Rating: 
Summary: In terms of value, best productivity suite available
Review: Like some of the other reviewers, I'm rather surprised at the number of negative reviews that Appleworks has received. While it is true that Appleworks is not as powerful as Microsoft Office, it is much less expensive and clearly represents a better value. The word processer part of it (the part that most people will use) is more intuitive and easier to use than Microsoft Word. True, Word is more powerful; but it costs $350 and requires a manual to use. I have never needed to use a manual to use Appleworks. You have complete control of your documents and you don't have to summon up the help application to figure out how to do common tasks like formatting paragraphs or adding links. Those who have mastered the complexities of MS Word and who require its special features may not like Appleworks. But for the rest of us, it more than meets our needs.Also, one thing more: I have never had any trouble with Appleworks' translators from cwk to word format. I'm not sure why so many people have reported having trouble with it. I translated an entire book from Appleworks to PC MS Word, preserving the formats and special lettering instructions without any trouble at all. In any case, this wouldn't be a problem if people would show more courtesy to non-MS users (Macs and Linux) and not insist on sending them doc formatted files. PDF and rtf are far better cross-platform alternatives.
Rating:
Summary: In terms of value, best productivity suite available
Review: Like some of the other reviewers, I'm rather surprised at the number of negative reviews that Appleworks has received. While it is true that Appleworks is not as powerful as Microsoft Office, it is much less expensive and clearly represents a better value. The word processer part of it (the part that most people will use) is more intuitive and easier to use than Microsoft Word. True, Word is more powerful; but it costs $350 and requires a manual to use. I have never needed to use a manual to use Appleworks. You have complete control of your documents and you don't have to summon up the help application to figure out how to do common tasks like formatting paragraphs or adding links. Those who have mastered the complexities of MS Word and who require its special features may not like Appleworks. But for the rest of us, it more than meets our needs. Also, one thing more: I have never had any trouble with Appleworks' translators from cwk to word format. I'm not sure why so many people have reported having trouble with it. I translated an entire book from Appleworks to PC MS Word, preserving the formats and special lettering instructions without any trouble at all. In any case, this wouldn't be a problem if people would show more courtesy to non-MS users (Macs and Linux) and not insist on sending them doc formatted files. PDF and rtf are far better cross-platform alternatives.
Rating:
Summary: What's not to like?
Review: Ok, I'm am sure that there are features in Word or Excel that some of you might use and the key word is might, but for the other 98% of us. Apple Works is a complete program that is full featured and easy to use. It can save and all of latest Microsoft Office file formats and that is half the battle most of the time with some of the attachments that I receive. Other than that I've been using it for about two months now and it has done everything that I have asked it to do and done it with ease. I have no problems with crashing or quiting unexpectedly under OS X. I start it and it runs and runs and runs. It's a great value even if just to open and looks at an Excel spreadsheet or Word doucument. Chris
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