Drivel

R

rover

When I bought my last computer, (the one before this one,) it came with Lotus
Word Pro '97. I found this to be a very robust program and have been using
it all this time. Recently, however, I decided that it was time to get
something new. I'd heard a lot about Microsoft Word 2003, (you can't help
hearing about it everywhere,) and I bought a copy. I wish I hadn't.

The first thing I did, when I loaded the program, was to look at the
reference books. I found an english thesaurus, that was good. And then
there were about another six thesaurusi in different languages, and that was
it. There were no marvelous reference books, which was the subject of much
of the sell on the back of the box. Looking further, I found that there was
no english dictionary. I found a bilingual dictionary which had french text
interspersed with english. In order to use this dictionary, I had to
constantly sift out french phrases in order to concentrate on the english
text. I found this psychologically irritating in the extreme.

Next I went to the 'go to' section in the 'edit' menu. A window popped up
and asked me to enter a page number. Now, this is no good if your document
changes size constantly, such as when writing a book or long report. Why
couldn't I just go to the last page? My old Lotus software can do it. I
rang a friend and he told me that there is a control key which enables you to
go to the end of a document. I thought to myself, I don't want to have to
remember a lot of control codes in order to use this software, it should all
be in the menu.

Then I thought, oh well, I'd better try the macro facility. There I found
that there was a dearth of features compared to my old software. You
couldn't even set a startup macro.

I then had a look at the icons. There must have been all of thirty of them.
In Lotus you get a few hundred.

I then got so fed up that I uninstalled Word 2003 and took it back to PC
World. They wouldn't accept it back. As I walked from the store I thought
to myself. What to do with it? Should I try to sell it on Ebay? No, I
thought, too much time, energy and hassle. Should I give the program to
somebody I knew. I could think of no-one. I thought for a moment and then
chucked it in the nearest bin! As I walked on, I knew that that meant that I
was left with my old software to use. But I felt light hearted and happy. I
was shut of something I just didn't want. It was worth paying two hundred
pounds just to shove that pile of over hyped, over priced, software drivel in
the bin!

My last words, on this forum, are - beware. You probably don't know what a
shabby service you have received from Microsoft unless you have something to
compare it with. Also beware of Microsoft moles who come on after me only to
sing the praises of Microsoft Word.

I won't be returning to this forum. I only came here, briefly, in order to
write this entry. I won't be reading the replies. Good luck.
 
G

Graham Mayor

What an appropriate title for the content of this message :(

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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J

Jared Foster

Zing!

--
JaReD


Graham Mayor said:
What an appropriate title for the content of this message :(

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
 
S

Stan Brown

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 05:50:26 -0800 from (e-mail address removed)
I won't be returning to this forum. I only came here, briefly, in order to
write this entry. I won't be reading the replies. Good luck.

Too bad -- because a lot of your complaints about missing features
are incorrect and the features are actually there.

But I guess you'd rather have your grievance than ask for help.
 
M

Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)

Yes.. plainly obvious that a return to here would see the OP lean a few home
truths.. he just has to hope that the ceremony upon which he stands does not
collapse..
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Just in case you do come back, here are a few pointers:
Next I went to the 'go to' section in the 'edit' menu. A window popped up
and asked me to enter a page number. Now, this is no good if your document
changes size constantly, such as when writing a book or long report. Why
couldn't I just go to the last page? My old Lotus software can do it. I
rang a friend and he told me that there is a control key which enables you to
go to the end of a document. I thought to myself, I don't want to have to
remember a lot of control codes in order to use this software, it should all
be in the menu.

Ctrl+End takes you to the end of the document, Ctrl+Home to the beginning.
These are pretty standard Windows shortcuts that work in most applications.
Shift+F5 will take you to the last place you were editing when you saved the
document. You can also quickly scroll through the document (even all the way
to the end) by dragging the thumb button on the vertical scroll bar.
Moreover, using the Browse buttons at the bottom of the scroll bar, you can
advance (or retreat) through the document by section, heading, table,
graphic, footnote, endnote, etc.
Then I thought, oh well, I'd better try the macro facility. There I found
that there was a dearth of features compared to my old software. You
couldn't even set a startup macro.

The VBA macro language in Word is very powerful; if you learn VBA you can
automate documents in ways beyond belief (for starters, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/VBABasicsIn15Mins.htm). But you can also
create macros with the recorder (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/UsingRecorder.htm). If you want a macro
to run at Word startup, you name it AutoExec. Other "auto" macros are
AutoNew, which runs when you create a new document based on the template the
macro is saved in; AutoOpen, which runs when you open a document based on
the template; AutoClose, which runs when you close such a document; and
AutoExit, which runs at Word shutdown.
I then had a look at the icons. There must have been all of thirty of them.
In Lotus you get a few hundred.

Not sure what you mean by icons. If you mean toolbar buttons, have a look at
the All Commands list in Tools | Customize. If you're talking about the
selection of button faces available through Change Button Image, yes, there
are only 42, and they are mostly pretty dorky, but you can copy/paste any
available button image (for a complete selection, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CustomButtonFaces.htm), and you can also
create your own with the Button Editor.

As for reference books, I'm not sure where you got the idea that they would
be included with Word or where you found the dictionary with French and
English words interspersed (I've never seen such a thing). Works Suite
(which includes Word 2002) does include the Encarta encyclopedia, but Word
depends on online reference sources. Word is intended to be a word
processing application, not a reference tool.

It's unfortunate that you just threw away your copy of Word 2003. Your local
library or favorite charity would have been very grateful to receive it.
 

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