Average Rating: 
Rating:  - nifty little programs for the average user
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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.
Rating:  - Microsoft Works Suite 2003, what!
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.
Rating:  - Word 2002 - if you upgrade to it say goodbye to macros!
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.
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