Are old manuals available ?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Odessa

Do you manage to get Word 2003 menus on Word 2007 ? I've never used the ribbon, and it seems everybody hates it.

This MS Word user, who first used it on Xenix on 1985, loves the MS Office Ribbon.

He can drive it with one finger, its structure makes a lot more sense to him than the previous dogs breakfast menus and button bars ever did, he can customise it nine-ways-to Sunday, and use features he previously avoided.

There are add-ons that simulate the old menu/button bar UI on Word 2007 and later. But if that's you want, IMO you'd be better off using Libre Office Writer.

BR

[Odessa]

Originally Posted by theducks

It is a bit over 3MB. Not a PM
Can you send me a PM with a email account that can accept 3.3MB attachments?

Done. Thank you so much.

[Odessa]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You do need to change the default settings. I find it far easier to use the style and outline "navigators". Also you need to edit in in odt and do an extra save as in docx. It's been better for stanalone use for years. The only reason to use MS Word is if in an office/company were everyone is using Word, but that can be solved too.

I sold, installed and customised MS products inc. Office for over a decade.

Styles & Outlining work better in LO Writer.

Well, that's interesting, because the outline mode is the main reason why I'm staying on Word 2003. I haven't found a single word processor able to mimic it.

In fact, I live in Word's outline mode. I never use the others. To me, hierarchical text is the way I think and write. It's not an afterthought enhancement.

I have tried Libre Office and Soft Maker outline modes, and I'm unable to reproduce what I do in the Word outline mode.

Also, inserting hyperlinks, pictures and Excel tables in a Word document is an extremely polished process. Not so in the others.

Styles are rotten in Word, and the result is extremely ugly, because I use the default styles. You need to be a professional typesetter in order to do otherwise. But I don't know any other program which does it better.

Regarding Libre Office, I regularly check Dedoimedo's tests. He is in a year-long transition from Windows to Linux, and a professional user of both Word and Libre Office. He publishes reviews of new versions. Each time, his conclusion is : nice try, not good enough.

He's comparing it to current Microsoft Office versions, of course.

The biggest blocker to LibreOffice adoption ? LibreOffice

Oh, and as an apology for veering off-track, here is his raving review of Calibre :

Calibre, a high-caliber software for anything e-book

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

There are add-ons that simulate the old menu/button bar UI on Word 2007 and later. But if that's you want, IMO you'd be better off using Libre Office Writer.

Allegedly the notebook bar in LO Writer does the same as a ribbon. But I don't use it.
Many need the menus also, and the STUPID MS personalise feature that hides unused or little used items. So that once in a blue moon you can look and see does the feature you need exist. I'm a big critic of MS now after more than a decade selling & supporting it. I've used Word 2.0a, the Word in Office 4.3, Word 95, Office 2000, Office XP/2002 and Word 2003. I've used Word 2007 also, and some later versions on other people's computers. I also used MS Word for DOS and found it better than either flavour of Wordstar (used classic version on CP/M and DOS) or Wordperfect for DOS.

I don't find the menu structure overly poor, but unless the ribbon has all you want and you don't need more options than are visible, it's a failure. It's more suited to a tablet than a desktop / laptop. Which is why I went to the bother of finding the "classic menu" plug-in for Word 2007.

But the biggest issue is that most people use a wordprocessor today just like 30 years ago, basically a glass typewriter with invisible correction. Typing in white space and all kinds of styling/formatting from stupid default toolbars and/or ribbon instead of setting up styles.

[un_pogaz]

@Odessa Note about the Word format and OOXML:
The Office suite doesn't produce Word documents that perfectly comply with the OOXML standard. And it's not a mistake, that's by design. Microsoft claims interpolarity, but deliberately traps its formats so that free suites like LibreOffice fail to open them.
And then Microsoft comes along and says, all innocently, "Oh well, you see, the other office suites can't open our Word format. These open-source products are really crap. What a shame. Come and pay for Office."

Well, in the same time, I admit that LibreOffice sometimes really does give you the stick for the beating:
Recently, I wanted to use Calc (the equivalent of Excell) and I discovered that he doesn't have a SORT() function, and their matrix and cell locking system made me very angry. In a very, very bad way. Calc is unusable for me.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Recently, I wanted to use Calc (the equivalent of Excell) and I discovered that he doesn't have a SORT() function, and their matrix and cell locking system made me very angry. In a very, very bad way. Calc is unusable for me.

How strange!
I do find the graphing easier to use than Excel 2002.

gnumeric has sort (but that might only be available on Linux). I didn't realise Calc hadn't because I'd be manually sorting columns rather than the function. Or be using SQL.

Mostly I use gnumeric rather than Calc simply because I want Writer's "Recent" list to only have the wordprocessor files and I'm only doing simple stuff.