Microsoft Office 2003

Microsoft Office's high price tag has always made it difficult for us to recommend it, especially when for the majority of home users, a lot of the features and applications will go unused. For the latest version of the application, Office 2003, Microsoft has changed the available versions of the software to appeal to a range of different users.

For home users, we have the Standard Edition (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint), which we'll concentrate on in this review. It's still fairly expensive - a boxed version costs £326, but it's also available in a Student and Teacher version, which, provided you have children in the education system or are a teacher, costs just £110. This version can also be installed on two PCs in one house, which effectively brings the price in line with products like Ability Office.

Enough of the pricing structure though, and on to new features within the products. First is the research pane, which gives access to a variety of off- and online resources including a dictionary, thesaurus and Encarta online. Just type a keyword into the search box to get a list of related articles and definitions. It sounds useful but has several problems, the biggest of which is that a lot of the links to online articles, such as Encarta, end up at websites requesting payment. A few more free articles would make this a more useful tool.

Word is very similar to previous versions. The main change here is the Reading View. It hides unnecessary toolbars and makes documents easier to read, especially on a notebook PC. It's a nice feature for working with large documents but not worth upgrading for.

In Excel and PowerPoint, the major changes are aimed at business users, so we have to say it's not worth the upgrade if you have a previous version of these applications.

Where you will really notice the difference is with Outlook, which has received a major overhaul. First, the look of the application has been completely transformed. Email folders run down the left-hand pane, a middle pane shows a folder's contents, while the right-hand pane displays emails in an easy-to-read format. You can still double-click on an email to view it but there's really little point with the new features.

Dive under the new interface and the changes are more than just cosmetic. Of particular interest is the junk mail filter, which replaces the old rules system in previous versions. It 'reads' incoming email and uses new technology to work out if it's spam or not. Rules can be put on top of this to always accept or reject email from given senders.

So, is Office 2003 worth buying? For most people, we would say no. It's still an expensive product and most of the changes in the applications, bar Outlook, are aimed at the business user. If you already have a version of Office there's very little incentive to stick your hand in your pocket.

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

Price Details:

Standard Edition upgrade - £185
Student and Teacher version - £110
Full version - £326