Review by Joe Albanese

Perhaps I am jaded but again it seems that Microsoft has cranked out another product that looks and acts so much like its predecessor that you wonder at first if you loaded it onto your computer properly.

Office 2003 gives you what you already have in Office XP (and a few earlier versions) so learning how to use it is never going to be a problem. In virtually every way the program looks and feels like the previous Office versions.

There are improvements although I am not sure how much a home user will need the XML functionality. It may be a god-send one day but today it is still not a major factor and certainly does not demand a major update. The RESEARCH option is something to contend with and could be quite useful - it is almost like having Encarta loaded on your machine as well. I found it a bit limiting though; it is good as a thesaurus but there is no world atlas, quotation source, etc. Many people have applauded the new look and feel of Outlook. Again, it behaves just the same as previous versions of Outlook did.

Microsoft chose to retire the Office bar and that is a big mistake. They are trying to push the Quick Launch bar but most businesses and almost all Office users preferred the Office bar.

Don’t get me wrong: Office 2003 works very well and with Word, Outlook, Excel, Access and Publisher you can literally do anything! It also preforms very well. But, again, unless Microsoft starts making major changes, these releases should not be heralded as new. If anything, they should be upgrades that former users should be able to download if they registered the original product - the cost is too prohibitive to justify upgrading. And, as your Office 97 or XP works just as well, you should think seriously before spending the money.