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Peter called me on my statement that "Most of us have a love/hate
relationship with the software... part of the problem is that Word is such a
fine tool for writing, and it's deeply frustrating to encounter all the
glitches that periodically rise up and bite us". <<I'm baffled by your
posting. It is logically inconsistent to say Word is a fine tool for
writing, but if you use it you will encounter glitchesand frustrations.>>
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am vast, and
contain multitudes." (Or something like that... some day I'll hunt down the
actual quote.)
Actually, Peter, there's no contradiction whatsoever. Nothing's perfect, and
claiming that liking something despite its imperfections is inconsistent is
<ahem> logically inconsistent with reality. Based on my experience to date,
Word is far nearer to that elusive ideal than WordPerfect, at least from my
own very subjective viewpoint of finding myself far more productive using
it. (And that's speaking as someone who only broke down and bought Word for
my Mac after close to 10 years of using WP.)
"Technical writing... requires understanding the audience, understanding
what activities the user wants to accomplish, and translating the often
idiosyncratic and unplanned design into something that appears to make
sense."--Donald Norman, The Invisible Computer
