# \*&^% microsoft word!!!!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 18, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064 "2018-02-18T19:15:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064/41 "2018-02-20T09:12:18Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Because you failed to keep up with the times? What the fuck does that _ **even mean** _? By that logic, I can’t use Windows, either, or drive a car with an automatic transmission. Technology is supposed to make things easier and more dependable, not require a two-year post-doctoral fellowship just to be a user. No, my little _Phaseolus vulgaris_, you have misdiagnosed the issue. I’ve been using Word about as long as I’ve been using Windows, going back to version 6.0 which came out in 1993 for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.1. You’d think that I’d have learned _ **something** _ in all that time, the way that I’ve become pretty proficient with Windows despite all its faults. Yet Word continues to challenge with unpredictable oddball qualities and bugs along with obvious bloat and unnecessary complexity. At least part of the explanation goes way back to that early version. Word 6 was a cobbled-together abomination that Microsoft had tried to circumvent with Pyramid, a project intended to produce a much-needed complete rewrite. When this ran into major scheduling issues and finally got canceled, Word continued to evolve for years on the spaghetti-code base of Word for Windows 2.0, which explains a lot of its unfortunate evolutionary history as crapware. Microsoft’s culture of giving essentially zero priority to software quality or rigorous testing was another contributing factor. It’s true that the architecture and stability of the Windows kernel is indisputably awesome, but that didn’t come from Microsoft – the initial engineering talent for what began as Windows NT was brought in from DEC – where software quality and elegance was ingrained in the culture – mainly in the person of Dave Cutler who was one of the principal design gurus of VAX/VMS. Know what’s genuinely due to Microsoft? All the GUI-level shit that doesn’t work. And of course Office. To put it another way, [No, Microsoft Word really is that bad](http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/2016/11/no-microsoft-word-really-is-that-bad.html). Which article in turn leads to [a classic _New Yorker_ article](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/06/the-end-matter) by Louis Menand that I had originally been trying to find and which makes for a delightful read. We also have [Why Microsoft Word must die](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/why-microsoft-word-must-die.html), [How can Word be so shockingly bad?](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_winother/how-can-word-be-so-shockingly-bad/ca561076-811a-4199-998c-1bbc578b4c10), and few million more. And of course we have the anecdote of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064/42 "2018-02-20T12:00:04Z")
Why are only the incompetent posters using 10,000 words to describe how they are not incompetent. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, word is easy to use, when I run into a problem I Google it and problem solved. god I’m an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064/43 "2018-02-20T12:44:58Z")
When I wrote complex documents, I used (at least) _two_ tools: _vi_ to enter text, and _LaTex_ to format the text. The formatting tags are part of the text one creates in _vi_. This provides hugely greater power and flexibility than when the text entry and formatting are combined in a single program like, ugh!, M$Word. Of course _vi_ and _LaTeX_ are independent of each other: you can create _LaTeX_ input with _emacs_, or _nroff_ input with either _emacs_ or _vi_, etc. _ **It is truly lamentable how lowest-common-denominator dollar-oriented Micro$oft marketing has caused many millions of people to miss out on a vastly superior approach to creating documents.** _ > [@wolfpup](#): > > … Perhaps you would like to argue that my own level of proficiency with Word is lacking. Maybe so, but my experience with word processing goes back to the days of TECO and RUNOFF… > > If I had no trouble with terminal-oriented text editors and markup languages, why do I have trouble with what is supposed to be a modern WYSIWYG word processor with a graphical UI paradigm that in theory a child should be able to use? Could it, just possibly, be bad design and bloated, unnecessarily complex, non-intuitive and buggy implementations? Maybe you’re older than me! I used _nroff_ which stands for ‘New Runoff.’ I never used _TECO_ though. (I did use _IEBUPDTE_ — does that win a prize? :eek: ) > [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Because you failed to keep up with the times? “Keep up with the times” ? 🙂 It might be interesting to stage a contest, creating _and maintaining_ a complex document. Raise your hand if you think M$Word would win. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064/44 "2018-02-20T13:07:19Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Why are only the incompetent posters using 10,000 words to describe how they are not incompetent. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, word is easy to use, when I run into a problem I Google it and problem solved. god I’m an idiot. How often have you used Word to write reports like one that I did a while back that was about 1200 pages in three volumes and was produced by a collaborative team effort involving about ten contributing authors? Or maybe just a 500-page proposal that is required to be in a specific prescribed format? Considering that you can’t seem to write three sentences without displaying evidence of literacy challenges, I would guess that you don’t do a whole lot of writing. A lot of poor software is “easy to use” if you don’t actually do much with it. > [@septimus](#): > > _ **It is truly lamentable how lowest-common-denominator dollar-oriented Micro$oft marketing has caused many millions of people to miss out on a vastly superior approach to creating documents.** _ Yep. QFT. > [@septimus](#): > > Maybe you’re older than me! I used _nroff_ which stands for ‘New Runoff.’ I never used _TECO_ though. (I did use _IEBUPDTE_ — does that win a prize? :eek: ) Some might say I was older than dirt, yet young at heart. 😉 I believe NROFF was peculiar to the UNIX world. RUNOFF originally came from MIT and because of the close ties with DEC, it was quickly absorbed into the DEC culture and became the corporate standard for document preparation until laser printers became widespread and RUNOFF was superseded by a proprietary typesetting system using an SGML-like markup language. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064/45 "2018-02-20T15:37:13Z")
I use Office 365, and there’s a roughly 10% chance that whenever I do “replace all” in Word, the program will crash. I’ve developed a habit to save automatically before I do that. Obviously, I’d prefer if it never happened, but it’s not that onerous a burden, really. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-word/809064.md?page=2)