🚀 go-pugleaf

I Posted:
>>I have just spent a few hours with Word version 4. From this short exper-
>>ience, I can only conclude that I will not use this upgrade, even though I
>>paid for it.

Chuq replied:
> Having spent a few months iwth the product, I think you're being rash.
> However, that's your right.

That's fine. I do NOT want to appear to be Word-bashing here, but I stand by
my original evaluation.

Me:
>>When the Page Setup... setting for unlimited downloadable fonts (in the
>>Options button dialog) is checked, documents using downloadable fonts show
>>major portions in Courier font.

Chuq:
>This isn't a Word problem, it's an Apple System Software problem. Try that
>in any application. Fixed in Laserwriter version 6.0.

Glad to hear it. I had assumed it was a Word problem, because the feature
appeared to work for me in every application but Word 3. I stand corrected on
this one.

Chuq:
>A good percentage of what you define as problems might be better looked at as
>disagreements in design philosophies.

Well, that's true on one of my comments, where I comment that a completely
reconfigurable human interface is an admission of defeat. MY PRIME REASON FOR
WRITING WAS THAT THE PROGRAM IS HORRIBLY BUGGY. To that I would now add that
the documentation is terrible. But the human interface was a comment I noted
in passing.

Some examples of bugs: On the Mac II in our department (yes, we have the money
in for the official upgrades at work, and yes, I brought in my home copy for
people to look at, so sue me Microsoft), the colors under a dialog box are
not restored properly when the dialog box is removed. (Yeah, we're using the
Kolor CDEV. Microsoft should be compatible.) Also, the program is subject to
sudden crashes. Or how about when you are simply typing text with fractional
widths on, and the screen suddenly puts a visual break in your line? It turns
out that it is simply a screen update problem; if you keep the faith and click
the insertion point into the missing right half of the original line, the text
below gets selected. It prints OK, and refreshes properly after the print.

The documentation? Well, one guy was aware of the feature in Word 3 that lets
you see the "ASCII" code of any selected character, or lets you enter a
character by "ASCII." He tried the old magic keystroke sequence in Word 4, it
didn't work. So, he spent a fair amount of time in the documentation, looking
up things like ASCII in the index. Dead ends, at least for that feature.
Eventually, he found that Command-Option-Q would do the trick. (It was buried in
an Appendix.) So, the question became, what command actually is invoked by
Command-Option-Q. (The appendix didn't mention that.) We couldn't find out,
either in the book or on line. Eventually, we started to assign Command-
Option-Q to some other command, and when it asked if we wanted to remove that
keystroke sequence from the "Paste Special Character" command, we had it! Took
us ~45 minutes, EVEN AFTER WE KNEW THE FEATURE EXISTED AND HOW TO INVOKE IT!
There is no index entry for Paste Special Character, by the way.

But, Chuq has accused me of differing in philosophy, implying that if I just
accepted Microsoft's philosophy, I would have no trouble. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
I have no real problem with the philosophy of reconfigurable menus.  However,
let me give a couple of examples where Microsoft has fallen short even in their
own philosophy.

The keypad. Microsoft has annoyed many users by taking over the keypad. If you
want to use the keypad, you have to remember to hit "clear" to set it in numeric
lock. And then, when you do, you lose the page number notation in your window.
Some users are unaware that you can even USE the keypad with Word. Well, with
version 4, you can de-assign the keypad keys from those cursor-moving commands,
right? Wrong. If you take away the command assignments for the keypad keys, the
damn program BEEPS at you when you press one!

Another example. I wanted to create a custom configuration that matched Mac-
Write. (My wife is not a Mac power user, to put it mildly.) I started with the
settings file for MacWrite that MS included. It was kludgey to change, but I
could teach it to the wife, so OK. But then I wanted to move the font size list
from the Font menu to another menu. Well, you can identify the Font Size:
command, and you can assign it to another menu. You can even specify the font
size you want to have appear in the menu. BUT. Once you have assigned this
command once, you cannot assign it twice. You can still use Option-Command-+ to
add font sizes, BUT THESE GO INTO THE FONT MENU, NOT YOUR SELECTED MENU. Feh.

So, Chuq, though I don't mind the philosophy, Microsoft has not even implemented
it consistently. I don't expect anything to be bug-free, but this program is
ridiculous. Compared to Word 3.0 when it first came out, this is much worse.

-Brian Diehm     (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)
Tektronix, Inc.
briand@tekig4.TEK.COM   or  {decvax,cae780,uw-beaver}!tektronix!tekig4!briand  
-- 
-Brian Diehm     (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)
Tektronix, Inc.
briand@tekig4.TEK.COM   or  {decvax,cae780,uw-beaver}!tektronix!tekig4!briand