Curated by: Luigi Canali De Rossi
 


Sunday, August 15, 2004

Time To Kill Microsoft Word?

Microsoft Word: time to rethink its role?

Popular PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak launches a timid attack on the most popular word processing application available on personal computers. Microsoft Word

Dvorak argues that some of Microsoft Word long time weaknesses have persisted with no signs of recovery for so long that we should openly acknowledge the many failures and limitations that this apparently popular choice creates for everyone and finally do away with it.

He mentions:

• The ever-changing .doc format.

• Dubious HTML creation.

• Plain-text conundrum.

But as he says: "There are many more issues than these. It's clear the program is in decline, with too many patches and teams of coders passing in the night.

It's about time that it's junked and we get something new.

This code can no longer be fixed."

I couldn't agree more.

What are the great options out there?


Updates:

//discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag/start/?msg=41483">PCMagazine Forum Discussion

 

 


John C. Dvorak -
Reference: PC Magazine [ Read more ]
 
 
Readers' Comments    
2008-07-10 14:02:02

zlatan24

There is fine tool-a rel=nofolow href="http://www.recoverytoolbox.comword_recovery.html"microsoft word text recoverya, can work with .doc, .docx, .dot and .dotx files and with any version of Microsoft Word text editor, can recover only plain text, it means, that text formatting, graphics and all other elements will be lost, can recover your data from corrupted *.doc files, located on corrupted media: floppy and CD disks, flash and zip drives, etc.,This tool can be used by anyone, your level of computer skills does not matter.



2004-10-06 16:11:04

Roner

Hi Blinger,

Could you post the link to dl your famous "notepad++"? I googled and find it, but I'm not sure it's the same program you talked about.

Thanx

Roner



2004-08-16 07:24:03

Tris Hussey

OpenOffice. That's the best option out there. I flip back and forth with it as my primary wordprocessor. I used StarOffice 6 for about 6 months until the compatibility problems with MS Office drove me to MS Office last October. I have OpenOffice 1.1.2 and am slowly switching back. Takes time, but I think it's worth it.
One other point not mentioned in Dvorak's article is how big .doc files as compared to the same file created in OpenOffice. The difference will stun you. There has got to be some serious code bloat there.



2004-08-15 22:50:29

Blinger

I live for Microsoft Publisher. However I do like word and find that it isn't that difficult to use.

I was/am unaware of the issue surrounding the The ever-changing .doc format. As for HTML or plain text I would rather hand-code my site and for plain text the best program available is notepad++...



2004-08-15 19:23:34

Jonathan Aquino

I've done some pretty amazing stuff in Microsoft Word - a recent cool feature I discovered is the ability to put the last heading in the footer (and have it update automatically) like in textbooks - very handy in giving the reader context.

That said, my mom sometimes gets frustrated with it. The text moves about and she can't understand why ("It's jumping around all over the place").

In my opinion Word is good for the power user; but another program would be better for casual users.



 
posted by Robin Good on Sunday, August 15 2004, updated on Tuesday, May 5 2015

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