PC World: Zoho Office Suite taps AI to provide a free, powerful alternative to Office 365. “If you don’t want to pay for Microsoft’s AI-powered Microsoft Office, there are alternatives—including Zoho’s free Zoho Office Suite. Zoho’s alternatives to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Google Keep launch today, complete with their own intelligent features that are arguably friendlier than Microsoft’s own.”
Microsoft Office
Ars Technica: Now it’s Office’s turn to have a load of patches pulled
I am shocked at how quickly Microsoft updates have turned into a tire fire. From Ars Technica: Now it’s Office’s turn to have a load of patches pulled. “On November’s Patch Tuesday two weeks ago, Microsoft released a bunch of updates for Office to update its Japanese calendars. In December 2017, Emperor Akihito announced that he would abdicate and that his son Naruhito would take his role as emperor. Each emperor has a corresponding era name, and calendars must be updated to reflect that new name. The Office patches offer updates to handle this event. Two of these updates, KB2863821 and KB4461522, both for Office 2010, are apparently very broken, causing application crashes.”
BetaNews: Microsoft Office is now available for all Chromebooks
BetaNews: Microsoft Office is now available for all Chromebooks . “A key piece of software that has been missing from Chromebooks is now available to everyone — Microsoft Office. Microsoft has made its office suite available for a range of platforms over the years, but Chromebook support has been notable by its absence. Now, without announcement from the company, this changes.”
The Hacker News: Russian ‘Fancy Bear’ Hackers Using (Unpatched) Microsoft Office DDE Exploit
The Hacker News: Russian ‘Fancy Bear’ Hackers Using (Unpatched) Microsoft Office DDE Exploit. “Cybercriminals, including state-sponsored hackers, have started actively exploiting a newly discovered Microsoft Office vulnerability that Microsoft does not consider as a security issue and has already denied to patch it. Last month, we reported how hackers could leverage a built-in feature of Microsoft Office feature, called Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), to perform code execution on the targeted device without requiring Macros enabled or memory corruption.”
eWeek: Microsoft Uses AI to Tighten Word’s Translation Tool in Office Update
eWeek: Microsoft Uses AI to Tighten Word’s Translation Tool in Office Update. “Thanks to Microsoft’s accelerated software release cadence, Word now features an improved built-in translation tool that can help users make sense out of documents from their overseas colleagues.”
MakeUseOf: The Best Free PDF Tools for Offices Running Windows or Mac
MakeUseOf: The Best Free PDF Tools for Offices Running Windows or Mac. “While all-in-one PDF suites that can do everything exist, they can cost quite a bit. For example, Nitro Pro is $160, PDF Studio is $90, and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC will set you back $15 per month. If you’d rather not pay a single cent, then we have some good and bad news for you. The good news? Free PDF tools abound and many of them deliver acceptable results. The bad news? You’ll have to collect several different tools and assemble your own ‘PDF suite’ a la carte (if you want the very best results).”
PC World: The best free Microsoft Office alternatives of 2017
PC World: The best free Microsoft Office alternatives of 2017. “Microsoft Office is the king of office productivity suites, but it doesn’t inspire warm, fuzzy feelings in all users. Parsing the ever-expanding list of features—many of which you’ll never use—can feel like stepping into a cockpit without a pilot’s license. The ribbon interface, introduced a decade ago, has many fans, but others pine for the static menus of the early aughts. And then there’s Office’s hefty price tag. Fortunately, alternatives abound, ranging from web apps to freemium and open source desktop installations, many of which are compatible with Microsoft Office docs.”
