Can I make Word into a typewriter?

[rck]

I used to have this neat little program in DOS called Professional Write. It
was just like using a typewriter and did exactly what I wanted it to do. But
alas, DOS is gone, all in the name of "improving" things. Word drives me
nuts, always hyphenating things I don't want hyphenated, indenting what I
don't want indented, capitalizing what I don't want capitalized and
generally making a mess out of my documents. Is there a way to stop it from
"helping" me?

Bob

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Start here:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm

And just in case:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day rck,

Professional Write is still around, but of course is unsupported
since the rest of the world has moved on.

No one has taken DOS away! DOS is still around, but exactly
the same applies to support.

Feel free to find a copy of DOS and a copy of Professional
Write, and let the rest of us go to h.....

Of course that's where WE want to be!!

 

[E. Barry Bruyea]

I used to have this neat little program in DOS called Professional Write. It
was just like using a typewriter and did exactly what I wanted it to do. But
alas, DOS is gone, all in the name of "improving" things. Word drives me
nuts, always hyphenating things I don't want hyphenated, indenting what I
don't want indented, capitalizing what I don't want capitalized and
generally making a mess out of my documents. Is there a way to stop it from
"helping" me?

Bob

All of the 'nasty' functions you've described can be controlled, but,
unfortunately, that means you have to learn how to use the program.

 

[rck]

And your point is?

Bob

G'Day rck,

Professional Write is still around, but of course is unsupported
since the rest of the world has moved on.

No one has taken DOS away! DOS is still around, but exactly
the same applies to support.

Feel free to find a copy of DOS and a copy of Professional
Write, and let the rest of us go to h.....

Of course that's where WE want to be!!
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Australia
_______________________

 

[rck]

All of the 'nasty' functions you've described can be controlled, but,
unfortunately, that means you have to learn how to use the program.

In case you hadn't noticed, MS doesn't include instruction books anymore,
and the so-called "help" files don't give much help, so learning MS
applications these days is a matter of trial and error. I just don't have
the time to mess with it. From where I sit, software should be helping me
not hindering what I want to do. I merely asked if there was a simple way to
turn this stuff off and all the Mickeysoft people get their fur raised up
and ready to fight.

Bob

 

[rck]

Thanks, Bob

Start here:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm

And just in case:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm





--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:

 

[Guest]

Rck,

Your quite right, Microsoft seem to be so preoccupied with new features to
entice you onto the next version they overlook the fact that not everyone can
afford the time to spend learning new features. The other issue is that
existing features get modifed or moved, so the skills youve already learnt
are lost upon moving to a new version.

Years ago some software had a basic menu option "Beginner, Intermediate,
Advanced" according to which option you chose, then features and menus
became more advanced, thus basic everyday features were easliy accessible for
the beginner, whilst more advanced options for the guru.

A basic concept that worked well, and more simple than any "personalised
menu" that attempts to hide features that you dont use, even if the likely
hood of using a hidden feature is quite great.

Tim

 

[Greg]

Bob,

As far as I know, none of the people that replied to your question is a
Microsoft employee. To answer your question directly, no you can't
turn Word into a typewriter. Have you considered buying a typewriter?
There are several very capable models that cost less than a copy of
Word. Of course even new model typewriters have these have moved on a
bit with time and might dissappoint.

I disagree with your assessment of Word Help. It is fairly
compreshensive. Then you also have these support News Groups which
provide quick and responsive help. Case in point, Daiya Mitchell
responded with a very informative and polite reply in less than 45
minutes. Her fur didn't appear to be up.

Word is a very powerful Word processor. I agree that it has annoying
bells and whistles and that it can be frustrating at first to get it
tamed to your liking, but it can be done. You have spent more time
bantering here than it would take to resolve all the issues in your
orginal complaint by following the helpful tips that Daiya provided.
Usually when someone comes in firing for effect there will be a few
rounds fired back. I suggest you just ignore them and get on with
resolving your Word issue. If you just find that Word won't do then
you can always try Note Pad.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/concepts/introduction/index.html and
http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/GettingStarted.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[rck]

See http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/concepts/introduction/index.html and
http://home.earthlink.net/~wordfaqs/GettingStarted.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Being of the old school where learning was done with books, I'm more
comfortable with a manual or instruction book than trying to wade through
screen after screen online. Earthlink also disconnects me if I read for more
than 2 minutes without moving on. What would you recommend as a good book
for learning not just Word, but all of Office. I have Office Pro 2000.

Bob

 

[rck]

You have spent more time
bantering here than it would take to resolve all the issues in your
orginal complaint by following the helpful tips that Daiya provided.

<snip>


I seriously doubt that a person could learn Word in 2 minutes, but your
point is well taken that Ng's seem to attract some people who get their joy
out of personally attacking others who may not agree with them, and thus it
is best to ignore them and get on to solving the problem. I'm not saying DOS
was better than Windows, but there were some great, simple DOS programs that
got the job done with a short learning curve. These simple applications
seemed to disappear when Windows came along, and while Word and other
windows applications will do much more, the end user doesn't always need to
use all these features and then the program becomes an impediment to getting
the job done. I agree it is not practical to use DOS anymore because for
better or worse, the world has moved on to something different and that's
just the way it is. It would be nice if Word had a default setting that
turned all "features" off in the beginning and then a user could add them
one at a time as he learned how to use them.

Bob

 

[Jay Freedman]

Being of the old school where learning was done with books, I'm more
comfortable with a manual or instruction book than trying to wade
through screen after screen online. Earthlink also disconnects me if
I read for more than 2 minutes without moving on. What would you
recommend as a good book for learning not just Word, but all of
Office. I have Office Pro 2000.

Bob

Hi Bob,

I've generally found the books in the "Special Edition Using Microsoft
Office" series from QUE Books to be pretty good. I haven't looked at the
Word-specific one by Bill Camarda, but I have the overall Office version by
Ed Bott.

Be aware that even in 1400+ pages the book isn't going to cover every topic
of interest to you in complete detail -- owing to the very feature bloat
you're complaining about. :-(

 

[Greg]

Bob,

I agree that all of the default AutoCorrectAsYouType settings should be
off when the user installs the Word program. It would save countless
people a lot of grief. My reference to "2 minutes" is that turning
those features off goes a long way in eliminating that frustration.

I will say that for every hour (and there has been many) that I have
spent trying to figure out Word features has been made up for in the
countless hours that I have saved by using some of those features
effectively.

Notepad is not DOS (which horrifies me). It is a simple text
application that will run circles around a typewriter without the Word
clutter that you find distracting. Give it a try.
Start>Programs>Accessories>Notepad

 

[TF]

Bob

You're not the first (or last) person to complain about the Auto-features in
Word. The real problem is that if they are OFF by default - most users will
never know about them. Because the are ON by default, most users don't know
what the hell is causing all these unexpected actions and it drives them
nuts!

Some of them are useful IF you know the whats and whyfores and expect 'it'
to happen; but generally speaking, even the dedicated (power) Word users
keep most of the features turned off!

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://word.mvps.org/

:
: :
: <snip>
:
: >
: >You have spent more time
: > bantering here than it would take to resolve all the issues in your
: > orginal complaint by following the helpful tips that Daiya provided.
:
: <snip>
:
:
: I seriously doubt that a person could learn Word in 2 minutes, but your
: point is well taken that Ng's seem to attract some people who get their
joy
: out of personally attacking others who may not agree with them, and thus
it
: is best to ignore them and get on to solving the problem. I'm not saying
DOS
: was better than Windows, but there were some great, simple DOS programs
that
: got the job done with a short learning curve. These simple applications
: seemed to disappear when Windows came along, and while Word and other
: windows applications will do much more, the end user doesn't always need
to
: use all these features and then the program becomes an impediment to
getting
: the job done. I agree it is not practical to use DOS anymore because for
: better or worse, the world has moved on to something different and that's
: just the way it is. It would be nice if Word had a default setting that
: turned all "features" off in the beginning and then a user could add them
: one at a time as he learned how to use them.
:
: Bob
:
:

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day,

Way back in 1964, Eric Berne wrote a book -
Games People Play.

It was a popular sequel to his more comprehensive -
Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy.

One of the Games has the tag - YDYB -
"Why Don't You - Yes But...."

"The agent (White) presents a problem. The others start
to present solutions, each beginning with 'Why don't you...?'.
To each of these White objects with a 'Yes but...' A good
player can stand off the others indefinitely, until they all give
up, whereupon White wins."

You are an accomplished Player!!

 

[Charles Kenyon]

See Using Office Special Edition. http://addbalance.com/word/wordbooks.htm.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Use notepad or wordpad instead. Word is _not_ a typewriter.

Otherwise, sit down and learn how to use it. If you do much typing at all,
you'll be glad you did.

A book written back in the 1980's "The Word Processing Book" should be
required reading. It is short and humorous but filled with good points on
how to not use a word processor like a typewriter.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Amedee Van Gasse]

rck shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.newusers:

<snip>


I seriously doubt that a person could learn Word in 2 minutes, (...)
I'm not saying DOS was better than Windows, but there
were some great, simple DOS programs that got the job done with a
short learning curve. These simple applications seemed to disappear
when Windows came along, and while Word and other windows
applications will do much more, the end user doesn't always need to
use all these features and then the program becomes an impediment to
getting the job done. I agree it is not practical to use DOS anymore
because for better or worse, the world has moved on to something
different and that's just the way it is. It would be nice if Word had
a default setting that turned all "features" off in the beginning and
then a user could add them one at a time as he learned how to use
them.

Bob

Yesterday I read this anecdote about the autopilot in a certain
airplane (it was in a book about Bash Scripting).
The story was that this airplane had 5 different ways to configure the
autopilot, just to be compatible with 5 other types of autopilot. The
idea was to reduce training time.
Of course, pilots have to know how to operate all equipment, so they
had to learn all 5 ways of configuring the autopilot...