Product Reviews

Helping your teenager with their homework can be a nightmare. It was Henry VIII who chopped the heads of all his wives, wasn't it? But was that the same Henry who said "once more unto the breach, dear friends. Once more..."? Who knows?

If this sounds familiar, then you may be interested in Microsoft's latest product. Microsoft Student 2006 is a bundle of software designed both to help older pupils, and to help parents help them.

The main screen of the program lists all major school subjects, from English to Social Studies. Under each topic is a list of tools and research resources. Every section contains lots of information. The geography section, for instance, contains statistical information on almost 200 countries. The section on computers and technology covers, among other things, the history of computers, how computers work and how they are used in everyday life.

If you can't find information on the topic you want in Student itself, you can take a look in the children's version of Microsoft's Encarta encylopedia that's bundled with it.

Alternatively, you can use the program's Web Companion. This is a search bar that Student 2006 adds to Internet Explorer. Whenever you search for something on the Web,

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the Web Companion also finds relevant entries in Encarta and on selected Web sites. This is useful not only because it makes it quicker to find relevant information online, it also eliminates the danger that your child might innocently be taking information from a Web site that looks authoritative, but was really created by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

The main program also contains a large number of project starters. These explain how to go about planning, researching and writing essays and reports. The software integrates well with Microsoft Office. There are some handy tools, such as the French, Spanish and German toolbars for Word. These make adding foreign characters quick and easy - so your child won't have to learn ASCII codes.

Most closely, and productively, integrated with Office is the Learning Essentials program. This provides your child with templates for all kind of work. Each template opens in one of the Office programs and contains a skeleton structure for most types of school projects (essays, reports and so on). We were a bit doubtful about some of the PowerPoint templates. We're not sure how a teacher would react to having a book report handed in with an orange background. The Word templates, on the other hand, tended to be simple, clearly focused on the task in hand and generally good aids to concentration, discipline and structure in a pupil's work.

Despite what the marketing blurb says, if you don't have a version of office XP or 2003 (Student and Teacher costs around £80), you won't get the most out of this. If you do have Office it's still pricey, but you at least get a lot for your money.

Student 2006 has a lot of useful content, and its guides and templates will assist you in you in helping your child plan and write good homework projects.