RE: The case against M$ Word

Subject: RE: The case against M$ Word
From: "Ed" <hamonwry12 -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: <chrismorton11 -at- gmail -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:00:00 -0400

I say that corruption of Word templates, inconsistent and frustrating
auto-numbering and bullets are two good places to start.

That said, I have experience using IDCS2 and 3, Frame 7.x, and Word dating
back to v6. I absolutely love InDesign for laying out short documents,
flyers, programs, etc. It's leaps and bounds above Quark Xpress, and I wish
Frame felt as modern. It's just not great, IMO, for word processing. I
couldn't imagine writing several hundred pages in it, and I think that a lot
of users would get confused using all the various palettes. You'd have to
set up the master page text boxes to expand automatically as page count
increases, or you're going to have a lot of users confused about the red
plus sign at the bottom of their text frame, and where did all my overset
text go? I suppose you could restrict them to the Text editor only, but
that's not a great environment to work in daily.

Can you use Word and then import in InDesign for final output?
-=Ed.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+hamonwry12=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+hamonwry12=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l
> .com] On Behalf Of Chris Morton
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:22 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: The case against M$ Word
>
> OK, look. No one answered my original question regarding the
> thread I'm seeking. I'm not looking for a debate here, rather
> info about a thread to which I contributed and followed.
>
> I have laid out many a software manual in my time, thanks,
> and I'm not wanting to argue with any of you about it being a
> whale of lot easier using a *real* page layout tool. (My
> personal preference is PageMaker, simply because I've used it
> since its very first iteration and know it intimately.
> But I'm also experienced with FrameMaker and understand its place.)
>
> As for Word, I've inherited a manual, begun by our SW and HW
> engineers, that would take a while to correctly recompose. If
> I'm going to invest time recomposing the thing, then, why not
> do so using a *layout tool* that provides the features to
> which I'm accustomed?
>
> As for the current mess, every time I want to add or insert
> something, all of my prior graphics work needs to be
> continually tweaked. Yesterday a subhead mysteriously
> disappeared all on its own. Had I built these DOCs from
> scratch, things may have been different, but my own
> experience says that Word cannot handle the sort of
> sophisticated graphics placement/manipulation (including
> overlays) that I'm wanting to use. Further, someone please
> tell me about Word's preflight ability when compared to any
> of the Adobe products.
>
> Now...does anyone remember that thread? I believe the OP of
> it was a newbie inquiring about tools we use, and it was
> started perhaps the week before last. I'm simply looking for
> some keywords I can use to pull it up in my Gmail archive.
>
> Thanks
>
> > Chris
>
> On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 4:53 PM, Chris Morton
> <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > I'm preparing an executive summary as to why M$ Word is not an
> > adequate tool for software manual production and why Adobe
> InDesign is
> > a superior choice for the task at hand. (FrameMaker is more
> than this
> > company needs.)
> >
> > Just a few weeks ago I participated in a thread whereby a techwr-l
> > newbie inquired about the tools of the trade. In that thread, there
> > were many reasons given why Word is insufficient. Can
> someone please
> > point me to that thread, or others that support my view?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > > Chris
> >
> >
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Follow-Ups:

References:
The case against M$ Word: From: Chris Morton
Re: The case against M$ Word: From: Chris Morton

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