A second outing for what Microsoft clearly hopes will be an indispensable educational tool, Student 2007 actually manages to pretty much replicate the peaks and troughs of last year's edition, which at the time made it useful rather than outright vital. And those words fittingly describe it again.

It's supposed to be a package of tools and resources to help students with their homework and assignments, and it gets lots of things right. It gets off to a good start by the inclusion of the excellent Encarta Reference Library 2007 (which we've reviewed separately here, so won't dwell on any further).

It also scores highly with mathematicians. The excellent graphical calculator from Student 2006 is back, with some neat improvements, and there are some genuinely strong tools for taking you step by step through mathematical equations. This is important: Student isn't giving you the answers here, rather the tools and potentially the understanding to help you work them out for yourself.

If the maths is excellent, the language functions aren't too far behind. Working with Spanish, French, German and Italian there's a straight translation tool, but more usefully, Student will help in the conjugation of verbs and work with tenses as well.

Much of the rest of the application requires Microsoft Office to be installed to be able to use, and that's naturally going to put a good chunk of users off from the outset. Likewise, if you're working using Office 2000 or earlier, then an upgrade is required.

It's a real pity, and while many won't be affected (given the prevalence of Microsoft Office in the marketplace), it adds a significant cost to the total price for those without Office who want to get the most out of Student.

Areas affected include the numerous, and predominantly very good, templates that are included, covering the likes of presentations and reports. We found them to be a useful starting point for the stumped user, and when combined with the multitude of tips and advice on putting work together, could really help to deliver results. Again, it's a case of giving the user the tools rather than the answer, and that's a commendable and vital ethos.

Ultimately, Student 2007 is a breeze to use, very well organised and likely to be of good use to those looking to tackle homework and assignments. And the inclusion of Encarta is a real boon, not least the way it easily integrates with the main Student application.

What a pity, then, that the sour taste of corporate greed has sneaked in. What's wrong with making some of the templates and tools available for non-Office users? Or at the very least providing a 'lite' version, at a cheaper price, without the requirement for Microsoft's Office suite?

As it stands, for its target market Student is both strong and full of potential for future versions, but it's an example of its parent company's reliance on the carrot and stick approach to selling products and upgrades.

Really good stuff, and wannabe mathematicians in particular will really appreciate it. But you'll need to buy a copy of Office XP or 2003 to really get the most out of it, and they're not cheap.