Amazon.com Product Description

Learn a new language with the award-winning method used by the U.S. State Department to train diplomats. Proven effective by NASA astronauts, Peace Corps volunteers, and millions of students worldwide, the Rosetta Stone Language Library teaches new languages faster and easier than ever before.

We all learn our childhood language by associating new words and phrases with the world around us. The Rosetta Stone method replicates this process by presenting vivid, real-life images to convey the meaning of each new phrase. Instead of translating, memorizing, and studying rules of grammar, you actually learn to think in the new language. Vocabulary and grammar are integrated systematically, leading to everyday proficiency.

The Rosetta Stone Level I program offers a comprehensive course of study for beginning learners, leading to intermediate proficiency. The program contains over 3,500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons and more than 250 hours of mastery instruction in listening comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. There are reviews, exercises, and tests for every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. (Ages 6 and older) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Learn Thai the Correct Way
This learning series really helped me learn how to listen to the different annotations and accents of the Thai langauge. The speakers are native Thais including men and women. The CD-Rom is very interactive using different learning methods for each lesson. The lessons include listening, reading, and speaking. The exercises are composed of 4 pictures which the narrator describes and you choose the appropriate activity. None of the lessons include an English translation which can be a bit confusing.
Overall this is a great buy for learning how to speak Thai correctly. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Turkish Rosetta Stone
After my first lesson I was able to understand and speak more than over a years worth of personal training.
I first learned of the product from an airline publication and was "bargain" hunting for the same product. Amazon saved me almost 50% off what the airline publication was charging!!!
The lesons are complete and very easy to follow. Hats off to Amazon!! ... Read more

Features

• Provides basic report design functionality off PC-based data sources
• Enhanced features for greater productivity and easier reporting
• Format painter for faster report formatting
• Enhanced Excel export for greater end-user flexibility
• 100-percent Java reporting component for J2EE applications

Features

• Tax preparation software with step-by-step guidance and free electronic filing
• Extra help for mortgages, charitable contributions, and other important deductions
• Assistance from official IRS publications and expert video advice
• Updated life events planner; medical expense expert; complete tax library
• Double-checks return for accuracy; compares last year's deductions to this year's

Product Description

Embark on the adventures in the Star Wars universe wth friends and join thousands of others already living in the world of the movies. Interact with your favorite Star Wars characters, join missions that put you in the center of the action, and more!Build your legacy in the Star Wars universe.Includes:An Empire Divided, Episode III Rage of the Wookiees, and Jump to Lightspeed. ... Read more

Features

• Includes: An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, and Rage of the Wookiees

Reviews (19)

Why most veterans hate the Combat Upgrade
its very simple why we see veterans of this excellent game bashing it now. because they spent 2 years getting the best stuff, farming the best loot to sell inside or outside the game, and bascially wragling the newbs out of playing the game with thier superior equipment.

the combat upgrade evens the playing field. a new player now has a chance at loot and having fun. veterans hate they dont control the game anymore. THAT is why there is all the hate for a system that is suberbly balanced for all classes.

how do i know this, because i have played this game myself since day 1. i know how the veterans feel, but i also see the big picture, that its not all abotu me and what i can get for myself. its about making the game last for years and brining fresh blood into the game, and seeing that new players dont get frustrated and overwhelmed by 2 year veterans of this game.

thank god for the combat upgrade and kudos to SOE for having the guts to stand up to the vocal minorty for the sake of new players who want to have fun too.

SWG is simply the best
First off, everyone complaining about SWG thinks they can do the job better than the game designers.They are same pathetic fools who sit at home and critique how "wrong" athletes are for their performance in this game or that game even though they have never played the sport.
SOE is a company and one of it's products is SWG.True they have a responsibility to the players, buut they also have a responsability to attract new players as well.
Yes there are bugs and crashes, but that happens in every game at some point.It has always and will always happen---deal with it.
The CU is awesome don't let anyone kid you.I am a player from day one as well and what these people are complaining about is you can now no longer set up a stack of attacks and walk away from your PC.You actually have to play---imagine that, not grinding easily, but playing the game.What a concept.
There is so much content if you want it, it is larger than any other game out there and will definately throw you into the feeling of Star Wars.
Even without all that, the people you will meet are great.The friendliest I have ever met.
Ignore the whiners, they are just mad about no longer being able to make milllions of creditsevery day for doing nothing.That is why they are spamming this and all SWG related websites.
If you don't belive me, try it for one month for free and you will see

A SERIOUS WARNING about SWG and SOE from a WEEK ONE VETERAN!
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided

*Sigh* Where to begin...

This game could be better named:
"Star Wars Galaxies: A Development Team Vs. A Player base".

Never in all my life, have I seen a company alienate so many people in pursuit of the almighty dollar. It's truly sickening. I WAS a 20-month veteran of the game, I had been playing since week one (I've canceled my account and will NEVER do business with SOE again!).


PLEASE, READ ON...

In the beginning...
This game was alright; it was fun, it was unique, and it was totally bug-ridden and unbalanced. Over the course of the last 20 months, the SOE Dev team have made us promise after promise to do certain things to fix and enhance this game. They in fact did very little, if anything at all. They milked us. They exploited the "Star Wars" name to make a buck. They made promise after promise after promise... and never delivered squat. Don't believe me? Just ask any "Smuggler" in the game for their opinion.

They strung us along and led us to believe that the "fixes" to the game were right around the corner! Instead, they were hard at work on an "Expansion Pack" to sell us! And then once again "promised us" that the fixes we've all been waiting for were the next big thing waiting for us, "just hang on, this game is going to be great!" They promised us that they were going to do this "Combat Upgrade" and do it right, and it "wouldn't be released until it's ready!"

We all had a lot of hope, we thought that they had finally figure out that they had totally screwed up and were trying to make amends with a player base on the brink of total collapse. God, how wrong we all were...

Well, much to everyone's surprise, they made the announcement that the long awaited "CU" would be coming out along with the "Rage of the Wookiees" expansion pack! Uhhhmmm... did I miss something somewhere? The alpha test for the "CU" was supposed to begin in January, it never happened. Beta testing began in April, 4 whole weeks before it was supposed to go to live! We all rolled up our sleeves and dove in. I think after the first week or so, the sad realization of what was happening to our game begun to sink in...

They went and copy/pasted EQ2 code into the SWG game so they could "streamline" their operation by having ONE DEV TEAM WORK ON BOTH SWG AND EQ2!!!

The CU was supposed to go live on May 5th. SOE decided to push it to live a whole 2 weeks sooner than that. Honestly, with all the bugs that were still in beta, and now in live, beta could have gone on another 4-6 months! I guess they figured they could milk us all a little more and dump this beta on the live servers and let us pay to test it. Why am I not surprised?

The CU itself is unplayable. It has become Everquest in space, or "EverStar Galaxies QuestWars" as we call it. There are just too many things to list. There are a lot of other more technical reviews which go into much more detail over on the page for the stand-alone game.

As you all can imagine, the player community was totally enraged! We went to the SWG Forum boards to voice our concerns. The only response we ever got back from SOE was THOUSANDS of deleted threads and players banned from the forums. Facing futility, a large portion of the player base has left the game, permanently this time.

This is just not how you do business. I personally will NEVER deal with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) EVER again. I DO NOT pay MY HARD EARNED MONEY to be lied to, deceived, ignored, strung along, censored, and banned for voicing my concerns. I do not pay money to folks who treat me, a PAYING CUSTOMER, in this fashion.

Star Wars Galaxies is dead. Servers are emptying. People are moving on to other games where folks know how to appreciate their patrons. If you are a fan of Star Wars, and this is the only reason I ever started playing this game to begin with, you will be sadly disappointed!

SWG is nothing more than an exploit of a title, a milk machine. I for one, am tired of being milked.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Better than WoW and EQ... There I said it! =P
I personaly enjoy this game more than many other mmorpgs... The charecter animations are much better which is surprising for an old game. It has supurb sound, especialy on kashyyyk. The new content added with the recent expansion (Rage of the Wookiees) may need a lot of work, but added so much enjoyable content that I can look over that. If some of the players would get better at flying their Jump to Lightspeed ships they may not have quit, but for the most part the people who quit were just looking for an exuss to quit and/or are just cry babies. THE COMMUNITY IN THIS GAME IS SSOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN MOST GAMES THAT YOU'LL ENJOY JUST TALKING TO FRIENDS. The CU may not be as enjoyable for all players as the old system, but I have faith in the fact that it will increase the long-gevity of the game and make it a better place to play.

-Xalabaar, Chilastra

It's Star Wars and Everquest 2 all in one.
I have been playing this game since Feb 2004, and basically the game has always been nothing more than a Everquest copy with a Star Wars skin, since the "Combat Upgrade" they pretty much did as one reviewer pointed out, coded EQ2 into the game to make it easier and more cost effective for SOE, so if you are coming from a fantasy game, Star Wars Galaxies won't seem all the different, if you pick Star Wars Galaxies because you hate fantasy games, well you might want to wait till something truly comes out that is more Sci-fi.

Another problem if you come to this game wanting PVP action, you might want to look into something else as well, Jedi rule PVP in Star Wars Galaxies, now you might say "Oh Cool, I want to be a Jedi!!!" you don'tjust select the profession, it takes lots and lots of grinding and patience, it is the Alpha class for powergamers, it isn't as bad on less populated servers, but on populated ones expect to find tons of Jedi running around, SOE broke the number 1 rule of multiplayer online games, never put in a alpha class profession, it un-balances the game, but SOE thought the lure of Jedi would bring in more $$$, it ruined the online ecomomy for the game, and un-balanced the PVP(originally Jedi were to be very rare), the CU hasn't changed that, besides it ruins your love of the movies when you hear a Jedi a type of hero from the movies run up and kill you and say "I PWNZ JOO NOOB111111111" and named something like "UBERLEETGOD" or some other ridiculous name.

Also note you only get 1 character per server, per account, unlike newer games that allow you 2 or more characters per server, it limits you to 2 master professions, so trying other professions you will have to go to other servers, or change your professions every so often to explore other things.

The main thing is don't watch Episode 3 or any other Star Wars movie and buy Star Wars Galaxies and think your going to live the movie experience, truthfully you won't, a hardcore Star Wars fan will be very disappointed,Star Wars contunity doesn't exist in this game, don't kid yourself as I said before this is a FANTASY game, you will see some Star Wars characters (they are static in one place and only come out played by a SOE employee very very very rarely),and there are ships, but the game play is straight out of any fantasy RPG, too bad people can't try it for free before buying it, then decide if they will like it or not. ... Read more

Features

• Supports a variety of data formats, including Extensible Markup Language ( XML ), OLE, Open Database Connectivity ( ODBC ), and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
• Access data from multiple databases in forms, reports, and data access pages, linking tables from other Access databases, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, ODBC data sources, Microsoft SQL Server databases & other sources
• Stored Procedure Designer creates & modifies procedures stored in SQL Server
• Quickly find tables, queries, forms or reports that depend on a particular database object
• Drag controls onto your Access form to create a Microsoft PivotTable or PivotChart view, or a spreadsheet

Reviews (2)

Keep Access 2000
This software is not worth upgrading. I think Access 2000 is the best database and 2002 is good if you want to use Data Access Pages. Access 2003 has a lot of bugs. I'm having trouble with basic formulas. This is very frustrating.

Be careful, especially if you don't have time to trouble shoot software changes.

Internet Activation License policy?
Does this product only work on the first computer you install it on because of internet activation like the Access 2002 upgrade did? I have 2 computers at home and one is a test PC that gets reimaged a lot. I need my software installed on both and I don't like Internet activation that Microsoft had on Access 2002.

If they have it I won't buy so please post a review and let me know. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

The 26 letters of the alphabet equal 26 opportunities to explore,listen, and learn in Alphabet Express Preschool. Add to this a handful ofadded-on games, imaginative short films, and freeform activities, and thisCD-ROM has both appeal and staying power.

As a trainload of critters chugs around the onscreen alphabet, kids click on aletter, and uppercase and lowercase versions fly, bounce, or pour onto the scenein a Sesame Street moment. The letters dissolve to a garden scene forG, an orchestra for O, and so forth. Click on the onion in theorchestra pit, and a kid's voice intones "Onion!" while the squirrel holding thething begins to cry piteously. There are similar scenes for every letter of thealphabet--though designers cheated a bit and combined X, Y, andZ. Kids can also paint different alphabet-emphasizing pictures, play asounding-out/letter-matching game, and look at instructions on how to write eachletter. A separate section of activities includes find-the-hidden-letter games,dot-to-dots that teach alphabetizing, and mazes that must be conquered bymatching objects to their beginning letter. Finally, and most delightfully,there's a movie theater where kids can watch a couple of priceless animatedshorts: one is a James Brown-esque ditty belted out by a chicken, listing the(alphabetized) items that make Hearty Chicken Alphabet Soup so special. Anchors,basketballs, and carburetors are a few of the secret ingredients.

The animation in Alphabet Express isn't smooth, but the audio is lush:O's orchestra section is replete with the dissonant sound of stringstuning up before the symphony; the tired old ABC song gets a hip-hop makeover; ahost of different (and non-annoying) kid and adult voices pronounce letters andguide visitors. Even if this weren't a strong CD-ROM, it'd be worth checkingout, just to learn the remaining ingredients in Hearty Chicken Alphabet Soup.(Ages 3 to 6) --Anne Erickson ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent software for children learning the alphabet
This software is excellent. My four year old would spend hours working with it if I let her. It is most imaginative and clever.

Alphabet Express is fun!
My son who is just over two got this for Christmas and he loves it. There are so many different activities in it that he can be occupied for 20-30 minutes - amazing for a 2-year-old boy. His favorite thing is to "paint" the different pictures. They are so detailed and well animated and there are lots of colors - not just the typical 4 or 5 in some programs. He's not quite ready for some of the more advanced activities that ask you to match letters with pictures of objects that start with that letter. But this just means he'll have plenty to grow into. It's a really good choice. ... Read more

Product Description

Macromedia Coldfusion MX 7 Standard 2 CPU .ColdFusion MX 7 Standard is the solution for delivering a powerful website or application on a single server. It features all the RAD development capabilities of ColdFusion, powerful new features such as PDF and FlashPaper document generation, rich flash forms, structured business reporting, and more all in an easy-to-manage configuration that is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.Easily design and generate high-quality, repeating group, structured business reports and populate them dynamically in the context of web applications. Create rich Flash forms in minutes using just a few ColdFusion tags. Re-skin forms and reports easily across applications. Dynamically transform web content into high-quality printable, portable documents in PDF or FlashPaper 2 formats using a single tag.Move beyond HTTP and create groundbreaking, new interfaces to mobile phones using SMS text messaging, IM using XMPP (the emerging IM standard), and other Internet protocols. Become more productive by using the new ColdFusion Extensions for Dreamweaver MX to build applications rapidly. ... Read more

Features

• 8 leading home PC tools in 1 complete package
• Quattro Pro 12 Home Edition versatile spreadsheets; word processing
• 50+ templates with WordPerfect OfficeReady - Personal Finance Essentials
• Compose and mix music CDs; Corel Photobook and Corel PhotoAlbum
• Encyclopedia Britannica Ready Reference 2005; Norton Internet Security 2005 suite

Features

• Powerful word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications
• Compatible with Microsoft Office, PDF, HTML, XML, and more
• Intuitive Publish to PDF feature; no need for additional PDF software
• Maximizes efficiency; versatile and easy to use

Reviews (2)

No compelling reason to upgrade
Nothing substantially new here expect for the picture on the box. In other words, there's no real reason to sink money into this product, except to help prop up a company that seems to have lost its ability to innovate.

The same old claims (compatibilty with MS, ease of use, etc. are being made, but big deal. Corel has made these claims before.) I can see no real difference between this version and the 2002 suite. I'll pass on the Corel upgrades until they make them worth my time and money.

WordPerfect Office 12
Installed easily. It appears to be very compatible with Microsoft Word but it's reveal codes feature is still invaluable, and unlike Word all its features work. The new templates browser is very valuable. QuattroPro is also excellent. I never use Presentations nor Power Point so I cannot comment on these items. I hope WordPerfect stays around for a while to give some competition to the clunky, hard-to-use but ubiquitous Microsoft Word and Excel. ... Read more

Product Description

Intuit Quickbooks POS 4.0 Pro Retailer Hardware and Software .QuickBooks Point of Sale Retail Management Software is affordable, easy to use software for managing retail inventory, sales and customer information. Designed to be completely user-installable, it runs on your Windows PC and provides essential features you need to make smarter decisions about running your retail business - complete information you'll never get from a cash register. ... Read more

Product Description

Adobe InDesign CS2 Upgrade .Design professional page layouts using unparalleled support for native Adobe file formats, sophisticated typographical controls, and rich creative options, including transparency effects, flexible table creation, object and text styles, and more. Achieve greater efficiency through tight integration with the Adobe applications you use every day, including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, GoLive, and InCopy software. Preview and adjust separations, overprinting, and transparency flattener settings. Then reliably output pages to print or as Adobe PDF files using professional controls, including comprehensive printing options, trapping support, color management controls, and print and Adobe PDF export presets.Browse, organize, label, and preview graphics and InDesign documents, templates, and snippets in Adobe Bridge. Drag and drop assets from Adobe Bridge into layouts easily and efficiently. Search for files using metadata, such as keywords, colors, and image resolution. Apply and globally upd object-level formatting more efficiently using object styles. Save a wide range of graphic, text, and frame-level attributes as object styles to create more consistent designs and speed up production tasks.Adobe Photoshop and Adobe PDF layer support. Selectively display layers and layer comps in Photoshop files, and layers in Adobe PDF files, to experiment with different design options or use multiple variations of a file in your layout, all while linking to a single file. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Learn a new language with the award-winning method used by the U.S. State Department to train diplomats. Proven effective by NASA astronauts, Peace Corps volunteers, and millions of students worldwide, the Rosetta Stone Language Library teaches new languages faster and easier than ever before.

We all learn our childhood language by associating new words and phrases with the world around us. The Rosetta Stone method replicates this process by presenting vivid, real-life images to convey the meaning of each new phrase. Instead of translating, memorizing, and studying rules of grammar, you actually learn to think in the new language. Vocabulary and grammar are integrated systematically, leading to everyday proficiency.

The Rosetta Stone Level I program offers a comprehensive course of study for beginning learners, leading to intermediate proficiency. The program contains over 3,500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons and more than 250 hours of mastery instruction in listening comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. There are reviews, exercises, and tests for every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. (Ages 6 and older) ... Read more

Reviews (2)

great for learning to understand by hearing and seeing
I began studying hebrew 2 years ago, but with only occasional classes, I found that I understood very little in conversation. This software helped me begin to do that. It has 8 'chapters', each with 11 or 12 'lessons'. The vocabulary starts out easy and slowly becomes more difficult. At the end, the vocabulary is probably intermediate level.

Within each lesson is 10 sets of 4 pictures. A statement is said aloud (there is also an option for reading only), and you click on the appropriate picture. It seems rather simplistic, but it really helps in understanding the language and associating the words and phrases with the actions being depicted.

Overall, excellent. My big regret is that they do not have a level II.

Learn Hebrew easily!
I teach a special education program in a Hebrew day school. I use this program to introduce my students to Hebrew language. It works! Even if a child cannot yet read, he or she can still learn the language by connecting the words they hear with the pictures. They can then use this program to see how these same words are written. I have some students who can study a unit and take the test in the program and get 100% on the reading test first time. The test of matching pictures to the heard words takes a little longer. I also have some students who excel the other way: they find pictures easier, the reading is more difficult. This program enables my students to improve all aspects of their language skills.
P.S. Before I bought the program, I tried the sampler CD, and learned some Welsh myself. This is a language that has always intrigued me - and if I could learn Welsh from Rosetta Stone, I felt that my students could definitely learn Hebrew using it.
Again, it's not the most exciting game, but if you want to learn Hebrew, this is a great way to do it. ... Read more

Features

• Choose from 40,000 legal documents; protect family and assets
• Create a legal will, living trust, financial power of attorney, and more
• Comprehensive and easy to use with step-by-step interviews
• Automatically reflects specific state laws; cuts legal fees
• Comprehensive onscreen legal manual; expert tech support available

Features

• Capture and use notes on laptop or desktop computers or Tablet PCs
• Versatility of paper notes; efficiency of digital organizational tools
• Capture info in multiple ways; store in one place; easy to use
• Be more productive anywhere you work with notes
• Great for in meetings, classes, phone conferences, and more

Features

• Easily create Adobe PDF files—create PDF documents with one-button ease from Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Enjoy improved performance—with improved performance you can quickly convert, collect, and organize Adobe PDF documents.
• Assemble documents—create a single Adobe PDF file from multiple sources—including Web pages and e-mail—to deliver one professional document that anyone can open using free Adobe Reader 7.0 software.
• Protect sensitive and confidential documents—control documents inside and outside the firewall, online and offline.
• Enjoy improved attachment capabilities—easily attach source files such as spreadsheets and images to an Adobe PDF document.

Features

• PowerPoint 2003 gives you the ability to create an impact with your ideas, whether it's in person or online!
• Create rich-media presentations that deliver better communications -- whether you're doing marketing presentations, online learning or executive broadcasts
• Improved audio and video options give you a wealth of backgrounds, templates and special effects to include in tyour presentation
• Enhanced SMart Tags make it easier to manage and track different aspects of your presentation or project
• Advanced multimedia support makes it easier to transfer Powerpoint files to a CD

Features

• Provides customer/contact management, automated processes, and workgroup tools
• Instant access to centralized customer and contact information
• Time management tools; easily automate mass mailings and track results
• Share critical information across the whole team, inside and outside the office
• Analyze leads, sales, and marketing; sort sales by product or probability

Features

• Communicate quickly and effectively with others--internally and across organizations
• Bring information into your documents for more timely access to the information you need
• Quickly find the information you need to complete your work
• Create impressive-looking documents that help you work better together
• Read documents more easily online with the new Reading Layout view

Reviews (4)

The famously broken bits are still broken.
Pointing out Word's faults is like pointing out the pyramids are crumbling--it may be true, but they're still going to be there. Still, Word's Master Document "feature" is still the surest way to document corruption. And you'd better track down the internet page that gives detailed instructions on the convoluted way you need to set up heading numbering if you want to keep your Word documents from corrupting.

And so on. I doubt anyone cares. Word is a fact of life, no matter if it's constantly falling to bits. The new version's XML support does give you a new path to recovering a corrupted document: saving to XML and then converting that file back to Word format has saved me some time on a couple of occasions.

We use Word because we have to. On those occasions when I don't have to, I use WordPerfect, because I like to actually produce things, not spend my time dealing with software problems.

Justified Upgrade for some, but not all
Word 2003 is more powerful than ever. Unfortunately, most of the new features are aimed primarily towards large business. As a result, many end-users simply won't need them (or be able to use them). The users who will benefit most from upgrading are corporate users or users purchasing bundles with new PCs.

Pros:

Instant Messaging support is now integrated with Office applications. However, only MSN messenger is used. Users who predominantly use Yahoo, trillian, jabber, or ICQ will not find any utility in this feature, without signing up for a messenger account.

The user interface has changed for the better, and matches the Windows XP interface better. Personally, I like it. Also, fonts are rendered better, and consequently documents will look better on laptops (no more jagged edges).

The Reading Layout feature splits the text into a two column format for easier reading (think newspaper).

If you have Microsoft Server and SharePoint services installed on your network, you can share and track changes to word documents. Nice feature, but requires a significant investment on server software.

When typing an hypertext link, word no longer reformats the font of the URL.

Cons:

Product activation, which requires network access.

All of the Office applications now have a blended help system that first checks help files online first, before getting local help files.

XML is useless for end users. Programmers who use Word to write XML will find that Word no longer tries to autocorrect much of the XML, but you will still have the annoying red underline on many of your XML tags because the spellchecker flags them as misspelled.

Still, I think it makes a worthy upgrade for 97/2000 users, but XP users will find the expense difficult to justify. More specifically, if you are an end user without a lot of Microsoft back end software installed on your network (Windows 2000/2003 Server, SharePoint services, etc.) I would think very carefully before upgrading.

Keeps On Getting better
Word 2003 includes development tools that add dynamic features to documents making them powerful than ever. The power beneath all this is XML, allowing the user to embed components for updating data in documents such as stock quotes. Word 2003 offers simple, familiar yet improved features regular users are accustomed to. Majority of the features in Word 2003 are aimed primarily toward businesses and the Enterprise. But are still necessary for the average user because of the control over information across all the Office applications. Tools such as Information Rights Management (IRM), (this controls the flow of information to specific users), persons can be restricted on how they use your Office files; whether it's printing or sharing, very powerful! Reading view is an enhanced mode of print preview; documents are laid out in virtual pages reducing the need to print. The Task Pane is also improved by offering resources to look up information on a particular topic being typed; this is a feature across the core Office applications. Lots of other great features make Word 2003 a worthy upgrade.

Just keeps getting better!
I was lucky enough to get Office 2003 before the official release date. Microsoft has done a nice job on the interface. Everything looks cleaner, and it will pop up useful sidebars on the righthand side (such as the clipbook for pasting items you have copied, help items, etc).

Another thing about the interface is that it meshes nicely with Windows XP themes. It will take a soft blue color when paired with Windows XP's default theme. All of the bars will be blue. This is nice on the eyes. The same goes with silver - everthing will match.

As for upgrading to 2003 from older versions... this is a tough call. If you have Word XP, I would be hard pressed to tell you to upgrade. Even Word 2000 does a fine job. I don't know if there are enough new bells and whistles in this to warrant upgrading. If you like to have the newest of everything however, this is the best word processor out there for PCs.

For those of you on a tight budget, thers is hope. As good as Microsoft Office products are, there is a FREE alternative. You may want to give OpenOffice 1.1 a download. It is completely free and open source, and most importantly, compatible with Microsoft documents (word, excel, etc). ... Read more