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Word, the most heavily used application in the Office suite, has had only a moderate makeover for this 2003 version. The cosmetic enhancements to menus and toolbars improve the overall aesthetic appeal and there are some usability improvements, but the main changes are the XML support, Smart Documents and IRM (Information Rights Management), which will only appeal to corporate IT departments.

Word files can now be saved as XML, with all the formatting marked up using the WordML Schema. This means, in theory, that any process that understands XML can read, edit or create Word XML files. In the Professional version of Word (bought standalone or in the Professional or Professional Enterprise Edition of Office), you can also mark up documents using custom XML Schemas. This lets you tag areas of the document as being a customer's address or a part number. Applications and processes that understand XML may then extract that information without having to load the document into Word.

You can also build custom task panes for Smart Documents that give help, tools or suggested content based on which custom schema node you're currently editing. These features aren't the easiest to use but they are powerful.

Users of the Small Business, Standard, Basic and Student/Teacher editions of Office won't be bothered by the new security features of IRM. Users of the Professional and Professional Enterprise editions will have extra menu options and toolbar buttons that will offer to download security extensions to

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Windows in order to lock documents for viewing only by the people you specify. The inclusion of these buttons by default is questionable. IRM should only be implemented by the central IT department after careful consideration, rather than willy-nilly by end users.

Microsoft has finally realised that Word documents are often opened and closed without anything being changed. The user is reading the document and might benefit from some help in doing this. Now, if you open a read-only document or click the Read button on the toolbar, you switch to the new Reading view. This removes unnecessary toolbars and shows the document on simulated pages that take up the visible area of the Word window. You can see a document map of headings or thumbnails of the pages, and the Page Up and Page Down keys work logically even when showing double-page spreads. You can also increase or decrease the size of the text on screen without affecting the font size in the document.

There are new document-protection options presented on a new task pane. First, you can restrict formatting in a document to only allow the choice of predefined styles rather than direct formatting. This will be good for corporate customers who want to ensure documents conform to their own design and print guidelines. The other new feature is the ability to restrict editing in some or all sections of a document. Tracked Changes, Comments, Form Filling or No Changes (Read-Only) can be enforced section by section with exceptions by usernames. Thus, you could make a document that would allow anyone to add comments except some named individuals who could make any necessary changes.

The main functions of Word haven't changed much with this release, although the new task panes, reading layout and document protection are welcome additions. But good IT departments may make use of the XML and Smart Document features.

Overall rating: 4 stars

For a full review of all the components of the Office System see the 20-page special in this month's PC Pro (already with subscribers and on the newsstand from Thursday 23 October)