For everyday office work, I use the Microsoft Office Pro package, a "suite" of programs that includes Excel, Word, Access, and Powerpoint. All of the applications are "giants" in every respect, but like giants everywhere, they aren't very gentle to your computing environment. For starters, the office suite takes up more than 50 megabytes of hard disk space, and the owner's manuals occupy 8 inches on my shelf. While the individual applications are very powerful, they are at the same time very difficult to master — something like my Japanese hand planes. Even with Microsoft's helpful on-screen Wizards leading the way at each step, working with Word or Excel can be a daunting experience for the new computer user. On
