Word Up (MS Word 97)

Member Name: thehud

Product:	MS Word 97
Date:	07/07/04 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flexible, user friendly, powerful

Disadvantages: Too minor to quibble

For about the last fifteen years, Microsoft's Office suite of programs has had the field pretty much to itself in the area of office systems. Lotus has its supporters and there are other competitors around but none really challenges the monopoly of the Boy God's flagship.

Because of this dominance, each of the four component programs included within the standard offering (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access) has also achieved pre-eminence in its field. The word processing module Word (what an original title) is widely considered to be the package where there is the least space between it and its rivals. Both WordPerfect and WordStar are cited by some as being the better package and do have their passionate supporters. Like most such issues, however, there is generally so little to choose between the various options that your view generally depends on which program you came across first. Word was the first word processing program I came across that seemed to be anything more than a glorified typewriter and I've stuck solidly by it ever since.

My first word processing experience was back in the mid 80's with the Lotus Symphony range and when I switched jobs in 1988, I moved across to Multimate Advantage, but neither of those was particularly exciting, so it was not until I first encountered Word in about 1991 that I was really satisfied with anything. Word, like all the Office programs was different, it looked different, it felt different and it offered real control for the first time over exactly how your document turned out. These days I am a committed fan of Word, and find that it is almost a perfect fit for all my needs and I would not look at any alternative unless they stopped supporting it.

Word has all the standard functions, such as formatting, spell check and bull
et points off pat, but it does many other things as well. Its table function which only became truly intuitive and as flexible as it needed be with the 97 version, but it is now very strong in this department. The style option allows you to set up various formats as standard and is particularly useful when you want to produce a lengthy report or manuscript. If you set things up and organise them properly, you can produce a table of contents very easily which makes documents look striking. WordArt is another feature which allows you to add a distinctive touch to documents and the header and footer combination can also make for a remarkably professional looking finished article.

It's also a very easy to use and user friendly program and even if you're not interested in some of the finer points and expert touches, you can quickly generate documents very easily. There are a number of things which you could quibble about if you wished to, but they are pretty few and far between and all things considered, you've have to be quite vindictive to not see this as an excellent program.

Having said that, some of the default settings that Word comes with can be quite irritating at times. I don't like its insistence of making every website address or e-mail address a hyperlink to the net just because it thinks that would be handy. Nor do I appreciate the rush to highlight potential problems with spelling or grammar by use of that distracting and downright unpleasant, squiggly green and red underlining.

However, as said, those are minor complaints, and if you've got a strong enough beef, you can always adjust things. No, all in all, Microsft Word is a brilliant program, combining ease of use, power and flexibility in a very attractive whole,

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