Homework can be stressful and not just for students. By the time children begin to struggle with complex assignments in middle and high school, most parents are a bunch of years out of the educational loop and not well-equipped to provide assistance. But now there's hope: Microsoft Student 2006 productivity software offers endless features, homework help for a range of subjects, and extensive multimedia including music, artwork, and access to live radio and news at a relatively affordable price ($100 direct).

At the heart of the software is Learning Essentials for Students. This module adds tutorials, toolbars, and templates (developed in conjunction with major education companies) to Microsoft Office's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. A welcome addition would be the ability to customize these templates for each user, as well as a way to save Favorites in one place. Each tutorial is easy to navigate, with extensive guidelines to help students start their essays, research papers, book reports, creative writing projects, science projects, art projects, and oral presentations. For foreign-language assignments, the software provides verb conjugations, spell-check, and translation tools for French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Students also have access to common phrases for most other languages.

Microsoft Student provides Online Math Homework Help through an included subscription to MSN Encarta Premium (through October 31, 2006). Students can access their textbook online (most major publishers are represented) and receive step-by-step instructions and hints for solving math problems in four categories: basic math, algebra, advanced algebra, and geometry.

More complex math usually necessitates a scientific calculator, which can sometimes be overwhelming. The program's graphing calculator software lets students hide buttons they don't need, mouse over buttons for quick descriptions of their function, store and easily change variables, and see the solution to their problems as both fractions and decimals. To help visualize a problem, students can create 2D and 3D graphs and view, rotate, and animate them on-screen. In addition, the calculator can be customized with a choice of skins.

Time management is another challenge for students: Teens typically go the Web for research but can waste time sifting through irrelevant information and unreliable sources. To assist with search results, Student automatically provides links to over 70,000 trusted Encarta articles in a separate, minimizable window. This is a great feature, although teachers may frown upon using the same source all the time.

Student works with all editions of Office XP and Office 2003 or later, though an Internet connection (dial-up is okay) is required for some features. With seamless integration into Office and a simple browserlike interface, this software will be a valuable addition to any student's desktop.