Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!ditmela!diemen!tasis!ben
From: ben@tasis.utas.oz.au@munnari.oz (Ben Lian)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Word 4.0 fractional widths still farcical (Grumble)
Message-ID: <1082@diemen.cc.utas.oz>
Date: 27 Oct 89 02:34:26 GMT
References: <TJFS.89Oct26095508@tadtec.uucp>
Sender: root@diemen.cc.utas.oz
Distribution: comp
Organization: Elec Eng & Comp Sci, Uni of Tasmania, Australia
Lines: 35

In article <TJFS.89Oct26095508@tadtec.uucp> tjfs@tadtec.uucp (Tim Steele) writes:
>I've had problems with Word 4.0 crashing under MultiFinder on a 2 MB
>Mac SE.  The Microsoft helpline react incredulously with "There are no
>bugs in Word 4.0" (how do they KNOW??!?)

Exactly! But then again, maybe the reason why its release was delayed for
so long was to have a roomful of monkeys trying every possible combination
of features. :-)

Seriously though, even if Word 4.0 is bug-free, it doesn't mean that
the program does things *right*. MS still have not completely solved
one fundamental problem with Word---round-off/truncation error in their
justification algorithm, so much so that 4.0's `fractional widths' still
deserves the `farcical widths' nickname. You don't have to do terribly
much to see this. Just type a whole paragraph containing a decent number
of font changes between Times and Symbol, then select full justification.
Look at that awful, ragged right margin! I've been at MS about this on
and off for the past year (since 3.01 days) and I was very disappointed
to see the problem still there. (There also used to be problems with
footnote references too, but MS have fudged things so that it doesn't
happen all the time now. But it is STILL there.)

Moral: Don't use MS Word for technical writing. Try TeX/LaTeX instead
(because it's brilliant, and usually almost free). I still use Word
for straight prose and mickey-mouse tech writing because for that sort
of work, it is still my preferred tool.

Sigh.


Ben Lian

Dept of EE & CS, Uni of Tasmania, GPO Box 252C, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
UUCP: ...!{uunet,ukc,mcvax,hplabs,nttlab}!munnari!tasis.utas.oz!ben
ACSnet: ben@tasis.utas.oz  Ph: 002-202380  Fax: 002-202713