Sun launches StarOffice 9 in Arabic

The comprehensive suite offers a wide array of advanced, extensible productivity tools including word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, and drawing software, which are all now accessible to Arabic users.

Christopher Saul, Desktop Sales Manager for Sun Microsystems Southern & Eastern EMEA, said:

"We are committed to supporting the region's initiative to increase the number of Arab nationals entering the workforce and the significant enhancements we have made to StarOffice means that we can provide Arabic users with a simple, comprehensive solution within all companies whether small businesses or larger enterprises."

Saul added, "The initial launch of StarOffice 9 in English received an overwhelming response and we expect that institutions in the Middle East, with their enthusiasm for technology and productivity, will react in a similar way."

The local edition of StarOffice 9 will provide Arabic users with an open standards-based, enterprise-class office productivity suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office and when compared, has demonstrated significant cost saving benefits. In addition to covering licensing, the total cost also includes migration, training and system administration fees.

StarOffice 9 offers support for businesses of all sizes by providing a rewarding and efficient alternative office suite to boost output of its native employees. The suite includes many extensions that make it easier to perform common tasks such as editing PDF files, creating reports, blogging, and publishing wikis. Additionally, Sun Services can provide enterprise tools to assist customers who are migrating from Microsoft Office to StarOffice 9.

"StarOffice 9 is a great option for companies who have reduced their IT budgets, but are still keen on boosting productivity," continued Saul. "Now that it is available in Arabic, we see a great potential for adoption by government and public institutions, which have a high number of Arabic speaking professionals."

StarOffice 9 has the highest level of interoperability with the capacity to import and execute Microsoft Excel macros, and, to read and write MS Office files. It runs on Windows, Mac, Solaris and Linux and supports many industry standards like OpenDocument Format (ODF), PDF (importing and editing), HTML and FLASH. StarOffice is completely open sourced and has a very flexible licensing policy, which is perpetual and doesn't require renewing.