Microsoft Works Suite 2002 - Microsoft's Best Software Value: Word, Encarta, Money, Picture It!, Streets....
Written: May 29 '02 (Updated Jun 15 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: All of the key productivity applications for home users, MS Word, attractive pricing, numerous templates
Cons: Tedious and poorly designed installation routine, Word requires product activation
The Bottom Line: Dollar for dollar, the best value in home/student software.
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| nc10's Full Review: Microsoft Works Suite 2002 Full Version for PC (B1... |
WHAT is Microsoft Works Suite 2002?
Microsoft Works Suite 2002 is a full featured productivity software suite for home users, and includes six full software packages, geared towards home/student users. Most people will find each of the programs to be useful, feature rich, stable products, although some may be of no value if you are locked into using a competing product. Works Suit 2002 includes:
Microsoft Word 2002 - identical to the version you'll find in Microsoft Office XP - this requires product activation.
Microsoft Works Version 6 - An Office Suite for home users (word processor, spreadsheet, database, calendar, address book)
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002 - Well, you know what this is...
Microsoft Picture It! Photo 2002 - Easy to use Photo editing software
Streets & Trips 2002 - One of the best travel planner/street mapping programs
Microsoft Money 2002 - A full featured home budgeting/check register package
"In the box" you'll find a small cardboard box of 5 cd's in paper sleeves, containing complete versions of the software listed above. A "user-unfriendly" 25 character product key is pasted on the back of the small box, which you'll need to type in during installation. If you don't make a full install of the software in this Suite, you'll need to insert the cd each time you use the program, which makes the lack of a jewel cases disappointing. The placement of the cd key on the cardboard box makes it unlikely many people will want to store the cd's in aftermarket jewel cases, to minimize the risk of losing the cd key on the back of the disk box.
Also included, is a cd containing software for joining MSN, including 3 months free, a brochure containing 6 pages of fine print describing the "End Users License", and ...... surprisingly...... a 150 page manual called Getting Started with Works Suite 2002 . The manual contains several sections describing how to use Works, and a separate chapter for each of the other applications. A digital version of the manual is also included, and is available from the start menu.
Microsoft's Upgrade Policy for Works Suite
To start this review, I need to walk through Microsoft's confusing upgrade policy for Microsoft Works Suite. The only version of Works Suite available in stores is nominally an "upgrade" version, although it requires no previous software to be installed on your system. Microsoft does require previous ownership of one of the following:
Microsoft Works (all versions)
Microsoft Word (version 6.0 or later for MS DOS, Windows, and Windows NT Workstation)
WordPerfect for MS DOS (4.0 - 5.1)
WordPerfect for Windows (5.1 - 9)
Productivity suites from Novell or Corel which contain WordPerfect
The retail version of Works Suite is not marked upgrade anywhere on the box EXCEPT in tiny print on one of the side panels. Anyone who has purchased a computer system in the last 10 years has likely owned one of the qualifying programs, and can legally use this upgrade package. These qualifying programs do not have to installed on your system. Microsoft sells the "full" version Works Suite on their website for the same list price ($109) as the upgrade version. Given the poor "upgrade" labeling, the common pricing of the upgrade and "full" versions, and the long list of qualifying upgrade programs, most people can comfortably conclude that this upgrade is for all users, and if not, you can easily find an old version of Wordperfect or MS Works on ebay or in old software bins for $5-10 to make yourself 110% "legal".
Installation
Installation of Works Suite 2002 is time consuming, tedious, and convoluted. Installation starts with inserting disk 1, the setup disk, chosing between the 3 installation options: typical, minimal, and custom. Typical and minimal installs all the applications, with either standard or minimal components. Custom allows you to install only the programs you want, to the locations you chose. A little over 1 gigabyte (gb) of disk space is required to install Works Suite.
I chose the custom install, which allowed me to not install Money (I'm a long time Quicken user) and to install some of the programs to a drive different than C. I never did find a way to install Works or Word anywhere but to the default installation path on the c drive, although everthing else could be installed to any drive. After chosing the custom install, you chose which programs you want to install, and the routine starts by installing the Works and the Task Launcher, a web like interface which integrates the various parts of this Suite into one menu, as well as templates and guides for the different programs. The installer then turns the installation over to a install routine for each particular piece of software, which forces you to switch disks back and forth between the setup disk and each program you want to install. This goes very slowly, and most of the programs allow you to perform a complete install so that the cd is not needed again. (In my case, as I proceded through this installation routine, I was never given the option to do a full install for Encarta. I later removed Encarta, and installed it separately using the setup.exe file on the Encarta cd, which allowed a full installation.)
As you install Microsoft Word, you are asked to type in the 25 character product key, and later you are asked to "Activate" the product either by phone or through your internet connection. If Word is not "activated", it can only be launched 50 times. Product Activation allows Microsoft to keep users from installing one copy of their software on many computers. Activation through the internet goes quickly, taking only about a minute. The hard drive on my computer went bad about 2 months after I installed Works. When I reinstalled, I let Word activate through the internet again, which worked as smoothly the second time as the first time. (Apparently Microsoft recognized I was reinstalling on the same system, kind of spooky.) Product activation by phone also is also pretty easy. When I helped my parents install a (different) copy of Works Suite on their system, we activated Word by phone. A Microsoft rep was available quickly and after giving her the code supplied by the installation routine, I received a code from Microsoft, which I typed in to activate the software.
Although the installation ultimately works, by the time you finish, you will have left behind about 2 hours of your life, and opened and closed your cdrom drive about a dozen times.
Does the Software Work?
All of the software included in this package does what it is supposed to do very well, and each is considered one of best programs in their respective markets. The task launcher can be useful. You can choose to start a spreadsheet or document, or choose a "task" to perform, such as starting an inventory for cd's and tapes. A "task" opens up a predefined spreadsheet, database or document template for a given task, helping you get started quickly.
A few comments about each program:
Encarta
Separately, Microsoft sells 3 versions of the world's best selling encyclopedia, Encarta Standard ($19.95), Deluxe ($29.95), and Encarta Reference Library ($59.95). The version included here is the Standard version, containing almost 40,000 articles, almost 13,000 pictures, 26,000 web links and other features. The deluxe version adds more articles, and features, and the Reference library offers all that and atlases, a thesaurus and almanac. The standard version is about as complete a product as you could imagine fitting on one cd, and supplements that data with thousands of web links. The program is easy to use, very stable, with easy to read, understandable articles. You can print text or pictures from articles, watch animations, listen to audio clips, and explore interactive maps. To keep Encarta up to date, once you register Encarta, you can take advantage of the update feature to download late breaking articles and web links. Unfortunately, on October 31 2002, this option expires, when Microsoft hopes you will be ready to purchase Encarta 2003.
Streets and Trips 2002
Separately Streets retails for $44.95, althought the street price after rebate, is about half that. Streets includes a complete map of roads and highways in the United States, including the streets in even the smallest towns. To plan trips, you can type in starting and ending addresses, or choose locations on the map, and you can also chose intermediate stops. To customize trip planning, you can enter estimated start and ending time for each day, estimated driving speed, rest stops, estimated mileage and gasoline price to estimate fuel costs, a choice between quickest and shortest routes, and the ability to set a preference for interstates, toll roads, or other highwayss On me 750 mhz athlon system, routing a 1000 mile trip only took a few second. Maps can be printed out as a overhead map view, or printed directions, "turn by turn" maps or convential trip planning strip maps (my preference). Several printing options are offered, such as setting the number of miles per page for the strip maps, and detail level. An option to print faxable maps is also offered. On a 750 mhz athlon system, routing a 1000 mile trip only took a few seconds. One feature I would like to see on strip maps, is estimated miles and time elapsed along the way to help monitor if you are staying on schedule as you travel. If want to save a map, you can save it in the Streets format, or as a web page, with associated hyperlinks for locations you have "pinned" on the map.
There are several good websites for planning trips, but a program like this still offers a lot of value, with many more options for printing and saving maps, lots of map detail, and routing and displaying is much quicker than even the fastest website.
Streets also includes Pocket Streets for Pocket PC, and is compatible with NMEA 0183 version 2.0 or later GPS receivers, with which you can track your position on the map.
Microsoft Picture It! Photo 2002
Picture It! is another one of the entry level programs Microsoft offers, which lists for $35 if sold separately. With Picture It!, you can acquire pictures from your scanner or digital camera, in addition to editing pictures stored online or one your computer. Editing options include reducing red eye, removing "dust/scratches", and adjusting tint, brightness or contrast. You can also add numerous effects, borders, frames, change focus, crop pictures, add 3d effects, rotate pictures, create mirror images, and make many other modifications to your shots. This is a basic editing package, but it works well and has helped me improve a lot my bad shots. You can also create photo calendars, greeting cards, stickers, post cards, and several other types of projects. Picture It also includes a reasonable amount of "templates" for each type of project, for example, I counted about 100 different greeting cards to choose from.
Microsoft Money 2002
I have been a Quicken user for more than 10 years, and did not even consider installing Money. Other users and most reviews I've read consider Money the equal of Quicken, and if you don't use either program yet, you should. You will save time by balancing your check book quickly, and if you keep track of where and how your money is being spent as you enter each check, you will have a valuable record of spending which will help you cut costs and adjust spending habits.
Microsoft Works 6
Works is mature, effective "office suite" for home users and students, and includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, calendar, address book, and e-mail tools. For casual users, templates make it easy to get started using each package. If not, an online Getting Started Guide and Virtual tour, will ensure you know how to take advantage of the key features of each part of Works.
The calendar program works like your digital daytimer, and can by sync'd with your palm and pocket PC. With the spreadsheet program you can create and share files with Microsoft Excel at your office. Since Microsoft Word is also included, most people will install and use it instead of the Works word processor. Except for Word, the Works applications don't have the features of those included with Microsoft Office, but as a home user, I couldn't find anything missing, and appreciated the templates.
Microsoft Word
If you are used to using the word processor built into previous versions of Works, you'll quickly find that Works now sets Word as the default word processor. Word, (not the Works word processor) automatically launches from the Task Launcher, and Word also launches if you chose any of the custom templates or tasks for word processing. Getting Word is what makes Works Suite a great value for the home user. Oddly, you can buy Microsoft Word separately for $300, yet you can pay $100 for the Microsoft Works Suite and get the same thing. Over the years, Word has become the overwhelming market leader, and contains too many features to go into in this review. A few of the newer features include guides (called Task panes) to perform common tasks quicker, an Office Template Gallery which accesses the web for hundreds of pre designed templates, and a help system that really helps without annoying users (remember "Clippy"?). The section on Microsoft Word takes up about 50 pages in the Works Suite 2002 hard copy Getting Started Guide, more than any other section, It includes enough detail on Word's features to make you a knowledgeable user, if not an expert.
Would I but Works Suite again?
Yes, this is a great value for the home user. This is a mature product, and Microsoft has included a lot of templates for each program to help users take advantage of each. Each application is top notch, and is considered 1st or 2nd in their markets. Microsoft needs to smooth out the wrinkles in the installation routine. A custom installation does not always present you with the options to perform a full install to the drive of your choice, but you can install each program separately with the setup file on each cd, which is simpler and gives you more control.
As I write this, (May 2002), Amazon is offering Works Suite 2002 for $55, shipped free, after $55 in rebates from Microsoft and Amazon. Street price at other online stores is $70-$100.
Recommended:
Yes
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