Microsoft Word gives another ‘What the …?’

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I miss Word Perfect 5.1 in dos. It was a great program. My first new computer was a 60 MHz Pentium 1. JoAnne loaded Word Perfect 8 on it and wondered why it was so slow! I think that it was written to run on Pentium II.
WordPerfect 5.1 in DOS was probably the best they ever made relative to what was out there. I still use 8; a bit buggy, but it’s more compatible with Windows than 5.1 or 6 for Windows.
[this is good]
How odd! I went immediately to my Word and typed magazine but it didn't happen to me. Maybe you have a mutant version!

I also found the interview questions interesting in that you were obviously sent a whole list of things rather than a face-to-face interview. Is that a regular thing in New Zealand?

As a journalist myself, I'd be pretty uncomfortable with sending a list of questions and definitely prefer face-to-face interviews. For one thing, I like to be in control the interview. For another, an answer to one question may lead to another question I would never have thought to ask. Also, I like to build a rapport with the person I am interviewing, and, furthermore, communication is better in person, given that we also use non-verbal communication. I have so many more reasons, but I'm not going to list them all here.

In my experience, there are some people who have asked for email interviews here, but the one you saw is actually from France. I prefer face-to-face or telephone at the least. Sometimes email is necessary for us in Wellington as many interviewees are in Auckland, and it’s not always worth the trip up depending on whom I can assign. On average I would say email interviews are slightly more common here.
My Word is legit but that’s not saying much! I tried this again just now and it’s fine, too!
But does yours change margins and fonts on you without you asking? I have had three PCs with it on, with different versions, and they all try to preempt what I write.
Even without trying it, I recommend OpenOffice to most people now. Nothing can be worse than Word!

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skinheads, the writers of the Michael Fish hurricane gag and William Shatner’s toupée..

Just superb! Or, alternatively, supErb.

As someone whose daily bread is won reformatting people's needlessly complicated CVs with word, I concur with everything you've said. It's enough to make a guy weep.

If I had my way, we'd all have Macs and Mellel in the office. Not that I know what I'm talking about.

I'm not a Word trainer, just a user, but have a look at Insert>AutoText.

It does a similar thing to auto correct but uses a separate list. If, somehow, you've added magazIne there it will be the culprit!

As for the formatting thing it's likely word reverting to the default template paragraph style. While in the auto correct/text dialog have a look at the Auto format as you type tab. Disable options (style related first) until you get the level of user control desired. Those things are trying to help novices but sometimes they are just trying!

I once had a client who asked me to design a CV, and the one done in WordPerfect wouldn’t convert to Word (this was 1993 or thereabouts). I had to do the whole darned thing for him in Word—excruciating experience. Took three hours to do a job that would have taken half an hour, considering I had all the text. I don’t know Mellel but as I said, nothing is worse than Word.
Fact: major natural disasters happen when MS Word concentration is too high in any particular area.
Hey Robin: thanks. I don’t see it there right now, so maybe it’s a Word-mood thing. There’s no way I would have added it because I assume such an action takes several intentional keystrokes. I don’t think I’ll ever change word processors, really, but I will look at the options you mention, at least when I edit others’ work.

..major natural disasters happen when MS Word concentration is too high in any particular area.

There's scope for potentially-nobel-prize-winning research to be done in that area.

WordPerfect, Mellel, etch-a-sketch... as long as it doesn't keep changing my font to Times sodding New Roman it's a step forward.

[這個好]

It would be more worthwhile doing research into the Word–disaster connection than half (maybe more) the crap that wins the Nobel Economics Prize! The other issue that Robin does point out is that while we can turn off the styles, what of your work where documents are imported? In such cases, God only knows how many and what styles are put into the file—making your work even tougher. (While not my stock in trade, I see MS Word CVs on a weekly basis and I still get surprised at where the program decides page breaks are to be, let alone the inconsistent formatting.)

I think I started on Word Perfect, and Quattro Pro Spreadsheets!, but have been Microsoft since Word 3.0 days. It's not because I spend a huge amount of time in a word processor but mostly because it's what everyone, inc my employer!, else uses.

The thing that really bugs me is those who use Word (or PowerPoint) for complex graphics/layout tasks - posters & the like - that it really can’t do. I usually get asked to sort it out & they generally don't appreciate my comment that "Word is for words, that's why it's called Word".

[這個好]
I am still on these programs, Robin! Newer versions, of course, but I am on WordPerfect and Quattro Pro. You are right that Word is for words—even Publisher, really, can’t handle complex graphical tasks expertly.

Going off topic at the speed of light...

Should I mention I use Corel for graphics? Cost was the main factor there as the Corel Suite (vector & photo) was the same price as a single Adobe app. and it was my money I was spending!

I still use PhotoPaint as it does all I need - which isn't much - and ignore looks of pity from those who think you must have Photoshop to alter an image!

My view is: we control the technology, not the other way around, so if it works, then I say go for it! I used Paint Shop Pro for years myself before I bought Photoshop.
I still have CorelTrace 3.0 on this computer to complement Adobe Streamline for my vector work. ’Fraid I do use Photoshop now for work, but unlike the MS products it is quite good.
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I write in Notepad so I can focus on the content and not worry about formatting. However it will eventually end up in Word, at which point I use styles for everything so, again, I don't have to worry about formatting. Heading1, Heading2, Bullet, Body. No trying to remember what the hell headings or bullets are supposed to look like.

I just wish Word didn't try to "help" so much. Most of it's "help" is random guessing about what I'm doing and it's often wrong.
Jack, I feel your pain. Word is awful - and I use OpenOffice (or just about anything else if I have to use something with formatting features.) But, like napdynmite, I start everything in Notepad to get the content down so that I'm not pulling my hair out just getting through that. I also use Notepad to strip out the formatting of every document I get from someone else if I need to make changes to it. Even if it "looks clean."

Unlike WordPefect, Word doesn't make it easy for you to find out what's really going on in the formatting. So documents go from my email, into Notepad, then into my word processor of choice.
[這個好]
Napdynmite: agreed! Word is trying to be smart and it comes off like the drunk guy at the pub trying to hold an intelligent conversation.
Mari: Notepad is probably not a bad way to go. I used to design web pages using it and it certainly is a no-complaint program.

I now author nearly everything in MindManager*. It's fantastic for outlines, aggregating "stuff" then click "export" & you have a Word document. or PowerPoint, Text, HTML, image, PDF. It's the best "Microsoft Office" application but it's not from Microsoft!

* Have a gazillon posts on MindManager here:

http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/mindmanager/index.html

Thanks, Robin. I heard someone mention this a while ago—I think my friends Chelfyn and Helen Baxter. I’ll check out your link.

They have a 21 day trial - http://www.mindjet.com - and it does have a good intro/tutorial. If you've got time related planning the addon JCVGantt will display the MindManager "Map" in a Gantt format with resources and costing (kinda like Microsoft Project but a fraction of the price & much easier to use)

I'm not on commission, just couldn't function without it!

Yes, it was that one. They actually put the trial version on a DVD for me once, but I misplaced it recently.

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Jack Yan

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Jack Yan
New Zealand
‘I think they’re wonderful. They have so much courage! Here they are, hurling through space on a molten rock at 67,000 miles an hour, and the only thing that keeps them in their shoes is their misplaced faith in gravity.’—John Lithgow as Prof Dick Solomon, in Third Rock from the Sun
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