New Site Announcement: Office Software Review

The Microsoft Office suite of productivity software is so ubiquitous on computers that many people don’t know there are other options out there. Even Apple deigns to use Microsoft software as the productivity suite of choice on Macs. But there are more options out there. A lot of them. And the best part is that some offer better features or cheaper prices than the Microsoft default. So we’ve reviewed the best office software out there and ranked them to help you find the right one for you. Check out the Office Software Review site to see the results.

There were several things we looked at when comparing office productivity software suites. First and foremost we looked at what kind of software was included in the productivity suite. We specifically wanted to see a word processor, a spreadsheet editor, software for making presentations, an email client and a database manager, possibly even a website creation program. Next we looked at the features in the two most used programs, the word processor and the spreadsheet editor. Important features include file compatibility, templates, formatting tools, toolbars and tutorials. We also took the efficacy and efficiency of those tools into account while ranking the products.

After that, we compared key productivity features, like format converters, calendars, schedules, spam filters, PDF readers and the like. Last we compared the support options included with each program in the suite and the overall tech support provided by the manufacturer. After taking all those factors into account, some clear winners began to stand out.

WordPerfect Office X4 won the TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award because it had all the features we were looking for. This office software suite had all the productivity programs we wanted in a simple interface. WordPerfect has been around about as long as Microsoft’s products, so WordPerfect has had a lot of years to perfect office software. And you don’t need to worry about compatibility between WordPerfect and Microsoft Office because this suite is compatible with all the major Microsoft document formats. In fact, WordPerfect provided the best conversion features and file compatibility out of all the products we reviewed. Add to that an excellent word processor that’s easily customizable and a full PDF editor that can convert and create PDF files and it’s easy to see why WordPerfect took the top spot in this review. Read the full review.

Despite the fact that we found so many other office software suites, there’s a reason why Microsoft Office is the dominant productivity software. It really is good. That’s why Microsoft Office received the TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award. You probably don’t need much education on why Microsoft Office is so useful, since there are few people who haven’t used it. Suffice it to say Microsoft includes a wide range of programs to do just about anything you need to do. Say what you will about Microsoft and past issues with the Office suite; few other productivity suites can do a better job. Read the full review.

Receiving the TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award is StarOffice, a little-known office software suite that actually has a lot to offer. StarOffice is made by Sun Microsystems and includes a lot of the same programs that you see in Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Office. The only glaring omission in the StarOffice suite is the lack of an email client. But StarOffice offers great compatibility with common formats, a PDF converter and excellent OS compatibility (it runs on Solaris OS, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). Read the full review.

For more information on these and other top-ranked office software, see the Office Software Review site.