Re: Sodding Word

Roger Merriman <NEWS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Roger Merriman <NEWS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[snip]

Claris Works 4 never gave me any trouble at all. Not the slighest.
Ah! And yes, I still use it for maintaining a simple database -
still never any trouble[1]. And I have gremlins, and I uncover bugs
in all sorts of software that others claim do not exist. If CW 4
has proven stable here but not where you are - well, you must have
been doing something really horrible to it, that's all I can say.

na but differnt situations? i have to say i did very little to it, open
the odd file write the odd letter etc. but it really was never a happy
chuck v5 was worse than v4. but both could be a royal pain.

Never had v5; v4 was trouble-free for me. And it didn't get in the way
and mess things up like recent versions of MS Word (`recent' meaning
anything beyond about v5 for the Mac, IIRC).

never used any form of word for much until word X on mac, in what way
mess up, not that the idea of messing up by word doesn't supprise me. i
am no fan of such of word really but it's the best of bad lot. at least
for me.

It's by far the worst of a bad lot as far as I can tell. What can I
say? It's nearly impossible to get MS Word to do what I want. <shrug>
It either gets in the way by thinking that I want it do put in
formatting for me, or won't let me do what I want to do at all.

And never mind the fact that the file format is unstable, you can't
expect to be able to read MS Word files N years down the line on
`whatever platform', and... Oh, the list goes on and on and on.

Look, it's almost impossible to get MS Word to do even approximately
what I need, the results are always very poor quality, and you can't
rely on being able to use a file that you've saved on one version of MS
Word with another version of MS Word. It's just *CRAP*!!!! Argh.

And unlike MS Word, CW 4 has a nice UI and does something closer to what
you need. It's less of a pain all round, is CW 4.

heh i think i'll agree to disagree!

[snip]

Have you actually tried to use both of them for jobs where the manual
was needed? I have - and when it comes to almost everything, CW 4 wins
hands down over MS Word.

i don't think i've ever needed the manual in either to be honest. i do
CV's job applications maybe a letter etc the odd report in the past none
have required.

Well, even with the manual to hand, I've been unable to persuade MS Word
to do what I want. Tables, I seem to recall, were a particular problem.
Crap at list handling, ISTR. And the way it decides to add formatting
after deciding that it knows what you're trying to type better than you
do yourself - ARGH!!!!! Who the hell came up with that idea? Stupidity
- utter crass stupidity.

(okay, MS Word doesn't crash quite as much as it used to, but I do hear
of the occasional `massive data loss' caused by MS Word crashing and
destroying a rather large document. That particular problem is one
reason why quite a few people moved to LaTeX from MS Word: LaTeX just
doesn't do that kind of thing)

My wife hates MS Word too - I don't bother keeping up with the details,
but any time she has to use the thing, it seems she ends up hopping mad
at its incompetence and the way it just won't do what she wants no
matter what. It's one reason she's so keen on LaTeX - it's always
possible to get it to do what you want, and once you've done it, it's
done and you never have to mess around like that ever again.

[snip]

MS Word is quite simply a steaming pile of poo as far as I'm concerned.
Unfit for purpose.

Rowland.

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