Poll: Which word-processing software do you use?

i have used microsoft word for years, recently installed 2007, and as Mr koo's wife exclaimed everything has changed around and takes some time to get used to but once you do its much easier. I also recently installed a linux operating system on my computer and was wowed with the office suite that came with it, a lot more easier to use than word and with basically all the same functions, and the huge difference is its free. So it makes you wonder how over priced is the microsoft office and maybe we should start to be more interested not only in non-microsoft applications but operating systems too. We pay way too much for them.

I've experience with many word processing packages over the years -- doing temp work in offices required getting the job done in whatever (mostly PC) environment I found myself, and ASAP meant finding workarounds. Word is still my favorite wp to Hate (learned how to defeat the argument with certain formatting functions, but not fun). Some Word Perfect versions were unstable (I still have occasional freeze with X-3). AmiPro was my favorite for awhile till Lotus ugraded to WordPro which was not as easy to use. I have recently downloaded Open Office and look forward to becoming familiar (= fast) with it. We all like what we can use easily & fast. I keep many wps on my computers. Depending on a friend's need, I tend to recommend OpenOffice. The .pdf feature is a winner, and the (non)price. Most clients use either Word or WordPerfect, so I can use OO, save in the required format, and doublecheck it in the wp they choose. Never ever had a problem yet that my doublecheck could have revealed. So far, OO gets good marks from me. And, due to Word's intrusiveness & large file size, I'm still preferring WP for the quickest turnaround on complex docs until I'm faster in OO.

Experience in more than one wp makes one faster on the inevitable upgrade-looks-different scenario in your favorite wp.

Thanks for all the tips on other options to check out.

Unfortunately as a consultant I have to use Word. I did try Open Office and found some good stuff but there were so many incompatibilities that I couldn't count on creating something for my clients that would translate well.
But back to the main subject - Rip-off
By creating irritating file format incompatibilities between versions in Publisher creates havoc in offices that can't or won't upgrade simultaneously. I did see that when I try to open Office 7 I can now download a translator.
By far the biggest rip-off is that lack of real productivity additions or simple convenience additions for the last decade. A small example is that Excel still does not have a file dialog box to set default file. Oh. Didn't someone tell Microsoft that not all of us use My Documents? I could go on but that would just cause me more pain above and beyond what MicroSoft already does.
As a programmer with 10 languages or more, I have to say that Microsoft Visual Basic for Access has stay in the basement for new feature. Ditto their editor. "Professional" it is not though they charge for it - that is call rip-off.
Now they come out 2007 and hocus pocus they move all the options around but add nothing of substance. This is called "inverse productivity" where the more you know of previous suites, the worse off you are.

Powerpoint is a real loser when you try to add multiple animations to a page and then go back and edit them. Hasn't anyone in Redmond heard of layers? Duhhhh.

I switched from 'WordStar', 'Word Perfect' and 'Word for Dos' when Word for Windows was first released, included by the way with a really cool hard-cover book and telephone support!
Yet, some of the pesky bugs in Winword v.1.1 are still with us today!
Generally speaking, it has of course improved, but my guess'timate is that 70% of current WinWord users could load and use ver.1.1 and not miss a feature from the new. If you speak to serious users of WinWord, you will find that most of us create our own 'Save As' backups when doing complicated formatting on large documents. (i.e. Save As with a new or sequentially numbered filename - and you should too!)
Wonder why I have not mentioned any of the bugs? Now really - would it make a difference? Remember the comedian Lilly Tomlin's operator character that said as she chortled, "We don't have to care. We're the phone company!" Today, we have fewer providers - four 'baby bells' - that are all larger than AT&T was at divestiture.
B.G. can drop a billion in India and other countries, yet MS cannot deliver bug-free - and on-time products at competitive prices? They are Microsoft! They do not have to! They simply continue to spend more $$. telling us how great they are and each new generation believes it - long enough.
DKW,
ITS Industry Sr. Consultant
Atlanta, Ga.

I don't care if MS changed Office 2007.
I use OpenOffice and am compatible.
Happy and free.
Robert Margulski

I have used open office now for about 7 years as our computer club uses it as first choice. If I need to send a document to a friend, I can save mine in any version of Word, or I can send it as PDF. I don't use half of what is available, but I think you can do anything you can do on Microsoft word. I can open Power Point attachments as well. I have never used Microsoft word-processing software ever.

Microsoft Word is the bomb! I love it. Yeah it took me a little while to get used to 2007 but I now love it.

I still have a sealed boxed copy of Multimate, enough about the past. I now use Office 97 on my Win98 computers and Corel WordPerfect on my Vista and XP computers. My Vista computer does have office 2003 installed and I have used it but I'm more comfortable with Corel WordPerfect. The spell check in Microsoft's word works better for me than Corel WordPerfect spell checker. My favorite Office 97 app is Excel but not for it's normal use. I use it to control printouts. I find its print controls to be outstanding.

All that I can say is that I miss Word Perfect. Oh I have it, yes indeed I do but my Contact Manager is conveniently tied to MS Word.

I never ever, never ever, needed a big time training course to do the hard tasks in WP, it was intuitive and easy to maneuver. Perhaps that is why attorneys still prefer WP?

Word sticks drop down commands in the weirdest places. My 2003 version still doesn't allow multiple rows to be added in a table. How weird, you must add a row at a time. On and on I could go but Open Office is becoming my app of choice. To He## with Billy constant changes, updates and not allowing for cross platform saves. I hope BG is cashing in his stock options and banking them because, IMHO the MS Suite is on its way out as the king.

I have Office 2007, and while it takes a while to figure out how to do things if you have used previous versions of this program, I feel that 2007 is significantly improved from past versions. Word 2007 in my experience is a quantum leap over my last recent version of Word. I don't have to use it every day, but I'm sorry that they didn't have this version years ago. It is so much different that the 2002 and 2000 versions, that it will take significant training to get on board to be able to use it efficiently. Most people that I deal with have MS products, so it is easy to create documents that are viewable and usable by a majority of them. I will probably continue to use Word in the future since it is easily compatible with documents created in previous versions.

Prior to OpenOffice we used MS Office 97. We started using OpenOffice from version 1.00 and continued with it right up to version 2.00. It's a good application and does the job. Then, for one reason or another (nothing to do with OpenOffice) we switched to Star Office - which is OpenOffice with a proper database application, and a bit of support. It's still free because it's an educational license; we teach English in Italian state schools, so why not? We have had no problems with other people's MS Word or Excel documents, but then I suppose we know few people who embed masses of odd macros in them. Likewise Powerpoint presentations present no problems in OpenOffice or Star Office.
I'd swear that most MS Office users actually use a tiny fraction of the functions available to them, even most of the staff in large corporations, and much is made of the small and shrinking compatibility issues which just don't affect your average user. In fact I'd go as far as saying that what many users do with MS Word could be done on a half decent free text editor.
I think, for those individuals and small businesses who have to pay full whack for an Office productivity suite hundreds or thousands of dollars, pounds or euros is not a good investment. Its a ridiculous price to pay for what is at best inertia and at worst paranoia.

I've used several word processors since I started computers in 1986, IBM, then Tandy, then generic, Word Perfect was my fav., but times change, and 'things' change, lately using Open Office because it is NOT M.S., and works, but love PDF Typewriter.
OpenOffice is slower, as all M.S. competing programs are, I suspect BECAUSE M.S. writes the operating system that way.
If M.S., during the first Monopoly trials had been made to curtail their programming to the operating system, then they would have had reason to provide 'hooks' for other software.
{If only C.P.M. creator had been home, that fateful day...)

Why wasn't MS Works even considered for the poll? Is it because it is mistakenly thought to be another form of MS Word? Not a chance!!!

I have been using the MS Works word processor software since the early 90's and I feel it is one of the best ones they have ever used for simplicity and ease of use. As far as I'm concerned, they can take MS Word and flush it down the toilet, along with anything designed for Yahoo. I also hate any form of intimidation that is used in a software motif, because they want you to purchase their crappy program or you can't use your old files. I just like something that can read text and I can cut and paste almost anything into it. When I have to have a reader to look at a Word document, but I can't edit or save a portion of it because I won't buy the expensive Office series, then I have an aversion to it's whole idea.

A friend had an older version of MS Works, which included instead a copy of Word for the word processor. Now that she has a new computer, that comes with the old standby MS Works, all of her text files that were done in the older version of Works w/Word, can?t be edited, because they were done in Word. She would have to purchase Office 2007 to be able to do that. Pretty hard to do when she?s on a fixed income.

I've been using WP since 1988 (DOS version). For a while I also used MS Word because our Dell computers came pre-loaded with it. However, I must say that after trying MS on and off I believe that WP is the better program being easier (at least for me) to use. Pasting tables, using "reveal codes" and making footnotes are just a few of the functions that seem much easier and more intuitive in WP. We also had Lotus Suite '97 which also seemed to be better but alas.... In any event, we just installed X3 in a few of our machines and are generally pleased with it, although I have detected some unexpected changes (?) in the file management area. Admittedly I have not tried any free-ware programs, but would be willing to try. But how do they handle .doc and .wpd files?

Although I would normally use MS stuff, because of the compatibility between the OS and the software; I think it is "NOT IN THE LEAST BIT" user friendly. Microsoft needs to hire some writters who use common sense to write their programs. Furthermore, it takes a genius to figure these programs out. You actually need to take classes in order to figure out how to use these.
That's crap! I'm still using programs that came out in the 80's... Professional Write & Professional File (which were VERY USER FRIENDLY)! What happened to those days?

Most IMPORTANT is the COST!!!! Do these programs come on GOLD CD's, or what? I understand about the time it takes to develop these programs, but jessssss...give us a break. Aside from offices, the normal users can't afford to buy them. Same with MS Operating system. They keep developing a new one every few years so they can charge us MORE money. Once again, they are not cost effective for the normal user. And they release them before the bugs are worked out of them. We should charge them for having to upgrade all the time, and having to mess around with the software.

Thank you for letting me vent, but I think i speak for many many people out there in MS Land!

The initial experience with Office 2007 can be very frustrating. This is especially true if one is attempting to complete work with a fixed deadline. However, once one has adjusted to the new look and feel, the improvements become evident. The learning curve is much steeper than it was for past Office releases, but the effort is worth it. I would not switch.

I use because my masters at work buy it and will not look at anything else

i using notepad for my word pro....

and yes i have a openoffice viewer and office 2007 installed on my windows system.

and in linux i use openoffice and textmode i using nano.

I have used Microsoft Office for my entire life of 17 years. Yes, I am a newb compared to some here, but I am never switching from MS Office. Never. Its simply the best out there.

I have always used Word and will continue to do so for two reasons: compatibility and familiarity. The same goes for the rest of the Office suite: Excel, PowerPoint and Access.

I find it very important to know that documents that I create can be read/used by everybody else, in electronic form, sent by e-mail.

Also, I have been using Office since it first appeared, and I know it quite well. I am very reluctant to have to learn another tool to do the same job, as I need to do the job, not learn something else. As an example in a slightly different context, I am antagonistic towards a Mac because I cannot use it (I have tried several times), just because it is different from a PC. And I do not want to have to take the time to relearn something that I has taken me many years to learn.

I've been using Office 2000 since I bought it, why would I need to upgrade? If You are a "normal" user, the newer versions have nothing new that You need. The same is beginning to apply to most software. They already have all the features that You actually NEED. All the bells and whistles are just a waste of money and computer resources. All the fancy displaycandy was the first thing I disabled when I installed XP, and I've disabled a lot of resourcewasters from Office too. And as for Vista...., who is it for? Bosses and kids who like glittery stuff?

I have Word on PC. Have been using Star Office now updated to Open Office on my laptop. For light use, the free stuff has worked fine for me. J2

I agree with the evaluation of Word 2007, to many changes and the learning curve is a little burdensome. I'd like to move back in time, but cannot.

Once you learn how to tie your shoelaces, you don't need to be taught a different way. Same goes with software...

I have MS Word 2003 but, oh, how I miss Word Perfect! Some things, such as: double indent, search and replace, reveal codes, header/footers that one can actually place where they are to begin, etc. Mr. Gates must have thought he was inventing a new mousetrap - it just pales in comparison to Word Perfect.