# A terrible article about word processing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 5, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814 "2010-02-05T17:48:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/21 "2010-02-07T11:15:53Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Turn a steak into shit on a shingle. If you’re putting steaks into food processors, then you have more problems than a lack of a nice dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/22 "2010-02-07T11:46:45Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > According to [Netcraft](http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://boards.straightdope.com) it’s FreeBSD. Looks like we found some angry neckbeards fighting for a niche OS after all. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/23 "2010-02-07T15:15:05Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Modern word processors have, of course, become much better at enabling the effective separation of the writing and typesetting tasks. Unfortunately, almost nobody uses these capabilities, because barfing both content and form out at once with WYSIWYG is far too easy. And it _does_ seem easier at first, so why not, right? The problem is that for anything much more serious, complex, or needful of future maintenance than a bake sale flier, WYSIWYG editing is seriously counterproductive. In that case, doing it properly (whether you’re using a text editor and LaTeX or making appropriate use of MS Word’s styles) will make your job easier and save you time in the long run. I gotta tell you, I’ve been creating documents in word processors since the days of “Quick Brown Fox” on the C-64, and I disagree one hundred percent. To each his own. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/24 "2010-02-07T17:55:13Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I gotta tell you, I’ve been creating documents in word processors since the days of “Quick Brown Fox” on the C-64, and I disagree one hundred percent. > > To each his own. So what do you do when you have a 1400-page document and you need to change the font weight on every section heading? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/25 "2010-02-07T18:29:42Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > So what do you do when you have a 1400-page document and you need to change the font weight on every section heading? 😉 Hasn’t come up and is unlikely to. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/26 "2010-02-07T19:42:56Z")
Well, I suppose if you _never_ have to change or otherwise maintain the documents you create after typing them, you have a pretty sweet situation and I envy you. 😃 For me, though, even on a _two-page_ document it’s easier and faster to make one change to a style definition than to manually go through the document and change just three or four instances of the same presentation structure. This is true whether I’m writing something for LaTeX, working in a word processor, or using XHTML/CSS. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/27 "2010-02-07T21:05:15Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Well, I suppose if you _never_ have to change or otherwise maintain the documents you create after typing them, you have a pretty sweet situation and I envy you. But you didn’t ask if I had to do that. Going to an extremely specific task and claiming it’s easier to do in something other than Word doesn’t really explain what’s wrong with Word (or any similar word processor.) It’s akin to saying there’s something fundamentally wrong with the concept of the automobile because it’s not especially good at the stuff a Bobcat is good for. Word processors are generic and do a lot of things using buttons. That’s the point. Something like LaTeX is totally, hopelessly unsuitable for most users; how is going back and typing in a bunch of slash commands any easier for the common man than hitting format buttons? ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/28 "2010-02-07T22:21:55Z")
Well, I guess I generally just assume that maintenance is an inherent part of document creation. It is for me, anyway, same as with writing code. Again, if you can guarantee that once you type something and specify its format, you’ll never have to change any of it, then yeah, there’s not much productivity to be gained. I just don’t think that’s a common scenario. I’m not saying that Word is horrible, by the way. I’m saying that inlining all your presentation style at the same time you’re crafting document content and structure is a bad practice that makes effective maintenance impossible. As I said, Word does have tools for correctly managing document styles; it’s just that they’re underused. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/29 "2010-02-08T02:41:49Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > If you’re putting steaks into food processors, then you have more problems than a lack of a nice dinner. Yeah, I suppose most people’s writing isn’t the equivalent of a steak in any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/30 "2010-02-08T14:19:11Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s akin to saying there’s something fundamentally wrong with the concept of the automobile because it’s not especially good at the stuff a Bobcat is good for. A properly constructed Bobcat would take the input of an automobile and transparently… It’s not as if automobiles are rare on the ground these days. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814/31 "2010-02-08T15:02:06Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > The worst thing about Linux is the people who proselytize for it. I can’t let that post by without linking to this: [http://news.cnet.com/i/bto/20070322/1157960476967.jpg](http://news.cnet.com/i/bto/20070322/1157960476967.jpg) (I’m not sure why I can’t find a larger version of that pic.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-terrible-article-about-word-processing/527814.md?page=1)