🚀 go-pugleaf

stanger@otago.ac.nz (Nigel Stanger) writes:

> > It is strange that on the PC, Word has characters styles
> > (has had for years).
> 
> That's because the PC version has generally been about 2
> versions ahead of the Mac version (mutter mutter). Aren't
> they up to version 6 for the PC? We've been stuck with 4.0
> (or minor permutations thereof) for nearly three years if I
> remember correctly.

PC Word is up to 5.5 for DOS and 1.something for Windows.  (And the version 5.5/DOS did nothing but offer better document conversion to/from Windows and Mac, and otherwise piss people off **big** time by changing the way features are accessed from the keyboard.  Hey, sure, <escape-transfer-load> might not be a quickly intuitable way to do things, but to users of Word 5.0 and before, it was a known quantity and therefore quick and easy to do.  Word 5.5 changed that completely around, which amounted to learn










ing a brand new program.  Dumb, Microsoft, really dumb.)

But please notice:  Word 4/Mac has been out for 2 years now, and has had tables all along.  And tables, while not yet perfect, are a _major_ improvement over side-by-side paragraphs.  And yet, where is Word 5.x/DOS?  Still at side-by-side paragraphs.  And how about moving around positioned paragraphs in preview mode?  Word 4/Mac, no problem.  Word 5.x/DOS, not possible.  The list goes on.  There are some things that I find indispensable that are available only in Word 4/Mac and not in Word 5.x/DOS.

So, to say that "the PC versions have always been 2 versions ahead" just tells me that you only look at the version numbers, not the contents of the programs.  In some ways Word 4/Mac is well advanced of Word 5.x/DOS.  Just because 5 is a higher number than 4 doesn't mean it's a more advanced version.

(PS:  if anyone at Microsoft is listening in on this, here's an idea for tables:  I would like to use tables to do parallel columns.  To be a completely useful feature, these "parallel columns" (table columns) must be able to be mirrored when mirrored margins are set up.  I need two columns, an inside wide column and an outside narrow column.  I could set up a table in Word 4/Mac with a wide and a narrow column, but I need the wide/narrow to go inside/outside, not just left/right as it would do normally in










 Word 4/Mac.)

--Adam--
 
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