Word97 stability?

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Dave Koch is <<looking for a Word95/Word97 expert's
 (someone who has used both extensively) opinion on whether
 to upgrade to Word97... I'm using RoboHELP 4.0 with Word
 95, which has been a very, very stable  configuration for
 me!!>>

 About a month ago, I surveyed techwr-l and copyediting-l on
 the relative stability and number of problems with Word97
 and WordPerfect. Neither came off well in this survey, but
 my personal judgment based on the summarized comments was
 that Word97 is not ready for prime time... the words "beta
 software" spring to mind. To be fair to Word, some people
 reported not a single problem. What disturbed me, though,
 was that many respondents reported completely intractable
 problems. Several people reported that problems arose
 unpredictably with formerly stable configurations, but no
 consensus on why this happened or on how to solve the
 problems.

 For those who enjoy soap operas, you'll be pleased to know
 that Management voted to move to Word97 anyway. Is Scott
 Adams listening?

 My advice: I think you've already answered your own
 question. If there isn't some crucial new feature in Word97
 that you can't live without, stick with what's working for
 you now (i.e,. Word 95 and RH4). Why borrow trouble?

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.