posted
I use templates for lots of stuff. MS Word can't hold a candle to the old Aldus PageMaker when it comes to ease of creating templates and useability, btw. But I don't write letters every day, and most of the letters that I write are not business letters. So writing a letter, for me, pretty much consists of writing the first line, moving the indent over half an inche, and writing the rest. (I don't need to move the indent back for the closing, because I usually kick in several blank lines before I start typing anything, to preserve the formatting and to be able to more easily key to the end of the line [my pinky has a hard time hitting the END key without me having to look for it]). I don't feel the need to have a template to save me the trouble of moving the indent one half inch once.
(If I were writing a business letter, is it truly so hard to click the right-align button for the recipient's address? Now we're talking about two steps: click, and click+drag. My goodness!)
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote: (If I were writing a business letter, is it truly so hard to click the right-align button for the recipient's address? Now we're talking about two steps: click, and click+drag. My goodness!)
You'd be amazed. We get support calls about this.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I wouldn't be amazed, but that's only because a good part of my income used to be in training people how to use software.
I, on the other hand, have a number of templates set up. I see no reason why I should have to remember the formatting for a specific publication when I don't have to, for example. I don't think I could keep track of the number of different templates I've set up for very specific purposes.
But then, I'm a geek. And I'm lazy. And I define laziness as being efficient. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
One nice thing about Apple's relatively new Pages application is its sort of an odd cross between a word processor and a page layout app. It has wonderful support for templates, both coming with a wide variety and having easy user-created template capabilities.
So I have things like a layout for my standard paper, a layout for my standard paper with regular subheadings, a layout for a note-taking list (with . . . well, its not really like word's autonumbering) autonumbering set up to do lists in exactly the way I want, that sort of thing. (Autonumbering never automatically tries to kick in when it looks like one's writing a list, though, its just a different sort of style one can turn on and off and customize in a few dozen ways).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I use templates for quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, and stories. I used to show codes, back when I used WordPerfect, but I have always found the feature clunky in MSWord. A pet peeve of mine is applications that try to be several things at once, like a word processor and a layout program and a graphics program. Oh, and, in case you're wondering, I have decided I don't know what a paragraph is today. Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Part of the problem with showing codes in MS Word is that Word doesn't actually use codes in the same way, so the feature is 99% useless. Microsoft knows it, too, which is why they haven't bothered to spare anyone to develop or improve the feature since their first half-assed attempt.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Tom: One of the reasons for my frustration is my co-workers who use the space bar to try to line up columns instead of setting tabs or inserting tables. Then they wonder why the columns won’t line up when they print.
Posts: 333 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: (If I were writing a business letter, is it truly so hard to click the right-align button for the recipient's address? Now we're talking about two steps: click, and click+drag. My goodness!)
You'd be amazed. We get support calls about this.
Even worse when it comes to NETWORKING. My father has problems when he calls up tech-support, whenever the phone company @#%@!$!@$#!@$#-ed up.
quote:"Bezeq (the company) Shalom, this is Erez speaking."
"Hello", replies my father. "I have a problem connecting to the internet: I verified that the router I use is OK, and restarted it thrice; I chrecked the modem for flaws but the output lights say everything is functioning on its part; I also contacted my ISP and they say the connection is fine and they have no problems on their side. The only problem that might be is on your end."
"Do you use a router?"
"Yes, I told you I use one. And I checked all four computers connected to it, as well as a different system on a KVM switch just to verify before calling you. The problem is on your side."
"What operating system do you use?"
"I use Libranet 2.8.1, which is Debian-based. Kernel 2.6.5", my father is Open Source the whole way.
"I repeat", the guy says ignorantly. "Do you use Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me or Windows 98 SE?"
"I use Debian-based Libranet, using the Linux 2.6.5 kernel, it's based on UNIX...!"
"OK, Whatever", replies the technician. "Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, Communica-"
"Look", says my father. "I have no time for your buggered up ignorance! Tell me technically what is the thing you want me to configure! Don't start sending me all these damn Wizards because I have a different system, you IMBECILE!"
"Please contact your ISP, the problem is not with us."
quote:Originally posted by accio: Tom: One of the reasons for my frustration is my co-workers who use the space bar to try to line up columns instead of setting tabs or inserting tables. Then they wonder why the columns won’t line up when they print.
Ugh. See, this is why I think that a word processor is not a tool that should be put in the hands of novices—at least not in a professional setting. They've taken the fine art of typography and given it to the unwashed masses.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:Originally posted by accio: Tom: One of the reasons for my frustration is my co-workers who use the space bar to try to line up columns instead of setting tabs or inserting tables. Then they wonder why the columns won’t line up when they print.
Ugh. See, this is why I think that a word processor is not a tool that should be put in the hands of novices—at least not in a professional setting. They've taken the fine art of typography and given it to the unwashed masses.
My mother was writing a letter to the lawyer, and since I'm good in page-geography, layout and typography, she asked me how it was. I then needed to delete the date and put it in the header; configure bulleted lists; correct alignment; set tabs; and on the top I needed to use a two-columned letterhead (below the header), so that was section editing; and I endlessly tried to teach my parents that you don't double-enter for a paragraph (as that changes the statistics and makes it uglier thn a 12-point inter-paragraphical space, when using TNR-12 @ 1.5) - you always use paragraph configuration!
It's would have been one thing to print it plain uglily. But tehre were unclosed parantheses, inconsistent use of vowelage*, use of paranteses instead of brackets, sentences badly punctuated, syntax lacking, and paragraphs that were not constructed ideally.
I simplpy couldn't let a lousy leter be sent to a lawyer. I spent 15 minutes proofing everything (down to the detail of writing low numbers down in words and writing the number in brackets, as well as making sure that when she dashed she did {text, singlespace, dash, singlespage, text}, that there's a space before and after parantheses and brackets, making sure that if something is bolded, italicised or underlined, that it doesn't change the punctuation after, and forget the language corrections I had to do!), and another 20 minutes I spent on layout. One louse single-page letter!
Never give MS-Word to the layman. I have it on my mother's computer because sometimes I have to print from our laser printer, but that's the only REAL purpose of it there.
Jonathan Howard
* In Hebrew, when not writing down the vowel symbols (which is almost always), you usually write with matre lectiones (voc? sp?). The only problem is that usually people add when they shouldn't - and I add precisely as much as I think that is needed without useless ones, which is roughly what books use, just a little more conservative.
Posts: 358 | Registered: May 2005
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