Re: Word97 stability?

[Suzy Davis <andavis -at- AU1 -dot- IBM -dot- COM>]

Bruce et al
Good point - and I totally agree with you.  I am making the best out of a bad
situation.  But once I did, I found myself in a better spot than I was before.

One of my remaining problems with Word 97 is that the majority of people I work
with have upgraded, and the majority of internal and external people I have to
swap docs with have upgraded.  Those who have not upgraded yet cause me major
corruption problems - so my message was probably subconciously motivated by my
need to have everyone upgrade :-)

You are right, it IS outrageous that MS would release a product as bug ridden
as Word 97, and it has cost me many hours, whichI don't have, to fix things up
- over and over and over again.    In no way, did I mean to suggest that the
'near enough is good enough' practice MS have adopted is acceptable to me.
But, for me, life is too short to worry about it.

If you want the functionality, know that you are going to have an adjustment
period, where you stress a lot.  Then, build a bridge and get over it.  Try and
choose a period of time to upgrade when your work is slow (if you can).  I did
not have a choice about Word or the upgrade.  They gave me a new Maserati PC,
to replace a very stressful snail PC.  One had Word 6.0, and where Word  6.0
was not causing me problems, the speed of the machine and the lack of memory
were.  The maserati, on the other hand, did not have the memory problems but
had the upgrade.  So for me, it was an improvement.

And now that the dust has settled, and I do have my macros in place, I am glad
that I upgraded (Maseratis aside), I need the functionality.   For me, with
software, it's the unknown unpredictable glitches that cause me stress.  Once I
know how to avoid them, I forget they exist.

Suzy Davis
Technical Writer

Internet:  andavis -at- au1 -dot- ibm -dot- com

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 TECHWR-L @ LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU
 02/11/98 03:23 AM
Please respond to bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com @ internet

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Subject: Re: Word97 stability?

Suzy Davis <andavis -at- AU1 -dot- IBM -dot- COM> wrote:

>Yes, Word 97 is a major headache, but once you learn to work >around the
problems, what to avoid doing, and still get your >work done, it is not so bad.


Suzy:

Please don't think I'm trying to be rude - I'm not - but you really
sound like you're maing the best of a bad situation.

Having to make a macro to do something which should be routine? Avoiding
converting documents? A month to discover the quirks?

These are extremely high prices to pay, and many writers can't afford
the time. What's more, it's outrageous that Microsoft should expect them
to.

You may be right that upgrades are inevitable sooner or later (although
I'm a Frame junkie, myself). However, there's something to be said for
Fabian tactics: the longer you delay, the more chance you have of
upgrading to a stable version.

Meanwhile, far more people ask me to submit files in Word 6.0 or 7.0
than in Word 97, so I'm not too concerned with the delay.

--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
(bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)  (604) 421-7189  or 687-2133 X. 269
www.outlawcommunications.com  (redesigned and updated 07 Feb 1998)

"So in the spring of  the year, we took the fleet,
Every cask and cannon and compass sheet,
And we flew a Jacobean flag to give us heart;
While Pitt stood helpless we were waiting for Bonaparte."
--The Men They Couldn't Hang, "The Colors"

~