Comments on: Author Steven Poole on Ditching Microsoft Word

By: Mary Keesling

Mary Keesling — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:22:50 +0000

I found this blog entry using Google advanced search — a phrase search re: Word 2004 being compatible w/Word 2003…

I am a diehard Mac user (from day one), but not a techno expert, and I’m too lazy to look through tons of literature and help screens etc… can someone here tell me if the scrolling problem is the only real problem between Word 2004 and Word 2003?

I’m taking an online class at USF(Tampa–not law, though) and the professor said she wants us to use Word 2003 ONLY for our assignments. She’s mainly trying to tell us NOT to use Word 2007, but, I’m wondering– if I use my Word 2004 for Mac [this is just for simple term papers, etc]. will I be ok? Or must I load Word 2003 onto my Mac?

Thanks so much! I’ll check back later in the week…

By: Erik Schmidt

Erik Schmidt — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:40:11 +0000

AER,

I assume you must use Word because the Law Review at your school uses Word’s change-tracking feature. It seems that is the single biggest hangup for those who wish to leave the Word World.

By: AER

AER — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:03:05 +0000

Law Review = must use Word.

I hate Word 2004 because it is not Universal Binary, so you can’t scroll, and because it is not perfectly compatible with Word 2003/2007. I didn’t even re-install it when my HDD died - I use Parallels and Word 2003 now. It performs much, much better than Word 2004, and there are no conversion issues. It sucks to have to boot up a whole ‘nother OS just to use Word, though.

It still starts up faster than OpenOffice….

By: Erika York

Erika York — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:18:09 +0000

I am a recent convert to Mac from Windows, I have considerable experience using Word (I’ve been using the new 2007 office since October last year) and until the new iwork 08, was using Word and Excel on my macbook. My dissatisfaction with Microsoft products is that they are so incredibly bloated. I found it very easy to use, I think just because I’ve been using different versions of Word for so long. Mac is SO simple, streamlined, and now that I can convert documents so that they are readable to Microsoft Office users, I don’t plan on buying the new Office apps for mac when they come out next year.

By: Erik Schmidt

Erik Schmidt — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 01:00:54 +0000

I don’t have an inherent dislike for Microsoft software. For quite a while, IE 5 for the Mac defined the state of the art in browsers (believe it or not). But I have found over the years Microsoft just can’t seem to focus their software development efforts. In trying to be all things to all people, they wind up producing really bloated software that is more difficult to use than it needs to be.

Generally I prefer applications that do less, but do those things well, over apps that do everything, but don’t do those things particularly well. That’s why I’m drawn to WriteRoom and Pages. For me, less is more.

My particular gripe about Word is that it is amazingly bloated. I feel like 90% of what Word does I don’t ever use, and the functions I do want to use are not as easily accessed as they should be. I’m also not a big fan of how Word is constantly trying to “help” me even when I don’t want to be helped.

Even so, I do understand that Word is the de facto word processor, and the .doc format is what most people use. In many ways it probably is easier to stick with Word. Most people probably don’t share my irritation with it.