Microsoft Quietly Offering Ad-Funded Version of Works

mikesd81 writes "News.com reports Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries. Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet. Although the program has the ability to update its set of ads online, today it runs mostly ads for Microsoft and a few partners, all of which ship with the product itself. Microsoft remains cagey on the details of where you can find Works SE. The company has been testing Works SE in 5 countries: The United States, France, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom. It is available only through select computer makers and Microsoft won't say which computer makers those are. However, it seems Sony is offering it in the US."

Works?

[calebt3 (1098475)]

It still exists?

Re:Works?

[arivanov (12034)]

Wrong question.

The right one is "It works?"

Disclaimer: this is not a flamebait. I just spent half a day fighting to convert a document produced with this oxymoron into something that could be read.

Re:

[sconeu (64226)]

That's a well known PC oxymoron -- "Microsoft Works"

Re:Works?

[Plutonite (999141)]

Speaking of oxymorons and innuendo and such: did anyone notice the rackspace ads running on the top bar here on slashdot?

..its going that extra mile, reaching a little deeper

If you need a partner, it's Rackspace!

No comment.

Re:

[CSMatt (1175471)]

You think that's odd? I've seen ads for Microsoft products on Slashdot.

Re:Works?

[David Gerard (12369)]

Pfft, have you ever tried opening a complex Office or Word document in Microsoft Office? As awesome a product as it is, it's downright lousy for handling things like image filters and pixel-perfect positioning on Word documents. It tries, yes, and sometimes it does OK, but it's far from perfect. That's because Word actually lays out the page according to the printer driver that happens to be default on that particular PC today. So Word is, quite literally, not compatible with the same version of itself on the same operating system.

Re:

[Stormwatch (703920)]

So, how to get full consistency... LaTeX editors, maybe?

Re:

[David Gerard (12369)]

ODF does in fact aim to get format consistent between different ODF implementations - so if your document uses ODF that works in both OOo and KWord (which are completely independent implementations), your document should be identical between the two, and if it isn't there's a bug in one or both.

Of course it does

[nurb432 (527695)]

It still does more then what 95% of the public needs. Its cheap, and does the job.

Though i saw the latest version the other day and it looks pretty hokey with all the wizards..

Re:

[Nimey (114278)]

It's up to version 9, even.

Re:

[CSMatt (1175471)]

A valid counter-response: WildTanget used to come preinstalled on a lot of PCs as well. Is that also good enough to "[not] want to go messing with it"?

Re:

[tftp (111690)]

Her response was "Well, Works came with the computer, it's good enough and I don't want to go messing with it." As far as I know, she still uses it. UGH! At least she isn't secretary anymore.

Indeed, I can't imagine any sane manager who would listen to IT opinions from his secretary. "Either you use what I tell you to use, or you are free to go and work for someone else. It's not just the matter of me being evil, it's mostly the fact that I can't read what you write. Makes you kind of useless here, eh?

Microsoft Works

[by Anonymous Coward]

Is that like "military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp".

worst for portability

[v1 (525388)]

MS Works is currently the #1 trouble child for us to do data migration from older systems.

Re:worst for portability

[davolfman (1245316)]

To be honest I'd never suggest it with OpenOffice available in this day and age it just makes no sense. The value of Microsoft products in compatibility and when you can get a more compatible product for less money Works has no reason to exist except for widespread ignorance of the existence of OpenOffice.

Re:

[davolfman (1245316)]

Which in my experience is a royal pain to try to do with Office when everyone who's not a geek loses their disks.

Huh?

[CSMatt (1175471)]

I've heard about converting document formats to PDF, but how do you convert to a document format from PDF?

Re:

[v1 (525388)]

Acrobat Pro lets you edit PDF documents, and from there you can export to a different format.

What about already existing alternatives?

[gapagos (1264716)]

In other news, Open Office is being offered WITHOUT ANY ADS for all platforms :-)
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html [openoffice.org]

Re:What about already existing alternatives?

[by Anonymous Coward]

In other news, Open Office is being offered WITHOUT ANY ADS for all platforms :-)

And unlike Microsoft Works, it can actually read Microsoft Office documents.

Re:What about already existing alternatives?

[dacut (243842)]

Anyone want to help fund an ad for OpenOffice on MS Works?

Re:

[nahdude812 (88157)]

I find it unlikely they'd accept your ad.

Re:

[Technician (215283)]

In other news, Open Office is being offered WITHOUT ANY ADS for all platforms :-)

In other news an entire office suite Open Office not only is without advertisements, it opens many more formats, saves in a open standard format, is multi-platform, and free. There, Fixed it.

In other news...

[conner_bw (120497)]

The COBOL-Standard Committee is said to have released an advertisement supported version of COBOL.

Placement???

[cliffiecee (136220)]

I bet the ad floats RIGHT over the cursor. Gently bobbing around as you type.
(Don't worry, it'll be mostly transparent, so you can sorta see what your typing.)

Slightly OT: Microsoft Office 2007

[blind biker (1066130)]

Is there anyone else besides me whom Microsoft Office 2007 drives completely bonkers? I have never had the gross misfortune of using such an unfriendly POS of an office suite, in my life. The only reason I did use it, was because I had to include some Powerpoint slides into a .ppt file prepared by my boss - so I HAD TO use the company-wide office suite - MS Office 2007 - even though otherwise we are quite free to use whatever we prefer. So I use OO.o usually and just publish my works in .pdf.

Anyhow, it was a traumatic experience. "Where the eff is "Save as"? And how do I insert a slide? OK, how do I center-align this text? No, I don't want to insert Wordard or multimedia clips, thank you. Just a slide. And then save the file under a new name."

For me, the value of an office program, like for example Powerpoint or Impress, is in the speed I can create the presentation (for example) and how good it will look in the end. OO.o Impress is more than adequate in that sense - Powerpoint 2007, well, it failed me. Same with OO.o Write vs Word 2007 - plus the added argument that OO.o creates standstds compliant documents which I will be able to open with a reader of my choice or own creation in 40 years from now. But yeah, the fact that I can create it quickly and without logic-killing brain-damaging consequences is the greatest value.

Re:

[gapagos (1264716)]

Personally I use Office 2008 (for mac) where the GUI is very similar to 2007 and I do find the GUI counter-intuitive at times.

However that's far from my main beef about it.
Office 2008 (not sure about 07) has a HUGE memory leak problem.

If I use it for a long time (including putting my computer to sleep, so like 24 hours), it sometimes uses 2GB of virtual memory. Yeah, that's right, 2GB for a 50kb document. Of course, under such conditions you have to expect the occasional crash.

Re:

[jonbryce (703250)]

Office 2008 does have a menu bar with things mostly where you would expect them to be (on a mac).

Re:

[blind biker (1066130)]

Actually, I used Office 2008 for Mac, and the interface is considerably more sane. It's different enough from Office 2007/Windows, that I didn't have any problems finding the various stuff and edit a fairly complex scientific document. The only (big) problem was that once I converted it to .pdf, the formulas looked like ass. Later I was told that it's a known bug and that when it does that, I should close Word and restart it, and do another conversion and then it usually the formulas look OK.

Re:

[InlawBiker (1124825)]

Coming from somebody who uses Office daily, whether I like it or not, I was in agreement with you for a while. Until I got used to the new interface. It is really greatly improved. Sometimes I hunt for a function still but on the whole it's now much more intuitive and easier to get to features without having to scroll through an endless series of drawdowns / pop-outs / more drawdowns.

Anyway it's about time they did something new with Office. For the longest number of years I was hard-pressed to see an

Re:

[CSMatt (1175471)]

So, how do you manage to make charts without the chart wizard? The chart wizard was (and is) the most appealing thing in Excel for me, and consequently its removal was the most frustrating thing that I experienced in the short time I used Office 2007. In the 97-2003 days I could make a chart in about 2 minutes or less thanks to the wizard and some minor post-processing. In 2007 it took me at least 15-20, assuming I didn't just give up and try on another office suite.

Since you asked...

[symbolset (646467)]

Outlook 2007 has some rather interesting features. Typing in the middle of a paragraph - when the cursor crosses the line wrap the cursor is sometimes moved to a semi-random place in the text. That took a little getting used to. The last editor I used that had that problem -- well, I wrote it myself. :-(

The "invisible text" in HTML emails bug is still present too. It's a holdover from O97. You would think they would fix that. Some people feel that having some of the text of their emails randomly delet

Re:

[T-Bone-T (1048702)]

Anyhow, it was a traumatic experience. "Where the eff is "Save as"? And how do I insert a slide? OK, how do I center-align this text? No, I don't want to insert Wordard or multimedia clips, thank you. Just a slide. And then save the file under a new name."

Really? You're joking, right? Maybe I'm special or something because it took me all of 5 minutes to go through all the programs and figure it out.

Re:

[Z34107 (925136)]

Office 2007 (with the "ribbon") is the biggest thing to happen to the Office suite since Windows 95. Quit whining that they moved the buttons around just that tiny little bit - I found features and said "Oh, wow! I wish that was in other versions of Office, too!" only to realize that it was - I just couldn't find it until now.

When you start Powerpoint (or any part of Office 2007) for the first time, the little round Office logo in the top left will glow and a pop up will tell you "Here is where the Save

Re:

[ozmanjusri (601766)]

I found features and said "Oh, wow! I wish that was in other versions of Office, too!" only to realize that it was - I just couldn't find it until now.

Examples?

Re:

[hairyfeet (841228)]

Here is MY problem with 07, which was also ONE of my problems with Vista for the two months I ran it (it was also a slow bloated hog, but I digress), anyway here is my problem: What the hell is so hard about having a "classic" mode? I mean, really, with all those programmers would have REALLY have been so hard to put an option to put in into classic mode, say 2000 or XP for Vista and 2000 or 2003 for Office? At least with XP before the Brico Packs and the hacked msstyles came out you could at least switch i

Re:

[a.ameri (665846)]

Office 2007's ribbon interface has a very steep learning curve. I completely understand how someone moving from Office 2003/OOo.org can initially get lost in it. It looks overwhelming, and so different to what we are used to.

Give it some time, however and you'll soon be won over. After a week of using it, there was no way I could go back to previous versions of office. How many times have you looked at a menu item in Office 2003/OOo and not know exactly what it's supposed to do until you click on it? Well,

Re:

[blind biker (1066130)]

Interesting then, that all three of us are mildly retarded, and yet we are all young researchers. Kinda hard to survive in nanotech research while being retarded.

Could it be that Microsoft just fscked up? I submit to you as a possibility that Microsoft has just shuffled around the interface in order to justify the publication of a new office suite, when there was nothing to "improve on" anymore.

Hi! I'm clippy!

[by Anonymous Coward]

You might remember me from informational presentations such as "Hi there, are you writing a letter?" and "Are you sure you want a comma there?" and I'm here to talk to you about a wonderful new kitchen product!

Re:

[owlnation (858981)]

so funny. Mod post funny! (AC or not)

Desperation?

[Pecisk (688001)]

Seemingly OpenOffice.org makes good inroads in OEMs, so Microsoft have to do something to compete. But ad based Microsoft product is rather stretching. I mean, no offense, but it is very hard and annoying to use Microsoft products _sometimes_. Ads means additional annoyance.

Anyway, it is interesting step to watch and smells like testing waters before rolling out full ad-based Microsoft Office out.

Microsoft has been trying to strangle Works

[melted (227442)]

... for a looooong time, but someone always screwed up the strangulation by reminding everyone just how much money it brings in. This looks like yet another strangulation attempt.

Ick

[nurb432 (527695)]

Need i say more?

Old news

[jrothwell97 (968062)]

My Packard Bell machine came with ad-supported Works bundled. I bought it on New Year's Eve, so the fact it's taken four months for this to appear on the front page of /. astounds me.
And yes, it sucks far more than previous versions of Works.

Hi, there!

[zmollusc (763634)]

"Hello, I am calling you to see if you wanted to advertise on our exciting new advertising medium targetted at skinflints who will use crap rather than fork out any money! Hello? Hello?"

Re:

[Linker3000 (626634)]

"I would rather them release an ad-ridden version of Microsoft Office 2003 Pro. THEN I'll install the ad-blocker patch that turns up on Teh Internets a few days later"

FTFY

Re:

[Technician (215283)]

It's a $40 piece of software. I would rather them release an ad-ridden version of Microsoft Office 2003 Pro. THEN it would be worth it to deal with the advertisements.

It's a $40 piece of software. I would rather them release an ad-ridden version of Microsoft Office 2003 Pro. THEN it would be worth it to some people to deal with the advertisements.

There, fixed it.

Re:

[Linker3000 (626634)]

Please do not post links to pirated versions of Office 2007 in full view of the community. In future, please direct them to Office 2003 as it's much simpler to use.

Re:

[CSMatt (1175471)]

We already have a free version of Office here:
http://openoffice.org/ [openoffice.org]

Fixed.

Re:

[Dash Hash (955484)]

Does it require/use an internet connection?

Not only that, but to protect your children from those horrible, horrible online office suites, we use 95% of your bandwidth at all times!

Are the ads served up in relation to a keyword search?

Yes, but don't worry, we've made deals with companies who use bogus adwords to ensure that you never see something you would care about spending money on (unless it is our product!)

Does it embed ads in output?

Of course! This is just to help you get some income from the documents you create, so you can buy the /real/ version of Works (disclaimer: there is a 100.1% tax of all income earned by you i