Is MS Works adequate?

Mrs_pbradley936

I am buying a new Dell laptop and it comes with MS Works as standard. I wondered if that would be adequate, it will be suitable for me because I am not working anymore and so do not need the facilities offered by Word. However can you download and read documents that others have composed in Word with Works? I expect to be able to do it the other way around i.e. Word can open a Works document (well I think so!).

Sput2001

There's always Open Office if you get stuck.

devizes18193

in short yes you can , my son has works on it and will open any word doc even office 2007. The only thing to remember if you send a letter as an attachment send as a word doc not the defaukt works extention

Mrs_pbradley936

Many thanks for your help.

superscaper

I wouldn't bother with Works. You're actually better off using open office mentioned above. Ironically open office is more compatible with MS Office files than Works is. Also it's a much better office suite. Trust me if you start sending files you created in Works to people they're going to find it a complete pain. MS Office programs such as Word etc cannot open works files natively.

In my opinion this is the order of "how good" office suites are:
1. MS Office 2007
2. Open Office 2 (bit better than Office 2003., but version 3 which is still in beta is quite a bit better)
3. MS Office 2003
4. Lotus Symphony (based on old version of open office)
5. MS Worksuite (at least you get Word)
6. MS Works

barongreenback

MS Works is a nuisance. I find it clunky and awkward. OpenOffice is a far more intuitive easier to use piece of software. Free and to all intents and purposes, as good as MS Office. Download that instead.

barak

devizes18193 wrote: »

..... my son has works on it and will open any word doc .....

Are you sure he hasn't got "MS Works Suite" which is different from "MS Works" and includes Word, as mentioned by superscaper.

I certainly can't open Word documents with "MS Works", but I have downloaded the free Word Viewer (and Excel Viewer) from the MS site.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN

PROLIANT

Answer to your question, no. Works is a toy and is aimed at children as an early learning tool, if you want to do the job properly go for MS Office 2003 or if you can't budget for that go with Sun Microsystems Open Office as this free and just as good as MS office.

devizes18193

barak wrote: »

Are you sure he hasn't got "MS Works Suite" which is different from "MS Works" and includes Word, as mentioned by superscaper.

I certainly can't open Word documents with "MS Works", but I have downloaded the free Word Viewer (and Excel Viewer) from the MS site.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN

Not sure in truth , but getting back to the op point , for basic letters works will do the job in the same way you could ride to scotland on a push bike , but as you have the free choice of open office ( car ) and type with style . as all you lose is a bit of time in installing

Mrs_pbradley936

Well I have the option to upgrade to Works Suite which does have Word 2003 for £20. Will that be money well spent? I have to order it by Wednesday to get the price quoted.

barongreenback

Not worth the money IMO