This integrated program, which includes dozens of office task wizards, is almost a suite.

By Edward Mendelson, PC Magazine
December 2, 1998

Microsoft Works 4.5 for Windows 95 is the application package for home- and small-office users who don't need an industrial-strength suite such as Microsoft Office but want its luxuries and conveniences. This unified program ($54.95 list) includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, a bare-bones communications module, and the same add-on modules used by Office for drawing, sticky notes, and clip art. You can create letters, newsletters, expense accounts, contact lists, and dozens of other document types using wizards, and multiple documents can be open and visible at the same time. Smooth integration among the program modules takes the headaches out of mail merge; the program automatically updates a chart in a report document when data changes in a spreadsheet.

Users of Version 4.0 will find no changes in the interface. But because the program now comes on a CD-ROM instead of floppy disks, it comes with 7,000 clip-art images instead of 100 and offers extra document templates for home, educational, and volunteer use. The package also adds the simple Microsoft Works Calendar but doesn't integrate the feature with Works itself.

Works looks and feels more like Microsoft PhotoDraw and Publisher than like Excel or Word. A huge help panel occupies the right-hand side of the screen, and the mouse pointer sprouts labels such as "drag" or "copy" to tell you what will happen if you move selected text or graphics. The program opens by displaying a list of wizard-guided tasks; it lets you create an empty file in the word processor or spreadsheet only when you switch to a dialog that's initially hidden behind a tab. The wizards are flexible enough to let you specify your business address and chosen format in any order you prefer, instead of forcing you through a rigid sequence of choices. But the sample letters provided with the package require you to make extensive changes by hand before you can use them for your own purposes.

Because the word processor's page view shows only one page at a time, you have to switch to draft view if you want to see the whole of a sentence that crosses a page break. The spreadsheet includes all functions needed for small-business finances, and it automatically builds formulas when you click on buttons with labels such as "sum" or "average." Internet Explorer 4.01 comes in the box, but Works' built-in communications module is an old-style terminal program suitable for bulletin board systems and has no Internet-related functions. If you use Windows 98, don't follow the help file's instructions for sending a fax, because the information given applies only to Windows 95 and guides you to a menu option that doesn't exist in Windows 98.

Works' main competition is Apple's AppleWorks 5 (formerly ClarisWorks), whose Macintosh-style interface feels awkward under Windows. At the price, Works is an amazing bargain, and for many nonexpert users it will be all the software they'll ever need.