Symantec has a strong reputation for delivering high quality utility software; numbering Norton Utilities and WinFax among its many products. TalkWorks Pro 2.0 can be considered as an extended version of WinFax Pro 9.0, with voice messaging facilities added to WinFax's excellent fax features. Users of the Starter Edition of WinFax, which is bundled with recent versions of Microsoft Outlook, should not be put off. Our experience is that the Starter Edition is confusing to use from within Outlook and only provides basic fax features. TalkWorks Pro, on the other hand, is easy to use and provides a comprehensive set of fax and voice messaging options. These include up to 99 mailboxes, customisable greeting messages, touch tone navigation, secure remote message retrieval, message reviewing and re-recording options for callers, message receipt alerts, delayed fax sending, network fax host, Internet faxing and fax on demand. TalkWorks can also work with Outlook if required, though it works admirably well as a stand-alone solution.

Having a strong list of specifications is no guarantee of a reliable and useable product. Happily, we can report that on the whole, TalkWorks Pro 2.0 is both of these things. You have the choice of wizard-based configuration as well as control-panel style access to settings. You also get the option of controlling and testing your set up using a virtual answering machine displayed on-screen. TalkWorks is a very complex product, but Symantec has done much to hide that complexity from those who don't want to see it. On the other hand, power users can get their hands as dirty as they like.