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Before the economic bubble burst, I had bragging rights for being the first on my floor to shell out 400 bucks for Microsoft Office 2007 Professional. True, I had the infamous ribbon that decorates the programs to contend with, and I had to hunt for such simple commands as "cut" and "paste," but, hey, for 400 bucks I had the latest and best Microsoft had to offer.

Smart investors in office suites have known for years that an open-source set of programs called "OfficeSuite" has all the features of its expensive cousin. I knew it, too, but how do you put a price on bragging rights?

So, for smart folks who may be economically challenged in this economy, I recommend OfficeSuite. It's available on DVD, or you can download it for free at www.OpenOffice.org. The DVD version can be updated for free at any time, too.

How does it stack up to Microsoft Office? Very well, indeed, not only for the price, but at any price. OfficeSuite has Microsoft Office-compatible components for word processing, database, presentation, spreadsheet, mail merge, photo-editing and web page creation. You can create .pdf files that can be opened with Adobe Acrobat. Documents and spreadsheets, for example, can be opened in Microsoft Word and Excel, simply by saving them with those formats.

OfficeSuite's presentation program, aptly called "Impress," has templates and clipart to create business and personal projects. Other components will help you design everything from stationery to slide shows, and invitations to photo scrap books.

Students will find templates and formatting help for book reports, class projects and presentations and even help with preparing a basic thesis.

There are components that will analyze your business and track your household budget, and those are just the tips of the icebergs. Go deeper into any program, and you'll discover that there's something for just about everyone. Even braggarts like yours truly, who's 400 bucks poorer at a time when every penny counts.

OfficeSuite 2008 will run on Windows Vista and XP. To order the upgradable programs on DVD, send $20, plus $6 for shipping, to WashingtonCD, PO Box 351531, Los Angeles, CA 90035, or online at www.washingtoncd.net.