Productivity Reviews

FileMaker 8.5: a first look

Preview FileMaker 8.5 lets you drop Web pages into database layouts, so you can map contacts' addresses, track FedEx packages, display encyclopaedia entries, or whatever else you imagine without leaving the application.

Women and Information Technology review

Review This book draws together research on why women are underrepresented in IT. The findings reveal few surprises beyond the fact that little has changed since the first similar exercise in 1998.

Spychips review

Review Are RFID chips just 'improved barcodes', or potentially sinister instruments of interference in our daily lives? This campaigning book takes the latter view, and urges us to take action.

Google Desktop 4 beta review

Review Google Desktop 4 beta is less clunky than its predecessor, and we love the zippy search and creative Sidebar Gadgets. Still, we're wary of handing over our computing habits to Google's servers.

Writely beta review

Review Can Writely replace Microsoft Word? Yes, if you have stable Internet access and don't need a lot of editing and formatting features.

Opera 9 review

Review We really like Opera 9 -- but we like it more as the cool, arty browser that it is and not as our everyday Internet workhorse.

Google Spreadsheets: a first look

Preview Following its purchase of Writely, Google has made another move into Web-based office productivity tools. Here are our first impressions.

MindManager X5 Pro review

Review MindManager X5 Pro combines brainstorming, project management and presentation functionality into an extremely useful business tool that's especially well suited to the Tablet PC platform.

Microsoft Office 2007 beta 2

Preview The latest beta version of Microsoft Office 2007 reveals the ongoing renovations in the pipeline for Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Inside PowerPoint 2007 beta 2

Photos This slide show application is bringing more tools to the surface for polishing presentations with templates, information graphics and animation.

Inside Outlook 2007 beta 2

Photos Microsoft Outlook 2007 beta 2 puts more email and search functions at your fingertips, while integrating tasks and calendars, and adding colour labels.

Inside Word 2007 beta 2

Photos Word 2007 introduces new formatting choices and dynamic feature galleries that make it easier to integrate images and tables into text documents.

Inside Excel 2007 beta 2

Photos The beta 2 preview of Microsoft Excel 2007 reveals the program's new approach to visualising, analysing and protecting your spreadsheet data.

What the Dormouse Said review

Review Histories of the development of modern computing often omit the significant influence of 1960s counterculture. John Markoff's entertaining and informative book fills in the gaps.

Who needs a word processor?

Buyer's Guide It's time to take a close look at online productivity applications as an alternative to the traditional office suite.