Overall
- I think you did a great job revising and refining Softmaker Office!
Love the new black theme.
Love the formatting options available by right-clicking text.
Lots of great improvements to make the software more polished.
Cursor Appearance
In Object Mode, the cursor size and appearance seems to be determined by Softmaker Office. It would be better if this were determined by the operating system. I have set my cursor to be larger to be more visible (Kubuntu Linux with Plasma Desktop; also Windows 11).
- The cursor is tiny (default?) when working with Autoshapes or when hovering over the left margin of a document in any mode.
The cursor is normal size (the size I set in the operating system) when hovering over pictures that have been inserted in a document (whether or not the picture as been clicked/selected).
The cursor is normal size when hovering over or selecting items in the Applications’ (Textmaker, Planmaker) interface (Tabbed Ribbon, Menu Bar, etc.).
This has been an issue in previous versions of Softmaker Office as well.
Autoshape Options Appear Differently in Linux vs Windows
- Autoshape Templates and Autoshape Effects options appear differently in the Ribbon when comparing the Windows and Linux versions (display of text with the icon makes the options easier to find in the Windows version).
There are inconsistencies in the Ribbon interface among PlanMaker, Presentations and TextMaker
- In TextMaker, when using the lighter color choices for the Ribbon interface, the items in the Search Group and the Selection Group of the Home Tab appear as icons without text; the icons do have text when using the dark color choice. The problem occurs when using the Touch Mode to enlarge menu items and increase spacing. That is the case for TextMaker. In Presentations, the Search Group items on the Home Tab are always scrunched together (no text) in Touch Mode no matter which Ribbon color is set. In PlanMaker, there are single icons in the Search and Contents Groups of the Home Tab; clicking on either of these opens the Groups fully.
Ideally, icons in the Search group of the Home tab would have text.
Next best is the PlanMaker approach where clicking the Search icon in the Search group opens the group fully to display icons with text.
Colors
- In the Linux version there is a choice of black, which is great. The increased contrast makes the interface sharper and easier to read. This color option should definitely be kept.
The other two choices are light grey in color. It might be better to have more distinctive choices: black, medium grey, and light grey. The medium grey could be similar to or slightly darker than the background for the colorful choices available in SMOffice 2024 (TextMaker red; PlanMaker green; Presentations Orange). These SMOffice 2024 options have a higher contrast between background and icons than the two light color choices in SMOffice 2026 and are therefore more readable). However, I see these are available in the Windows version of SMOffice NX 2026 Beta, so perhaps they will make a reappearance in the Linux version.
In general, I would like to see the most readable options retained - with a good contrast between background and icons.
Ruler Display
- Sometimes I can’t get the horizonal ruler to display, or the vertical ruler is blank/has no units. This display issue is inconsistent, even with the same document, so I cannot provide an example file. But I will provide a screenshot if possible.
Print Preview Preference
- I prefer the old Print Preview screen because it seems more clearly laid out, has more spacing and has larger text and other elements. The new print dialog has roughly the same options, but is not as pleasant to use. I don’t mind that there are no longer two separate Print and Print Preview options, I just wish that the old Print Preview had been used as the base for SMOffice 2026’s new single option.