MS Works vs Office

just wondering what the big difference is between MS works and MS office.

i'm just after purchasing a new inspiron and it came with works. i'm a student and use Word, Excel and Powerpoint quite heavily. there is a student/teacher version of office available with those, and outlook but i'm wondering is it worth shelling out Eur 150 odd. I just had a brief look through works word & spreadsheet and on the face of things its quite similar to office. granted, i haven't studied it in-depth yet.

any comments? also what about other options like open office?

any advice would be appreciated

 

I would get the MS Office student/teacher version. It has the base programs and is alot cheaper. If you need all the extras then I could justify spending the extra money.

 

I believe Works is like Office but lacks all of the neat bells and whistles such as Microsoft Equation...think of it like a blender with one speed instead of 12. Sure, you figure, "Hey, it still blends stuff up, right?", but then you find out you really kinda need that "Puree" function.

OpenOffice is closer to Office than it is to Works, though, so take a look at that if you'd like. The upshot is that it's free; the downshot (at least for me) is that it's a tad confusing if you've used Microsoft's version for years and years (especially when it comes to things like the Equation Editor).