Alternatives to Microsoft Office

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Overview

WordPerfect 12 and StarOffice 7.0 aren't the dominant office suite players, but each brings strong qualities to the field, such as affordability and ease of use. But do they have what it takes to stand up to Microsoft Office? Read our reviews to find out.

It's no secret that Microsoft Office dominates the productivity suite market, but that doesn't mean it's the only way to go. Corel and Sun Microsystems offer two alternatives that provide a core stable of programs at a fraction of the price of Microsoft's package.

Corel's WordPerfect Office 12 sports interface improvements and one-click PDF, HTML, and XML publishing. Sun's StarOffice 7.0 is a lesser-known name, but it provides all the basic productivity tools and throws in a couple of extras, such as a drawing program. Of course, there are trade-offs. These two suites don't come with email clients, and they're not the best at converting Microsoft Office files.

So which to choose? Budget, work habits and necessity will all come into play, but to help get you started, we've created a comparison chart of what the Standard edition of each office suite has to offer out of the box. Read on to see which one is best suited for you.

If you want to spend the absolute minimum -- that is, nothing -- on your productivity software, check out ZDNet's downloads channel, where you'll find OpenOffice.org (the open source version of StarOffice) and EasyOffice.

Office suite comparison

	Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition	WordPerfect Office 12	StarOffice 7.0

Price (inc. GST)
	AU$699	AU$499	AU$199
OS support
	Windows	Windows	Windows, Linux, Solaris
Features
Word processor	Word	WordPerfect	Writer
Spreadsheet	Excel	Quattro Pro	Calc
Presentations	PowerPoint	Presentations	Impress
Email	Outlook	n/a	n/a
Database	n/a	n/a	Base (Adabas D)
Drawing	n/a	n/a	Draw

Microsoft Office System 2003
While Microsoft Office System is the most complete suite on the block, there's no compelling reason for everyone to upgrade.

WordPerfect Office 12
Corel's WordPerfect Office 12 features a core stable of productivity applications, but suffers from its poor handling of Microsoft files.

StarOffice 7.0
While StarOffice is suitable for students and home users, its poor Microsoft compatibility limits its business uses.

OpenOffice.org 1.1
This feature-rich, flexible and above-all free office suite is much more than a refuge for the anti-Microsoft tendency. It works, it's reliable and it's useful.

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