Review: The world beyond Microsoft Office Every computer needs an office suite, and Microsoft's Office can be rather pricey, especially if you have to install it on a bunch of PCs at the same time. Happily, there are budget alternatives. If you have an iPad, Apple's excellent tablet version of its word processor costs just £6.99. And Byword, a seductively beautiful word program for Apple Macs, is the same price. Scrivener is a PC program. It's a stunning and subtle tool for writers that does everything from storing the videos and research material that inspires you to checking your spelling. It costs £27. But how about even cheaper? By which I mean free. That's the price of LibreOffice, which has recently had a decent update that makes it much better than last year's model. With any program like this, the first thing you need to check is compatibility: there's no point in saving hundreds of pounds to find that nobody else can read your documents and spreadsheets. LibreOffice does well, but not flawlessly: you'll be able to read and be read, but your formatting may on occasion suffer some changes. Word processing is handled by Writer, which looks frankly humdrum and has some idiosyncrasies. Like the word count, which, as with last year's version, is only visible when you call up a separate box to show how near you are to reaching the ideal length for that report. Calc, the slightly queasily-titled spreadsheet also looks a little low-rent, but on sheets of figures this is more forgivable. There's presentation, database and other programs in the suite and though none is poor, and all are amazing value, they're not quite advanced enough to mask the sense of disappointment you feel when switching to this after Microsoft's suite, or - for Apple users, the remarkable Keynote presentation program. This is clearly the best LibreOffice yet, but it's still hard to recommend it as a viable alternative to paid-for programs. It looks as low-rent as it is, and feels clunky and unpolished. For word processing, try something like Scrivener instead - there is a learning curve to discover its unique features - to see if it suits. Or, if you use a Mac or an iPad for your writing, Byword is essential. Libre Office 3.5 Free