Contrary to popular opinion, Microsoft does not have a monopoly on office applications. There is a small yet loyal following for alternatives--notably, Corel's WordPerfect Office. While past editions may not have stacked up against Microsoft, the 2000 Windows edition does more than stack up: It surpasses Office in several key areas, while holding its own in others.

For those seeking alternative office applications to cut costs, your search should start with Corel. While you may not initially save as much as a switch to StarOffice would allow, you could save $50 a seat with Corel, and hidden upgrade costs will be lower than with StarOffice.

One of these hidden costs is compatibility. You don't want to switch to a competitor unless your present Office documents can be painlessly converted to the new application. WordPerfect 9 is compatible with Word 97, and it easily opened previous files I had stored in that format. Quattro Pro 9--a venerable spreadsheet application--easily opened my existing Excel 97 spreadsheets, as well as Office 98 files from my Macintosh.

A second hidden cost is in training. You don't want to have to train users on a new application, thus eating up upgrade savings. Like WordPerfect, Quattro Pro provides an Office-like interface that makes using it effortless for Microsoft users.

At the same time, it adds its own unique enhancements. Similarly, Corel Presentations 9 is a multimedia and drawing application that lets former PowerPoint users painlessly produce slide shows and multimedia presentations.

Beyond costs, you also want to make sure you don't give up any of Office's benefits while switching to a competitor. I found that WordPerfect Office ran stride for stride with Microsoft Office in several key areas, including its Internet awareness. WordPerfect 9 can automatically convert text to a hyperlink, or publish documents in HTML, Trellix, or PDF formats. Quattro Pro 9 includes Web-oriented functions such as its Publish to HTML Expert function, which lets users create HTML pages that communicate and share data through an intranet site or the World Wide Web. Presentations 9's Internet Publisher function lets users turn presentations into Web pages, and includes step-by-step instructions on how to publish a slide show to the Web.

In a perfect world, you also would like to get more from a new office platform than you're now getting from Microsoft Office. Corel is prepared to deliver with a personal information manager, a specialty Web application, and other goodies.

CorelCENTRAL 9 is an easy-to-use personal information manager. Users can plan their daily schedules, write reminders, organize reference information, and manage corporate contact information with this tool. More important, CorelCENTRAL can be synchronized with your Palm Pilot.

Trellix 2 is a desktop productivity application that allows users with limited HTML skills to organize and publish documents on the World Wide Web. Since Trellix 1.0 was reviewed in this space last year, I won't dwell on it other than to say that what was already a good program has only gotten better.

Other goodies in the mix include Corel Print Office, which I reviewed favorably in these pages. You'll also find Adobe's Acrobat Reader, which lets users view, navigate, and print PDF files. Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications lets you build custom solutions by automating off-the-shelf applications to meet specific needs.

The inclusion of Dragon Systems' Naturally Speaking software and a headset will let you add speech recognition to your system if you have a compatible sound card. (Visit Dragon's Web site for an up-to-date list.) My sound card was not compatible, so I was unable to test it, but Molly Joss, writing in ComputerUser last year, had positive comments about Dragon Systems' technology.

Only a naive reviewer wouldn't see that Corel is providing a product-for-product competitor to Microsoft Office 2000. The company has done that and more with additional software and speech-recognition capabilities. Is the glass half empty or half full? Depending on your personal philosophy, you may view WordPerfect Office 2000 Professional as a suite of used-to-be-great applications or a collection of useful and practical Internet-aware software for a business of any size.