SoftMaker Software announces beta of its newest version of TextMaker for the Windows Yes, there are alternatives to Microsoft’s omnipresent Word text editing application.One of them is little-known TextMaker from German software vendor SoftMaker Software, which announced on Tuesday the beta release of its newest version for the Windows operating system.PC users may be interested in TextMaker 2005 for a couple of reasons, said SoftMaker spokesman Tobias Leissner. One is price: the product, which is expected to be commercially available by the end of October, will retail for $49.50. Other key selling points, according to Leissner, are the product’s compatibility with a range of operating systems including Linux, Windows Mobile, Qtopia, and FreeBSD, and its compatibility with the Microsoft Word “.doc” file format. Users can, for instance, exchange documents with Word 6.0, 95, 97, 2000, Word XP, Word 2003 and Word for Macintosh.Support for several additional file formats will also be available in Textmaker, including HTML, RTF, Pocket Word, plain text, and Unicode.Textmaker will also support the file format used by OpenOffice, another rival to Microsoft Word. OpenOffice is a free, open source product, but a version of it with additional features, StarOffice, is available from Sun Microsystems as a commercial product costing $49.95. The beta version of TextMaker 2005 is available for download from the SoftMaker Web site at: www.softmaker.com/english/tmw05_en.htm. In addition to English, the product will be available in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and simplified Chinese. Software Development