Thank you for the tips. Unless something changes over time, like out of necessity, I think I'll stick with what I have. I'm comfortable with it, plus it will help me become accustomed to spreadsheets with that application. Since I downloaded it, I've used it A LOT - keep the application open for long periods when I might want to jot down a whim. Considering that factor, the few times the program closed, It's not a big deal to me.
Wow. I've been hardcore into computers since 1986 and I don't remember ever coming across this one before, which is kind of ironic since they've been making this thing since 1987. I just checked it out and I like the sound of 'lightning-fast' start-ups, I must say. Thanks for mentioning it. Yes, you're right. It should be in the status bar by default... as well as in the document properties. Did it give you an option for recovering the lost file (even though you didn't actually lose it because you save so often)? For me, this would be a deal breaker. I can't abide software that crashes when I'm in the middle of things, not because I don't save often, but because I'd be constantly on edge thinking it might crash when I've forgotten to save so often. I doubt I could keep my mind on my work. In contrast, the only time MS Word 2003 crashes on me is when I try to copy/paste from certain websites with non-standard formatting... well, non-standard by 2003 standards... or whenever it was the last bug-fix update came out for MS Word 2003. What I've started doing is pasting the text into a text editor (Notepad++ recommended to me by my wife who is a coder for the feds) and then recopying, re-pasting into Word. Works a charm. I'd be curious to know if the free version of TextMaker is the same as the paid version. At less than $120 U.S., it's a great deal... as long as it's not a subscription.... and I've emailed them to find out.
Lately, for me, on a Mac, the crash-prone function I have to make use of is copy-pasting any section of a table. I make use of tables quite a bit in my work-work as formatting for re-creating forms that I translate from Spanish to English. Either it crashes on me altogether in the paste, or when I paste a section down connected to the already running table, the prior cells have an aneurysm and go all dodgy. Have I mentioned that if MS Word were a person I would probably be typing this to you from a prison cell?
Perhaps it's because of accented characters? I'm not sure how robust MS's unicode support is, but given their track record, it may leave something to be desired. LOL! As long as it's not in a Mexican jail. I've heard stories.
Doubtful. The product I create is nearly always in English, with the original scans of documents having been in Spanish. The only time I really create Spanish-language product is for extraditions and those are block text, no cells or tables, and never any trouble there. Its defo the tables function that glitchy.
Hmm... I guess I misunderstood your earlier post. Anyway, that only leaves one thing: MS isn't as careful with their Mac products as they are with PC, assuming of course that Mac is a much smaller market.
Yup. The Mac port is a sad, twisted brother of the PC version. I deal with it for work because there's little choice for the kind of product I am regularly tasked to create, but for my personal writing, no. Scrivener for me, as we all already know.
No. I'm on 2011. And as much as I hate the application (and I don't use the word hate lightly), I hate even more the idea of shelling out - yet again - more than a c-note to Microsoft - a company I don't patron because I don't like their product - for yet another lumbering, top-heavy, overtasked, trying-to-be-too-many-effing-things application. Sigh.... I know I should look into it so that I have a better time of things in the long run, but I deeply resent this selling strategy Microsoft uses. I know people often have a similar resentment as regards selling strategy about Apple, about being "trapped" in the Apple ecosystem, but... one makes concessions for the needs one has, and this idea of getting buggered-without-concent every few years by Microsoft.... No. I have a hubby who is more than satisfactory and even he is gentleman enough to ask me if I'm in the mood.
@Wreybies the Mac version took a big stride forward starting with Word 2013, but I can understand not wanting to shell out money for it. I'm on a subscription, for the rare times I really need Word on my personal computer.
I'll be honest and tell you that I didn't even know there was a 2013 release. I just.... *sigh*.... I just really don't like this software and it's not in my nature to go looking for unsolicited buggerings.
Amen to that. All I want is a word processor that does writer-oriented things and spits out a format acceptable to publishers. If I want anything more than that, I can use a DTP application... which Word falls far short on.
Just need LibreOffice, or even WPS Office. You could even use a nice, simple, light-weight program like FocusWriter if you don't mind an extra step.
Yeah, even the Mac version is on the 2016 release now. But I'm not a fan of Word either. I use it when I have to. Honestly, if I need a traditional word processing program I prefer Google Docs.
You're relatively new to computers then. I started in 1976, writing my first program in Higher Programming Language or HP-L - a Hewlett-Packard version of Basic on a "programmable desktop calculator" - aptly named because it took up, well... most of a desktop! With the demise of much-loved Lotus WordPro, and with immense dissatisfaction with Word (6, IIRC), I looked at Softmaker Office, ThinkFree and others. I didn't mind SO, but something about it made me reject it - I can't recall why, and so too, Softmaker (there's a free version of this, I think). @Wreybies - reading about your travails with Office for Mac, there is a fork of OpenOffice/LibreOffice for Mac, that is more tuned for the Mac OS than straight LO. It might be worth a try, if you're frustrated with MS. You could do your work in LO, in parallel with MS for a while to see if there were any compatibility issues. The Word filter in LO is pretty good nowadays and handles most things easily. You'd just have to cope with the prehistoric UI...
It has been a while since I've used Microsoft Word. Going by memory, isn't word count under "View"? That is where I was looking. I looked just about everywhere BUT where it can be found. The location of the word count for this does make sense - "File", "Properties", "Statistics" - but it can be overwhelming when first using it. I don't think so. If/when it happens again, I'll pay closer attention. I don't recall the circumstances when it did close, but I might not have even had any filed documents open - it may have even been blank, for all I remember. I use Notepad as a middleman of sorts, too. When copying text from a website, there's usually some kind of code mistranslation - smaller text, different font, etc.
I always use Google Docs with offline mode enabled so I have backups and can work without internet when I'm taking kids to swimming lessons etc.
I do appreciate your taking an interest and making recommendations, but I'm one of those people who keeps a very close eye on word processors and have done since the early 1990s when WordPerfect was still available for the Amiga OS. LibreOffice Writer is overkill just as MS Word is and I suspect WPS Office Writer is, too (and what makes we wary of WPS is their Sponsored Access). FocusWriter doesn't go far enough. Sure it's fine for just the act of writing (although how distraction-free can it be with those typewriter sound? ) but for afterwards, it falls far short of publisher/editor expectations for doing revisions. It doesn't even have full support for RTF format, let alone DOC or DOCX. Still, if you have any other suggestions, please post them.
Ha! You got me. In '76, I was still trying to get somewhere as a musician. I had a friend who took computer science in university about that time and I thought it looked boring (mind you, it seemed to be mostly about printing ASCII images, so perhaps it was ATT). It took another ten years and the advent of colour displays before I figured out what all the fuss was about. I never used WordPro. WordPerfect was my WP of choice on the Amiga OS and I know there was at least one before that, but I don't remember what it was. I didn't start using Word until 1994 when I was forced to switch to a PC and a friend gave me his original floppys. I eventually bought the PC version of WordPerfect, too, but it was so different from the Windows version of Word and the Amiga version of WordPerfect, I never really got used to it. Yes, there is a free version. I've been doing some digging into this one, having a bit of back-n-forth with their Q-n-A people. So far, even investing in a full license (none of that subscription malarkey in SO) seems like it might be worthwhile. If ever you remember what it was you didn't like about it, I'd be very much interested in hearing about it. I'll have to look into this one. EDIT: Ah! It's a cloud service. No thanks. I don't trust my Internet connection that much.
Yes, but (in the 2003 version, anyway) it's a pop-up and you have to hit a 'Recount' button. (Talk about an unnecessary step!) And it doesn't put it in the status bar. It can be docked about the status bar, but this just uses up another line of working space. This may have changed in later versions, but I've yet to find a good deal on a 2007, 2010 or 2013 version, so for now—since it still works in Windows 10—I'm sticking with 2003. Cool. I'd be interested in hearing about any further findings. Yup. I blame WordPress.
I use 2013 and the word count is always on screen, down in the bottom left. I'm pretty sure that's the default setting, b/c I'm not much of a customizer.
I also use Word 2013, mainly because it's distraction free, has the word count at bottom left as Bay View just said and for the moment the most important thing is to get the words out of my head and into a document by the simplest route possible. When I'm not writing, I write for a computer tech blog and sometimes review software. If I'm really lucky, I receive freebies of software, but I often find that I only use about 20% of the features available. The same could be said for my use of MS Word, I suppose. But anyway, it's really down to what makes you the most comfortable in your writing. I'll probably give Scrivener a whirl as a free trial just to see if it helps in any way.
Amen to that. And the only other things I care about are: getting the finished product into a file format and layout publishers/editors will accept (which could easily be automated to a one-click solution, but no one ever has), exchanging feedback on the finished MS in a reasonable manner, working with an easily-readable serif font, and never losing my work because the software crashed. If anyone ever finds a word process that does these things and only these things, I'd love to hear about it.
