From: Lox - 01 Nov 09 - 04:32 PM I don't know any keyboard shortcuts, I just use my mouse and It works like a dream for me.

(Opinion) If you don't use any keyboard shortcuts, you likely aren't using many of the most powerful capabilities of the program.

From: Bill D - 01 Nov 09 - 04:44 PM Open Office does 94.076% of everything Word does.... the other 5.914% you don't need anyway.

(Opinion) Bill D means that Open Office does 94% of the Word features that Bill D knows how to use.(?)

From: David el Gnomo - 01 Nov 09 - 04:50 PM I use it and find it great but must admit I rarely use any shorcuts or particularly advanced features.

(Opinion) See Lox and Bill D above.

From: The Villan - 01 Nov 09 - 06:29 PM Most people only ever use about 20% of the applications capabilties. Open Office will handle most of what MS Office can do.

(Opinion) Most people use less than 2% of the application's capabilities, particularly for previous versions of Word. Open office will handle most of what most people will know how to do with MS Office.

For Word 2007, Microsoft found themselves one of the "two-percenters" and put her in charge of "redesigning" Word. This made Word 2007 exceedingly "cute" and – perhaps – "user friendly" for those who don't need more than a text editor; but it made it nearly impossible to use most of the advanced features that are essential for professional level word processing.

Quite obviously, Microsoft wanted to attract those "most people" who don't need, and don't care about, advanced features, but in doing so they made it useless for the 5% or so of people who need and want a real word processor. In its "2007" incarnation, Word is perhaps slightly inferior to Open Office for "most people"^* and is virtually useless for anyone who needs any of the advanced features that Word used to do best.

Since Word 2007 is designed to be used only by "idiots"^* and is useful only for "idiots" it is quite obviously that Microsoft expects only "idiots" to pay the price to buy it. Microsoft failed to recognize that the "idiots" aren't willing to pay the price for a professional level program (even if it hides and prevents use of features needed at a professional level) and that the "idiots" are smart enough to soon find that a better program for their use is free.

^* "Most people" and "idiots" are interchangeable terms for "those who don't need professional level features." The terms are used here in the admittedly "elitist" sense one might expect anyone highly skilled in a particular activity to use for those of "lesser skill," and are not intended in the literal and conventional sense. It is quite obvious that Microsoft believes that most of those in its customer base are idiots, in the conventional sense of the word. Microsoft has adopted the attitude that most people who use their products have very limited intellectual capacity, and thus that it's more important to be "cute" than useful.

If you have Word 2000 or Word 2002 that will still run on your OS, and need to use Word's more powerful features, it is likely that Word is still "better" than most alternatives. (Since these are no longer supported, they can be expected to "crumble" as new OS updates are installed.)

If you think Word 2007 is ok, you aren't using many advanced features and you probably are as well off with Open Office. You might as well save your money.

If you must have features that only Word has, and are willing to work out how to defeat the program to use them, then Word 2007 is about the only thing you can get that will run many of the advanced functions on the newer Microsoft Operating Systems. (Defeating the program to use many advanced functions can be quite difficult.)

John