Microsoft Works Suite 2002

I remember a time in the mid 80's when the Mac was the front runner in personal computing.

I was mired in the complex and sometimes frustrating world of DOS while my more affluent friends did great things on their Macs in a graphical environment.

I had a hodgepodge selection of various word processing,  spreadsheet and database applications. None of them worked together easily.

My friend John, had a Mac with Microsoft Works installed. I started fiddling with the program and was totally amazed how easy and powerful a program it was.

I lumbered on until PFS offered a suite of applications that were easier to work with but still DOS based.

When Windows appeared on the scene, I waited patiently for a PC version of Works to appear. When it did, I switched to it immediately.

As a software reviewer, I reviewed all the popular  products offered by the numerous publishers. I depended on the integrated tools of Works to perform most of the applications I needed.

The program took up a lot less space on my then 40 megabyte hard drive, compared to the mainline products that were out there.

As the market evolved, I added and deleted various applications based on their advantage to me, but Works was still my main application.

Three major suites appeared on the market. Lotus, Borland and Microsoft battled it out for the hearts, minds and dollars of computer users. Naturally Microsoft won.

I switched over to Microsoft Office for my desktop machine. Hard drive sizes grew in leaps and bounds for the desktop environment, but alas laptops had puny sized hard drives which were outlandishly expensive to replace.

I continued using Microsoft Works on my laptops and in spite of the fact that laptop hard drive capacity can handle the larger programs, works was still the best choice and utilized the least space.

Microsoft Works files are read by my Desktop Applications. I call this my one-two punch. Many computers both desktop and laptops, come with Works as a part of the software bundle.

Microsoft Office is reasonably priced when you upgrade, but I didn't want to purchase a second copy of Office for my laptop. So Works still travels with me while Office remains home.

If I had to choose a single program I would surrender everything on my machines other than Works.

The latest version MW is about as good as it gets. For the home user, it is far and away the best software value on the market today.

In addition to the normal applications, word processor, spreadsheet & database, Microsoft has included a Graphics Program, Money Management Program, an encyclopedia, and a street and trip atlas. Who could ask for anything more?\

What a powerhouse! What a tremendous value!

On to the program...

As I mentioned the major modules are......

Works
A comprehensive package including a word processor, spreadsheet and database.

Picture It!
A graphics and creativity workshop for creating greeting cards, labels and hundreds of other projects. In addition Picture It! takes your digital snapshots and helps you to improve them. You can crop photos, resize them, rotate them. remove red eye from photographs.

Encarta Encyclopedia
Encarta is recognized as the standard for electronic encyclopedias. A majority of schools and libraries provide it on their student computers. I love this program!

Streets and Trips 2002
If you need to locate a street, in any city or town in the USA, you will love this program module.

I used it when I moved to Virginia from California several years ago. If you are planning a trip and want driving directions, the program will take you from point A to Point B and also show you interesting things to see and do along the way.

Microsoft Money
Need to balance your check book, plan for your kids education, your retirement or download your on-line banking transactions from the Internet?

Money will do it for you. Just click on the buttons below to learn about the features of this truly great program.

	Microsoft Works
	Microsoft Picture It!
	Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia
	Microsoft Streets & Trips 2002
	Microsoft Money 2002

Last Edited 04/25/2007