Re: Best Word trick I've learned this week

[Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>]

[To bring latecomers up to date, this discussion is about the ability in 
word to arrange your display options so that you can view a column down 
the left of the screen showing the style name of each paragraph.]

I use Word. I have to. I don't enjoy it, but I've made my peace with the 
beast. And I don't generally get involved in the Word bashing or 
Microsoft bashing that sometimes goes on around here.

However, this particular feature is a great exemplar of the triumph of 
marketing genius over design genius, and I'd like to take a few minutes 
to dissect it.

Yes, the feature has been around since at least Word 6 (maybe longer). 
But what exactly is the feature and where did it come from? Well, it was 
available in Ventura Publisher for DOS from the get-go and it was 
available in Interleaf from the first release, as well. I used Ventura 
only briefly and don't remember it all that well, but let me speak to 
the functionality of this sidebar column in Interleaf.

In Interleaf, in the sidebar, you can right click and create a new 
paragraph in any style you have defined. You can select a style name, 
right click, and modify that paragraph by changing to a different style. 
You can select all instances of a given style and change them en masse, 
delete them en masse, copy them en masse, etc. You can find the next 
instance or previous instance of the same style, too. (By the way, the 
style choices are arranged hierarchically, so you don't have to scroll 
through a long list; for example, you can have all of your bullet styles 
grouped, all of your numbered styles grouped, and both of those groups 
grouped in turn under lists.) You can also select a range of paragraphs, 
cut them to the clipboard, and paste them elsewhere.

There are another dozen or so operations you can perform on the style 
names in the sidebar, just by clicking once and dragging the mouse to 
extend the context menus, then clicking on your selection.

So what did Microsoft do when confronted with this (older) 
functionality? The copied the superficial appearance--just an inactive 
list of styles--then hid it so they could trot it out if they were 
trying to sell into an Interleaf shop and wanted to show how 
"compatible" their product was. But they left out ALL of the functionality.

Anyone here who has ever used Interleaf understands the tremendous 
advantage in productivity it has over Frame, let alone Word. This isn't 
news. The point I'm making is that Microsoft was able, through well 
executed marketing strategy, to supplant a superior product with an 
inferior one.

I still use Word every day, and I'll get by. I'm just saying, y'know?

Dick

lyndsey -dot- amott -at- docsymmetry -dot- com wrote: