Several readers emailed to ‘correct’ us when we say that some versions of Microsoft Works include Microsoft Word.

There are two flavors of Microsoft Works – both will read and write Microsoft Word (.doc) files and one type is truly 100% Word compatible.

“Microsoft Works” is what most people will have. It’s the cheaper edition and is often supplied with a new computer at little or no extra cost. It has a simple word processor with it’s unique default document format but can read and write Word .doc files.

“Microsoft Works Suite” is more expensive but includes a complete copy of Microsoft Word. This is the same Word as you can buy as a standalone product, except with all the extra Works stuff (small spreadsheet program etc). Works Suite 2006 comes with Word 2002 (ie the version of Word in Office XP), as such it is fully compatible with all Word documents. The upcoming add-on to support .docx files should also work for Works Suite 2006 (if it doesn’t plenty of people will want to know why).

Details here - there are many other extras in the Works Suite beyond just adding a full edition of Word.

Microsoft has an article on using Works with Microsoft Office documents here. Like most articles on the Microsoft site it ‘accentuates the positive’. It doesn’t address the obvious question – why isn’t the Works word-processor associated to .doc files by default?

No word yet on compatibility of Microsoft Works with the new document formats (.docx .xlsx etc) but we’d be surprised if there isn’t something made available.