Comments on: Microsoft Works

By: Rev. BigDumbChimp

Rev. BigDumbChimp — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:37:48 +0000

As the sole IT manager for a mid to large sized distribution company I used to constantly get emails from employees here asking me if I can open a .wps file for them. “It’s a resume I need to read.”If you are submitting a resume, please use OpenOffice, Office or even create a PDF.Works is a pain in everyone’s ass.

By: Tristram Brelstaff

Tristram Brelstaff — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:32:44 +0000

... the other annoying and useless crap they bundle on the hard drive of your new computer.

Surely, you can't be referring to Windows Vista?

By: chezjake

chezjake — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:48:29 +0000

Like much of Microsoft’s early software, Works was first designed and marketed for the Macintosh, in 1986. Shortly thereafter version 1.12 for DOS machines was released. Version 2.0, released in late 1987, worked with Windows 2.0. Version 3.0 from 1990 actually featured file exchange compatibility between Macs and Windows 3.0 machines.All of these early versions were marketed to the student/home user market and were never intended as business software. One of the best features of early versions of Works was a relatively robust flat database that was easily configured and could produce a wide variety of reports. Of course, all of that was before widespread use of the internet, so file transfer/compatibility was a relatively minor issue. Most users only wanted to print out their documents.

By: JYB

JYB — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:36:10 +0000

For Macs, NeoOffice is a OpenOffice but runs natively. Every once in awhile you get a pop up thingy but other than that it works great.

By: Jeff Darcy

Jeff Darcy — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:43:41 +0000

I’d love to be able to suggest OpenOffice so unreservedly. Unfortunately, I can’t. I’ve had people complain that they couldn’t read OpenOffice documents I sent them, even though they were OpenOffice users themselves. I used to think they must have just screwed something up themselves, except that I have one machine on which OpenOffice just won’t run without hanging for no apparent reason and another on which it has this annoying habit of asking me to “recover” documents I haven’t worked on for a year. I know more than a little bit about how to install and configure Linux software, and there’s no obvious problem in either case except for the code itself. I don’t have any more faith in Sun (the primary entity behind OpenOffice) than in Microsoft, on either a technical or a moral level.

By: John

John — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:39:04 +0000

The early failure of Microsoft to create file formats that would be easily opened even by other MS programs was really annoying. I think that is fixed now, though. Still, probably the best way to transfer simple document files between programs is to use txt or rtf.I also like AbiWord as a light-weight word processor.

By: Paul Lamb

Paul Lamb — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:21:44 +0000

I thought from the start that Works was always intended to be useless, or at least very quickly outgrown. It’s minimal range of features would frustrate users, who would then step up to the more expensive Microsoft programs like Word, Excel, and (gag) PowerPoint.