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Many people will have taken advantage of the ‘Student and Teacher’ offering with Office 2003 at little more than £100. This is a separate product but to get the best from it you will need Microsoft Word and Excel and that is still the cheapest legal way to get both.

This will only run on Windows 2000 (service pack 4) or Windows XP. It is stated to work in 256MB of RAM, I certainly had no problems on a PC that had 384MB. It says it needs a minimum of 430MB or hard disc space. I did a full install and that took – wait for it – 2884MB but you no longer need the DVD in the drive using that option. You need a DVD drive as this only comes on DVD. I was running on a recent quite fast AMD machine and total installation took just over 10 minutes. You then need updates for the Standard version of Encarta (these cover the events of August) and this took a few minutes mainly while you fill in online registration details. Further updates will be a lot quicker, it also makes good use of the Internet for other research. So while it does say ‘some features require an Internet connection’ you really will only get the best out of it with Broadband unless you want a horrendous phone bill.

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No indication of age is given but I would assume it is aimed mainly at teenagers. A new – at first scary – feature is the calculator and this is nothing like any calculator seen before, the early 1980 electronic offerings that could do various scientific functions is part of it but this can also do graphs and those early offerings cost far more than the whole Microsoft Student package.

You get loads of templates that link to the various Microsoft Office modules and therefore projects become a lot easier, no more looking at a blank page ‘how do I start this?’ All this and more are in the Learning Essentials part of the package.

The 2006 version of Encarta is included and this can link and give all the likely scenarios without you having to leave your PC. If it does not have the answers itself – unlikely – it links into the Internet to find the required information.

There is also a version of Children’s Encarta for the younger child, this simplifies the way it displays and explains the various subjects and topics, so it is not just a friendly interface.

Spelling has always been something that most struggle with, often hearing the word said can help and the built in Encarta dictionary pronunciation module can do that but of course you will need headphones or speakers to use it. Another feature is the foreign language toolbar that can help with Spanish, French and German homework.

Microsoft Student is a tool that can help with studying but do remember to get the best out of it you need Microsoft Office in some form or other. I know of no bundling deals to get Student 2006 and Office together but no doubt sooner or later there will be. Doing my normal web search found www.dabs.co.uk have it for £49.58.

Link http://www.microsoft.com/student/default.mspx