S
stevenjs
Greetings,
Don't let the headings throw you, as a usability analyst and interface
designer practicing here in NYC, I assure you they are understated.
I have found myself for the past two months in a virtual "dream job," in
every respect that is, except that I am forced to use MS Word 2003 for
documentation. The company is finally about to replace this Gorgon with
software that does not subject its users to "software terrorism," but it has
been a harrowing time indeed.
Perhaps I am ignorant of some secret trick for turning off all of the terror
tactics which MS Word employs, though not for want of searching its so-called
"Help." If so, please tell me how to stop ALL of MS Word's automatic "you
don't know what you want so I'm going to slap your face and shove what I
think you want down your throat" features.
You see, I am creating multiple outlines with screen shots and text. And
Word seems to have a perverse, sinister and sadistic mind of its own. I try
to separate the end of an outline, and restart it as a new outline. Word then
spends five minutes destroying every outline in the document, then will not
allow an undo, destroying the document.
What ever could its designers have been thinking? Was it ever even actually
"designed" by anyone? If such criminally obtrusive and unusable software is
indeed a creature of design, and the world's adoption of it as a word
processing standard is slavish obeisance to OS monopoly, then truly, de
profundis, I despair of humanity.
I use the word "terror" advisedly. I make a change to one of eight or ten
separate outlines, say increasing the indent to the next outline level, and
whoa, the hour glass pointer appears and persists interminably while I wait
helplessly to see whether the software will destroy all my work up to that
moment, result in unacceptable delays, earn disfavor higher up, cost me my
dream job, render me unable to make monthly payments, and culminate in
financial ruin, homelessness, and death.
Though by no means predictable, most often the result of one keystroke, like
a tab in the outline, when Word finally does render its twisted idea of my
idea, is to transform the entire 8 or 10 outlines into one demon outline with
fff) at my tab insertion point instead of the a) I expected and deserved.
When this occurs, many, many times a day, I am jerked and abused through a
gauntlet of emotions ranging from fear, terror, disgust, rage, and speechless
bewilderment. Again, and again, and again.
Now, it will no longer allow an undo, "too many edits" it perversely
advises, leaving the document destroyed.
Having software yank one's emotional chain is grossly abusive and arguably
criminal, holding you at pointer's gun point while you wait breathlessly in a
paralysis of fear to know your fate is nothing short of terrorism. Native,
all-American terrorism practiced by one of the country and the world's
leading corporations: Microsoft. In its world-standard Word product.
I discovered, quite by accident, that (in most cases), the Cntrl Z or the
undo command will cause the software to reverse its fascistic zeal and
un-destroy my document, occasionally leaving me with something akin to what I
desired and expected. This is the terrorist saying, 'well, I didn't actually
harm you after all, did I?' As if terror were not terror if there is no
bodily harm.
Now it has escalated to bodily harm, disallowing undo, and destroying the
document permanently.
What disturbs me at least as much is that outrage against this treatment is
not ubiquitous, is in fact absent, though mass demonstrations in the street
would be a most appropriate response to corporate adoption of this insidious
corporate terror.
I dispair of a humanity that could adopt such junkware as a de facto WP
standard, that could allow it to exist at all.
If anyone knows how I can completely disarm the terror this application is
programmed to inflict, please do let me know. I would be delighted to
manually create everything without its "helpful" destruction.
Don't let the headings throw you, as a usability analyst and interface
designer practicing here in NYC, I assure you they are understated.
I have found myself for the past two months in a virtual "dream job," in
every respect that is, except that I am forced to use MS Word 2003 for
documentation. The company is finally about to replace this Gorgon with
software that does not subject its users to "software terrorism," but it has
been a harrowing time indeed.
Perhaps I am ignorant of some secret trick for turning off all of the terror
tactics which MS Word employs, though not for want of searching its so-called
"Help." If so, please tell me how to stop ALL of MS Word's automatic "you
don't know what you want so I'm going to slap your face and shove what I
think you want down your throat" features.
You see, I am creating multiple outlines with screen shots and text. And
Word seems to have a perverse, sinister and sadistic mind of its own. I try
to separate the end of an outline, and restart it as a new outline. Word then
spends five minutes destroying every outline in the document, then will not
allow an undo, destroying the document.
What ever could its designers have been thinking? Was it ever even actually
"designed" by anyone? If such criminally obtrusive and unusable software is
indeed a creature of design, and the world's adoption of it as a word
processing standard is slavish obeisance to OS monopoly, then truly, de
profundis, I despair of humanity.
I use the word "terror" advisedly. I make a change to one of eight or ten
separate outlines, say increasing the indent to the next outline level, and
whoa, the hour glass pointer appears and persists interminably while I wait
helplessly to see whether the software will destroy all my work up to that
moment, result in unacceptable delays, earn disfavor higher up, cost me my
dream job, render me unable to make monthly payments, and culminate in
financial ruin, homelessness, and death.
Though by no means predictable, most often the result of one keystroke, like
a tab in the outline, when Word finally does render its twisted idea of my
idea, is to transform the entire 8 or 10 outlines into one demon outline with
fff) at my tab insertion point instead of the a) I expected and deserved.
When this occurs, many, many times a day, I am jerked and abused through a
gauntlet of emotions ranging from fear, terror, disgust, rage, and speechless
bewilderment. Again, and again, and again.
Now, it will no longer allow an undo, "too many edits" it perversely
advises, leaving the document destroyed.
Having software yank one's emotional chain is grossly abusive and arguably
criminal, holding you at pointer's gun point while you wait breathlessly in a
paralysis of fear to know your fate is nothing short of terrorism. Native,
all-American terrorism practiced by one of the country and the world's
leading corporations: Microsoft. In its world-standard Word product.
I discovered, quite by accident, that (in most cases), the Cntrl Z or the
undo command will cause the software to reverse its fascistic zeal and
un-destroy my document, occasionally leaving me with something akin to what I
desired and expected. This is the terrorist saying, 'well, I didn't actually
harm you after all, did I?' As if terror were not terror if there is no
bodily harm.
Now it has escalated to bodily harm, disallowing undo, and destroying the
document permanently.
What disturbs me at least as much is that outrage against this treatment is
not ubiquitous, is in fact absent, though mass demonstrations in the street
would be a most appropriate response to corporate adoption of this insidious
corporate terror.
I dispair of a humanity that could adopt such junkware as a de facto WP
standard, that could allow it to exist at all.
If anyone knows how I can completely disarm the terror this application is
programmed to inflict, please do let me know. I would be delighted to
manually create everything without its "helpful" destruction.