atw: Re: Word's Manage Styles dialog box
- From: "Terry Dowling" <Terrence.Dowling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 15:56:00 +0800
Hi Neil,
I guess for me the fact that neither you nor I want to use the
application means that the designs could have been better implemented.
As an analogy, I think they've gone from BMW to Hyundai on some things.
Yes, there are more people driving Hyundais and they're pretty happy
with them, but they don't have the performance of the BMW. While I'd
like a new 'car', I don't see much merit in downgrading performance-wise
just for the 'airbags and iPod connectivity' that I don't need.
While I appreciate the fact that newer versions of Word crash less
often, since upgrading computer and OS, I only get crashes if I forget
that my current set-up doesn't like over-pasting. If I delete first,
then paste, everything is honky dory.
Removing Char char styles is a good idea, but it would have been better
to prevent them by turning off the Keep track of formatting option. The
fact that we need to buy Christine's consultancy to get rid of them is a
sad indictment of the software.
I feel it is our duty as professionals to be pushing the software to its
limits to increase our productivity. My 'Word BMW' is tuned to give
near-Ferrari performance. I don't think I'd be able to get it from the
'Word Hyundai'.
Cheers,
Terry
OT BTW: Christine, I was a little disappointed that the citrus cover
option on your book seems to have been dropped. Dang! As someone with
about 20 citrus trees and zero cherry trees, that was my favourite.
On Behalf Of Christine Kent
I bought a banana yesterday!!! It was delicious. It cost $2.10. I
reckon it was worth 2/3 a cup of coffee!
I've been eating a dozen or so citrus a day. Cost = free. Bananas'll
have to wait.
Cider apple vinegar makes the best electrolyte drink. Works for me on a
hot day
Do you water it down? If so, what proportions?
From: On Behalf Of Neil Maloney
I'm with you that I don't like the changes. ... What they have done is
change the UI so it better fits in with the 95% (a statistic I have just
made up) of their client base who are not strong keyboard users. Its a
commercial decision as I see it, I have no problems with that, but the
more I hear and find out about all the whizz-bang new 'features' in 2007
and 2010, the more I'm more than comfortably happy that I'm still using
2003. That statement may sound as though I am afraid of moving to or
using something new, but all it reflects is whether I get any real
benefits from the change to make it worthwhile, which in my worldview
usually means 'benefits' = 'productivity' ...
... Microsoft is, my personal opinion only, making it more and more
difficult to do anything within Word at a "technical" level (i.e. behind
the mouse-driven interface), which is what I think almost all of the
useful hints that used to be posted dealt with. At the same time, those
hints posted in the past, which are now reasonably widely known or
accessible via Web searches, are mostly still current, so they're useful
but because they are no longer 'new', they just don't make the postings.
One example only of things now being more difficult, Word 2007 / 2010
haven't done away with the proliferation of Char Char styles that you
and I don't want, which increase the likelihood of formatting breaking,
they are just buried deeper and more difficult to get to. So, my
question is: How can I use 2007 or 2010 to easily view all of the now
tucked-away Char Char styles, so that I can remove them for increased
document stability? That would be a great tip for me, but Microsoft
makes these things all too hard for those interested in doing things at
that level in a document, as they go more and more into the strongly
mouse-driven world of the vast majority of their client base.
On Behalf Of Christine Kent
...However, you will be wasting your time. I also know how to find and
delete them, which is not in my books and which I will share with you
for a consultancy fee.
There are three reasons why Word 2007/2010 break/s. I am now pressing
the repeat button because I have said this repeatedly and no-one seems
to have absorbed it.
1. You are trying to use brand new features and push them to
limits as I am. I do break Word from time to time because I am using it
as a desktop publishing software and also as a web publishing tool.
Occasionally I also use it for collaboration. I have also made it buggy
in a document hundreds of images, formatted from within the document, in
a 200 page document. In other words, I am pushing new features to the
limits, which most technical writers these days are not. So yes, Word
does crash, but not when you are using low level features such as those
used by most technical writers.
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