Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!chuq
From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MS Word 4.0: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Message-ID: <30155@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 May 89 15:16:34 GMT
References: <1860@aucs.UUCP>
Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps
Lines: 61

>3.  Tables
>    Luv'ly.

It's been a real lifesaver for me, too. Also very intuitively implemented
and powerful. 

>6.  Double clicking...
>    They've added a few little things to the user interface to make things
>    a little nicer.

Some of the little things nobody ever mentions about word are the things I
really like -- the small interface enhancements that I find really useful.
Things like extending selections based on the size of the first selection
(double-click to select a word, then every extension will also be by word
boundaries); being able to type 'y' or 'n' to a dialog instead of having to
click the 'yes' or 'no' buttons; little things -- but things that I keep
trying to use in other programs and bitching about because the other
programs *don't* support them. These are the things I really like about
Word.

>1.  Find/replace command
>    What if I want to find all occurrences of Bookman bold and replace it with
>    Times italic.

here's a way to work-around it (yes, it'd be nice to do this the way
FullWrite does it). "Save as" the file in RTF format. Then Word will let
your load the RTF text into the WP. You can then track down and change the
appropriate entries (RTF is sort-of human readable with practice), save the
changes to a TEXT file and then read the file back in. Word will evaluate
the RTF file and load it in with the changes. I just tried that, changing
Bookman bold to N Helvetica Narrow Italic. It works.

>2.  Superscripts/Subscripts on/off
>    The joke here is that there is no "off" option, just "on".

You don't seem to be missing anything. You can add Superscripts to a menu to
turn them on, but it doesn't toggle. You *can* toggle them by switching off
superscripts in the "Character" dialog, but it doesn't reset the font size.
It turns off the superscripting, but leaves the character 3 points smaller.
ugh.

>3.  Custom page sizes
>    They seem to have gotten rid of this, or at least buried it somewhere I
>    can't find it.

It seems to be gone. That may be something that fell prey to coming in line
with Apple's standard print dialogs and printer system.

>1.  Using negative numbers in the page margin to indicate you want footers/
>    headers to overlay the main text is the ugliest user interface feature
>    Word has (in my opinion).

Well, you do get used to it. Sort of.


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.