If you lack confidence in your writing skills, WhiteSmoke General Writing 2009 may prove to be a boon. And General Writing stays just the right side of overpriced. But as with all such tools, caveats apply — don't rely on WhiteSmoke alone to make sure your copy is pristine.

Basecamp still rules the roost when it comes to entry-level project management services. But if you'd like something a little slicker, then consider 5pm.

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.

KOffice looks like it has a great future on all three popular desktop operating systems. The developers need to focus on optimisation and stability for it to be a real hit.

It lacks some of Excel's more high-end functionality and features, but EditGrid is a useful online spreadsheet application. And it's free. What have you got to lose?

For anyone who wants to revise documents, spreadsheets or presentations on the go, without needing to carry a laptop, Quickoffice Premier 5.0 could be just the ticket, while anyone frustrated with the (very!) basic Nokia S60 diary should take a look at the same publisher's Quickcalendar.

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.

Who should use OpenOffice? Anyone who needs an office suite but doesn't require the more sophisticated features of Microsoft Office. It's ideally suited for home users, students, and small businesses who don't want to pay the hefty fee for Microsoft Office. If you plan on purchasing an ultra low-cost portable such as the Asus Eee PC, the suite is ideal - it's free, doesn't require an excess amount of RAM, runs on a variety of operating systems (including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux), and won't take all of your precious hard disk space. Even on a normal PC, it's a great alternative to Microsoft Office. Enterprises, though, may have already standardised on Office. And even if they haven't, there simply aren't the support tools and support ecosystem for OpenOffice as there is for Microsoft Office. All in all, OpenOffice 3.0 shows that you don't have to pay a bundle for a great office suite - in fact, you don't even have to pay a penny.

As a comfort blanket for checking documents before you send them on, WhiteSmoke 2008+ Executive offers more than MS Word. It's full-featured and easy to use and picks up basic mistakes. But WhiteSmoke suffers from problems intrinsic to all automatic editors; without a human to make judgements, it will never be infallible. At $136.99 WhiteSmoke 2008+ Executive seems a little expensive to us, but the $79 General Writing version may suite your needs just as well.