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Tired of Word 2011

G

garycurtis

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 15, 2010
331
0
Los Angeles & Northern California
I was a writer my whole career. Word 2011 is just too overburdened with slick adjustments that don't match my needs in retirement.

Pages is only $20. Is it more streamlined?

And am I the only one who likes to add a barcode for the zip code in an address label. The newest Word, no longer allows that option. It used to be a little check-box off to the right of the address you enter.

Grumpy in Santa Monica
 
well i will say, I'm quite tired of having to update MS Word EVERY time I open a document. Now, to be fair, i open a document maybe once a month at most, but this is still far too often to have to update a program that for all intents should have been pretty well "completed" in 2011 like its name suggests. And perhaps if MS had an update process that didnt take up 15 windows and require you to close your open document, then requiring you to reopen the document with no offer to automatically do such for you, as well as leave you responsible for closing their separate update center application, then it wouldn't be AS obnoxious to deal with....

I can assure you, this is one area where perhaps Apple's Pages may be quite an upgrade over MS Word. As far as anything else, I've never used it, mostly because my need to consistently create documents ended with graduating college quite a while ago. And even back then, I was just happy to be using what was my first Mac so i didn't really stress too much over it.
 
I just performed a Google search on this subject. This one site devoted to MS Word issues said that in about 2007, the Post Office changed their barcode. So I guess Microsoft just gave up on that issue.

This is referring in particular to the Windoze version.
 
One thing I did that made using Word 2010 (and all of Office) much nicer was customizing the ribbon. Now I have all the functions I use regularly and none of the ones Microsoft thinks I'll use. It's much less cluttered and more functional. Check it out.
 
garycurtis said:
I was a writer my whole career. Word 2011 is just too overburdened with slick adjustments that don't match my needs in retirement.

Pages is only $20. Is it more streamlined?

And am I the only one who likes to add a barcode for the zip code in an address label. The newest Word, no longer allows that option. It used to be a little check-box off to the right of the address you enter.

Grumpy in Santa Monica
Click to expand...

Pages is the bomb!
 
If you want a little page layout in addition to word processing, then Pages is a good choice.

If you want a slick word processor, try Nisus Writer Pro.

FOr overall writing, try Scrivener ($45), complete writing and editing solution, and you can export in several formats. A good share of my writing and research is done in Scrivener. (If I need to write technical stuff, I use Mellel because I need something that can handle Hebrew on the fly in English text. Nothing better.)
 
I have both Pages and Office for Mac....I have Word solely for the purpose of compatibility with people I need to correspond with who have Windows machines...if I'm writing a document. I tend to use Pages...the cross platform IOS support is the clincher for me...I can use it on my iPad, iPhone or my Macs and everything syncs, I agree that Word has become over bloated and contains features that nobody needs or uses. Outlook is even worse, and I gave up trying to get it stable on my Macs a long time ago.
 
garycurtis said:
Pages is only $20. Is it more streamlined?
Click to expand...

If I never had to share my documents or open other's documents (which most of the time are Word), I wouldn't have anything other than Pages on my Mac - I actually really like it, find it very easy and think it epitomises what Apple can do (but rarely seem to do).

Unfortunately, constantly having to export the documents, getting emails from people saying they can't open it, opening others files with bad formatting, having .pdfs littering my computer because I've forgotten to delete them and the slightly frustrating "Duplicate" shenanigans means I find myself using Word or Google Drive instead.
 
Macman45 said:
I have both Pages and Office for Mac....I have Word solely for the purpose of compatibility with people I need to correspond with who have Windows machines...if I'm writing a document. I tend to use Pages...the cross platform IOS support is the clincher for me...I can use it on my iPad, iPhone or my Macs and everything syncs, I agree that Word has become over bloated and contains features that nobody needs or uses. Outlook is even worse, and I gave up trying to get it stable on my Macs a long time ago.
Click to expand...

This. I'm creating everything on Pages (and Keynote) these days. Multiple new documents a week, but mostly for my own use. Only use .doc or .pdf when I need to collaborate with others.
 
Thanks for all the responses. My original contention was two-fold: no zip barcode in the Envelope or Labels tools.That is gone because the Post Office changed the codes.

The second concerned the overburden of features. And I worked in publishing for 4 decades. What average person needs Kerning, or Small Cap letters at the beginning of a document?

It would help if there was a 3rd Party book on MS Office 2011. In the case of Mac users, there has not — to my knowledge — ever been a book. So unless you want to grapple with meaningless Window commands on virtually every page, there is NO DOCUMENTATION available.

But I guess these circumstances are the justification for having Mac Rumors. Ha, ha.
 
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