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Of the long-established names, Lotus doesn't seem to be trying very hard - if at all. This is a shame, as it was an original, friendly and versatile product in its heyday.
But version 9.x has been with us since 1998, and parent company IBM shows little sign of taking it any further. We can't think of any reason - apart from devoted brand loyalty - for purchasing this product.
Corel is trying a lot harder with the Wordperfect 11 suite: in some respects, such as the XML support, it has caught up with Microsoft, and in others, such as the creation of Adobe Acrobat documents, surpassed it.
However, like Lotus, it has yet to implement the Unicode standard, which seems rather shortsighted for a corporation addressing an international market. It's also worrying that Corel has thrown in the towel with its personal organiser, calendar and email package and is encouraging its customers to buy Microsoft Outlook instead.
Finally, when the packaging lists the number one new feature as the option to return to the 'Wordperfect 5.1 Classic mode', one starts to wonder whether the company is looking back at a glorious past rather than forward to a challenging future.
The winners
Given the sheer development effort that Microsoft has put into Office 2003 and the constant innovation, we would be failing in our duty to readers if we awarded our Editor's Choice to anyone else.
Once again Microsoft has tried to please all of the people all of the time - and largely succeeded. The rights management and XML capabilities should keep the corporate users happy, while end users will appreciate the new reading view (especially on laptops), the Research Pane and the suite-wide, wizard-assisted ease of use.
Finally, Microsoft is the only contender to offer a complete and integrated contacts, calendar and email package in the form of the redesigned and toughened-up Outlook.
That doesn't mean it's the best choice for everyone, especially if you don't want to pay several hundred pounds for an office suite.
In fairness, there are reduced prices for upgraders from previous versions of Office, as well as a cut-price version for students and teachers. There are also bargains such as Microsoft Works, which have the full majesty of Word 2002 and light spreadsheet and database capabilities.
This year, we have three strong contenders at the £50 mark, and it has become obvious that budget is no longer a term of condescension.
We couldn't help but like the new kid on the block, Thinkfree. It packs a great deal into a tiny footprint, and its Java coding and cross-platform capabilities give it an air of street credibility that the more staid suites don't have.
We're not quite sure how useful 20MB of online storage is - many ISPs give you more than this as part of a dial-up deal - but the Thinkfree Folders utility makes it easy to get at without having to deal with the intricacies of FTP.
We did feel that it had a few rough edges and couldn't quite match the feature set of Ability or Star, but we'll definitely be keeping an eye open for the next version.
Last year's Editor's Choice, Ability Office, remains an excellent alternative. Its modest megabyte footprint hides a wealth of powerful features, including a suite-wide development language, and it looks very much a long-term contender, with a major upgrade due later this year.
It's especially useful for small businesses or other organisations that need fully fledged and comprehensible database management.
The final contestant, Star Office 7, has seen a major overhaul in the past year, and comes with a lot of extras. Like Microsoft and Wordperfect, it supports XML, and outdoes Microsoft by exporting Adobe Acrobat documents. It has Unicode support, which is a great advantage if you don't want to be confined to the Latin alphabet, a comprehensive development language and good multilingual proofing.
Despite the intractability and limitation of the Adabas database, we have no hesitation in giving Star Office 7 our Highly Commended award.
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