Word does a lot of things that I appreciate, but I sure do miss the good old fashioned typewriter when it comes to formatting. You told it to tab at certain spots and it did that all the way through the entire document, without fighting against you, having a mind of its own, kicking things out of order, and so on.

This program is now so smart it has a mind of its own. I wish there was some way to set it at "typewriter format" once again, so it would tab all the way through exactly as set, and wouldn't keep fighting against you, trying to move the either the top or bottom needle of the margin every time you go from 1. to a. to (1) to back to 2.?

I like the ability to change fonts in word, but even though I've been using computers for several decades now, I miss the wonderful features of the good old typewriter that refused to change tabs or margins under any condition at all, unless you set them yourself. Often when I use word, I feel as though I'm battling with a pit bull. It's so smart it's obstinate as all getout!



Does anyone know how to make word act more like a text file, or typewriter but still with the ability to keep some of the other fancy features? I have tried using styles and have tried removing all formatting altogether, but either way its obstinate and messes things up terribly and I have to keep moving either the top or bottom needle because it wants to bounce all over the place!

Please, Microsoft, can you design a plain, simple, and cooperative style called "TYPEWRITER" where nothing will be set and nothing will bounce out of position unless I ask it to?

Thanks.

Microsoft has already made the option available for YOU to create your own STYLE and call it anything you want to. See: http://www.shaunakelly.com/topic/word/styles. YOU can create the style called "TYPEWRITER" and format the tabs, font, spacing and make it as cooperative as you like. (I would never do this myself).

Having said that, not knowing your comfort level with Word nor the business that you use it, becoming "real familiar" with the above link ref styles could help you tremendously.

Thank you. I'll give that a try.

If the basics of word processing are beyond you and you're unwilling to invest a few hours learning them, perhaps you should stick with WordPad, or even NotePad.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

As Paul said above Office is a fantastic product but you have to be prepared to put the time and effort into learning what it can do. The time spent will be more than rewarded in the future.
Tony