Purchasing a software application or program can be a big consideration, especially when purchasing advanced and usually expensive programs such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop. When considering purchasing these programs it is important that you or your staff be familiar with the program and are sure it's going to be capable of what you need it to do. On this page we've listed different considerations to think about before buying a computer software application. Competition Before buying any application make sure there is not a competing program that may be cheaper or even free. If available and something that's capable of doing what you want it to do this could save you hundreds of dollars. A good example of such a program is OpenOffice and Corel WordPerfect that would be a competitor to Microsoft Word. Both programs are an excellent choice for a word processor but can be a considerable price difference. In the case of OpenOffice, i...