Customer Reviews

Microsoft Works Suite 2003 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...
Microsoft Works gives you the same version of Word 2003 as Office, something all students will need; you give a really super photo/paint shop program in Picture it Express (I use PSP for most stuff, but found this a super easy to use paint program that does many of the same things PSP and actually has better lettering that PSP); you get Encarta, great for the kids homework; you get money standard; you get Streets and Cities.

Picture It alone cost around [money], so this is a super buy with programs the whole family will use and save hundreds of dollars.

1. The address book that is included is only accessible from Outlook Express, not from the integrated MS Word software. So what good is a word processor that cannot access an address book for printing envelops or doing a mail merge? From what I could find on the internet this was done by design. The logic of this is incomprehensible, or perhaps reprehensible.
2. If you are unfortunate enough to have generated an address file using the works spreadsheet program you cannot read it using Word to generate mailing labels. You can, however, use Excel files with Word, but MS Works does not include Excel, just the decontented Excel they call the Works spreadsheet. So lucky you, you get to convert the file to Excel 97 or earlier before its readable by Word.
3. Avoid using the "helpful" task descriptions under the Works program tab for mail merge. It won't work. Go directly to Word with your "converted" works spreadsheet file.
4. It would be faster and less frustrating to address labels with a pencil.

I installed this suite on an IBM with a stripped hardrive and only Pro 2000 operating system present . I could not have been happier. Word provides much more versatility than the Works word processor and is wonderfully integrated as a companion to task launcher and enhanced spreadsheet capability. Digital photography is fun with Picture It! however I ended up using Pixela from Sony most of the time as a more convenient application for my camera. Encarta is always first class and Money took a long time to update my records for the year from scratch...but was easy,accurate and intuitive to use. I just bought a new computer with Home Edition XP and am terrified to install this suite which duplicates many areas of XP...but I really miss using Word and will tough it out with some of the problems others have experienced. This is a great product!

A suggestion to install ms wks Suite 2003 Simply right click NortonAv icon on btm right of taskbar. then click disable auto protect. After installing software restart cpu and NAV will go back to auto protect automaticaly.If it doesnt simply right click Nav icon again and then click enable auto protect

Great product for the price .MS Money is kinda tricky to set up but once you get it, youll find it is well worth the money... Ms works,word,Encarta great products in this fine software package.. Product was ordered on Sunday was shipped on Monday and recieved on Wednesday....great service

Microsoft Word is a very good word processor, but if you use to work with macros, I strongly advise against upgrade to Word 2002. This version of the most famous word processor seems to be a step back instead forward. At least my experience with it says so.

In older versions of Word you are able to record macros by performing a sequence of actions. In Word 2002 you can do the same, but with one important difference: macro does not remember font attributes like underline, italic, bold, style, font etc. If you're a PC guru you may probably be able to repair such incomplete macro by entering Visual Basic Editor, but if you aren't, you'll probably be helpless.

Word 2002 has also some other bad characteristics. One of them is the size of its files. A 34 Mb Word 97 file fattened to enormous 49Mb in Word 2002 and a 55 Kb file to 70 Kb.
Another is a fact that almost all of the Spelling&Grammar and Auto Text options are turned on by default. If you're not an English or an American, you need to do a lot of clicking before you can begin to work with Word normally. And poor you if you don't know what to turn off to make auto corrections and other disturbing features disappear. Try to imagine what happens if you write in Slovenian language with the English spell checker turned on! Microsoft should bear in mind that only (small) part of the world is English speaking and writing.

There are also some troubles with cut and paste (Clipboard memory seems to be unreliable).

PS
I gave Word 2002 4 stars for its basic word processing features, but only 1 star for its macros and reliability.

Great product for the price .MS Money is kinda tricky to set up but once you get it, youll find it is well worth the money... Ms works,word,Encarta great products in this fine software package.. Product was ordered on Sunday was shipped on Monday and recieved on Wednesday....great service

I continually stress MS Works Suite as being an excellent product for the money concious consumer. Offering an excellent set of programmes from Word-Processing to simple Photo-Editing solutions. Still I do not know why Microsoft decided to release a new version of Works so early considering version 2002 was just released last year. I think Microsoft should have at least waited until Microsoft Word 2004 was released but I guess Microsoft was thinking about it's revenue for 2003. Over all for users who want programmes that are easy to use and get's the job done, please consider. With Microsoft Word 2002, an excellent word-processor that produces professional looking documents and whizzy school reports, it's really worth the price. The Works programmes such as the spreadsheet and database as I continue to stress are not as powerful as Excel and Access but will suffice, they do get the job done though.
Encarta 2003 is also included and as always this reference material bursting with information is always worthy of getting the latest version, with up to date, current, intuitive, concise and articulated information for both the student and the regular user who has interest in a particular topic. Picture It! Photo is a fun photo-editing solution that takes the pain out of editing and perfecting photos with such features as adding perfect lighting or removing red eyes in pictures, but do not consider this a professional photo-editor, try Adobe Photoshop Elements instead, much more powerful. With other great features for creating greeting cards or other great art and craft material it's commendable. Money 2003 is well updated for the money organizer in the family, and with features that are very much internet integrated allowing users to pay bills online provide users with informative tutorials on how to save money and budget one's self properly. Streets and Trip always keep's on getting better with features that make users find their way. It's beginning to compare itself to the high-end app Microsoft MapPoint.
Should you purchase?
If you recently spent money buying Works Suite 2002, don't worry to upgrade to this yet, wait six month's to a year, their is really no reason to rush but if you are still using a previous version of Works Suite prior to version 2002 it's a worthy upgrade. For version 2002 users the reason why I don't recommend you upgrade is because of Microsoft's unpredictable upgrade cycle just as you might purchase this version of Works Suite, news about Works Suite 2004 start's circulating, I don't want you to make any mistakes wasting your money, here.

I loaded Word 2002 only. It caused the processor to run at 100% all the time that word was active. It would take 30 to 120 seconds to type one character then another or to click on a tool bar item and have it open. All service packs were installed, and didn't cure the problem. When I deleted Works from My computer it caused all WMF files to show up in oriental letters. This program like most Microsoft software it is over priced, buggy and a waste of money. LONG LIVE WORD PERFECT! My computer is running Win. 2000 PRO, service pack 3, 512meg of memory and an AMD 750 Processor. Also jpg. wmf, gif files would no longer work with thumbnail views.