kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (01/15/91)
"Does anyone even know when the next Word is going to be released, "some wishes: "Also to allow chapter numbers and page number within chapter to be "included in header/footer We just put the text in front of the page number icon. In Footer type 1- and then click the page number icon, for example. Of course each chapter is a separate document. You have to do an index for each chapter and compile them manually. "* better printer control. "Also a more flexible specification of pages, "e.g. print 5-7,11,55-73 Also the ability to specify odd or even pages. If you screw up just the odd footer, you have to reprint the whole document. "* better positioning control, such as specification of the page number If you mean "go to page 27," for example, the command is Cmnd-G. You'll get a dialog box to enter the page number. If there is a section conflict possibility, I believe you can enter s2p27 or something like that to indicate which section you want to go to. Shirley Kehr
aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) (01/16/91)
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes:
[wishes for Word 5]
How about a decent manual? How about a redone menu heirarchy (default,
default)? How about doing something about those temp files? How about
teaching the people who answer the phones some manners? How about I try
to convince the people here to switch word processors?
Brian Aslakson <-= In a tizzy
aslakson@cs.umn.edu <-= Knows nothing at all about amino acids
mac-admin@cs.umn.edu <-= Macintosh relatedpalmer@nntp-server.caltech.edu (David Palmer) (01/16/91)
Styles sheets at the character level, as well as at the paragraph level. Variable names for labeling figures etc. A way to add filter chains (written by third party developers). e.g. to make bibliographies etc. in one step instead of with 3 different programs. USE FONT NAMES INSTEAD OF FONT NUMBERS IN SAVED FILES, PLEASE. Make it possible to select 'make backup' the first time you save something, instead of having to save, and then 'Save As...' Allow the backups to be on a different disk. Fix the bugs. (Is 4.00C out yet?) Make the equation generator produce decent output. (The TeX sources are in the public domain, after all. There's no reason to use proprietary technology simply because it's inferior.) In the command box, have a way of finding out what all the currently assigned keys do (e.g. you should be able to type a option-clover-control-F1 and have it tell you that that calls the 'Translate to Pig Latin' command.) -- David Palmer palmer@gap.cco.caltech.edu ...rutgers!cit-vax!gap.cco.caltech.edu!palmer "Operator, get me the number for 911" --Homer Simpson
bin@primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) (01/16/91)
> Make the equation generator produce decent output. (The TeX sources > are in the public domain, after all. There's no reason to use > proprietary technology simply because it's inferior.) TeX is very definitely not public domain, simply freely available. -- Paul DuBois dubois@primate.wisc.edu
torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan J Torrie) (01/16/91)
palmer@nntp-server.caltech.edu (David Palmer) writes: >USE FONT NAMES INSTEAD OF FONT NUMBERS IN SAVED FILES, PLEASE. YES, YES, YES! The number of times I've had Avant Garde on my machine at home, then taken a word document into the office to print out on the LaserWriter, and found that the font ID for AG on my machine is different than that on the office machine..... Isn't the use of font names instead of font numbers the recommended way to handle fonts now? It's a terribly confusing thing to a user to have their document which was beautifully laid out, suddenly switch into a mess of misaligned characters and blocky fonts when they take it to a different machine... Do the other word processors currently out there handle this any better? (I'm thinking of Nisus in particular, which is likely to get my vote if Word 5.0 doesn't shape up in a big way). -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Evan Torrie. Stanford University, Class of 199? torrie@cs.stanford.edu "She's got a tongue like an electric eel, and she likes the taste of a man's tonsils!" - Rik Flashheart
sadowski@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Robert Sadowski) (01/16/91)
In article <1991Jan16.033041.14013@cs.umn.edu> aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) writes: >How about doing something about those temp files? What's the big deal ? Have you ever had an error because your HD is full? If you really hate the damn things, use Temperament II. >How about teaching the people who answer the phones some manners? I've always had a positive experience when calling for Word support. I guess I've only done it twice, but both times they answered my questions really quickly and courteously. I'm not the world's biggest Microsoft fan, but I wouldn't think of dumping Word or XL for the competition. BTW, I really want to see text wrap around graphics in Word 5.0.
John_Mansfield@emal.sprl.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield) (01/16/91)
How about some compliance with the standard human interface of the macintosh?
baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) (01/16/91)
In article <1991Jan16.064929.15592@Neon.Stanford.EDU>, torrie@cs (Evan J Torrie) writes: >palmer@nntp-server.caltech.edu (David Palmer) writes: > >>USE FONT NAMES INSTEAD OF FONT NUMBERS IN SAVED FILES, PLEASE. > > YES, YES, YES! [...] > Do the other word processors currently out there handle this any >better? (I'm thinking of Nisus in particular, which is likely to get >my vote if Word 5.0 doesn't shape up in a big way). Yes, it uses font names. I can't imagine using Word, simply because it doesn't. Almost guarantees nasty surprises if you print on a system other than the one on which the document was created. Also, from a related posting by David Palmer, other Word 5 wishes: # Styles sheets at the character level, as well as at the paragraph level. # # Variable names for labeling figures etc. # # USE FONT NAMES INSTEAD OF FONT NUMBERS IN SAVED FILES, PLEASE. # # Make it possible to select 'make backup' the first time you save something, # instead of having to save, and then 'Save As...' # # Allow the backups to be on a different disk. Nisus does all of these things with a minimum of fuss. # Fix the bugs. (Is 4.00C out yet?) Bugs are one thing that Nisus doesn't seem to have -- at least I haven't run into any yet. I'm sure there are some obscure ones in there, but certainly nothing obvious. # In the command box, have a way of finding out what all the currently # assigned keys do (e.g. you should be able to type a option-clover-control-F1 # and have it tell you that that calls the 'Translate to Pig Latin' command.) This is one of Nisus' strongest points. Whenever a dialog is on the screen, holding down the command key shows you all the shortcuts. When you release the command key, the dialog looks like a standard dialog again. So even if you have a poor memory for these kinds of things, you can still use shortcut command keys in dialogs. Also, while you have a menu pulled down, pressing Shift or Option changes some of the menu items to their alternate versions. Again, you don't have to remember that "Option XYZ" means something slightly different than "XYZ" alone -- Nisus shows you. Of course, all the command keys are changeable, so you can customize things to your heart's content (though you can't change the position of the menu items themselves). And I won't even go into how useful having multiple active selections and unlimited undos/redos are. All in all, Nisus is a refreshing change from the limitations of Word. I switched back when Word 4 came out and really haven't regretted it (though having built-in tables is pretty nice -- that's something that Nisus doesn't do yet). People who are waiting on Word 5 might do well to give Nisus a look. -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." baumgart@esquire.dpw.com | cmcl2!esquire!baumgart | - David Letterman
macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Dennis H Lippert) (01/17/91)
In article <1991Jan16.132428.11242@engin.umich.edu> John_Mansfield@emal.sprl.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield) writes: > > >How about some compliance with the standard human interface of the macintosh? AMEN. I work in a "public" computing lab here at Pitt. The school offers "Intro to MS Word" classes, but they don't teach enough. The burden of many simple features is left to us. I personally prefer MacWrite II for this kind of environment.. it can do everything a college student has to do and more. But enough preaching. What I'd like to see is the demise of "Short Menus." It's a neat idea... but most of a novice user's questions are answered by a change to full menus. We could change the default... but on public machines it'd soon get out of hand ("Why's my document printing with 3 inch margins?") :-) -but it WOULD happen! You have to realize, our prefs files are nuked by temperament (which, by the way, can scare the heck out of a new user!... kaboom!). Just my input... Dennis Lippert- macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu a person who believes that Excel is Microsoft's sole asset right now... ( NO FLAMES!!!! )
clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) (01/17/91)
In article <79877@unix.cis.pitt.edu> macman@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Dennis H Lippert) writes: |You have to realize, our prefs files are nuked by temperament (which, by the |way, can scare the heck out of a new user!... kaboom!). THen there would appear to be a problem with the way Temperament is configured. Word Temp files have a type of "WTMP" while Word Settings files have a type of "WSET". Temperament shouldn't be deleting both of these unless you've told it to delete everything in the System folder with a "MSWD" creator. Also, the explosion sound can be turned off. chaz -- Someone please release me from this trance. clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu AOL:Crowbone
aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) (01/17/91)
sadowski@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Robert Sadowski) writes: >In article <...> aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) writes: >>How about doing something about those temp files? >What's the big deal ? Have you ever had an error because your HD is full? >If you really hate the damn things, use Temperament II. I was hoping against hope that no one would say that. I should have known better. I know about Temperament II. It's a work around for a deficiency in Word. It isn't a HD full error that is the "big" deal. My system folders are plenty full right now. And any program that creates all of those (usually) empty temp files is waaay sloppy. Not the kind of thing I want from a "top of the line" program. Not the kind of mess I want in my system folders. Just today Word reminded me of another deficiency. When you want to set up a custom page size, the place you do it is not obvious. It's under Preferences. Not under Page something or Custom something. It's not even a separate command. My boss at first, and then myself pulled our hair out over this simple thing. We had to go raid a manual (long story) to figure it out! Brian Aslakson <-= Clues for sale aslakson@cs.umn.edu <-= Knows nothing at all about amino acids
aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) (01/17/91)
John_Mansfield@emal.sprl.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield) writes: >How about some compliance with the standard human interface of the macintosh? Yes! Brian Aslakson <-= Knows nothing at all about amino acids aslakson@cs.umn.edu mac-admin@cs.umn.edu <-= Macintosh related Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
jrk@information-systems.east-anglia.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway CMP RA) (01/17/91)
In <2985@esquire.dpw.com> baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes: >Yes, [Nisus] uses font names. I can't imagine using Word, simply because >it doesn't. Almost guarantees nasty surprises if you print on a >system other than the one on which the document was created. You can work around this by saving documents in RTF format, which does reference fonts by name. I regularly use this method to exchange Word docs by email with colleagues at another site, without problems, and I know that some of our fonts have different indexes. Well, almost without problems. We once had to use a non-standard route that happened to strip trailing spaces from the ends of lines, which are significant to RTF. One could work around that by binhexing. Yes, it's inconvenient, and Word should simply do it right, but in the meantime, it's not fatal. BTW, is Microsoft listening to all these suggestions, or are we just having fun getting our frustrations with Word off our chest? What I'd really like is a wysiwyg TeX- or SGML-based WP. Anyone know of such a thing? -- Richard Kennaway SYS, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. Internet: jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk uucp: ...mcsun!ukc!uea-sys!jrk
clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) (01/17/91)
In article <1991Jan17.012140.2414@cs.umn.edu> aslakson@cs.umn.edu (Brian Aslakson) writes: |Just today Word reminded me of another deficiency. When you want to set up |a custom page size, the place you do it is not obvious. It's under Preferences. |Not under Page something or Custom something. It's not even a separate |command. My boss at first, and then myself pulled our hair out over this |simple thing. We had to go raid a manual (long story) to figure it out! Worse, Brian, under Word 4.0 one can no longer define a custom page size for use with the LaserWriter; only the ImageWriter. Under 3.02 I used to use custom page sizes when printing to the LaserWriter quite often. I can't imagine why Microsoft had to remove that ability. chaz -- Someone please release me from this trance. clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu AOL:Crowbone
baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) (01/17/91)
In article <11183.9101171005@s4.sys.uea.ac.uk>, jrk@information-systems (Richard Kennaway CMP RA) writes: >What I'd really like is a wysiwyg TeX- or SGML-based WP. Anyone know of >such a thing? There is such a thing, but it doesn't run on the Mac. You can get it for Suns and other popular Unix boxes running X Windows. It's called "The Publisher", by ArborText, Inc., and it's an excellent WYSIWYG document processor that uses SGML as its file format. It includes filters for LaTeX and WordPerfect 4.2. I had the pleasure of trying out an evaluation copy some time ago, and I really liked it. It's very powerful, but still relatively easy to use. And as a LaTeX user, I appreciated being able to design documents without having to flip through the LaTeX and TeX manuals. Unfortunately, my company decided not to purchase it, so I haven't used it in a while. The Publisher is sort of like having the best of both worlds... except that you have to go out and buy a Sun to run it. I'd *love* a Mac version, but I have a feeling that's just not going to happen. -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." baumgart@esquire.dpw.com | cmcl2!esquire!baumgart | - David Letterman
bin@primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) (01/18/91)
I asserted in this newsgroup that TeX is not in the public domain. I have been informed that Knuth *has* released TeX into the public domain, an event of which I was not aware. Oh, well. You lose some, and you lose some. -- Paul DuBois dubois@primate.wisc.edu
ml27192@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (lanett mark) (01/18/91)
I'd like to see the Hyphenation command learn not to hyphenate after or before just two characters. "Recognize" shouldn't be hyphenated as "re-congnize" --if that's the only way, it should be wrapped. Mark Lanett
typ125m@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (John Wilkins) (01/18/91)
palmer@nntp-server.caltech.edu (David Palmer) writes: >In the spelling checker: > Ignore words with greek symbols in them > Ignore words with digits in them >As checkboxes similar to the 'Ignore words in upper case' box. (For >scientific writing.) Also Interpret ligatures Interpret or ignore diacritical marks Temporary add to dictionary (so that it won't be picked up for this document, but will be for the next document checked in the same session -- John Wilkins, Manager, Publishing & Advertising, Monash University Melbourne, Australia - Internet: john@publications.ccc.monash.edu.au Disclaimer: IF Standard(disclaimer) THEN Applies(disclaimer) ELSIF Nonstandard(disclaimer) THEN PROBABLY (Applies(disclaimer)) ENDIF
fwb@demon.siemens.com (Frederic W. Brehm) (01/19/91)
>>>How about doing something about those temp files? >>What's the big deal ? Have you ever had an error because your HD is full? >>If you really hate the damn things, use Temperament II. >... >I know about Temperament II. It's a work around for a deficiency in Word. Why don't I have a problem with temp files from MSWord? Oh, I know! I always quit Word before I shutdown my system. Maybe the cleanup code that is executed when MultiFinder forces Word to quit should be fixed in Word 5. BTW, Temperament II is not just a work around for the Word Temp file problem. There are other programs that leave unwanted files in the System folder. I have Temperament II trash DiskClinicInfo files and NetStream Log files. Fred -- Frederic W. Brehm Siemens Corporate Research Princeton, NJ fwb@demon.siemens.com -or- ...!princeton!siemens!demon!fwb
eric@bnrmtl.bnr.ca (Eric Brunelle) (01/19/91)
Configurable autosave (delay/inactivity/keypress count, etc.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Brunelle | "C'est la nuit qu'il est beau
| de croire a la lumiere"
eric%bnrmtl@iro.umontreal.ca | -- Rostand, Chantecler
----------------------------------------------------------------------------dmittman@beowulf.JPL.NASA.GOV (David Mittman) (01/19/91)
On the spell-checker (I particularly like orselves -> horseflesh) try "childcare". - David
mxmora@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora) (01/19/91)
In article <11113@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> dmittman@beowulf.JPL.NASA.GOV (David Mittman) writes: >On the spell-checker (I particularly like orselves -> horseflesh) >try "childcare". - David childcare -> kidnaper That's got to be an inside joke. Thats not even close! -- ___________________________________________________________ Matthew Mora | my Mac Matt_Mora@QM.SRI.COM SRI International | my SUN mxmora@unix.sri.com ___________________________________________________________
dmittman@beowulf.JPL.NASA.GOV (David Mittman) (01/22/91)
I have the November 3, 1989 copy of "Bugs and suggestions for Microsoft Word (tm) 4.0" in my possesion. Does anyone have a more recent copy? The author, David Sachs, is at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, in Illinois. His CompuServe address is 75106,3721 and his GEnie address is DSACHS. If someone tells me how to gateway from here to there, I will attempt to get an updated version to post. - David