New Site Announcement: Home Office Software Review

The best part about computers, the internet and just about every other modern technology is that they all make the home office a viable alternative to actually commuting in to a real office each day. Why work somewhere else when you can do everything you need in your own home? While different jobs require different tools, there’s one thing that is essential in any good office substitute: Home Office Software.

I don’t care what you do, you’ll need a word processor at some point, if not daily. Odds are you’ll also need a spreadsheet editor. And who hasn’t had to make at least a half dozen slideshow presentations during their career? Home office software is essential, but (surprise surprise) there are a lot of different office software suites to choose from. Fortunately, we’ve done all the research so you don’t have to. TopTenREVIEWS has evaluated all the best home office software out there, compared and contrasted features and ranked all the products from best to worst. Now it’s easy to find the best home office software for your money.

When conducting the review, we identified several important criteria the best home office software had to have. The basis of any good office software is the word processor, so we considered that part first. The word processor had to be more than a simple text box; it had to have all the formatting tools and features necessary to handle any kind of document. Next we looked at the additional software in the suite, which generally included a spreadsheet editor and presentation software, but we also took into consideration extras like calendars, email clients, PDF creators and more. Next we looked at file compatibility. This is important if you want to share your documents with other people. You need to be able to save in formats compatible with whatever home office software they have. Finally, we looked at the customer support available from the manufacturer should you have questions or problems.
After reviewing the top 10 products, some clear winners began to surface.

Microsoft Office earned the TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award. There’s a reason why it is the most widely used office software: It’s really good at what it does. Microsoft Office provides an exhaustive list of products that will fit just about any need you could have in a home office. There’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the most well-known Microsoft Office programs, but you also get an email client (though not in the Home or Student versions and note taking program. All these programs are fully featured and offer great compatibility, largely because so many other people worldwide use the exact same programs. Microsoft Office has been on top of the office software industry for years now, and it appears it will be staying there for a while longer. Read the full review.

The TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award went to Corel Home Office, which has a remarkably well featured set of programs for office productivity. One of the main attractions of Corel Home Office is that it’s one of the cheapest home office software suites around. And you certainly get a lot for your money. Corel Home Office includes a useful word processor, a spreadsheet editor and presentation software. All these programs have a user-friendly interface and offer excellent compatibility options. Corel Home Office opens all file types from even the most recent versions of Microsoft products. Read the full review.

You may not be very familiar with the winner of the TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award in this review. StarOffice isn’t very widely know as an alternative to Microsoft Office, but it’s definitely worth the time to learn about it. StarOffice is a cost effective way to get all the functionality you need in a home office. There’s a large feature set that actually caters to anyone from students to business employees. The word processor is very similar to what you’ve seen in Microsoft Word, so it feels familiar. And all the necessary features are there. The spreadsheet editor and presentation software are both present and both useful as well. But the really amazing thing about StarOffice is just how much you get for such a small price. StarOffice also includes an image editor, database client and a scheduling application. There are also a series of extensions that can be added to the programs to increase functionality. Because of all this, StarOffice really gives a lot of bang for your buck. Read the full review.

For more information about home office software and side-by-side comparisons of the best ones, see the Home Office Software Review site.