Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!apple!chuq
From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MS Word 4.0 --- First (and Last) Impressions
Keywords: Bugs
Message-ID: <29844@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 29 Apr 89 15:38:17 GMT
References: <3914@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM> <29495@apple.Apple.COM> <3939@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM>
Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps
Lines: 75

>Some examples of bugs: On the Mac II in our department 
>the colors under a dialog box are
>not restored properly when the dialog box is removed. (Yeah, we're using the
>Kolor CDEV. Microsoft should be compatible.)

Hmm. I use Word for on a color IIx at work, use Kolor and never saw this. 

>Also, the program is subject to
>sudden crashes. Or how about when you are simply typing text with fractional
>widths on, and the screen suddenly puts a visual break in your line?

Double Hmm. I wrote a 30 page business plan on the above IIx. It not only
didn't crash, I never saw the redraw problem you mention. Unless Microsoft
put a lot of bugs back *into* the final release (which hasn't arrived yet --
my post office is notoriously slow about stuff) I seem to be doing the same
things you're doing and not having the problems. Perhaps there's something
else going on?

>The documentation?

Far be it for me to defend Word's documentation. I will say it's better than
the travesty they shipped with 3.0. Better is a relative term. I didn't,
frankly, spend a lot of time with the beta documentation -- mainly looking
for formatting and other gross errors and getting a feel for he program. 

Nobody with any sense relies on the Microsoft documentation. The Cobb Group
has just released their "Word 4 Companion" -- it's a well written, detailed
book on the new word. I bought mine last week, so it's available.

>There is no index entry for Paste Special Character, by the way.

yeah. I ran into this about four days ago when I needed the same thing.
Cobb's book clued me in.

>But, Chuq has accused me of differing in philosophy, implying that if I just
>accepted Microsoft's philosophy, I would have no trouble. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
>I have no real problem with the philosophy of reconfigurable menus.  However,
>let me give a couple of examples where Microsoft has fallen short even in their
>own philosophy.

>The keypad. Microsoft has annoyed many users by taking over the keypad.

Then again, they would have annoyed many users if they hadn't taken over the
keypad. Me, for one. You consider it a bug. I use the keypad a fair
amountttt and consider it a necessity for my writing.

>Some users are unaware that you can even USE the keypad with Word.

So? Many others (like me) use it a good deal. 

>Well, with
>version 4, you can de-assign the keypad keys from those cursor-moving commands,
>right? Wrong. If you take away the command assignments for the keypad keys, the
>damn program BEEPS at you when you press one!

Makes sense. You've removed the definition for that key. So you hit it and
nothing happens. Removing the definition of the key won't automatically give
the keys a new definition, it will give them no defintion. What you want is
to redefine the keys to act like a normal keypad. Simply turning off the
definitions won't do that.

I'm still not convinced that what Brian is seeing are bugs, except those
things that he's seeing that I'm not -- why they show up in his environment
and not mine I don't know. However, I think I'm going to simply agree to
disagree on most of it at this point.

chuq


Chuq Von Rospach      =|=     Editor,OtherRealms     =|=     Member SFWA/ASFA
         chuq@apple.com   =|=  CI$: 73317,635  =|=  AppleLink: CHUQ
      [This is myself speaking. No company can control my thoughts.]

Bookends. What a wonderful thought.