Microsoft Works and Word

wurzelsar

O.K. stupid question time!

I'm fairly new to computers - this is my first computer, having used one in my local library up to now.

I'm doing a computer course and writing documents using Word ( at my local library).
On my own computer, I have Wordpad and Microsoft Works but not Word, that I'm aware of.

Can anyone tell me the difference please?
Do I need to get ' Word ' installed?

Wordpad seems to be more basic than Word to me. ???

Mrs_pbradley936

Word is a more expensive software package - the other two are more basic. Works should do most things and usually comes free with the computer. Word or Office (Word, Excell, Access and PowerPoint all together) is quite pricey unless you get it as an upgrade or via a student scheme.

bat999

Hi

Word is the word processor program that comes as part of Microsoft Office.
Microsoft Office is a collection of programs such as word processor, spreadsheet etc.
As far as I know, Wordpad and M$ Works are not compatible with Word.

There is a free word processor which is very similar to, and compatible with Word. It's part of the Open Office package.

You can download it from here:-www.openoffice.org
:cool:

trace_567

The word processing part of works automatically saves as a works document .wps you can save it as a .doc (microsoft word) by changing the save as on the drop down bar when you click to save. Change it to word 97-2000 .doc and it will be saved as a word document. The actual ms works word processing to me appears to be the same as microsoft offices word (well the 97 version anyway, thats what I used to have) in that it has all features such as grammar spelling thesaurus etc. So if you remember to change it to .doc when saving work, I can see no reason to need anything else. Unless you find a different software you like such as open office.

trace_567

Oh and to open a .doc with works you just have to change the drop down bar again when you select "open" to retrieve documents you have saved as .doc. It defaults to find .wps. Use the drop down arrow next to it and select either all files, or word 97-2000 .doc It will then allow you to find your microsoft office word files (.doc) and allow you to open them.