Aimed at the small business with little or no bookkeeping expertise, the latest version of Sage Instant Accounts is designed to make life easier for the accounting novice. There are no big changes, more a collection ...

The next step up from a standalone Voice over IP (VoIP) phone is your own, in-house switchboard (PBX), able to support multiple extensions, handle voicemail, route incoming calls and so on. Hardware solutions can be expensive ...

These days you certainly aren't forced to use Microsoft for all your word processing and office application needs. In fact, you don't even have to purchase an office suite at all, as there is a number ...

Despite the ready availability of low cost accounting software, the majority of sole traders, start-ups and other small companies prefer to use Excel or even manual book-keeping. Either that or they hand the whole problem over ...

It would be handy to own something like the Babel fish from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. When Arthur Dent inserted one of those little blighters into his ear canal, he could immediately understand any ...

Online applications may yet have their day, though the examples seen so far have been less than inspirational. Buzzword, an online word processor created by Virtual Ubiquity, is now part of Adobe, since the American Big ...

Microsoft has offered home users a stripped-down version of its Office software since the early days of MS-DOS and, with the Vista-compatible version 9, has revised the series for 2008. In truth there aren't a lot ...

Freely downloadable, Lotus Symphony marks IBM's re-emergence into the office suite marketplace, long after Lotus Smartsuite last made a fresh appearance. The twist this time, of course, is that it's a free project, and one with ...

Avanquest Software has built a reputation for itself by producing a steady stream of personal and business software solutions, and this latest offering provides a user-friendly means of viewing, creating, modifying and converting any PDF document. ...

QuickBooks Pro 2008 begins, as do all good stories, at the beginning. With every version of QuickBooks, Intuit is always on the lookout for ways to make the package more initially accessible. When you're setting up ...

OmniPage is probably the best known Optical Character Recognition (OCR) suite of all and has changed ownership a couple of times in its long life. Since the purchase of ScanSoft, its 'About' window shows it's a ...

Most people have at one time or another found the need to translate text from a Web page or document into another language. Although there are free tools that can help, the most popular being Google ...

Way back in my youth, I can remember TV guru Tony Buzan expounding the virtues of mind mapping, employing diagramming techniques to help visualise and (in theory) simplify complex ideas and concepts. You know the kind ...

If you've been misinformed, you might think that Google Docs is a site you can visit for medical advice to cure any ailments. Thorny problems such as: "Doctor, doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains, ...

When it comes to voice recognition, few are as experienced or accomplished in the field as Dragon. The NaturallySpeaking series now includes version 9.5, recently updated with all-important Vista compatibility and in this particular case, a ...

It's not often that you get something for nothing, especially when it's from a software giant like Microsoft. But that's exactly what's on offer if you sign up for the company's new online service, Office Live. ...

OpenOffice.org is an office suite you can download completely free of charge, which is quite the bargain, especially when you consider that it's not a load of old tat. Not even close, in fact. This is ...

If you're someone who wants to do their computing entirely on the move, then the growing proliferation of portable applications could be just what you're looking for. These are utilities that are stored, installed and run ...

Unless you're a natural linguist who can master half a dozen languages at will and get by in a dozen others, there's always going to be a time when you need a translator, whether to read ...

The name is a bit naff, but TOMMIE - short for 'Total Office Management Made Incredibly Easy' - does have a serious purpose. Moreover, if you're after shared office management tools in a format that's both ...