Re: 'Death to Word'
- From: Jeff Seager <peregrine@xxxxxxx>
- To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:07:55 -0400 (EDT)
Words are words, so I'd much rather write in XyWrite than in something as
convoluted and cumbersome as Word. I'd rather edit in XyWrite, too. It's quick
and accurate, and my fingers fly over the hot keys and macros -- some of which
I created myself more than a decade ago. Why reinvent the wheel?
Page composition is an altogether different matter. If the choice were entirely
mine, Quark XPress is what I'd use for layout and design. We use Adobe InDesign
at work, though, and it's not bad.
I've never had to edit in another language, so all this applies only to English.
Sadly, Microsoft software developers don't understand the compelling beauty of
"less is more" as it applies to anything we do.
Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: Nicholas Clifford <clifford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: xywrite <xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Apr 12, 2012 3:16 pm
Subject: Re: 'Death to Word'
On 4/12/2012 12:20 PM, ralph j gray wrote:
Dear Lynn,
I write in Xywrite and then strip out all format material. I separate
paragraphs with two line feeds. This is a pure ASCII file then which any
word processor (even Word) can read. Let the editors do the converting,
is my motto. They're editors, let them edit.
regards,
ralph
ralph gray
rgrayauto@xxxxxxxx
On Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:50:40 -0400 Lynn Brenner <lynn.brenner.nyc@xxxxxxxxx>
writes:
List members may be interested in this piece, which spells out every
reason to hate MS Word.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/04/microsoft_word_is_cumbersome_inefficient_and_obsolete_it_s_time_for_it_to_die_.html
I've long despised Word, but this article spells out reasons for
hating it that had never occurred to me.
I still write everything in Xywrite, but for years I've converted my
copy to Word before filing it because my various print and online
editors don't use Xywrite -- indeed, most of them have never even
heard of it -- but all know Word.
After reading this article, I wonder whether Xywrite wouldn't make
text easier for them to move from one publishing platform to another.
Does anyone on the list file copy to be published online in Xywrite?
Lynn Brenner
I write in XyWrite or more often now in Nota Bene, and then convert to
Word. I keep an ancient copy of Word 95 on my computer because it's much
easier to use than later versions which as the above article points out are
so loaded with extra stuff that they are unwieldy and difficult.
Conversion remains a problem, however; .rtf seems to work as long as the
document is fairly simple and unproblematic, but the minute you get into
footnotes, you're in trouble. The .rtf conversion will work, but it can't be
trusted to keep your footnotes or endnotes in the same order and with the
same numbers.
Unfortunately, however, clunky old Word is what editors and publishers
seem to want. I sent in a book ms. a few years ago to a university press,
asked them if Nota Bene was OK, they said yes, but later it was clear they
had no idea what to do about it, and I had to do the laborious translation
into Word myself.
Years ago Adobe made a neat little program called Word for Word, which
did conversions among a number of different wp formats, most of them now
forgotten. XyIII and XyIV were among them. But I'm unaware of any similar
translators available today.
Another reason to hate Word is that their Help files will work only if
you ask your question in precisely, and I mean precisely, the form MS thinks
you should use.
And another: there is no cross-file searching capability that I know of,
unlike Xy which has had it for years.
Nicholas Clifford
Other related posts:
