planmaker

SoftMaker Office spreadsheet

TLDR

Start PlanMaker

$ planmaker

Open an Excel workbook

$ planmaker [path/to/file.xlsx]

Open a workbook with the Office 2026 launcher

$ planmaker26 [path/to/file.xlsx]

Start with OpenGL disabled

$ planmaker -disableopengl

Export a workbook to PDF from an options file

$ planmaker -pdf:[path/to/export.ini]

planmaker starts PlanMaker, the spreadsheet in SoftMaker Office from SoftMaker Software GmbH. XLSX is its default file format. It also edits XLS, opens PlanMaker workbooks (.pmdx in recent versions), imports SYLK, dBASE, DIF, and OpenDocument Calc, and exports PDF and PDF/A.On Linux the package installs a year-suffixed script. SoftMaker Office 2026 provides planmaker26. The 2024 release provides planmaker24, and FreeOffice adds planmaker24free. The program binary itself is named planmaker. Pass a workbook path to open that file instead of a blank workbook.Batch PDF export reads an INI file passed to -pdf:. On Linux the switch is written with a dash. Quotation marks around the path are optional. The export shows a progress window while it runs. When the sheet has a print range, only cells inside that range are exported unless IgnorePrintRange is set.

PARAMETERS

_file_

Workbook to open.

-disableopengl

Start with the OpenGL display engine off. Used on Linux when a faulty OpenGL driver keeps the window from opening.

-pdf:inifile

Create a PDF from the workbook named in inifile, then exit. inifile is UTF-8 and must begin with a byte-order mark.

CONFIGURATION

PDF export is driven by an INI file. The [pdf files] section names the input and output. Further sections match the PDF dialog: [pdf general planmaker], [pdf preferences], [pdf view], and [pdf protection]. Empty or invalid values fall back to defaults without a dialog.

$ AppFile=/home/user/budget.xlsx
PdfFile=/home/user/budget.pdf

[pdf general planmaker]
ExportRange=DOCUMENT
PageRange=ALL
IgnorePrintRange=0
TaggedPdf=1

[pdf preferences]
OpenPDFViewer=0
FontEmbedding=ALL

AppFile is the workbook to convert. If it is missing, the export stops. If PdfFile is empty, the PDF path is taken from AppFile with a .pdf suffix. ExportRange is DOCUMENT, AREACELLS, SELCELLS, CURWORKSHEET, or MARKEDWORKSHEETS. AREACELLS needs AreaCells in the form sheet!C2:D4. MARKEDWORKSHEETS needs MarkedWorksheets as a semicolon-separated list. OpenPDFViewer set to 1 opens the result in a PDF viewer.

CAVEATS

Current Linux packages put a year-suffixed launcher on PATH. A bare planmaker command is the binary inside the install directory and the name used by older packages.The program needs a graphical session. -pdf: shows a progress window and is not a headless converter. The manual's startup and print switches (-N, -FO, -FN, -P, -Q) are specified for Windows.SoftMaker Office is proprietary. FreeOffice is the reduced free edition and uses the same style of launcher.

HISTORY

SoftMaker released PlanMaker 1.0 for Windows in February 1995. It reached Linux with SoftMaker Office 2006 in December 2006, alongside TextMaker and Presentations.

RESOURCES

Homepage · Documentation