SoftMaker Office Mobile 2012 beta for Android available.

I blogged about the upcoming release of SoftMaker Office Mobile Beta last month. Less than a month later, the beta version of the product is available for free download on SoftMaker's website. Don't look for it on Google Play, you won't find it. SoftMaker Office 2012 Mobile consist of three separate products in the form of  apk files:

• TextMaker 2012
• PlanMaker 2012
• SoftMaker Presentations 2012

Since the apps are outside Google Play, you must make sure that Unknown Sources is enabled on your phone.  For devices running Android 4.0, go to Settings > Security and scroll down to "Unknown Sources" and check it to allow non-Market apps. Devices running previous version of Android, go to Settings > Applications. Note that SoftMaker Office Mobile 2012 requires Smartphones and Tablets running Android 2.2 or higher and 64MB of RAM.

Now the question about how SoftMaker's Office differs from Microsoft Office on Windows Phone? First, SoftMaker's Office supports old Microsoft Office formats DOC, XLS and PPT as well as the formats introduced with Microsoft Office 2007: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX. Microsoft own Windows Phone does not read file formats prior to Office 2007.

Other features include the ability to track changes and comments in TextMaker. The latter also comes with a spell checker. "PlanMaker correctly renders all Excel charts. SoftMaker Presentations is capable of showing slideshows on your Android device with all animations and slide transitions intact. What's more, all programs come with built-in PDF export." 

SoftMaker Office Mobile for Android has some interesting features. I can only hope that the product will have a great price as well.

Download the free beta version.

Update: The beta version expires on 30 April 2012.