E
Evil Overlord
Bonafides
I'm a pretty advanced Word user. I've been using Word since version 2 for
DOS. Overall, I think Word has some incredible features.
Caveat
I'm planning to move to OpenOffice. Partly because Vista is forcing me to
consider Linux, partly because Office is driving me away.
Here's why
When I got the chance at a new laptop with Vista and Office 2007, I leapt at
it. I didn't have high hopes for Vista - it sounded like a more secure but
bloated
version of XP. Sadly, I found I liked it even less than anticipated. The
Search feature, for example, has never yet found a file I wanted.
More interesting to me, however, was Office 2007. I'd been reading about
the Ribbon feature, and was anxious to try it out. Clearly there would be a
learning
curve, but after that, I expected great things.
Sadly, what I found is that I hate Office 2007. I'm primarily a Word user,
so I'll focus on that. First, the Ribbon is terrible. For an experienced
user, things
are hard to find, harder to use, and the program keeps switching Ribbon tabs
on me without my consent or knowledge. Access to keyboard shortcuts is
limited and in some cases worthless. Even once I realized that the 'Quick
Access' toolbar was the place to put my old toolbar buttons, it's been
frustrating. I
seem to be limited to just the one toolbar, I can't adjust the sizes (e.g.,
style box), and even when I minimize the Ribbon, it keeps coming back! I
wish I could
say this was the learning curve, but the fact is that I'm a quick learner,
this is over six months later, and the program still frustrates me daily. I
hate the thing.
Another example - styles. I'm a determined style and template user -
despite the fact that most users appear to know nothing about them, I think
these were
great innovations, and I rely heavily on them. Word 2007 has, for reasons
known only to you, decided to make styles considerably harder to use and
modify.
Word 2000 had a great, easy system. Word 2003 made it somewhat harder with
the style sidebar (though it had some benefits). Word 2007 appears to have
decide to say "Hey, if you've learned how to use this great style tool, ...
to hell with you!" Yes, I can get the 2003 stylebar if I jump through enough
hoops, but
I don't want it up all the time. I used to be able to customize Ctrl+S to
jump straight to the toolbar style box, and make my changes there. Now,
creating a new
style is a pain, applying an existing style is worse, and 'Quick Styles' (an
interesting idea) is a confusing, redundant mess. In short, Word 2007 has
made a
shambles of one of the key tools of the program. The templates, I admit are
not much changed (though no better).
I could go on, but let me close with this - numbering, lists, and
multi-level lists. As far as I can tell, this has never worked reliably. As
one of the many Web
posts on the subject put it - you're better off ignoring the whole thing and
hand-numbering your paragraphs. This is a shame. Auto-numbering is a great
idea,
and potentially very useful. However, it's almost impossible to use in
practice with predictable results. And if you try to combine this with a
style...! Well, let me just say that it's a great way to drive your blood
pressure through the roof. I keep trying. I long since admitted that maybe
I needed to study this more. I've read all sorts of advice on lists and
numbering, and I've tried it all. I understand the concept just fine. The
fact is that Microsoft has just fundamentally fucke this up. It just doesn't
work.
Finally, a word on macros. Back in the days of Word Basic, these were
useful and easy to write. Visual Basic came in and a) made macros much less
accessible to non-programmer users, b) removed virtually all the Help for
macros. In essence, then, users lost a very useful tool, and were reduced to
copying and then modifying the sparse examples. Great for add-on vendors,
maybe, but a real shot in the foot for Word. I've even tried to teach myself
Visual Basic - just for the purpose of creating Word macros. Think how
strange that is - that I should learn an entire new programming language,
just so I can make the most of my word-processing program!
Anyway, kudos to the makers of Word 2, 3, 5 for DOS; 1.1 , 2 for Windows;
Word 97, 2000, and even 2003. I think I've got those numbers right. But
Word 2007? Honestly, as a dedicated, supportive user, it's a disaster. I'll
shift to Open Office and hope that what appears to be a slavish copy of Word
doesn't copy these new errors.
I'm a pretty advanced Word user. I've been using Word since version 2 for
DOS. Overall, I think Word has some incredible features.
Caveat
I'm planning to move to OpenOffice. Partly because Vista is forcing me to
consider Linux, partly because Office is driving me away.
Here's why
When I got the chance at a new laptop with Vista and Office 2007, I leapt at
it. I didn't have high hopes for Vista - it sounded like a more secure but
bloated
version of XP. Sadly, I found I liked it even less than anticipated. The
Search feature, for example, has never yet found a file I wanted.
More interesting to me, however, was Office 2007. I'd been reading about
the Ribbon feature, and was anxious to try it out. Clearly there would be a
learning
curve, but after that, I expected great things.
Sadly, what I found is that I hate Office 2007. I'm primarily a Word user,
so I'll focus on that. First, the Ribbon is terrible. For an experienced
user, things
are hard to find, harder to use, and the program keeps switching Ribbon tabs
on me without my consent or knowledge. Access to keyboard shortcuts is
limited and in some cases worthless. Even once I realized that the 'Quick
Access' toolbar was the place to put my old toolbar buttons, it's been
frustrating. I
seem to be limited to just the one toolbar, I can't adjust the sizes (e.g.,
style box), and even when I minimize the Ribbon, it keeps coming back! I
wish I could
say this was the learning curve, but the fact is that I'm a quick learner,
this is over six months later, and the program still frustrates me daily. I
hate the thing.
Another example - styles. I'm a determined style and template user -
despite the fact that most users appear to know nothing about them, I think
these were
great innovations, and I rely heavily on them. Word 2007 has, for reasons
known only to you, decided to make styles considerably harder to use and
modify.
Word 2000 had a great, easy system. Word 2003 made it somewhat harder with
the style sidebar (though it had some benefits). Word 2007 appears to have
decide to say "Hey, if you've learned how to use this great style tool, ...
to hell with you!" Yes, I can get the 2003 stylebar if I jump through enough
hoops, but
I don't want it up all the time. I used to be able to customize Ctrl+S to
jump straight to the toolbar style box, and make my changes there. Now,
creating a new
style is a pain, applying an existing style is worse, and 'Quick Styles' (an
interesting idea) is a confusing, redundant mess. In short, Word 2007 has
made a
shambles of one of the key tools of the program. The templates, I admit are
not much changed (though no better).
I could go on, but let me close with this - numbering, lists, and
multi-level lists. As far as I can tell, this has never worked reliably. As
one of the many Web
posts on the subject put it - you're better off ignoring the whole thing and
hand-numbering your paragraphs. This is a shame. Auto-numbering is a great
idea,
and potentially very useful. However, it's almost impossible to use in
practice with predictable results. And if you try to combine this with a
style...! Well, let me just say that it's a great way to drive your blood
pressure through the roof. I keep trying. I long since admitted that maybe
I needed to study this more. I've read all sorts of advice on lists and
numbering, and I've tried it all. I understand the concept just fine. The
fact is that Microsoft has just fundamentally fucke this up. It just doesn't
work.
Finally, a word on macros. Back in the days of Word Basic, these were
useful and easy to write. Visual Basic came in and a) made macros much less
accessible to non-programmer users, b) removed virtually all the Help for
macros. In essence, then, users lost a very useful tool, and were reduced to
copying and then modifying the sparse examples. Great for add-on vendors,
maybe, but a real shot in the foot for Word. I've even tried to teach myself
Visual Basic - just for the purpose of creating Word macros. Think how
strange that is - that I should learn an entire new programming language,
just so I can make the most of my word-processing program!
Anyway, kudos to the makers of Word 2, 3, 5 for DOS; 1.1 , 2 for Windows;
Word 97, 2000, and even 2003. I think I've got those numbers right. But
Word 2007? Honestly, as a dedicated, supportive user, it's a disaster. I'll
shift to Open Office and hope that what appears to be a slavish copy of Word
doesn't copy these new errors.