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Why Microsoft Word must die

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Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#301

Post by mmagin »

Nux wrote: post #85
sliverstorm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outlook may not be irreplaceable , but from what I've seen nobody has come close to making its replacement.

Once dead, Outlook should stay dead. It's absolutely horrible. Exchange as well.

In my experience Outlook Web Access is so good by comparison that once my former employer upgraded to a recent version, I never used the desktop version of Outlook ever again. For one thing, OWA never had this ridiculous problem of corrupting its OST and PST files every few weeks.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#302

Post by eigenvalue »

srikrishnan wrote: post #273
kijin wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, that's what I was trying to say. Word's review functions appear as pretty colored bubbles and a bunch of icons on the Ribbon. It's easy enough even for Humanities professors to use on a daily basis, despite the fact that as a VCS, it's strictly inferior to something like git. Actually, I think it's popular precisely because it ain't git. Most professors who are fluent in Word's review functions would be hop…

Totally agree that word's review functions are really simple. Which is why even all legal/contract documents are exchanged back and forth between companies in Word today. The hassle is that its done over email - sending versions of attachments back and forth. Nice naming convention helps, but there are definitely better solutions to do the same online today.

Actually, most big law firms do not use the built in track changes function in Word, they use more specialized (and in my experience, better performing) software that take a "before" and "after" Word file and then generate a nice "redlined" version showing insertions, deletions, moves, etc. in different colors. Examples include Workshare DeltaView and Litera Change Pro.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#303

Post by yuhong »

cosmie wrote: post #208
ancarda wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for Pages. I once sent a .pages document to a friend on Linux. I was genuinely surprised when he could read it. Turns out .pages is actually a zip file, that when extracted, has a PDF inside. Pages has always scaled fine for me, however Numbers will choke on a gigabyte-sized CSV. I tried to, import the US census data into it. I couldn't get Numbers to work. It crashed every time. Microsoft Excel could just about c…

> Microsoft Excel could just about cope but was struggling to scroll or filter data. Eventually I gave up and threw it into MySQL. The right tool for the job. Although Excel has since been corrected for this use case[1], it isn't even the right Office tool for the job. That's what they created Access for. [1]The SQL Server team built PowerPivot for Excel 2010+, which basically imports your data into a SQL db that get…

Access is not available for Mac though.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#304

Post by shadowOfShadow »

unsignedint wrote: post #124

Being locked into some vendor is one thing, but I find worse is people insisting to send something in .doc (or other rich text format) while plain text or texts in the body of E-mail would just suffice.

try .docx since it's an open format. It's interesting to see OP and you both talk about .doc. It shows your familiarity with the details of the topic.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#305

Post by cosmie »

yuhong wrote: post #303
cosmie wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft Excel could just about cope but was struggling to scroll or filter data. Eventually I gave up and threw it into MySQL. The right tool for the job. Although Excel has since been corrected for this use case[1], it isn't even the right Office tool for the job. That's what they created Access for. [1]The SQL Server team built PowerPivot for Excel 2010+, which basically imports your data into a SQL db that get…

Access is not available for Mac though.

You're correct, and Excel for Mac also doesn't support the PowerPivot addon either. However, that still doesn't mean you can fault Excel for barely being able to cope with a use case it isn't designed to support. The fact that it can handle it at all is a testament to the versatility of the program, not the other way around. It simply isn't the correct tool for the job, and shouldn't be faulted for subpar performance in a scenario it wasn't designed for.

Writing code in Word is completely possible, but would you fault Microsoft for the ensuing bad experience? You can also use Eclipse for writing a resumé, but would you fault it for not supporting that use case very well?

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#306

Post by unsignedint »

shadowOfShadow wrote: post #304
unsignedint wrote: post #124

Being locked into some vendor is one thing, but I find worse is people insisting to send something in .doc (or other rich text format) while plain text or texts in the body of E-mail would just suffice.

try .docx since it's an open format. It's interesting to see OP and you both talk about .doc. It shows your familiarity with the details of the topic.

Oh I meant to be more of general statement... I'd be as frustrated if it was odt if use case wouldn't warrant it.

Though docx has its own problem -- a lot of free implementations do not handle it correctly and MS implementation of OpenDocument is largely incomplete (as far as I know from 2007's implementation...) Honestly, using LibreOffice day to day with other users being MS Office users, ironically doc seems to be most complete interchangeable format with these users.

I think some of those come from ambiguity of spec so I guess there are mulple parties to be blamed.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#307

Post by MarcScott »

keithpeter wrote: post #253
MarcScott wrote: post #239

In my school I'm trying my best to push students away from using Word. If they're making quick notes, I ask them to do it in a text editor. If they're presenting work for review I ask them to write it in markdown. This is only for my CompSci classes, but it's a start. My next mission is to break the stranglehold that PowerPoint has on my students.

"If they're presenting work for review I ask them to write it in markdown." Perhaps a git repository to track feedback and changes? Do they need to use diagrams or images at all?

git is something I'm working towards. Ideally I'd like github to be our learning platform.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#308

Post by MAGZine »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #300
MAGZine wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Numbers is a good, platform-locked spreadsheet editor for simple uses? Dropbox+Excel seems like it would do the same thing, but even with more flexibility (including version control, document sharing) and supporting even more platforms. I don't think you can ever consider spreadsheet software to be 'user friendly'. They're spreadsheets.

> Numbers is a good, platform-locked spreadsheet editor for simple uses? Numbers is not just a spreadsheet editor, it’s a full-fledged spreadsheet creator. Its features are sufficient for all but the most demanding users. > Dropbox+Excel seems like it would do the same thing For me, it doesn’t. Just using Dropbox and my stock OS (and providing I don’t use Numbers), I can view Excel files on my phone and tablet but I…

I would, except that I don't use iOS.

Then again, I carry my air on me everywhere I go, so I'll never, ever be editing spreadsheets on my phone. Seems like an odd usecase to me, though.

Re: Why Microsoft Word must die

#309

Post by genwin »

nonchalance wrote: post #3

The truly irreplaceable product is Excel. It is fraught with quirky bugs and limitations and odd conventions (how many people actually end up storing dates before the magic February 29 1900?), yet no alternative can hold a candle to Excel. On the other hand, there are solid alternatives to the other products in the office suite

Yes, it has quirks! Yet I'll choose Excel over Word when I have a choice (e.g. lists, things in tables). Word is generally frustrating. Excel is generally a good experience.
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