(Not really angry enough for the Pit)
Open letter to Microsoft Word’s creators:
I know you’re just trying to be helpful, but stop. I put the cursor between those letters, and dragged over to the end of that word because I wanted to highlight (gasp!) from those letters to that word! I did not want to highlight anything before where I positioned the cursor, nor anything after where I stopped. So please kindly knock it the hell off.
In case you haven’t done it already…
Tools > Options > Edit tab > Uncheck ‘When selecting, automatically select entire word’ > OK > and breathe…
Yes, this is clearly the most annoying “feature” in Word. It’s inconceivable to me that anyone would prefer that behavior to proper selection.
Mind you, there are times when I want the convenience of whole-word selection–and when they occur, I double-click and drag, like Og intended (although Windows apps, on the whole, isn’t as consistent about supporting this as Mac ones are.)
You’re joking. When Word tries to “help” me by automatically inserting bullets and numbers, that’s much worse.
And as for the dancing paperclip…
Death to the paperclip.
Band name.
I’m getting really sick of having to type
1…
2…
3…
when they to make lists. Even then I still live in fear that word may catch on that it’s a list. Then it’s all over and suddenly I have funky indentations, odd numbering and lettering schemes, more indentations, not having a clue what’s going to happen when I hit enter next etc…
This thread is seriously tempting me to write a game where the sole purpose is to inflict punishment on that :bleeeeeeep: paperclip.
(:bleep: since this is not the pit)
Thirteen. F*&king. Years. Of frustration, and I never new that.
Thank you.
How do I get bloody IE to stop doing it too? And turn on multiple levels of undo?
These days, you can prevent its installation. This makes me very, very happy.
Lords of Kobol, don’t get me started on MS Office annoyances.
I absolutely detest the “reading mode” feature they’ve added to Word 2003 - so that when you open a Word attachment from Outlook, the document gets scrunched and reformatted so that it fits into a 2-page view on-screen - tiny text, mangled tables, oversized graphics. Yet another setting to deactivate on first use, on every workstation you use.
Actually, what’s worse is the attitude that people in my department developed - that Word is the perfect vehicle for emailing screenshots to each other. As in, they do ALT-PRINTSCREEN (capture screen to clipboard), open up Word, paste the screenshot into it, save the Word document, then attach said document to the email. Obviously this is much faster than pasting the screenshot directly into the email. Combine the above frustration with having to squint to understand the antialiased-then-pixelated error message.
Grrr.
p.s. - I strongly endorse FastStone ImageCapture in case anyone else has screencapture issues. Be aware that it’s not free for business use.
builds small shrine to sandra_nz
The dreaded AutoFormat! Turning it off is the next best thing to an orgasm.
Go to Format, AutoFormat, Options. Under AutoFormat as You Type, turn off (uncheck) Numbered Lists.
Hell, turn it all off. Life will be easier.
Might be a version thing. In the 2003 version of Word I’m using, the paperclip is gone, and the auto-numbering of lists immediately drops a little thingy that looks like a lightning bolt - one click on that and the auto-numbering goes away; there’s even a drop-down menu that has useful items like whether or not this list should restart the numbering or keep it going. I’m not sure this is in older versions.
It’s a little annoying that it does it without asking, but the difference to me between this and the word selection is that about 85% of the time, the numbered-list format is doing what I would have wanted it to; with the word selection, it’s 0%. Since they made it possible to easily revert the list the other 15% of the time, I’m willing to give 'em a pass on this one.
My vote for worse feature #2 is the silently-fix-spelling feature that I whined about in this thread.
I’ll be lead singer in Death to the Paperclip if nobody else will be…
So why don’t you just turn it off? Tools > Autocorrect Options > “Replace text as you type”
I did. I also turned off the select whole words option, and a number of Word’s more bizarre interface elements. I think the folks here are “ranting” more about the idea that these features are considered a sufficiently good idea to be made defaults in the first place (many of us have to work in other people’s installs frequently, too – and can’t turn off the oddities there).
However, you’ve given me an excuse to bring up one more: “Hide infrequently-used menu items,” aka “use personalized menus.” Microsoft’s been roasted so thoroughly by the user interface design community for this one that I’m stunned they haven’t changed it. The most fundamental user interface design principle of all is: people are better at recognition than recall. Infrequently used commands are exactly the ones that need to be listed on menus the most, because they’re the ones people will forget exist, and forget how to get to! This one’s particularly insidious because the people who need most to turn it off (new users of the application) are the ones least likely to be able to figure out how to do so! (And the command to do so is self-hiding, ironically enough.)
I think that Monty Python-style foot is a great touch. Cheers – the Wolf approves. 
