Corel introduces “netbook-ready” home office suite

corel home office

ThinkFree isn’t the only company promising that it’s suite of office tools will play well with netbooks. Corel, a company that’s probably best known for its WordPerfect and Paint Shop applications, has introduced a new version of Home Office, which the company says is “netbook-ready.”

Of course, netbooks are really just little laptops, so the netbook ready label seems a bit silly. After all, you can run Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, or any number of other office applications on Windows or Linux powered netbooks without much difficulty. But Corel claims the latest version of Home Office can be customized to maximize screen real estate, which is a nice setting (although the product page does claim that the minimum screen resolution is 1024 x 768, which is 168 more vertical pixels than most netbooks have). The software suite is also available on a USB stick, which makes installation easier on netbooks that lack an optical disc drive.

Corel Home Office includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application. All three are compatible with Microosft Office documents,, but Corel Home Office costs $69.99, while Microsoft Office 2007 Standard Edition will set you back around $300.

Corel Home Office is available for $69.99 from Amazon. Or you can download OpenOffice.org for free.

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Posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009, 12:59 pm by Brad Linder
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  • Tracy
    You should give SSuite Office a try. It is also free and does'nt need Java or .NET to run.

    http://www.ssuitesoft.com
  • FWIW, the comparable MS Office version is "Home and Student", which can be purchased on Amazon for $79, not the $300 Standard version listed in the article. Plus the MS suite comes with OneNote. Given that it's only $10 more, I'm hard pressed to see how a fee-based suite like Corel continues to survive. Though I do admit that the USB media delivery is a great idea.
  • MonkeyKing1969
    Well, you have to see that software/hardware companies will be "marketing" to netbook users no matter how we might scoff. Mini-computers are an emerging market to be tapped by these companies. People know, or think they know, that their new netbook isn't as powerful as a standard laptop or desk top. Consequently, anything marketed as "Netbook Ready" will be of interest to them on the shelf or in the checkout basket online.

    Soon you will just see companies that make laptop peripherals (mice, cables, headphones, USB cables, SD memory, etc) slapping sticker saying "Netbook Ready"
  • butz
    As an alternative to slow OpenOffice, I recommend SoftMaker Office 2006 from http://www.softmakeroffice.com/ . A bit dated, but free and fast.
  • Peter G
    I'm mystified about these "office suites." I love my Open Office and would never use anything else - including on my Asus 1000H - much less PAY for something else!
  • >> ...although the product page does claim that the minimum screen resolution is 1024 x 768, which is 128 more vertical pixels than most netbooks have..

    Did you mean 168 pixels?
  • You know, I believe I do. :)
  • Solarix
    I use OpenOffice on my EEEPC 900 with no complaints.
  • jer85008
    OpenOffice runs fine on netbooks, it takes a bit of extra time to load initially but seems to run without taxing resources too much and already has a much more simple interface than MS Office. Don't bother with this.
  • bonegrinder
    I feel bad for Corel. They are doing everything they can to keep from going out of business. I like Wordperfect better than Word, but in an age of OpenOffice and AbiWord, they are more than a little obsolete. I am not sure what they can do to stay relevant in today's world.
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