Microsoft works, best described as the ‘lite’ version of Microsoft’s Office suite, has had a refresh for 2008. Cut-down versions of the familiar Word, Excel and Access applications are offered alongside a dictionary and calendar.
The approach is much more user-friendly than Office, with a clean interface that allows you to fire up individual applications or work through a range of projects. The selection of these is very good, and you can work your way through a series of steps that involve using one or more of the applications to perform various activities.
But there’s not a lot more to the suite. We were a little disappointed by exactly how much Microsoft has streamlined their operation — as a result, we’d expect all but the most casual of users to become frustrated by the lack of control at some point.
The range of formatting options available in Word is limited — comprising simple font and style changes — and largely restricts you to writing letters. You will, at least, find mail merge and the ability to create labels and envelopes.
Excel is similarly lightweight, with no support for multiple worksheets and limited control over formulae. The database tool is extremely simple and integrates poorly with applications outside the Works suite.
Works 9.0 succeeds in its efforts to be simple to use and approachable for beginners, but more experienced or creative users will find the lack of power extremely restrictive.
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