Which Office Suite?

In the word processing and presentation arena there are three contenders for your choice: Microsoft Office, OpenOffice and Google Apps, which one is the best and why?

Microsoft Office is the only application that has to be purchased by the vendor, whether it comes with the computer as OEM or purchased separately. This is unlike the other two suites that differ with no monetary cost at all.

Openoffice is the complete suite that follows much in the same way as Microsoft Office 2003 does, it also enables you to save your Word document as a .PDF.

Alternatively Google Apps is online and requires a simple sign up to Google and you're ready to begin. For added security all the documents you save are web based so any computer error you have will enable you to retrieve your files again and again and from any computer in the world.

After trialling the three suites it becomes apparent; Microsoft is a suite that I have used for years and am reluctant to leave behind, Google Apps is too new and is in a very simplistic form (but for how long?) and OpenOffice is a clone of Microsoft Office but does not include easy installation of a dictionary and takes approximately 2 seconds longer to load.

The verdict: I think I'll stick to what I am used to for the time being and reassess the situation when it comes to making the leap of faith towards Microsoft Office 2007. Perhaps only more time will tell which one will win in the arena.

Hadleigh Benson