Group test: what's the best office software?

5. OpalCalc

• Reviewed on: 6 December 11
• RRP: FREE (donations accepted)
• Rating:

For simple day-to-day use, OpalCalc feels more natural and "human" than Excel, at least for me. By being different and targeting a narrower use case than traditional spreadsheets, OpalCalc has managed to carve itself a uniquely valuable niche.

4. Kingsoft Office Suite

• Reviewed on: 8 June 12
• RRP: £45
• Rating:

If you don't need the extra tools, but do need the Big Three, I definitely think Kingsoft Office is worth a look.

3. Google Docs for Android

• Reviewed on: 31 May 11
• RRP: FREE
• Rating:

The Google Docs app is a clean and simple way to browse and do minor edits to your Google Documents, but not quite compelling enough for me to run out and grab an Asus Transformer for writing. Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the Android app--and the one I will definitely be testing more--is the photo document creation with OCR. For quick reference and reading of Google Docs, this is a great addition to my  Google Android phone.

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2. LibreOffice 3.5

• Reviewed on: 1 March 12
• RRP: FREE
• Rating:

On the one hand, the considerable effort the Document Foundation has invested into LibreOffice 3.5 has produced a solid product with a lot of promise for future improvement. Businesses that are not yet too tied to the Microsoft Office product family would be foolish not to at least consider it. On the other hand, while LibreOffice 3.5 may truly be "the best free office suite ever," to a certain extent you still get what you pay for.

1. Microsoft Office 2010

• Reviewed on: 20 May 10
• RRP: From £79 inc VAT
• Rating:

Microsoft Office 2010 is a significant upgrade from previous versions of the Microsoft productivity software suite. Cohesion and the ability to quickly and easily share information major selling points. Microsoft has given back control to the user and, combined with the massive functionality, the results are overall rather pleasing.