email client

[Freddie]

The one missing component that restricts a greater uptake of SoftMaker is a simple email client. SoftMaker have dabbled in the past with Thunderbird and eM Client, but these were both fairly unwieldy and complicated.
May I suggest that you take a look at the excellent open source Claws Mail (or the earlier Sylpheed) and think about providing it for SoftMaker customers? If you add a simple csv import to Claws Mail and rebuild it as a SoftMaker tool you will have a wonderful, light, fast, robust email client which you could probably customise and recompile in an afternoon. This would make a HUGE difference to SoftMaker Office. Please, please, please do consider. We all need a proper 'SoftMaker' email client and the code is just sitting there waiting for you.

Other than that, everything seems fine. TextMaker remains, in my opinion as an author, the best word processor for writing books and large documents. It allows me to create chapter templates which are exactly what is needed, it is reasonably light, very fast, and I have always liked the inbuilt flatfile database. Perfect. PlanMaker does exactly what it should do and Presentations is all you need (although you could make it a more intuitive drawing programme). So, all we need is that elusive email client. Nothing fancy, just a POP / IMAP client with basic facilities. Claws Mail is a good first step - it works brilliantly, is fast and light. There are some good open source plugins for it which you could also consider. I would be happy to help you draw up a design spec, and also act as a beta tester for such an application.

[Woody44]

Oh, my!

I use Thunderbird as my primary e-mail client and I do not find it to be at all cumbersome. There is a reason why Thunderbird is the most popular free-standing e-mail client -- it's the best.

Having said that, there was a time when I also wanted/needed a separate e-mail client to handle a couple of auxiliary e-mail addresses that I wished to keep separate from the accounts I have in Thunderbird. I tried Claws (among several others), and it was simply awful. I couldn't get it off my computer fast enough. I also tried eM-Client, and I liked it. It looks almost identical to Microsoft Outlook (and, in fact, eM-Client is recommended by Microsoft for users of Office versions that don't include Outlook) and it works very well. That's the one I use as my alternate, especially on older notebooks that don't have the full version of Microsoft Office installed.

[seasidepb]

I've yet to find a wholly satisfactory email client. I generally use emClient, because it does everything Outlook can as well as the things Outlook won't do (unified inbox, proper Google calendar sync). But its UI feels a little tired. Mailbird has useful integration with a whole load of web-based apps, and is my second choice, but it doesn't feel quite mature, and a major revamp is promised for next year, which I'll view with interest. Likewise for Thunderbird - the promised revamp I mean. At the moment its UI feels antediluvian, and last time I looked its calendar and address book synchronisation was limited (probably Microsoft's fault, but that doesn't help me). Maybe things are about to change, and I'd be really happy about that.
But as for Claws, I'm not sure what Softmaker could really bring to it, unless they could radically improve the interface (and I'm talking about more than icons).
Indeed I'm not sure what integration would bring. I like the way Outlook seems to know if you've been working on an Office doc and when you come to attach a file to a mail, suggests that document, but it's a minor point. I wonder if an integrated notes app could be more useful, perhaps working with something like Upnote, which fits well into the Softmaker universe (ie it's not all about corporate usage).

[cpcnw]

Somewhere between Foxmail and Seamonkey mail would do me. I have found both are preferable to Thunderbird. With Thunderbird I found I had to install 3 add-ons just to do simple things I expected to just work (one was just to choose a compact list that used to exist now is an add-on)

As for Notes programs, I have been using this for years. Best freeware Notes out there in my opion (and I have tried loads!)

https://www.horstmuc.de/wmem.htm