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I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

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Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#41

Post by 3pt14159 »

bambax wrote: post #31
3pt14159 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Excel its: Do you know arrays, UDFs, Solver, lookups, mastery over chart design, and cell formatting. With word it's basically: Can you do a mail merge and a table of contents? Congrats. You're an expert.

No. There is such a thing as proficiency in word processing. Most people don't use styles, or use them improperly, or modify every instance randomly. They use forced line breaks to adjust page breaks because they don't know about forced page breaks, or the "keep with next" paragraph setting. They've never heard of non-breaking space. They align numbers with spaces. They don't know that you can (and should) have accen…

> Alignments. Bullets, bullet types. Margins. Sections.

I mean, for white collar work this is the equivalent of making sure someone knows how to use a semi-colon. It's a "skill" in scarequotes because basic proficiency is assumed and 99% of the time you don't need things to be pixel perfect and if you do you can figure it out on the fly.

Compare these things to, say, knowing when and how to use Excel Solver to give a non-inferior solution set. Or fiddling around to integrate remote data feeds into a sheet for daily automation.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#42

Post by scollet »

dzdt wrote: post #14

Inside humor is a kernel of truth, and in the subtle washed-out humor of this article I think the kernel of truth is that people WANT tools that they can use from childhood to old age. Tools that will remain constant. Tools that can serve a variety of purposes. Tools that will be familiar even as the world changes. This is a challenge for software development. We are reaching the point now where there are tools like…

I would personally replace "Tools" with "Cognitive models".

A hammer and a nail gun really don't differ all that much when your task is binding wood.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#43

Post by Steltek »

dzdt wrote: post #14

Inside humor is a kernel of truth, and in the subtle washed-out humor of this article I think the kernel of truth is that people WANT tools that they can use from childhood to old age. Tools that will remain constant. Tools that can serve a variety of purposes. Tools that will be familiar even as the world changes. This is a challenge for software development. We are reaching the point now where there are tools like…

What analogy are you going for? Screwdrivers? Hammers? Even those haven't stayed the same. While I still have the old reliable Craftsman flat blade, I also have a very nice Wera bit driver and a box full of Torx screws. Drills have gone from corded-only to brushless lithium.

You could tell me that I could stick to old tools but then I'm going to throw your drill chuck key into the lawn.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#45

Post by ogogmad »

bitwize wrote: post #40
dzdt wrote: post #14

Inside humor is a kernel of truth, and in the subtle washed-out humor of this article I think the kernel of truth is that people WANT tools that they can use from childhood to old age. Tools that will remain constant. Tools that can serve a variety of purposes. Tools that will be familiar even as the world changes. This is a challenge for software development. We are reaching the point now where there are tools like…

> I think the kernel of truth is that people WANT tools that they can use from childhood to old age. Tools that will remain constant. Tools that can serve a variety of purposes. Tools that will be familiar even as the world changes. People say they want tools like that... then whinge when said tools don't keep in lockstep with current-year UI fads. The example I think of is Emacs. It works more or less the way it did…

Emacs is criticised for its very steep learning curve, not just for being different.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#46

Post by marcosdumay »

GlennS wrote: post #25
culturestate wrote: post #13

Maybe I'm the one misunderstanding this, but... This piece isn't about Word or nerd-shaming or the author's self-perceived mastery of desktop publishing. It reads like a take on the absurdity of people constantly adding inane things like "must be proficient in Microsoft Word" to job postings and, consequently, their appearance on the CV of every person who applies to be a corporate drone in the western world. On the…

I don't know how Microsoft could possibly make pivot tables easier. You can easily learn the basics in half an hour's experimental clicking. But, I've had a client explicitly request that a report in Excel shouldn't include pivot tables, because they're too difficult. Too difficult to even look at.

That goes to show that the difficulty is not on the software's UI.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#47

Post by agumonkey »

chris_overseas wrote: post #36
version_five wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked adjacent to financial consultants who build excel models all day. There is such thing as an "expert" at excel. I've interviewed lots of people who say they "know" excel, but when you dig into it, it's the equivalent of saying they know a programming language because they know basic flow control syntax. With word, I'm not sure if you can go as deep expertise wise as excel, but there is still much more to i…

There sure is: https://www.fmworldcup.com/excel-as-esports/fmwc-open/ There's also a competition for Office in general: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/11/22829228/excel-pros-fina...

I've tried watching their latest videos and it was frustrating and weird. You see people toying with excel and somehow they manage to answer the game questions but you don't understand what they do. Often they fail and you don't know why either.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#48

Post by usrusr »

analog31 wrote: post #27

I realize the article was supposed to be humorous (it's in the humor section), but the amusing thing is that I'm seeing declining use of Word. Communication has gotten a lot more formal. People are happy to edit a report in the e-mail editor, using a screen capture utility to copy and paste bitmap graphics when needed. Or they use the editor in the cloud version and don't bother to learn where all of its features are…

The amusing thing I am seeing is how much the decline of a tool aimed squarely at paper-based communication can still surprise me given the extent to which paper based communication has basically ceased to exist. The part of me that didn't expect the decline and the part that didn't expect Word to stick around so long don't even shout at each other, it's as if there wasn't any contradiction at all.

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#49

Post by irrational »

I’m not sure I’m proficient at Word. I’ve used word processors for decades, but I stopped using them on a regular basis after college (mid to late 90s). Back then I used Word Perfect. Since then I’ve only needed to use one a few times a year. And never anything more complicated than something like a super simple sign with large letters. I find Word to be complicated when I try to use it. Why are the menus constantly changing? How does anyone find anything when they change so often?

Re: I cannot begin to tell you how proficient I am in Microsoft Word

#50

Post by ogogmad »

irrational wrote: post #49

I’m not sure I’m proficient at Word. I’ve used word processors for decades, but I stopped using them on a regular basis after college (mid to late 90s). Back then I used Word Perfect. Since then I’ve only needed to use one a few times a year. And never anything more complicated than something like a super simple sign with large letters. I find Word to be complicated when I try to use it. Why are the menus constantly…

Coming from the half-broken, arcane user interfaces of the programming world, GUI interfaces like the one Word has are a piece of cake. Even if you haven't used these programs for years -- and have largely missed their repeated UI overhauls -- the interfaces are so discoverable that you can learn the latest iteration of these programs without reading a book or looking anything up.

I sometimes suspect that there's a large subset of programmers who are irrationally snobby and elitist towards discoverable UX.

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