Microsoft Greetings 2000

As you might have guessed from the title, this package allows you to create your own greetings cards.

A series of pop-up screens lets you decide on the size and shape of the card. The interface is similar to that of a Flash-enabled website as you would see it in Internet Explorer, and this familiarity makes it easy to comprehend.

The toolbar options use easy-to-understand links and there are plenty of tools to keep you occupied, such as cropping, brightness and contrast, and softening edges.

A pop-up window regularly appears offering to play any relevant tutorial movie clips. These can quickly become annoying but can be turned off.

Like most similar packages, the software comes in a large box that is almost empty. Greetings 2002 offers far fewer pre-loaded designs (just over 2,000) than the rest, although Microsoft claims that the package offers more than two million "greeting possibilities".

However, this is a blessing in disguise as most of the images included are quite hideous and the list of more than 7,000 sentiments and quotes - including one, very oddly, from James Hewitt - are not much better.

As with many suites, the reason to include all these images seems to be to plug them on the boxed package rather than because they are of any real use.

Contact: Microsoft 0870 601 0100
www.microsoft.com/uk