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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Winter_Knight on December 08, 2012, 09:27:54 PM
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Does it ever really piss you off? LOL Right now I have a quad gap in my MS (Manuscript) I can't fix and it randomly changes settings on me, including having set my freaking spell checker to UK English. Which I've changed TWICE!! (First time it was French!! LMAO)
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The only thing about it that bothers me is that it creates uneven bottom margins at the end of a page. I'm sure there's a very easy fix for this, but I haven't discovered it.
As for your settings randomly changing, I have no idea. Virus, maybe?
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MS Word wants to be a text formatter and a word processor at the same time, which is I think the root of most of what's wrong with it. This is why I actually write things in emacs and only import them into Word when dealing with people who want Word documents.
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The only thing about it that bothers me is that it creates uneven bottom margins at the end of a page. I'm sure there's a very easy fix for this, but I haven't discovered it.
As for your settings randomly changing, I have no idea. Virus, maybe?
I have to admit; this would not terribly surprise me. XD I'm quite cavalier about protection in cyberspace, unfortunately. :/
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Word is quite an unstable program for novel-length stuff, actually - numerous people have said that it tends to crash/corrupt files after a certain wordcount, and splitting into different files removes the utility of find/replace and other stuff.
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What's the top wordcount? I've gone well over 120K with no problem. Granted, I use my writing laptop as basically a glorified typewriter and don't take it online at all so viruses an so on are not an issue; when I need to upload files I use a flash drive and move them from one computer to another.
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The only thing about it that bothers me is that it creates uneven bottom margins at the end of a page. I'm sure there's a very easy fix for this, but I haven't discovered it.
I think what you are talking about is the "Widow/Orphan" control, which makes sure that there are no single paragraph lines at the top or bottom of a page. It can be found in the "Line and Page Breaks" tab of the "Line Spacing Options" Window.
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What's the top wordcount? I've gone well over 120K with no problem. Granted, I use my writing laptop as basically a glorified typewriter and don't take it online at all so viruses an so on are not an issue; when I need to upload files I use a flash drive and move them from one computer to another.
Hmm. I've never done anything that long in Word, so my knowledge comes second-hand. Its just what I've heard. I use Scrivener instead.
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I think what you are talking about is the "Widow/Orphan" control, which makes sure that there are no single paragraph lines at the top or bottom of a page. It can be found in the "Line and Page Breaks" tab of the "Line Spacing Options" Window.
GOD! I. Hate. That. Shit!
Most agents/editors will shoot you if you keep that on. Some ask that you do however (why the hell you would is beyond me), so always check preferences.
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Thanks, I didn't know about the widow/orphan thing, and will definitely disable it!
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Also, I have to keep auto-save feature on, because my comp's a POS and suddenly freezes/crashes. I LOVE the way it works. >_> You know, type two words 'Auto-Recovery is saving Word File', type two more, 'Auto-Recovery is...' and so on. It may not be an issue on a faster/newer comp, but it REALLY screws with my writing when it does that crap. >_> Just added that, LOL
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I usually just use WordPad. :P
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Asides from a few formatting frustrations, (usually caused by me messing something up or trying to change something after the fact,) Word has never given me much trouble, though admittedly, my version of Word is now officially 13 years old. I've also had 120K word long documents saved on it without any crashes, corruption or general hijinks.
I'm not entirely sure howWord got such an apparently hideous reputation, as most of the things I see complained about aren't things I've had issues with. Could be some versions are more stable than others.
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I'm not entirely sure howWord got such an apparently hideous reputation
Neither am I; as I mentioned upthread my issues with it have been pretty trivial. Maybe it's one of those "anything popular must be bad" things.
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Neither am I; as I mentioned upthread my issues with it have been pretty trivial. Maybe it's one of those "anything popular must be bad" things.
Personally, I like it up until the 2003-version. I have worked for Microsoft, and I absolutely HATE the UI in the 2007/2010-versions (can't find the stuff I need). Not to mention the stupid docx-format. What was right in 2010-version was that it had the ability to make PDF's built-in, even though you could get the same function with freeware like CutePDF. And yes the previous Microsoft attempt to make something pdf-equivalent is the most asinine piece of crap I have ever experienced.
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I'm not entirely sure howWord got such an apparently hideous reputation, as most of the things I see complained about aren't things I've had issues with.
Because it's a pig to work with if you were trained on using a text editor first and a format-for-printing program second; it drives me crazy to disable all the ways it will try to "fix" all my first drafts when I do not at that point care, for example, about the widows and orphans thing because I am likely going to be changing the text enough to alter that anyway.
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What programs do you all like if MS word isn't worthwhile. And what format to editors prefer to have documents sent as?
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I use Wordperfect, and have done so for years. Very rarely have problems with it.....
Craig
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What programs do you all like if MS word isn't worthwhile.
I use emacs for handling text, novels and professional both. Used to use Protext for a while, when I worked primarily in DOS.
And what format to editors prefer to have documents sent as?
Editors i have dealt with want the damn thing printed out, and so long as the font and spacing and page numbering and headers and so forth are in the specified formats, sfaict could not care less what program you use to get it that way.
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Neither am I; as I mentioned upthread my issues with it have been pretty trivial. Maybe it's one of those "anything popular must be bad" things.
Same for me. The only problems I have is that it will do things that I don't know about, nor know how to use. Often I find myself doing something that takes forever while I mutter to myself, "I know it can do this, but I don't know how to make it do it!" I love find function, replace function, and tracking. What I'd love to learn is how to compare two documents and have it show me the differences. I know it can do it, but... Well, it just gives me a headache. I'd also like to search out grammar errors; like click a button and have it scroll to them automatically. I'm sure it can do it, but I haven't figured out how.
I was thrilled to have discovered how to use page break, and there can't be anything easier to do. It only took me ten blankety-blank years to learn it. I'm old enough to automatically drop two spaces in after a period. Thankfully, I've worked my way out of it, but I was inordinately proud when I figured out that I could search for double blanks.
AND if you are sweet enough to try to teach me, don't go too far our of your way. I also can't seem to learn anything unless I stumble across it on my own. OTOH, if you know how to turn off the grammar underlining for contractions, such as I'm or they'd or hadn't, that would be freaking awesome.
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Thank you all for the responses, i appreciate them. I will start looking into the software's suggested.
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I know Penguin uses Word in-house and with its freelancers.
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Hmm. I've never done anything that long in Word, so my knowledge comes second-hand. Its just what I've heard. I use Scrivener instead.
I've just discovered Scrivener! I have always used Word. I'm no expert at Word, but mostly I like it for writing prose. I hate it for handling any kind of images, though. People still try to do that, for some reason.
I'm intrigued by Scrivener's organizational focus, though. I'm in the trial period right now, but I think I'm sold on it. They'll have my money at the end of the trial period.
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Going to have to give Scrivener a try....I'm 12 Chapters in and with a large cast and events plus my poor memory I'm floundering trying to keep organized...8P
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Recently, I've found Scrivener slightly lacking as a word processor - I find I'm more creative and writing is easier when I'm using word. So I just write stuff in word and copy-paste into Scrivener. Seems to be working fine, and gives me a better idea of scene length and pacing than just using Scrivener.
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I've found with the free microsoft word 2007 that around 130k it says the document is too long and it stops red underlining misspelled words but that's the only thing I'm aware of.
I started out with Works Word Processor also by microsoft cause it wouldn't green underline all the things I was doing wrong. Then as i got better switched over to word. But I never would have improved using word. Just a personal little tick i guess.
the Deposed King