Re: Best Word trick I've learned this week

Subject: Re: Best Word trick I've learned this week
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: lyndsey -dot- amott -at- docsymmetry -dot- com
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 11:48:49 -0500

[To bring latecomers up to date, this discussion is about the ability in word to arrange your display options so that you can view a column down the left of the screen showing the style name of each paragraph.]

I use Word. I have to. I don't enjoy it, but I've made my peace with the beast. And I don't generally get involved in the Word bashing or Microsoft bashing that sometimes goes on around here.

However, this particular feature is a great exemplar of the triumph of marketing genius over design genius, and I'd like to take a few minutes to dissect it.

Yes, the feature has been around since at least Word 6 (maybe longer). But what exactly is the feature and where did it come from? Well, it was available in Ventura Publisher for DOS from the get-go and it was available in Interleaf from the first release, as well. I used Ventura only briefly and don't remember it all that well, but let me speak to the functionality of this sidebar column in Interleaf.

In Interleaf, in the sidebar, you can right click and create a new paragraph in any style you have defined. You can select a style name, right click, and modify that paragraph by changing to a different style. You can select all instances of a given style and change them en masse, delete them en masse, copy them en masse, etc. You can find the next instance or previous instance of the same style, too. (By the way, the style choices are arranged hierarchically, so you don't have to scroll through a long list; for example, you can have all of your bullet styles grouped, all of your numbered styles grouped, and both of those groups grouped in turn under lists.) You can also select a range of paragraphs, cut them to the clipboard, and paste them elsewhere.

There are another dozen or so operations you can perform on the style names in the sidebar, just by clicking once and dragging the mouse to extend the context menus, then clicking on your selection.

So what did Microsoft do when confronted with this (older) functionality? The copied the superficial appearance--just an inactive list of styles--then hid it so they could trot it out if they were trying to sell into an Interleaf shop and wanted to show how "compatible" their product was. But they left out ALL of the functionality.

Anyone here who has ever used Interleaf understands the tremendous advantage in productivity it has over Frame, let alone Word. This isn't news. The point I'm making is that Microsoft was able, through well executed marketing strategy, to supplant a superior product with an inferior one.

I still use Word every day, and I'll get by. I'm just saying, y'know?

Dick

lyndsey -dot- amott -at- docsymmetry -dot- com wrote:


This nifty feature has been around since at least Word 6, so I would be surprised if MS got rid of it as they tend to grandfather everything, whether a feature or a bug. Aside from the benefits described by Mandy, you can click on the tag name to select the entire paragraph. It doesn't let you drag the para elsewhere though, which would be nice.


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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: Best Word trick I've learned this week: From: Cassandra Greer
Re: Best Word trick I've learned this week: From: lyndsey . amott

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