Rating: 
Summary: Word 2002 - if you upgrade to it say goodbye to macros!
Review: Microsoft Word is a good word processor, but if you use to work with macros, I strongly advise against upgrade to Word 2002. This version of the most famous word processor seems to be a step back instead forward. At least my experience with it says so.In older versions of Word you are able to record macros by performing a sequence of actions. In Word 2002 you can do the same, but with one important difference: macro does not remember font attributes like underline, italic, bold, style, font etc. If you're a PC guru you may probably be able to repair such incomplete macro by entering Visual Basic Editor, but if you aren't, you'll probably be helpless. Word 2002 has also some other bad characteristics. One of them is the size of its files. A 34 Mb Word 97 file fattened to enormous 49Mb in Word 2002 and a 55 Kb file to 70 Kb.
Another is a fact that almost all of the Spelling&Grammar and Auto Text options are turned on by default. If you're not an English or an American, you need to do a lot of clicking before you can begin to work with Word normally. And poor you if you don't know what to turn off to make auto corrections and other disturbing features disappear. Try to imagine what happens if you write in Slovenian language with the English spell-checker turned on! Microsoft should bear in mind that only (small) part of the world is English speaking and writing. There are also some troubles with cut and paste (Clipboard memory seems to be unreliable). PS
I gave Word 2002 4 stars for its basic word processing features, but only 1 star for its macros and reliability, and again only 1 star for its price. Together it's 2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Word 2002 - if you upgrade to it say goodbye to macros
Review: Microsoft Word is a very good word processor, but if you use to work with macros, I strongly advise against upgrade to Word 2002. This version of the most famous word processor seems to be a step back instead forward. At least my experience with it says so. In older versions of Word you are able to record macros by performing a sequence of actions. In Word 2002 you can do the same, but with one important difference: macro does not remember font attributes like underline, italic, bold, style, font etc. If you're a PC guru you may probably be able to repair such incomplete macro by entering Visual Basic Editor, but if you aren't, you'll probably be helpless. Word 2002 has also some other bad characteristics. One of them is the size of its files. A 34 Mb Word 97 file fattened to enormous 49Mb in Word 2002 and a 55 Kb file to 70 Kb.
Another is a fact that almost all of the Spelling&Grammar and Auto Text options are turned on by default. If you're not an English or an American, you need to do a lot of clicking before you can begin to work with Word normally. And poor you if you don't know what to turn off to make auto corrections and other disturbing features disappear. Try to imagine what happens if you write in Slovenian language with the English spell checker turned on! Microsoft should bear in mind that only (small) part of the world is English speaking and writing. There are also some troubles with cut and paste (Clipboard memory seems to be unreliable). PS
I gave Word 2002 4 stars for its basic word processing features, but only 1 star for its macros and reliability, and again only 1 star for its price. Together it's 2 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Upgrade Sure--But Only If You Use WORDS For A Living
Review: Most people who use a word processor use it for tasks not directly related to their full-time profession. The vast majority of students and office workers need no more than an easy to use program that allows for such mundane tasks as file creation, deletion, and editing. The original WORD processor allowed that in spades. However, when one is tempted to upgrade at considerable cost to the rather esoteric features found in the 2002 upgrade, then one ought to examine exactly what use one might expect to get from these additional features. Then a cost-versus benefit ratio is a good idea. In my case, I am a teacher who needs an easy to use processor and the original WORD was fine. As I examined the various extras listen on the blurbs (plus reading the generally negative reviews from Amazon.com), I realized that the cost was high but I decided to take a chance anyway. Bad idea. After a few weeks, I got bogged down in the surprising complexity of the upgrade. Most of the enhancements are really for those writers who do far more than merely write. If you feel you fall into this vanishingly small percent of power users of WORD, buy the upgrade. But be prepared for a program that is not user friendly.
Rating: 
Summary: One More Reason To Love MS Word.
Review: MS Word's 2002 upgrade makes a great product even better. Smart tags, the ability to select multiple chunks of text so that cut/pasting is easier, document translation- and many more features make the upgrade a must-have for any faithful Word user. I've used WordPerfect for necessary jobs, but would rather work solely with MS Word. This package is even worth having to register, the only real drawback, with Microsoft for continued use. If you work with Word, upgrade- you will be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Professional Program with Unprofessional Animations
Review: Overall, MS Word is a very good tool. One extremely irritating addition to the latest version is "Mr. Clippet" or "Clippy", a cartoon animation that pops-up whenever the user needs to search the help index. If the user is consulting the help menu, he or she is probably already somewhat frustrated. The user doesn't need some dancing, dumb-ass cartoon as a distraction. Keep it professional! It also wouldn't hurt Microsoft's reputation if they were to make their program compatible with some of the other Word processing programs out there. For example, Star Office allows the import of MS Word documents, but Word doesn't allow the import of Star Office documents. Come on, Bill, play fair!
Rating: 
Summary: Word 2002 - an upgrade worth having
Review: Probably the nicest feature bundled into this upgrade is the speech recognition tool. Once "trained", this tool allows fast and reasonably accurate document entry. Whether you need to collect tomes of information for research projects or just need a quick mechanism to collect your thoughts, Word 2002 handles the task and continues to be the most user-friendly wp product on the market.
Rating:
Summary: Professional Program with Unprofessional Animations
Review: The only reason I decided to dish out 70 bucks for this was the speech recognition. I originally had Word 2000, there weren't very many advancements in this that I absolutely needed, except for the speech recognition. That is amazing, I would pay even more then 70 bucks for it. You can even extend it so that you can use it in nearly any Windows product. Great Idea!! Pretty much elimiinates the need for a keyboard. The training sessions for it are very simple and only take a few minutes. If you take all of the training sessions it will boost accuracy up to 95% (so they say) a great buy for people who are writing long reports and need a lil help with it.
Rating:
Summary: A Few very useful Features..
Review: The only reason I decided to dish out 70 bucks for this was the speech recognition. I originally had Word 2000, there weren't very many advancements in this that I absolutely needed, except for the speech recognition. That is amazing, I would pay even more then 70 bucks for it. You can even extend it so that you can use it in nearly any Windows product. Great Idea!! Pretty much elimiinates the need for a keyboard. The training sessions for it are very simple and only take a few minutes. If you take all of the training sessions it will boost accuracy up to 95% (so they say) a great buy for people who are writing long reports and need a lil help with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware
Review: There is nothing redeeming about this new version of Word. Ok, sure, they have a few nice changes here and there, but overall, this is nothing but a cheap update that is not-so-cheap on the checkbook. I don't know how Microsoft can get away with charging that much for basically doing nothing but "patching" a previous version. If you absolutely HAVE to have this product, I'd try to somehow obtain it through your employer's checkbook as a work-related write off. If you're unable to do that, just stick with Word 2000 or 1997. Most people don't notice the differences anyway, and most people just use it to write basic letters, memos, etc. If that's all you're doing, you don't need this. And unless you want to blow the price listed above, you don't need it either. You'll have much more fun and get much more satisfaction in taking those 3 Ben Franklin's and setting fire to them.
Rating:
Summary: After all these years ...
Review: They still can't get it right. You would think that a company as rich as Microsoft could figure out how to implement a word processor. But alas, it seems that after 10 years or so they still can't come up with industrial strength code. MS Word is fine if you want to type a three page memo or a letter to grandma but if you really want to write a lot of documentation it is a lot of trouble. Word tends to do what it wants with out explaining why or letting you get a word in edgewise. There have been many times when I have spent as much time getting the section numbering and formatting correct as I have in writing the document. For the most part the features are poorly implemented and confusing ... I don't have nearly enough space to list all of its problems but lets just say the only reason I'm using it is because it is the standard word processor for my company. I write large (200+ page) documents on a regular basis and have done so for many years. MS Word has always been painful to use and it never seems to get better. And to top it off, my copy has crashed three times so far today (it is 9:30 am), all times when I wasn't even touching the keyboard or mouse. At least these days it doesn't take down the operating system with it. I guess that counts as a major improvement for Microsoft software.
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