Re: What Are the Main Problems You Have with MS Word?

Subject: Re: What Are the Main Problems You Have with MS Word?
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 11:35:24 -0300


Martin Soderstrom wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out whether Photoshop is the Apple or the Orange,
here.

Check the first sentence of my comment:

If I compare MS Word with PhotoShop, I have to conclude that MS Word is a
kludge, with features added without much thought of overall design
philosophy.

By implication, I'm saying that PhotoShop is the better designed of the two.

While I'm no proponent of Microsoft products, we should target actual
problems and not just type to hear ourselves click.
Why is it that, whenever a Microsoft product is criticized, somebody insists that the criticism is directed at Microsoft itself? I said nothing about the company - my comments were directed entirely at the interface of a particular product. To suggest that the comments were anti-Microsoft is simply misdirection.

Word's menu structure
is in response to user demands.
Then why do so many people complain about them?

Anyway, just because market research is done does not mean that the application of the findings will be efficient or done well. Interface experts regularly pillory a number of Microsoft products for poor design (for example, see www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm). Admittedly, Microsoft is a prominent target, but even so.

While Microsoft is not producing superior products, people are using them.
So who's the real evil here?

I could say that marketing and monopolistic practices explain the reason that people are using them, but why does someone have to be evil? Microsoft could very easily make a decision to improve the interface of MS Word. In fact, one person on this list hopes to use some of the comments in this thread to persuade Microsoft to do so.

My comments were directed entirely at interface and functionality. Like many tech-writers, I've often contributed to interface design, so I find the subject interesting in itself. Moreover, as a user, I dislike having to work inefficiently because of poor design.

I'm not a heavy MS Word user, even when I use Windows. However, if I were, I'd certainly support any lobbying efforts to improve it.

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"They pout, they pose, they curl their lips,
They miss too many meals
With their implants and injections
Only God knows what is real."
-Garnet Rogers, "Where'd You Get That Little Dress?"





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