MS Word

[Winter_Knight]

Does it ever really piss you off? LOL Right now I have a quad gap in my MS (Manuscript) I can't fix and it randomly changes settings on me, including having set my freaking spell checker to UK English. Which I've changed TWICE!! (First time it was French!! LMAO)

[LizW65]

The only thing about it that bothers me is that it creates uneven bottom margins at the end of a page. I'm sure there's a very easy fix for this, but I haven't discovered it.

As for your settings randomly changing, I have no idea. Virus, maybe?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

MS Word wants to be a text formatter and a word processor at the same time, which is I think the root of most of what's wrong with it.  This is why I actually write things in emacs and only import them into Word when dealing with people who want Word documents.

[Winter_Knight]

The only thing about it that bothers me is that it creates uneven bottom margins at the end of a page. I'm sure there's a very easy fix for this, but I haven't discovered it.

As for your settings randomly changing, I have no idea. Virus, maybe?

I have to admit; this would not terribly surprise me. XD I'm quite cavalier about protection in cyberspace, unfortunately. :/

[THE_ANGRY_GAMER]

Word is quite an unstable program for novel-length stuff, actually - numerous people have said that it tends to crash/corrupt files after a certain wordcount, and splitting into different files removes the utility of find/replace and other stuff.

[LizW65]

What's the top wordcount? I've gone well over 120K with no problem. Granted, I use my writing laptop as basically a glorified typewriter and don't take it online at all so viruses an so on are not an issue; when I need to upload files I use a flash drive and move them from one computer to another.

[Quantus]

The only thing about it that bothers me is that it creates uneven bottom margins at the end of a page. I'm sure there's a very easy fix for this, but I haven't discovered it.

I think what you are talking about is the "Widow/Orphan" control, which makes sure that there are no single paragraph lines at the top or bottom of a page.  It can be found in the "Line and Page Breaks" tab of the "Line Spacing Options" Window.

[THE_ANGRY_GAMER]

What's the top wordcount? I've gone well over 120K with no problem. Granted, I use my writing laptop as basically a glorified typewriter and don't take it online at all so viruses an so on are not an issue; when I need to upload files I use a flash drive and move them from one computer to another.

Hmm. I've never done anything that long in Word, so my knowledge comes second-hand. Its just what I've heard. I use Scrivener instead.

[Winter_Knight]

I think what you are talking about is the "Widow/Orphan" control, which makes sure that there are no single paragraph lines at the top or bottom of a page.  It can be found in the "Line and Page Breaks" tab of the "Line Spacing Options" Window.

GOD! I. Hate. That. Shit!

Most agents/editors will shoot you if you keep that on. Some ask that you do however (why the hell you would is beyond me), so always check preferences.

[LizW65]

Thanks, I didn't know about the widow/orphan thing, and will definitely disable it!

[Winter_Knight]

Also, I have to keep auto-save feature on, because my comp's a POS and suddenly freezes/crashes. I LOVE the way it works. >_> You know, type two words 'Auto-Recovery is saving Word File', type two more, 'Auto-Recovery is...' and so on. It may not be an issue on a faster/newer comp, but it REALLY screws with my writing when it does that crap. >_> Just added that, LOL

[phoenixjustice]

I usually just use WordPad.

[Mote]

Asides from a few formatting frustrations, (usually caused by me messing something up or trying to change something after the fact,) Word has never given me much trouble, though admittedly, my version of Word is now officially 13 years old. I've also had 120K word long documents saved on it without any crashes, corruption or general hijinks.

I'm not entirely sure howWord got such an apparently hideous reputation, as most of the things I see complained about aren't things I've had issues with. Could be some versions are more stable than others.

[LizW65]

I'm not entirely sure howWord got such an apparently hideous reputation

Neither am I; as I mentioned upthread my issues with it have been pretty trivial. Maybe it's one of those "anything popular must be bad" things.

[Ulfgeir]

Neither am I; as I mentioned upthread my issues with it have been pretty trivial. Maybe it's one of those "anything popular must be bad" things.

Personally, I like it up until the 2003-version. I have worked for Microsoft, and I absolutely HATE the UI in the 2007/2010-versions (can't find the stuff I need). Not to mention the stupid docx-format. What was right in 2010-version was that it had the ability to make PDF's built-in, even though you could get the same function with freeware like CutePDF. And yes the previous Microsoft attempt to make something pdf-equivalent is the most asinine piece of crap I have ever experienced.