Ability Office Business version 5.0 falls between unpolished free gems such as OpenOffice and Google Docs, and the ultra-expensive, feature intensive Microsoft Office 2007. But unlike free rivals, Ability is feature-rich and familiar to MS Office users. It will make a welcome, inexpensive and useful addition to almost every office workstation.

If you need to digitise and archive documents using a scanner, create secure, extensible electronic documents, produce professional marketing documents and other publications and automate form and questionnaire creation, Acrobat 8.0 Pro will definitely suit you.

Once it gets going, the application gives you a handy way to share files. The ability to allow comments and mark up in Adobe Reader 7 also makes it easier than ever to get everybody's input.

At glance, this suite of applications looks very promising. Adobe just needs to put it back in the oven a bit longer before charging customers for it.

Even in its current state, Zoho Notebook is well worth checking out if you need a home for brainstorming, research, and random data.

Zoho CRM is the most affordable hosted CRM solution on the market. The solution lacks a number of enterprise requirements including integration hooks, time-based escalation triggers, queued workflow and document management, but has much to offer SMBs. Highlights include an intuitive GUI, customisable dashboards, field-level security, rules-based task assignment, and easy-to-share reports. Initial configuration is a grind.

It's free, available anywhere and it's quick in use, but Ajax13's ajaxWrite leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyplace Control will be suitable for occasional users who find themselves in a squeeze and don't want to spend too much on a service.

Users comfortable with Microsoft Office may find it takes time to get used to Apple iWork '08. Advanced Word and Excel users, especially those who rely on specialised features and functions, will probably find Apple Pages '08 and Apple Numbers '08 to be limited. If you do rely on specific functions in Microsoft Excel or features in any of the Microsoft Office applications that are even slightly outside the more general types of usage, you will probably want to download the Apple iWork '08 30-day trial to ensure that the tools you need are there before buying. And, to be sure, the process of having to export files when interacting with Microsoft Office users could get old quickly if you have to do that regularly. But overall, Apple iWork '08 is beautifully designed -- a compelling product and great value for consumers and small business alike. It brings tons of innovation over previous versions of Apple iWork as well as many office suites on the market. And it turns typical office tasks and documents into creative outlets. That it offers all that it does for $99 is, frankly, hard to believe.

If you don't need many high-end features, Ashampoo Presentations will save you a lot of money compared to PowerPoint, and is well worth a look — and potentially, a purchase.

For light users with even a passing knowledge of Microsoft Office, Ashampoo Office 2008 will be a decent buy that's familiar and easy to use (just as well, given the lack of documentation). In our tests we encountered no compatibility issues. But although $103 is a lot less than MS Office 2007's retail price of $690, similar products such as Star Office 8.0 ($69.95) are much less still. And if you're in the market for an inexpensive, stripped down productivity suite, OpenOffice.org and Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations are so cheap they're, well, free.

Modest upgrade to a solid suite offers better (but not flawless) Microsoft Office compatibility.

Minor irritations aside, we think people who use their PC for business -- and who are looking for a real productivity-suite upgrade -- might very well find what they need in Corel WordPerfect Office X3.

Despite not quite living up to the tailored-for-netbooks hype, Corel Home Office Suite is a worthy and more affordable alternative to Office 2007 for those who need only the basics.

Price-conscious buyers are more likely to look at completely free competitors such as OpenOffice.org and IBM Symphony. Nevertheless, WordPerfect keeps its best features and adds enough new ones to keep current users satisfied - and its increased compatibility with Microsoft Office is worth the upgrade fee.