Why is every single word processor awful

[CtrlAltELITE]

Seriously

 

Open Office Writer, MS Word, the apple one. Why the [redacted] are they all so [redacted] awful the moment you need to format something in a specific way, I've spent my whole day writing up operational reports and seriously it seems to be the simple things that are made SO NEEDLESSLY [redacted] COMPLICATED, tried first in Open Office, now in MS Word.

 

My intention? To add my company header and a footer with a page number and a serial code, this header/footer must not encompass the cover & index page, page 1 starts at page 3 in the document and ends at page 18 (out of 19)

The Problem? Formatting word documents is [redacted], seriously I could've manually added in text in a footer box for each page with the amount of time I spent fannying about with formating pages to specific specification, whenever I try to add a page break it makes a blank page, sometimes in some irrelevent place in the document, when I try to change the formatting style of a page it seems to want to change HALF the document to that style, but when I change the erroniously changed pages back it changes other pages.

 

Is this a new puzzle concept? Does MS think I am trying to play some form of game? Seriously its like a [redacted] elder scrolls wall puzzle.

 

Pro-tip. If you ever happen to be a dept. head of a company looking to sign up to some form of quality management standard (ISO9001 in our case), just hand in your notice there and then, it's not worth whatever they are paying you. I swear to god if I this [redacted] doesn't start working within the next 20 minutes I am hand writing all of our operational procedures manuals. It seriously would be easier.

 

/vent

Edited June 13, 2017 by TheRandomness
Too much fucking in a post.

[tom_w141]

3 minutes ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

Seriously

 

Open Office Writer, MS Word, the apple one. Why the fuck are they all so fucking awful the moment you need to format something in a specific way, I've spent my whole day writing up operational reports and seriously it seems to be the simple things that are made SO NEEDLESSLY FUCKING COMPLICATED, tried first in Open Office, now in MS Word.

 

My intention? To add my company header and a footer with a page number and a serial code, this header/footer must not encompass the cover & index page, page 1 starts at page 3 in the document and ends at page 18 (out of 19)

The Problem? Formatting word documents is fucking aids, seriously I could've manually added in text in a footer box for each page with the amount of time I spent fannying about with formating pages to specific specification, whenever I try to add a page break it makes a blank page, sometimes in some irrelevent place in the document, when I try to change the formatting style of a page it seems to want to change HALF the document to that style, but when I change the erroniously changed pages back it changes other pages.

 

Is this a new puzzle concept? Does MS think I am trying to play some form of game? Seriously its like a fucking elder scrolls wall puzzle.

 

Pro-tip. If you ever happen to be a dept. head of a company looking to sign up to some form of quality management standard (ISO9001 in our case), just hand in your notice there and then, it's not worth whatever they are paying you. I swear to god if I this shit doesn't start working within the next 20 minutes I am hand writing all of our operational procedures manuals. It seriously would be easier.

 

/vent

Pro Tip: When working in word save all the time. Any change can fuck it big time and Ctrl Z doesn't always save you.

[NinJake]

Haha! Sorry this has been a struggle, but I got a good kick out of this rant

 

What version of office are you using?

[MEC-777]

I feel your main, OP. I have been working on a novel for the last 5 years that has reached over 160,000 words. Started off in Word, but I have since said good bye to all other word processor programs and moved on to a program called Scrivener. It has radically changed the way I work with large documents and has made editing and formatting SOOOOOO much easier. It has a bit of a learning curve, but to do something you were talking about with headers and page numbers, Scrivener can do this very easily. 

 

The program is not free, but has been totally worth it IMO, from what I've experienced thus far with it.  

[Princess Luna]

Microsoft Office 2016 is the best, use it every day at the office :3

[NinJake]

Lol we're still stuck with Office 2010 here...

 

And @MEC-777 has hit the 6k mark! It also appears there is a duplicate MEC... @MEC-777!

[Anghammarad]

Get yourself a running Amiga and use Pagestream DTP =) 

 

Amigas still have some superior software even being 20 years out of the market.

[CtrlAltELITE]

On a second note. WHY THE FUCK DO IMAGES BREAK EVERYTHING TOO!!!!! I have one which decides to move itself above the page title every time I save the document.

 

I'm on OO 4. The version of MS word on this office PC is ancient

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

On a second note. WHY THE FUCK DO IMAGES BREAK EVERYTHING TOO!!!!! I have one which decides to move itself above the page title every time I save the document.

 

I'm on OO 4. The version of MS word on this office PC is ancient

Does OO support floating pictures? That way moving them doesn't break fucking everything.

[NumLock21]

5 minutes ago, MEC-777 said:

I feel your main, OP. I have been working on a novel for the last 5 years that has reached over 160,000 words. Started off in Word, but I have since said good bye to all other word processor programs and moved on to a program called Scrivener. It has radically changed the way I work with large documents and has made editing and formatting SOOOOOO much easier. It has a bit of a learning curve, but to do something you were talking about with headers and page numbers, Scrivener can do this very easily. 

 

The program is not free, but has been totally worth it IMO, from what I've experienced thus far with it.  

So you're going to publish this novel and sell it, what's the title and art cover going to look like, will it have RGB?

 

[Bananasplit_00]

27 minutes ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

Formatting word documents is fucking aids, seriously I could've manually added in text in a footer box for each page with the amount of time I spent fannying about with formating pages to specific specification

why havent you then?

27 minutes ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

Pro-tip. If you ever happen to be a dept. head of a company looking to sign up to some form of quality management standard (ISO9001 in our case), just hand in your notice there and then, it's not worth whatever they are paying you.

you will probably make that time/money back later m80. 

 

28 minutes ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

 I swear to god if I this shit doesn't start working within the next 20 minutes I am hand writing all of our operational procedures manuals. It seriously would be easier.

it wont to have fun wrighting shit by hand!

 

29 minutes ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

Is this a new puzzle concept? Does MS think I am trying to play some form of game? Seriously its like a fucking elder scrolls wall puzzle.

probably yes.

[Anghammarad]

Didn't you know that MS included a game in MS Word? 

 

It is called "Wordtris" and gets disabled as soon as you take the pain of correct formatting like text boxes, gfx over or behind text flow around.

 

Like I said earlier.. Pagestream is the way to go... you write your stuff, then place the images where they are supposed to go, and the text flows around the elements inserted.

 

You just need to define the base formatting of the document first. Like font, page colums etc...

[CtrlAltELITE]

Right, fixed the image, Title page, content page and our BS/ISO kites page at the end still technically have page numbers on them but the pages in the bulk of the procedures manual are all correct since I appear to have somehow got the page break to work.

 

I am implementing an engineering solution, I've sent the document to the copier, I am in the process of tipexing the page number, Serial code and header off of the 3 pages where it is not needed, I will then copy the document back in using the scanner and distribute it as a pdf.

 

It's not like any of our apprentices are going to read the bloody thing anyway.

[Technomancer__]

41 minutes ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

I'm on OO 4. The version of MS word on this office PC is ancient

 

yea update first and then rant

[KazerTheKeen]

I use Libre Office specifically because I know how to do that sort of stuff, I find it pretty intuitive. Probably because my first word editor was MS Word 99. And I was using that until at least 2012.

 

Any who headers in Libre Office are super easy, you click in the header area and then Insert>Fields and then add what you want. If you go into the greater options you can do pages with on offset (so your title page isn't counted) and other stuff. Like having multiple categories of headers, I highly recommend it. 

[minibois]

Consider trying out InDesign for these footer, header, side page design stuff. Seriously good stuff.

[MEC-777]

3 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

So you're going to publish this novel and sell it, what's the title and art cover going to look like, will it have RGB?

 

Would like to get published, but one step at a time.   Title and cover art pending. RGB? No!  

[NumLock21]

1 hour ago, MEC-777 said:

Would like to get published, but one step at a time.   Title and cover art pending. RGB? No!  

You know those holographic stickers that changes colors when it's under a light and view at different angles, that can be like RGB.

 

[79 Potatoes]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

You know those holographic stickers that changes colors when it's under a light and view at different angles, that can be like RGB.

 

You just reminded me about legit nokia batteries

[yathis]

Which MS Word are you using?

The new one sucks ass!

 

I liked the 2nd or 3rd one back, MS Office 2007 I think it was.

[tom_w141]

Office 2003 is what it was all about. So much clutter in MS office now.

[noahdvs]

You could always try LaTeX. Sure, it's code, but it's consistent. All you need is a decent text editor, though there are dedicated LaTeX editors.

[Dat Guy]

WordPerfect is not awful IMO.

 

Because:

 

21 hours ago, CtrlAltELITE said:

Why the fuck are they all so fucking awful the moment you need to format something in a specific way

 

WordPerfect has "Reveal Codes" (and still is the only word processor which does that):

http://www.wordperfect.com/en/pages/items/1500650.html

 

Like LaTeX, but WYSIWYG.

[LogicalDrm]

I can feel your pain. If I weren't so invested on working with Word on my thesis (115 A4 pages, 45 different size pictures), I would have done it with design software. Like Corel Draw, Inkscape or even MS Publisher.

 

Trick with Office and pictures is to use canvas as often as possible. Which is always. Then switch between different aligment and padding options for bunch of pics and text boxes. Page numbers and even automatic table of contents are whole different matter.

[dmaes]

13 hours ago, noahdvs said:

You could always try LaTeX. Sure, it's code, but it's consistent. All you need is a decent text editor, though there are dedicated LaTeX editors.

Started using LaTeX a few months ago and loved it, now I feel like I want to smash my pc when using MS Word or LibreOffice