What problems do you commonly encounter using MS Word?

[robinhartley94]

Hi everyone,



I was wondering what kind of problems/troubles/frustrations you regularly encounter whilst using Word? Feel free to be as detailed as you like, the more I find out the better!

Reason is I'm seeing if there are any recurring problems which it may be worth creating a piece of software to solve and make everyone's lives a bit easier.

Thanks for your interest!

Cheers,
Robin

[macropod]

Most of the problems people have with Word are due to a lack of understanding of how the application works. I doubt any software can cure that...

[robinhartley94]

Originally Posted by macropod

Most of the problems people have with Word are due to a lack of understanding of how the application works. I doubt any software can cure that...

Interesting thought, that might well be the case! Thanks for offering that

[macropod]

Of course, you could also trawl through forums such as this to see what kinds of (non-user) problems recur that you might be interested in developing a solution for.

[eNGiNe]

With the disclaimer that I no longer have to use Word at all often, I still find its bulleting/numbering paradigm far from intuitive. (even when other office suites try to copy it) Stable, easily adjustable numbering – with a completely different paradigm – is one of the things I appreciate most about the program I do now use.

This observation notwithstanding, Macropod is still right! and as MVP John McGhie reminds us, "It's years since corporations stopped providing word-processor training for their staff. Even if they were to do so, the Microsoft Word training available these days is so simplistic that it never gets anywhere near the professional-level features of Word …"

[robinhartley94]

Originally Posted by eNGiNe

With the disclaimer that I no longer have to use Word at all often, I still find its bulleting/numbering paradigm far from intuitive. (even when other office suites try to copy it) Stable, easily adjustable numbering – with a completely different paradigm – is one of the things I appreciate most about the program I do now use.

This observation notwithstanding, Macropod is still right! and as MVP John McGhie reminds us, "It's years since corporations stopped providing word-processor training for their staff. Even if they were to do so, the Microsoft Word training available these days is so simplistic that it never gets anywhere near the professional-level features of Word …"

I can definitely agree with that one, I find setting up headings and numbering an absolute nightmare in large documents! Interesting to think that actually a lot of the problems might come from not fully understanding how to use Word.

Originally Posted by macropod

Of course, you could also trawl through forums such as this to see what kinds of (non-user) problems recur that you might be interested in developing a solution for.

That's something I'm in the process of doing, it's quite tricky to search out individual problems though so I decided to start a new thread on the topic.

Cheers for your comments!

[macropod]

Originally Posted by eNGiNe

I still find its bulleting/numbering paradigm far from intuitive.

I've always found the whole process fairly straightforward - or maybe I've been doing it for so long I don't see what all the fuss is about. The problem, as I see it, is that most people leap into bullets & numbers without any particular systematisation or consistency.

[eNGiNe]

We understand this is partly a question of individual preference, so no bones broken :-} and practice makes perfect is as true in learning to drive complex programs as in any other area.