Looking for good AppleWorks reviews...

[Lyle]

I realize that the current version of AppleWorks is a little long in the tooth at this point, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding a good, in-depth review of the software. Other than the information on Apple's web site, the reviews I'm finding through googling are pretty terse and don't provide a lot of detail.

I'm especially interested in using its word processing and page layout capabilities for putting together a newsletter for an organization of which I'm a member. The "test drive" version of Microsoft Office came pre-installed on my PowerBook, but (1) it seems like overkill, and, (2) it's a Microsoft product ('nuff said). I did try OpenOffice and, although it's got some promise and I sincerely hope it improves over time, it's not where I need it to be in terms of usability (at least for the Mac OS X version). So the next obvious choice is AppleWorks.

If you are a regular user of AppleWorks, and especially if you've used it for "light" desktop publishing efforts, please let me know what you think. If you tried it and hated it, please let me know that, too ;) I'm not too terribly interested in the spreadsheet or database portions of the suite; I'm sure whatever's there would be adequate for anything I'll be doing.

Thanks in advance...

[MacsRgr8]

Not many reviews found.....
For the average usage of any office app, AppleWorks is absolutely sufficient. It uses Maclink Plus to open/save M$ Office documents, which is very usable. But there are problems with PowerPoint presentations....
I don't use it very often, so I can't give you a review, I'm afraid.
But there is also one other Office "suite" I would like to mention:
ThinkFree (love that name) Office (http://www.thinkfree.com/products/pd_office20.jsp)
It might be what you want.

[PHARAOHk]

Appleworks sucks. I thought it would be a simple program that would give me word processing and layout. It's totally old school and unintuitive. I'll sell you mine if you want it. Cheap.

pharaohk@covad.net