1. Lotus Symphony Install
2. Download Ibm Lotus Symphony
3. Lotus Symphony 1.3

SmartSuite is a discontinued office suite from Lotus Software. The company made versions of its office suite for IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows.

1. IBM Lotus Symphony Once upon a time, in the deep, dark recesses of computer history past, Lotus Symphony battled Microsoft Office to become the dominant Office suite.
2. The IBM Lotus Symphony suite-which is available at no charge-can help you take back control of your IT budget while giving most users the tools they need to excel at their jobs.

Status[edit]

Venerable productivity suite adds solid PDF editing, real-time collaboration and Read Mode in latest version. Microsoft Word 2019. IBM Lotus Symphony: Free office.

SmartSuite is no longer supported and maintained.

SmartSuite used to be in maintenance mode, and supported with fixes and fixpacks on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. SmartSuite is not officially supported by IBM on versions of Windows after XP, but it does work well on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista and of Windows 7, if the installer and applications are run with XP compatibility mode set for the executable files. IBM has no plans to release an official Windows 7-compatible version of SmartSuite.^[2]

eComStation 1.0 included the OS/2 version of Smartsuite.^[3] It was an optional extra in later versions of eComStation.^[4]ArcaOS does not include Smartsuite, but is able to run it.^[5]

In 2007, IBM introduced a new office suite called IBM Lotus Symphony, unrelated to the Lotus Symphony integrated application suite that Lotus previously released.

In July 2012 the price for a user licence of Lotus SmartSuite 9.8 was US-$342.00 when purchased directly through the IBM website.^[6]

In May 2013, IBM announced the withdrawal of SmartSuite. Marketing of the product ended in June 2013, followed by all support ceasing in September 2014. IBM has also announced that there will be no replacement for SmartSuite.^[7]

Components[edit]

The following applications are included in SmartSuite for Microsoft Windows:

• Lotus Word Pro — word processor; previously called Ami Pro; .lwp files
• Lotus 1-2-3 — spreadsheet; .123, .wk1, .wk3, .wk4 files
• Lotus Freelance Graphics — presentation software; .prz files
• Lotus Approach — relational database; .apr (data entry and reports), .dbf (database) files
• Lotus Organizer — personal information manager; .org, .or2, .or3 files
• Lotus SmartCenter — a toolbar that let users quickly access programs, calendar, Internet bookmarks, and other resources
• Lotus FastSite — web design software; .htm files
• Lotus ScreenCam — screen recording software for demos and tutorials; .scm, .exe, .wav files

Version history[edit]

Microsoft Windows[edit]

• (1994) - SmartSuite 2.1 (Ami Pro 3.0, 1-2-3 4.0, Freelance Graphics 2.0, Approach 2.0 and Organizer 1.1)
• (1995) - SmartSuite 3.1 (Windows 3.11) — (Lotus 1-2-3 ver. 5, Approach 3.0, Ami Pro 3.1, Freelance Graphics 2.1, Organizer 2.1, ScreenCam 1.1).^[8]
• (1995) - SmartSuite 4.0 (Windows 3.11) - ^[9]
• (1996) - SmartSuite 97 — Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 (1-2-3 97, Word Pro 97, Approach 97, Freelance Graphics 97, Organizer 97, ScreenCam 4.0 and SmartCenter)
• (1997) - SmartSuite 4.5 (Windows 3.11) - (Word Pro 97 Edition for Windows 3.1.) ^[10]
• (1999) - SmartSuite Millennium Edition (9.5) — (Organizer 5.0, Fastsite release 2, WordPro Millennium Edition, 1-2-3 Millennium Edition, Freelance Graphics Millennium Edition, Approach Millennium Edition, SmartCenter and ScreenCam).
• (2002) October 2002: Latest version: SmartSuite Millennium Edition 9.8.
  • Fixpack 2 was the last version provided to the general public. All subsequent releases were only available to IBM Passport Advantage subscribers. Fixpack 3 was released in October 2005 and Fixpack 4 in October 2006. A subsequent Fixpack 5 was released in October 2007 followed by Fixpack 6 in December 2008, although these Fixpacks only contained changes to the Lotus Approach database software.^[11]

Compatibility[edit]

Most SmartSuite programs are capable of reading and writing the corresponding Microsoft Office files. The Microsoft programs, however, are capable of reading only a few vintage formats of the Lotus programs, such as the older 1-2-3 .wks and .wk1 files. Furthermore, several of the SmartSuite components provide functionality not found in the Microsoft Office suite, for example Lotus FastSite and Lotus SmartCenter.

IBM vs Microsoft[edit]

In his finding of facts for United States v. Microsoft, Judge Jackson determined that because of IBM's marketing of Lotus SmartSuite, and other alternatives to Microsoft products (like World Book electronic encyclopedia instead of Microsoft's Encarta^[12]), Microsoft 'punished the IBM PC Company with higher prices, a late license for Windows 95, and the withholding of technical and marketing support.'^[13]

Microsoft did not grant IBM OEM rights for Windows 95 until 15 minutes prior to the release of Windows 95, August 24, 1995. Because of this uncertainty, IBM machines were sold without Windows 95, while Compaq, HP, and other indulgent companies sold machines with Windows 95 from day one.^[14]

See also[edit]

• Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set (LMBCS)

References[edit]

1. ^'Software withdrawal and discontinuance of support: Lotus SmartSuite , Lotus Organizer and Lotus 123'. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
2. ^Information about SmartSuite and Organizer working on the new Microsoft Windows Vista operating system
3. ^'eComStation 1.0 Manual'(PDF). Retrieved 2020-09-03.
4. ^'eComStation — OS/2 Renewed'. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
5. ^'Installing Lotus SmartSuite on ArcaOS'. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
6. ^IBM Lotus SmartSuite User License + SW Subscription & Support 12 Months (D5CTSLL) per https://www-112.ibm.com/software/howtobuy/buyingtools/paexpress/Express?P0=E1&part_number=D5CTSLL&catalogLocale=en_US&locale=en_US&country=USA&PT=html (31. July 2012))
7. ^Software withdrawal and discontinuance of support: Lotus SmartSuite , Lotus Organizer and Lotus 123
8. ^LOTUS SHIPS SMARTSUITE 3.1 FOR WINDOWS; NEW RELEASE FEATURES ORGANIZER 2.0, AUTOMATED INSTALLATION AND SMARTCENTER 2.0
9. ^LOTUS ANNOUNCES SMARTSUITE 4.0 FOR WINDOWS 3.1 FEATURES NEW PRICING; NEW VERSIONS OF WORD PRO, ORGANIZER AND SCREENCAM
10. ^Lotus Announces Availability of New SmartSuite 4.5 for Windows 3.1 Featuring Internet-enabled Word Pro Word Processor
11. ^Fix list for SmartSuite for Windows 9.8 and fix packs
12. ^Court's finding of fact, United States Department of Justice, Sec. 127. November 5, 1999
13. ^'Full text of Judge Jackson's findings of fact'. CNet., Sec. 116. January 2007
14. ^'Full text of Judge Jackson's findings of fact'. CNet., Sec. 125. January 2007

External links[edit]

IBM's free Lotus Symphony office productivity suite does much of what Microsoft Office can do. And it costs nothing.

IBM is challenging Microsoft with a game of 'anything you can do I can do'. Its Lotus Symphony office suite -- now available as a public beta -- does much of what the $690+ Standard edition of Microsoft Office, only at a much better price: it's free.

Comprising of three applications -- a word processor (Lotus Symphony Documents), a spreadsheet (Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets), and a presentation creator (Lotus Symphony Presentations) -- IBM Lotus Symphony supports both Windows (XP, Vista, 2000) and Linux operating systems. (IBM says a version for the Mac OS is coming, but hasn't said when.)

Right now, on the Lotus Symphony site it suggests that the IBM Lotus Symphony suite beta requires an IBM ID, and that the user is based in the US. When we signed up for an ID (which is free) we were honest about being in Australia, and successfully downloaded, installed and ran the beta.

Each IBM Lotus Symphony application can open and save in a variety of file formats including Office (2003/XP/97; not 2007) and ODF (Open Document Format), as well as save files as PDFs.

The IBM Lotus Symphony suite is available as a free download. It requires a minimum of 540MB of hard disk space on Windows (750MB on Linux) and 512MB of RAM. In our initial tests we found that IBM Lotus Symphony launched slowly and had noticeable lags with some tasks when operating on a PC with 512MB of RAM, but it ran at a clip on a 1GB system.

IBM doesn't offer direct tech support for IBM Lotus Symphony; instead, it has set up an online user support community to which an IBM support team contributes.

Word stays at number 1. For now

Unlike Microsoft Office, which makes you launch its applications separately, the entire IBM Lotus Symphony suite opens in a single window, with a tabbed interface that integrates all three applications. The feature set and cosmetics of the three applications mirrors Lotus's Symphony office suite from the 1990s, and the look and feel will be familiar to any Office user.

Still, there are enough differences between Microsoft's suite and this one to give newcomers pause as they attempt to locate functions. But the learning curve for any user should be short, as IBM Lotus Symphony's menus and toolbars are intuitive.

Lotus Symphony Install

Symphony Documents opened our existing Microsoft Word files with no problem. After editing the documents, we were able to save in Word's .doc format or in IBM Lotus Symphony's native OpenDocument (.odt) format. One nice touch: we saved a document with 1000 characters in both formats and found that the .odt version had a 66 per cent smaller file size (7 Kilobits vs. Word's 21Kb).

Download Ibm Lotus Symphony

Another nice feature is called Text Boundaries, which places a thin line around the perimeter of the printable part of the document so you can actually see how the borders and margins are set up. The default page view also has a Text Properties sidebar that offers a convenient way to preview the fonts, font sizes, and special style options (such as shadow or engraved) used in the document. Unfortunately, this view wastes valuable screen real estate -- and the only other viewing option in IBM Lotus Symphony Documents is an online view that hides page breaks.

Alas, the special effects you can render in IBM Lotus Symphony Documents are lost when the file is saved as a Word .doc. And while most elements of a Word .doc are transferable to Symphony, some -- such as macros, tracking changes, and special format styles such as drop caps and shading -- are incompatible.

When we opened in Symphony a Word doc that had tracking marks, the marks were intact, but we could not accept or reject them. We were also unable to hide or delete them from the page. Similarly, when we created a file in Symphony and formatted text as a drop cap, then saved the file as a .doc and opened it in Microsoft Word, the formatting was lost.

Lotus Symphony 1.3

While IBM Lotus Symphony Documents has fewer features than Word, it is still a very useful word processor that comes with enough power for most everyday needs.