Included Software:  

Ability Office Business provides a comprehensive suite of productivity software ideal for office use. Ability includes a word processor, spreadsheet editor, database manager, presentation software, graphic and photo editor along with a PDF creator/converter. On the whole, the software will be intuitive to anyone who has used Microsoft Office programs—toolbars and menus are mostly carbon copies of what you see on Microsoft products.

While Ability Office Business is perfectly competent for document, spreadsheet and presentation creation, you won’t find many flashy graphics features or advanced functions. For word processing and basic spreadsheets this isn’t a complaint, but if you plan to create presentations, Ability’s Presentation is quite feature poor compared to competitors.

Word Processing and Spreadsheet Features:  

Ability Write is a standard word processor with a decent feature set. Write’s grammar and spell check are as good as anything we’ve seen. Write will handle graphics, charts and tables with ease. Academics and students will appreciate the easy header and footer editing—simply double click the bottom or top margin of the document to input text. While the DOCX file format isn’t an option, Ability Write will allow you to save files as a number of other widely used formats.

Ability’s answer to Excel is Spreadsheet, a bare bones editor capable of advanced calculations complete with pivot tables and macros. We had no trouble using Ability Spreadsheet.

Key Productivity Features:  

Both in terms of feature set and file format compatibility, Ability Office is essentially a Microsoft Office 2003 era suite. What this means to the end user is that Microsoft Office 2007 files cannot be opened using Ability. This is a critical flaw in an otherwise solid office software suite.

While Ability Office Business includes two licenses by default, which we appreciate, the fact that the suite does not include an email client or calendar is a disappointment.

Customer and Community Support:  

ASI provides FAQs, support documentation and user guides on their website. As far as hands-on assistance, you fill out a support form which will be handled by an ASI tech support specialist.

If you’re looking for an affordable office suite and aren’t concerned with using Microsoft Office 2007 files, Ability Office Business is a good software solution. With a competitive price tag, a well-balanced feature set and an intuitive UI, we can comfortably recommend Ability Office Business to our readers.

How does Ability Office compare to other leading office software suites? Read our reviews of WordPerfect Office X4, Microsoft Office and StarOffice, our top three picks, for an in-depth look.

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