David Flynn31 July 2009, 6:00 PM
More than Works but less than Microsoft Office, Corel’s new Home Office suite is being pitched at netbook users and comes with the installer on a USB key.
You’ve got to give Corel some credit – the Canadian company is a bit like a boxer who’s bruised, badly beaten but simply won’t stay down on the canvas for the count.
In its attempts to defeat the dominance of Microsoft Office, Corel has tried almost every strategy in the book. It’s jumped onto the network computer and Linux bandwagons with failed attempts to create bespoke versions of everything from WordPerfect to an all-new Corel Java Office suite.
It’s pitched itself to government departments with the early adoption of open document standards long before Microsoft discovered (and then adapted) XML. And it’s long been the budget-priced alternative which compares favourably to the steep cost of Microsoft Office.
Alas, low-cost software has trouble competing against free alternatives such as OpenOffice, and Corel also missed the push into online apps boat which now presents Microsoft with its greatest challenge.
Yet despite every sharp blow Corel receives and every punch it fails to land, it keeps climbing back up to take another swing.
Corel’s latest hope is netbooks, with their small hard drives and modest processing power. So the new $99
Corel Home Office suite has now been decreed as ‘netbook-ready’.
Corel's newest Home Office suite is obviously made with netbooks in mind – why, it even says so right there on the box!
At least part of that positioning makes sense, as Corel supplies the installer on a USB memory key rather than a DVD disc. The suite itself is essentially a cut-down version of WordPerfect Office with the three essential components of a word processor (Write), spreadsheet (Calculate) and presentation package (Show), although there’s no database or drawing software.
So while Corel Home Office has far fewer features than WordPerfect Office it also boasts also a smaller memory and hard disk footprint. It’s more capable than Works, which Microsoft has sought to bundle into many netbooks along with Windows XP, but obviously falls short of Microsoft Office.
It looks like Excel 2007, but this is in fact the Calculate spreadsheet from Corel Home Office.
All the same, Corel Home Office can open and save documents to Office 2003 and 2007 file formats (as well as PDF), and even mimics the ribbon-style toolbar of Office 2007. We just hope that Corel hasn’t neglected the value of keyboard shortcuts in favour of that mouse-centric ribbon.
If you think this might be just what your netbook needs, you can
download a trial version and take it for a spin. We suggest you do some serious testing on file compatibility against Microsoft Office documents before handing over your money, however.