Yay!

[foeofthelance]

I have MS Word again! I can finally write and self edit again! Yay!

[Guest echtrae]

I've been using Open Office for a while now. You might want to look into it.

[EveKnight75]

I'm with Echtrae. I have MS Word, but it tends to shut down on me in the middle of work and attract viruses. OpenOffice Writer has proven to be more dependable. It also doesn't hurt that you can create a master document for multi-chaptered fics, can view work in web-page format, and in my case, download dictionaries and thesauruses for different languages according to nation (such as Canadian English, US English, UK English).

I know, I know, this is shamelessly promoting a product. Still, it's proven true for me.

Either way, congratulations on getting MS Word back. I'm happy for you.

[Guest Big Samurai]

Word is made of suck and bad (IMO). I used to do my 'fics in Notepad and old school Wordpad, but making the switch to Open Office 2.0 has made me very, very happy. It's free! Y'ought to think about it.

[redsliver]

I use open office at home and wordpad at school. Straight after install I prefer wordpad, but once I disable every autocorrect feature in Open Office its certainly better.

[Iggy_lovechild]

I still use MS word, but I'm lame like that. The spellchecker does suck though. I swear, it's more concerned about trying to change character names than it is with catching actual mistakes. And since when is "tenetive" not a word?! This is why I end up looking edditing my stories several times over or relying on a beta.

[Guest echtrae]

And since when is "tenetive" not a word?!

Actually, I'm not familiar with that word.

Not to be a grammar nazi or anything, but did you mean tentative?

[EveKnight75]

Word sucks so bad there are no WORDS for it.   It has shut down several times in the middle of my work, so that I lost seveal paragraphs. And the damn spell check freezes in the middle(not to mention the fact that it is a laughable spell checker) sometimes for no reason that I can see.  I hate Microsoft products.

Hear, hear! I have to deal with all that and more. There are also times when it freezes itself, the rest of the computer, and then shuts down the entire computer by itself. All because of MS Word. At one point, I had to keep reprogamming the computer every 3 months because of it.

I thank my lucky stars that I stumbled upon OpenOffice on "the evil site which actually has its good points aside from the function it is supposed to serve". You know which one I'm talking about.

Lately, IE has been having the same issues, so I stick to Firefox no matter what. IE7 is poor competition.

Honestly, Microsoft has gone down the tubes. I'd use an OS other than Windows if it were readily available and didn't pose issues because the rest of the world is stuck with Windows.

I still use MS word, but I'm lame like that. The spellchecker does suck though. I swear, it's more concerned about trying to change character names than it is with catching actual mistakes. And since when is "tenetive" not a word?! This is why I end up looking edditing my stories several times over or relying on a beta.

You spelled "edited" wrong. That's Alanis' irony for you. As far as I'm concerned, no spell-checker is foolproof. However, MS Word does tend to be extremely ridiculous, that's true. OpenOffice is somewhat better, provided you use the right dictionary and thesaurus. The only annoyance is when they automatically suggest/fill in a word when you're in the middle of typing a word. Remember to disable that function if it does irritate you. It can be useful at times, like when typing in a character's name constantly. Otherwise, you just want the thing to go away and let you decide what you want to type.

BTW, echtrae's right. There's no such word as "tenetive". Check any dictionary: virtual or in print. I think you want an adjective for "tenet". May I suggest "dogmatic"?

[polywolly]

Oddly enough, I've never had an ounce of trouble using Word. Then again, my husband contends that the computer is possessed by evil gremlins who sabotage anything and everything he tries to do on the computer, unless I'm present of course. If I'm looking over his shoulder, every program runs smooth as silk. I've told him to give the gremlins cookies as a peace offering, but will he listen?

Honestly, I haven't experienced any of the problems mentioned in 10 years of using its various versions. Now I'll just go back to editing so Word can lock up and all that now that I’ve jinxed myself...

[EveKnight75]

I've started a thread promoting OpenOffice on the Great Wall. Add your two cents.

Poly, exactly how do you go about finding these gremlins and offering them cookies? I'm excellent at baking cookies. All the gremlins have to do is tell me which type they want.

I can easily convert an OpenOffice document into a MS document, but I still want to know how to prevent a MS word processing application from crapping out on me.

You haven't jinxed yourself yet. Just make sure that the gremlins don't find out about this little conversation. You'll be fine.

[Nanaea]

I still use MS word, but I'm lame like that.

Me too. And the evil IE as well.... *sighs*

Actually, I tried Open Office and the UK dictionary that it has doesn't recognize the difference between 'ise' words and 'ize' words, which really irks me as I rely on it to point out when I've slipped back into "American" English.

[NightScribe]

What's MS word? What are these problems you speak of? *laughing gleefully* Sorry, I couldn't resist; I'm a diehard Mac user with an unhealthy love for Appleworks (nee Clarisworks) and I won't touch an MS product, unless I'm forced to by my evil, PC using company.

Feel free to slap me.

[Iggy_lovechild]

What's MS word? What are these problems you speak of? *laughing gleefully* Sorry, I couldn't resist; I'm a diehard Mac user with an unhealthy love for Appleworks (nee Clarisworks) and I won't touch an MS product, unless I'm forced to by my evil, PC using company.

Feel free to slap me.

I miss MAC. Though I'm mostly working off public access, my bf and I have been discussing getting a computer and he refuses to compromise for anything but PC.

To my spellcheckers: Hmmm...so maybe I have been spelling "tentative" wrong, but MS Word didn't even give me the heads up on that. Shit, I feel like a dumbass now.

[NightScribe]

To my spellcheckers: Hmmm...so maybe I have been spelling "tentative" wrong, but MS Word didn't even give me the heads up on that.  Shit, I feel like a dumbass now.

Although it pains me greatly *sharp, stabbing pain in my side* I will say this for MS Word; it has the automatic spell and grammar check. Appleworks has spellchecker, but it doesn't do it as you go along, and there is no grammar check at all. It's a wonder I manage to write anything even remotely literate.

And, I hate when the dictionary doesn't recognize words; then I've got to pull out the monster Webster's and double check. Like the word "soupcon"; it suggests something like "soup can". Argh! I'm also too incredibly lazy to add names; I'm always hitting the "skip" button for "Lucius, Draco, Snape", etc.

[EveKnight75]

Have you tried spelling it with the accent? Maybe your spellchecker would recognize "soupçon" instead?

Nanaea: I haven't had trouble with the UK dictionary. Is there a check-mark next to it to ensure that you do have it downloaded? If so, are you sure that it's using that dictionary instead of the US one to check the document? I've made that mistake before. Make sure you select UK English as the default dictionary before starting. For the fics that you've already started, change the default dictionary to UK now and have the spellchecker check the entire document again. That should fix the issue.

[Nanaea]

EveKnight: Yeah, I'm sure I've got the UK English dictionary selected. For some insane reason it'll mark both center and color wrong but it accepts either realize or realise without complaint. Meh. Go figure. Perhaps I need to download a different UK dictionary for it, I don't know....

[Madame Manga]

I used MS Word for over fifteen years. When I put together a zine in 1996, Word ate my brains on a daily basis. It's the most overstuffed, underorganized piece of software on the planet, but I didn't have much choice about what to use. Lately, it's been eating my computer's brains; I can't leave a document up for more than half an hour without SOMETHING going rotten. My mouse freezes; the RAM gets hardening of the arteries; the program itself starts to flail and choke and spit out error messages. Then I gotta do a hard reboot and try to remember what the hell it was I was trying to accomplish.

Yeah, it's a fairly new system running XP, and there's no earthly reason for all of this. It does it on all three PCs in the house. I've been a Mac user. A relative of mine still is, and his system crashes three or four times a day. Sometimes three or four times a session. Nope, Apples go rotten too. Computers and software in general are still not genuine consumer products, because for the people in charge it's all about cultivating the cutting edge of technogeekery, not providing reliable tools for the masses. We're just going to have to wait until the first generation of rock stars retires or dies and passes on the business to those boring people who actually know how to run a business.

So... I switched to Wordpad. The joy of simplicity! I haven't had a crash since...

MM

[StoryJunkie]

Computers and software in general are still not genuine consumer products, because for the people in charge it's all about cultivating the cutting edge of technogeekery, not providing reliable tools for the masses.

Technogeekery

You gotta love it.

[Guest Adara]

Well, I tried OpenOffice, trying to see what all the rave's about. Well, I hate it. LOL, honestly, that program crashed on me far more than MS Word has EVER in my online lifetime. I am not kidding.

I think from here on after, WordPad and MS Word are the programs for me.

[Guest echtrae]

Adara, since Open Office didn't work out for you, you could try Abiword. Provided you're still feeling adventurous.

[Guest Adara]

I shall venture forth into lands those around me, that I know of, hath not ventured before! I will try it. Hopefully, it works...or something. I'll tell ya all how it went...LOL

Edit: Hmm, I may not be as adventurous as I thought...at least not today. Tomorrow maybe...LOL.

[Guest echtrae]

Fair enough.

[NightScribe]

A relative of mine still is, and his system crashes three or four times a day. Sometimes three or four times a session. Nope, Apples go rotten too.

I remember the first Mac I used at an old job, back in '86. The little bomb was always showing up. About seven years ago, another place I worked, the owner's Mac was always freezing up; but it was fine until he started adding macros and a trackball and other extraneous junk. I've always kept mine simple and they seem to do okay. My last computer would freeze up when I was online and some flash or java thing would screw it up. But no problems with the one I have now and it's already six years old. I think they'll have to bury me with it.

[Mourningstar]

I think I have to raise my voice and confess that I'm a member of the minority which uses Word. To this day it hasn't given me any trouble, no crashing or anything, and my only complaint is the war I have going on with the spellchecker.

You'd figure that we'd have an accord on at least one of four languages I use (and how do I wish that it'd be English...), but no.

[Guest Adara]

You'd think with the high prices for any Microsoft software, they could afford to have someone who majored in English to help them out with minor little details like grammar and spelling when they're developing a writing program. BUT NO....LOL.