With more of us spending time on our computers, getting creative with home video footage or perfecting our digital photos, it can be an expensive pursuit to purchase all the software needed to do a fine job.

Corel Digital Studio 2010 is a bundled software suite offering home users an affordable way to tame their digital files with a beginner-friendly set-up. With the suite installed it's good to know all the integrated programs use a similar configuration and menu structure. So, if you learn one, another program within the studio won't be radically different.

Install the Studio on your machine and you'll be able to access Corel PaintShop Photo Express 2010, VideoStudio Express 2010, WinDVD 2010 and DVD Factory 2010. A dedicated Digital Studio dock that floats on your desktop gives you a quick route into all of the components (although some may find this permanent fixture a little distracting if you like a clean desktop). Whilst the software components are essentially trimmed-down versions of some of Corel's meatier editing programs, there's plenty of scope here for the creative home user.

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We started off our review of Corel Digital Studio 2010 by looking at PaintShop Photo. As this program acts as a photo organiser as well as an editor it initially took a while for the software to cobble together all of the existing photos, videos and music on our machine and present a preview for all. But once done, this browser acted as a decent hub for browsing through all media, in a similar way that you would be able to with Adobe Bridge.

Even those who feel daunted by software applications should feel the pressure ease as they drag their mouse along the top of PaintShop Photo's interface. There are no menus to navigate around; instead, very simple pop-up thumbnails appear giving you the option to bring in other shots from external devices, get creative with designs such as books or slideshows, carry out easy printing or share to a number of social networking sites such as Facebook or YouTube.

If you're after some software that will give you the opportunity to get a little busier and carry out adventurous photo edits then PaintShop Photo isn't for you. Click on any of the thumbnails within the browser, however, and you can still apply some useful correction effects such as straightening, adjusting brightness or converting to monochrome.

Onto VideoStudio Express. Here you can put together a simple movie using the Create option in this movie software. Rather than master a timeline, the software automatically flows a basic edit using video clips or photos you have dragged into the Media Pool at the bottom of the screen. It's a simplified way of putting together a movie and, although you don't have as much scope for trimming scenes as you may do on something like Adobe Premiere Elements, you can still have your say on titles, soundtracks or even add a voiceover.

Getting your rushes into VideoStudio for you to work on is a really simple process. If you haven't already got the files stored on your computer and can't browse the video in the software library then a handy Import option means it's quick to pull content from a number of different external devices such as your camcorder, mobile phone or even a TV Tuner/Capture Card. Again, the user is taken through each step in a clear and methodical manner so there's no need to get bogged down in a user manual.

As Digital Studio 2010 makes a point of making the sharing of your content simple, it's no surprise that there's a prominent button allowing you to output your movie to the web, burn to a disc or copy the content to a portable media player. Corel has managed to do a sterling job incorporating nifty upload features so you can do everything from the comfort of one page.

With its Smart Upload option you can store login information for external sites (Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, etc.) so you don't have to enter them each time. The upload process was seamless, and in the case of our trial Facebook upload was actually easier than uploading content within the host site!

No Digital Studio would be complete without a way to back-up precious files or save your creations. With Corel DVD Factory 2010 you can either burn files onto DVD or CD or, if you prefer to keep things compact, you can use the software to convert video for viewing on your mobile, iPod or PSP. Once again, this uses the same interface design as VideoStudio and PaintShop Photo so you can go into autopilot if you've been dabbling in any of these.

The only component of Digital Studio 2010 that doesn't stick with the templated interface design is WinDVD 2010, but as this is a DVD player, most of the time you'd just use it to watch a movie full-screen. It's a fairly no-frills affair and works reliably enough, although it's worth noting there's no scope for playing back DivX files.

Corel Digital Studio 2010 is an absolute steal if you don't already own any photo or video editing software. Perfect for beginners, the fact it uses the same interface for three of the components makes the whole suite easy to navigate. Don't expect to be able to carry out extensive photo or video-editing, though. Whilst most of the basics are covered it's not possible to get stuck into hefty tasks. But for general purposes, everything you will need to make basic corrections is here. PaintShop Photo and VideoStudio offer excellent features for sharing content online and through external devices. All of these functions are easy enough to work out in-program rather than spend precious time trawling through instruction manuals. A great choice for the creative home user.