Is there really a market for an alternative to Microsoft Office? Corel thinks so. To make sure you get the message, the UI of their Corel Home Office mirrors MS Office 2007. That should work.
What really makes Corel’s brand new productivity suite stand out, however, is its single-minded purpose of running on netbooks. The result is a light, modestly-sized system that should handle the majority of netbook users’ office needs.
Packing less features than MS Office, Corel Home Office is probably not for everyone. If you’re like most users, though, who use only the most basic capabilities of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, Corel’s corresponding Write, Calculate and Show should provide everything you need, plus a little more.
Whether you use it Corel Home Office on a netbook, the software resizes proportionately, resizing buttons and screens to look good on the smaller 10-inch screen. I actually enjoyed working on this much more than other Office apps for this feature alone.
The Write application poses zero learning curve for regular Word users, making it an attractive alternative. Basic mailing and reference tools are bundled, although none as complete as found in its full-featured counterparts. There’s also macros, charts and illustration tools, but the goodies end there. One glaring flaw is when you paste rich content from the web – images, formatting and spacing are often stripped into a mess.
Calculate, on the other hand, offers strong for the most used features of spreadsheets – calculations, pivot tables, charts, illustrations and macros. Compatibility can be an issue, though, as it doesn’t import everything correctly from other spreadsheet applications (some colors, highlights and, in one instance, computations end up missing).
The presentation software Show is quite basic compared to competing tools. It does handle the usual set of capabilities you expect, like slides, layouts, shapes, pictures, charts, colors and animated transitions. Beyond that, however, don’t expect anything more.
If all you need is a light productivity suite, the Corel Home Office will do. Do note that some cheaper (and even free) tools will also do. If you use a small-screen netbook as a part of your regular work, though, it may prove to be a really good software to purchase.
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