# Open Letter to Microsoft Word (warning: big red swearing) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 7, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187 "2004-06-07T22:46:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187/61 "2004-06-10T20:30:56Z")
I guess I’m the only person in America who still routinely uses WordPerfect, though I still have to suck it up and conform with the robots at work and use Word. I loooove WordPerfect for its paired coding. And it is wonderfully obedient. My font stays the same until I tell it to change. When I type in the number 1 and press enter, it never, ever decides to start a list for me. I can type “O3/04 Marketing Plan” and WP doesn’t try to be helpful by converting it to the “.75 Marketing Plan.” And then there’s RevealCodes. Yup, I love me some WordPerfect. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187/62 "2004-06-10T23:25:07Z")
> [@Knowed Out](#): > > Uh…\ > > Mainly because when my company started, they used MS Word to design tests, and our customers like being able to access our work as Word docs instead of Quark files. Nowadays we ship our work as PDF, but trying to convince my bosses that entire departments should learn how to use something else besides MSW at a cost of $1K per work station is bound to be problematic. Microsoft literally makes you the offer you can’t refuse when they sell their products as one-cost-only for the entire company. To each his own, I suppose. I’d never ship anything as a .doc. That would leave it open for the person receiving it to fiddle around with the layout. I realize that many people think that the layout options in Word are good enough, if you just want to do a flyer, or post something on the message board in the cafeteria. OTOH, most of that kinda work sucks big time, anyway. It wouldn’t help to give these people some proper software, which just supports my theory that we’re heading down a layout abyss, with all the amateur fumbling around, trying to do DTP without having any clues. Check out you local convenience store next time you’re there to see all the awful signs that are up there. Me, I want to use Photoshop, Pagemaker, Illustrator or Acrobat, depending on what work I want to do. Obviously YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187/63 "2004-06-11T20:16:38Z")
> [@Knowed Out](#): > > MS Word is like a a senile old man. You have to do things the way MS Word wants you to do it and it won’t change its mind. … It doesn’t take into account that the users will eventually get smarter and want to customize things their own way. It assumes all its users will maintain the same level of stupid. So Microsoft comes out with Word and its heinous helpful tips, along with horrid selection functions, making it undeniable King of Iafnab\*, yet people don’t want to use Macs because “they’re made for people who don’t know how to use computers.” Go figure. \*-“It’s a Feature, not a Bug.” ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187/64 "2004-06-11T20:18:37Z")
> [@Troy McClure SF](#): > > So Microsoft comes out with Word and its heinous helpful tips, along with horrid selection functions I should mention that many of the same problems appear throughout Microsoft’s software, not just in Word. Like the completely unneccessary extra keystokes and clicks I had to do before I could properly edit the quote in this post. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187/65 "2004-06-11T20:26:59Z")
I straightened Clippy. And I’d do it again. He was asking for it! ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187/66 "2004-06-12T05:16:16Z")
Hey, Mister, in Clippy’s defense it _ **did** _ look like you were trying to write a letter… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/open-letter-to-microsoft-word-warning-big-red-swearing/249187.md?page=3)