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Why is Microsoft Word??? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml

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As a sweaty loser, all my adult life if I had to emit a document I either used LaTeX or Pandoc (which also uses LaTeX). LaTeX is its own can of worms (strange syntax, unwelcoming for newcomers, not easy to install, etc.) but if it's weird, it's weird in a way that I can wrap my head around.

For a group project we are using Microsoft Word, the online version, because I don't have it in me to extol the virtues of LaTeX or Typst to non-tech people. We are using the online version because of the collaboration thing also because no one wants to buy Office.

It's such a strange piece of software. Like what I am trying to do right now is this: semantically designate headings and subheadings to automatically number them and generate a table of content. But it just won't work and I have no idea why because it doesn't say anything.

When I am trying to number headings manually, it sees and understands what my intention it and turns into a numbered list, changes the number to "1.". To work around this I have to add "a6." then remove the "a".

I am sure that Word veterans are horrified that I am doing everything wrong. I am accept your accusations with humility and grace. But I just want to be done with.

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[–] SeeingRed@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago

As a word veteran... No, it is garbage and you are correct at being frustrated by trying to do something simple. There definitely is wizardry that can be performed with enough knowledge, but that wizardry can be broken by simply looking at the document.

The most fun I had with word (not) was dealing with a template that was made for the desktop app, but someone on my team was using the web app and it handled formatting differently, so as soon as they opened it and made changes it broke the formatting, even if they were doing very simple text changes.

I absolutely detest the way that ms office had functional desktop apps, then made these half-baked web apps that they force on everyone before they are ready, let alone properly equivalent. Don't get me started with Excel...