Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!xanth!mcnc!ecsvax!dmimi
From: dmimi@ecsvax.UUCP (Miriam Clifford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: World's best word processor
Summary: 'Easy' early on can mean useless later
Message-ID: <7187@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jun 89 13:45:20 GMT
References: <25325@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <14362@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <1404@lzfme.att.com>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 26


I still have trouble with the notion that a novice user should get an 'easy'
word processor.  Two aspects bother me:

1. The assumption seems to be that one must learn ALL the features of a word
processor right away to use it at all, and

2. The possibility that advanced features will be found to be useful later, 
after the person is no longer a novice, is ignored.

Neither is true, of course.  One can learn the aspects of a word processor that
are needed a little at a time.  I'm a WordPerfect user (and enthusiast), but
there are still (after 3 or 4 years) features that I never have used and don't
plan to learn about because I don't seem to need them.

On the other hand, I do keep finding new things that it'll do for me by 
wondering, with every new job, how can this be done better.  I often find a
way, too.  At that point, I've learned a new skill.

My experience with WordPerfect, using it and helping novices use it, is that
it is not hard to learn the basic skills needed with it.  There are many who
use it as an advanced typwriter, because they don't push themselves to learn
how it can function beyond that point, and there are those who progress to be
very competent computer users.  The point is, any reasonable word processor
can serve the first group, but only a good one can serve the second.  It's not
always clear who is in which group.