the status bar use thousands separator by default
8. Column width units support pounds, inches, centimeters, millimeters, character units Introduced new chart color scheme
9. Introduced the ET new engine to enhance the computing speed in Kingsoft Spreadsheets

Kingsoft Office 2012 Improved Features List

[Office Suite]
1. Fixed the backup management problems, improve backup management system
2. Solved dictionary crash problem including Youdao, Lingoes and Power Word
3. Optimized the document tab display problem, solve the problems of the document tab bar
4. * In the 2012 interface, optimized the layout and application button under the applications drop-down menu
5. * Solved crash problem after upgrade
6. * Optimized the bubble pop-up mechanism when click "upgrade online" from the "Help" menu before the serial number is expired.
7. Optimized the default background color when you save picture as GIF, BMP and JPG formats
8. * In the 2012 interface, fixed the controls display problem in the 1024 resolution on the "Home" tab
9. Optimized status bar display effect
10. Fixed the problem that title bar does not display the file name

[Writer]
1. Changed "Show / Hide paragraph layout" icon button in the "Home" tab
2. * Support navigating to the last cursor position before the document was closed
3. Optimized the document map
4. * In the 2012 interface, Text tool is presented as large icons
5. After continuously merge multiple cells in the same column, when set the merged cell text orientation to vertical, the height of the first row will change, this problem has been fixed
6. Optimized paragraph layout

[Presentation]
1. Optimized the notes pane below the slide
2. Adjusted the picture clarity in the "Slide Layout" task pane
3. Beautified the effect of slide thumbnails for the Hover and Check state
[Spreadsheets]
1. Edited reconstruction, including the Function Wizard dialog box, the Advanced Filter dialog box, edit field, the parentheses of formula coloring in the edit field
2. * Adjusted the "Draw Border" position in the "Home" tab
3. Improved circulation reference dialog box, the interrupt calculation (status bar) and automatic archiving experience
4. * In the 2012 interface, classifying and extracting functions in the "Insert Function" dialog box
5. In the pie chart, the percentage cannot be accurate to decimal places, now this problem has been solved.

Update 15/04/2013: Just for today (24 hour time), you can download and install the free standard version of the product (Kingsoft Office Suite Standard 2012) from the site Freebiest

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
I was extremely impressed by the product's compatibility with Word and Excel files. In particular I found that can properly handle some VBA macro that does not work on OpenOffice / LibreOffice.
For those who want access to a more professional version (, here is where to find a table comparing the various versions of the product. Only add that in the paid version you can edit and modify VBA macros and you can choose whether to use the new Ribbon interface (similar to Microsoft Office 2010).

NOW, you can see also: "2013: Kingsoft Office Free / Professional"



2011/12/21

Send emails with attachment, from the command line, using the default email client

How to send email with attachments in a way programmed and automated by using the default e-mail client software whatever it is (Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, etc.).?

Essentially there is the need to have a system to compose an email message containing: sender, recipient, title, subject and attachment files and to automatically open the default email client with the message pre-compiled so that the user has to carry only sending.
There are at least a couple of methods:

1. MAILTO
You can use the command mailto with the attachment parameter:
From a command prompt (click Start | Run, then type cmd and press enter) you can launch the default email client through a mailto hyperlink.
Please note that NOT all Email Clients support the parameter for attachments (such as Thunderbird does not accept it).
mailto:me@example.com?Subject=Hi&Body=See+attached+file&Attach="C:\readme.pdf" 

2. SENDTOVB
"Programmatically send emails with attachments using the default email client"
You can use the tool SendToVB, a small free command line utility software that allows you to send email with attachments by a programmed way using the default email client! 
SendToVb is compatible with ALL Client (Thunderbird included). Here is the screen that summarizes the commands and options available:
SendToVB command and options available

You can use the software with Windows command prompt.
The syntax is simple:
SendToVB -files <attachment file1> -body <text of mail> -to <email address> -subject <content>

Example:
SendToVB -file c:\readme.txt -body "Hello here the document for you" -to marc@example.com -subject "Important"

The commands (flags) are:
-files <file1>... <fileN> with which you can send multiple attachments in the same email.
-body <text> which is part of the body of the message enclosed in double quotes (").
-bodytext <bofyfile.txt> that can be used as an alternative to -body when the email must contain a very long message. It allows you to specify the text file that contains the body of the email.
-to <address1>; <address2> with which you can also specify multiple recipients separated by a semicolon (;)
-cc <address1>; <address2> with which one can point in Carbon Copy also multiple recipients separated by a semicolon (;)
-bcc <address1>; <address2> with which one can point in Blind Carbon Copy  even multiple recipients separated by a semicolon (;)
-subject <text> with which you assign the title of the email
-mailto with which to force SendToVB to use the mailto method (instead of the MAPI functions) but that may not work properly when inserting attachments!
All commands (flags) can be abbreviated with the first letter, eg -subject becomes -s


In addition, for those who experience problems with too many parameters and receive the message "command line too long" you can use a second method:

-list <listfile.txt> indicates where the text file that contains a single line with all specified commands to be used for sending mail

SendToVb automatically open your Default Email Client (for example Thunderbird) and compose the email like in Window.

Notes for software developers:

a. Since SendToVB is a small stand-alone tool, it can also be used by third-party software to automate the procedures for sending mail. A hypothetical third-party software written in Visual Basic. NET or C# might contain within it a line of code that calls a shell command within the SendToVB.

For example:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start ("SendToVB -to you@example.com -file C:\readme.txt");


b. SendToVB is coded in Visual Basic 2005 and requires the installation of .NET Framework 2.0 runtime which is often already installed on new PCs. Internally it automatically uses MAPI functions when it has to send emails with attachments, and use the command mailto to send email without attachments.

Notes from the Author:

CHANGELOG:
Version 1.2 - Added -cc and -bcc parameters
Version 1.1 - The First !


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