Standard Office suites

The Bottom Line: Despite some compatibility setbacks, Corel Home Office suite is useful for creating documents. Its conscientious size, small-screen optimizations, and attractive price make it a good buy for a Netbook office suite, or for saving space by shedding advanced features.

Specs: 1 user, 1 GHz, USB drive, Mouse or tablet, 1 GHz

The Bottom Line: The Corel WordPerfect Office X4 suite best fits those who prefer traditional interfaces for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. We found the features rich, but the execution sometimes clumsy.

Specs: 1 user, Complete package, Microsoft Windows Vista Business, Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, 466 MHz, CD-ROM, SVGA monitor, Mouse or compatible device, 466 MHz, Windows, Internet Explorer 6.0 or later

The Bottom Line: Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users, but most people can get by with less costly alternatives.

Specs: 1 PC, Complete package, Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 or later, 500 MHz, DVD-ROM, XGA monitor, 500 MHz, MacOS

The Bottom Line: Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users, but most people can get by with less costly alternatives.

Specs: 1 PC, Complete package, Apple MacOS X 10.4.9 or later, 500 MHz, DVD-ROM, XGA monitor, 500 MHz, MacOS

The Bottom Line: Overall, Microsoft Office Standard 2007 is a worthy upgrade if you need to make sleeker-looking documents and presentations to share with others, and Outlook is better than ever, but you can stick to your current software if you don't feel that it lacks anything.

Specs: 1 PC, Complete package, Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 or later, 500 MHz, CD-ROM, XGA monitor, 500 MHz, Windows, Internet Explorer 6.0 or later

The Bottom Line: Overall, Apple iWork '06 is a compelling package, though mostly due to Keynote 3. Keynote 3 is a better tool than PowerPoint, and Pages 2 offers some intriguing new features, though professional users will still yearn for Adobe FrameMaker.

Specs: 1 user, Complete package, Apple MacOS X 10.3.9, Apple MacOS X 10.4.3, 500 MHz, DVD-ROM, 500 MHz, MacOS

The Bottom Line: If you don't mind standard versions of popular programs, Microsoft Works Suite 2006 is a time-saver for basic home-computing tasks such as organizing photos, budgeting, getting travel directions, and word processing.

Specs: 1 user, License and media, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, 700 MHz Intel Pentium, 700 MHz, Modem, Speaker(s), 4x CD-ROM, Sound card, SVGA monitor, Mouse or compatible device, SVGA graphics card with 4MB of memory, 700 MHz Intel Pentium, 700 MHz, Windows, Internet Explorer 6.0

The Bottom Line: Corel WordPerfect Office X3 is a very good productivity suite with enough enhancements to warrant an upgrade. Microsoft Office users, though, should wait for Microsoft Office 12.

Specs: 1 user, Complete package, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, 466 MHz, CD-ROM, SVGA monitor, Mouse or compatible device, 466 MHz, Windows, Internet Explorer 5.5

The Bottom Line: Student 2006 is an excellent homework helper for late-elementary, middle, and high-school kids. If you already use Microsoft Office, it's a good buy. If you don't, it's too expensive.

Specs: 1 user, Complete package, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP3, 333 MHz, DVD-ROM, Speaker(s), SVGA monitor, 4MB video memory, 16 bit sound card, Mouse or compatible device, 333 MHz, Windows

The Bottom Line: The improvements in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint make this upgrade worth the cash, especially for Office 2001 users, but the new Project Center needs beefing up.

Specs: 1 PC, Complete package, CD-ROM, XGA monitor, Mouse or compatible device, MacOS