Most people become so accustomed to using Microsoft Office that they never consider its alternatives. But there are more than one way to process words and spreadsheets: Word and Excel aren't the only games in town.
In fact, it's getting easier and easier to do without the most popular Office applications. Other than Outlook--which my company uses--I haven't opened a Microsoft Office app since last February, when my HP laptop died prematurely.
In fact, it wasn't easy removing the trial version of Office Enterprise 2007 that was preinstalled on the Sony Vaio that replaced the piece-of-crap HP that died. I've been working just fine using the free Jarte word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet.
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This week, Corel came out with a brand-new suite of office applications for XP, Vista, and Windows 7 users. Corel Home Office ($69.99) bundles in three applications: Write, the word processor, Calculate, the spreadsheet maker, and Show, the presentations builder.
Corel Home Office differs from other Corel office suites in two ways. First, it's been written with a new code base, so it's not a perfect continuation of Corel WordPerfect Office. It doesn't hurt that the suite is the near-spitting image of Microsoft Office 2007 in layout and design.
Second, it has been optimized for Netbooks, both in terms of a smaller footprint (just over 100MB) that translates into lighter features (Corel sticks to core tasks) and a couple concessions for the small screen. The best of these is the F11 button, which hides the menu bar, significantly increasing the amount of screen visible on a Netbook.
As a result of its lighter features and lighter footprint, the suite is aimed toward home users--both casual consumers and those operating home businesses. While there are strong features in this suite--like a built-in PDF maker in each of the three apps--there are detractions, too. Converting files from Microsoft Office into Corel Home Office was sometimes off, and the results from pasting data were imperfect. While it's meant for the budget-conscious, freebies like OpenOffice.org offer a full-featured suite for no cost and may be better suited for Netbook, laptop, and desktop users looking for more powerful tools. However, it may also provide casual users with more functionality than they really need.
Corel Home Office isn't for everyone, but it does hold its own as a midrange productivity suite. It has the added bonus of giving Microsoft users a very familiar workflow and feel in a smaller, cheaper, and less cluttered format. Try Corel Home Office for free for 30 days, or read more of the pros and cons in our detailed review (with images.)
Here's your chance to score Office Ultimate 2007 for the unheard-of price of $60.
(Credit: Microsoft)The list price for Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate is a whopping $679.95. The upgrade price? An equally whopping $539.99. For that kind of money, it better come with Megan Fox's phone number.
Believe it or not, you can score a legal and totally legitimate copy of Office 2007 Ultimate for just $59.95. What's the catch? You need to shanghai a college student (or, you know, be one).
Microsoft's "Ultimate Steal" deal is for currently enrolled students who have an e-mail address ending in ".edu" or who attend one of several dozen approved institutions. (Mouse over the "Am I Eligible" link for more details.)
Assuming that you qualify, this is a pretty incredible deal. In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, Office Ultimate comes with OneNote, Access, Publisher, Groove, and other goodies.
There's one other small catch: Your 60 bucks buys you the download version of the suite. If you want discs (which I highly recommend), it'll cost you another $13. Still a steal.
Of course, some would argue that most students (and other users) can get everything they need from OpenOffice 3.0, a full-featured office suite that costs nada. Let me know if you're in that camp, or if you think Microsoft's offer is too good to pass up.
Interestingly, each student can purchase up to four licenses, so anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit can...well, I've said too much.
Two popular open-source and extensible apps have come out with minor-point updates in the past few days, but some of the changes are worth noting. OpenOffice.org has gained a lot of traction and notice this year as a credible alternative to the Microsoft Office suite, and Pidgin, the program formerly known as GAIM, supports multi-protocol text chatting including Google Chat, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ and others.
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