[Hitch]

Originally Posted by rcentros

WordPerfect is still better than Word, in my opinion. Basically, for me, EVERYTHING is better than Word. Never was a fan. I hated the way it tried (tries?) to think for you. I haven't used it in years so I don't different now than it used to be, or not.

Y'know, written for vastly different user bases--but the functionality was, and is, largely the same.

I was a hardcore WP user, having "come up" from the Selectric IIs to IBM OS/6, to the early Wordstar, yadda. I thought that WP and the earlier word processors were everything and that Word was "word processing for idiots." I also thought that they tried to "think for you." And in short--I was wrong. I simply completely misunderstood how they went about it. Unlike WP, they allowed for wildly varying user intelligence and capabilities. They designed it for secretaries of one ilk, who would never understand HTML tagging, and for those who would. You know, we can all sit here and pooh-pooh MSFT, critique them and all that--but the truth is, by and large, people WANT software that "thinks for them." No, this crew, here on MR, we don't--but by and large, people DO.

I mean, think about this--by and large, I've built a company out of the inability of most authors to understand their primary software tool. Don't use Styles, don't use Headings; don't understand the hierarchies (of the headings), don't know how to use the NavPane, don't know how to use the the Outline View, x-refs...most of them seem to struggle with footnoting, for the love of God. Hell, I see a shocking percentage that only use Word's built-in spelling and grammar-checking. (Don't get me started on that!).

For a short while, near the end of my Windows' days, I used Lotus WordPro. This was my favorite Windows word processor.

I think I vaguely remember this. Not clearly, though.

Now, when I use a non-specialized, GUI word processor (not often) I like TextMaker — it's available for Windows, Macs and Linux.

Meh, to me, typing plain text, no matter what it's in, is still pretty much the same. Word, WordPerfect, NoteTabPro, Markdown, Textile...it's all much of a piece. Most of what I read/see, 'round the Net, about preferences--is just that. Preferences. What people came to love "best" or oftentimes, what people learnt the most, at the height of their abilities.

Hitch