Hands-on with Microsoft's free Works
Intrigued to learn that Microsoft has been testing its ad-supported version of Microsoft Works here in the U.S., I wanted to see it for myself.
A Microsoft Office ad inside the main screen of Microsoft Works 9 SE.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)After work on Friday, I headed to Costco and to Best Buy, both of which carried Sony laptops that included the product, known as Works SE (Sponsored Edition). As Microsoft said, the product carries largely "house ads" that pitch Microsoft products such as Office. The ads themselves are small, taking up just about a 2-inch square in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Clicking on the ad didn't appear to do anything either. Of course, this is largely a test of the technology. Microsoft has built into Works SE the ability to serve ads via the Internet, should it choose to do so.
I took a few pictures with my cell phone camera, which are included not for their photographic quality, but rather to give a better sense for the feel of the advertising.
As can be seen in the image below, the ad isn't what takes up the most space. It's the right-hand pane in general, something that I believe exists in non-SE flavors of Works as well. This was less of an issue on the 15-inch Sony laptop I was looking at than it might be on a smaller screen.
Inside a word-processing document, the advertisement is just a small one in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)Although the advertising makes Works free, for most of its users, Works is already seen as free software. Historically, most Works users got the standard version of the program when they bought a new PC, so they weren't "paying" for it separately.
What has changed is the dynamics between Microsoft and the computer maker. Instead of paying Microsoft a couple of bucks to load Works, PC makers in the trial are getting Works SE for free. The price difference may not seem like much, but margins on PCs these days are razor-thin. Computer makers already clutter up their desktops with icons for all kinds of crapware to squeeze out a few extra dollars.
In that context, I think it is probably wise that Microsoft is going with smallish ads. However, the company could certainly gain more value from the advertising by making the ads more dynamic and by targeting them based on a user's Live ID. It could go a step further and try to serve up context-specific ads by scanning the contents of the document, but this would doubtless raise privacy concerns and arguably produce ads no more relevant than by using user profiles.
Also of note, while most of Microsoft's testing is around letting computer makers bundle Works SE for free, the company has done some other trials in Poland in which the software was distributed on its own.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Do yourself a favor. Get rid of Works and get OpenOffice.
"Would you want to watch the Super Bowl and miss the adds? Of course not! The adds are the best part. So don't miss your adds in your favorite Microsoft Works..."
LOL! Don't forget the disclaimer... "not responsible for ooxml compatibility."
Google Apps is 7 years Microsoft behind Works and like it or not Works is used by a lot of people and supports all the online/offline abilities that Google is trying desparately to support with Google Gears.
They can keep their ads....
It couldn't open the newest Microsoft Office document format, the ODT's that it outputted were and are extremely large compared to Microsoft DOCX documents...... it just isn't ready for prime-time.
Its totally not that hard to hit Print Screen (or heck even use ALT Print Screen and just capture your MS Works window!!!)
Way to look like a bunch of noobs CNET!!!
Thanks!
No?
Did you then not notice the huge 799 price tag above the first laptop screen, indicating them being at a store and not on their personal laptops (meaning they can Print Screen all they want, but have no ability to save the image out)?
Read. Before you go off calling peeps names.
Call me a purist, but I like it when the writer stays within the conventions of the genre.
posted from my shoe-PDA
Why bother since there are alternatives much better than Works that don't bombard you with ads.
Only the most brain dead MS fan could find anything of value here.
That way you don't have to deal with those uppity employees questioning why you're sticking a thumbdrive in their computer.
I don't think it's even fully comapatible with full Office. Worth discussing? not really.
You can buy Office if you want to ensure (kinda) compatibility with other office users, or you can get Open Office for free (and no ads) to ensure compatibility with almost all Office users (I have a co-worker who uses Open Office to convert newer Microsoft Office documents to old MIcrosoft office formats.) Or you can get iWork on a mac which is pretty nice too and fully compatible, but I think the future is in Open Office and its offshots (Neo Office, and the Lotus onem symphony?)
Works always has been, and always will be, a stop-gap program between the time you get your new computer, and the time you decide you actually need to buy and/or download a REAL office suite. But Open Office is fully functional and free.
OTOH, you're right, why bother with Works when you can get OO, a clearly better office suite, for free and ad free.
But consumers are getting wiser and with competitors like Google out there, Microsoft is not the no1 choice on the Internet.
So given that, serving up an Office Suite less than Google Docs is not really competitive. But I am sure that there will be some computer illiterate people out there who will go wow.
I used the add version of Eudora for a while, which had a similar advertisement, and it annoyed me enough to go back to Outlook.
Note that there's a new thing called a Screen Shot. Works better than taking a picture of your monitor.
We ask that most people outside of the company send us documents in RTF just because we have seen so many macro viruses in the past.
PS. 9 out of 10 venders will just take a DOC file and rename it RTF.
For MS, if you're serving ads, why not go online? If you want it run it locally, why not use Silverlight? And if you are working on this, just give away Works and start spreading the beta Works around, generate some interest.
Open Office is free... As in Free Beer, for you to use no strings attached.... Forget the ads shrinking down your user experience.
http://www.openoffice.org/
Where did you want to go yesterday???
I do wonder, however, why manufacturers don't load OpenOffice by default. I'm guessing that Microsoft makes it unpleasant for them to do so.
- by grandpa5x2009 October 11, 2009 9:58 AM PDT
- You can have Office 2007, and I don't know about all the other versions since the Windows ME products (my last computer). It came with works,money, and a couple other cd's. Admittedly I'm a long way from being computer literate, but I never had a problem with anything in that system. I recently bought this new laptop and of course it came with vista which is a pile of crap, also a 60 day trial of Office 2007. I didn't immediately open it because I didn't have any use for it at the time, a few weeks ago I had to download a form online, bingo, I had to open Office to do it, after an excessive amount of time it loaded and brought the form up, now with works there are a couple of different ways to print, I couldn't find one in Office, finally sent the form to my son who has my old computer I gave to my granddaughter and he printed for me. The next day I deleted Office 2007 and picked up almost 300MB of "usable" memory.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(49 Comments)