Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 3 1 2 3
#160737 06/30/06 04:56 PM
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
D
Pooh-Bah
OP Offline
Pooh-Bah
D
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Bel: I'd have no intention of destroying it, only improving it

Typical example: Feeling guilty about my continuing felony, I reluctantly applied for "Genuine" Windows at a cost of $149

Filling in the necessary forms took forever. One of the most frustrating requirements was entering my phone number. Their diabolical algorithm just simply wouldn't accept the last two digits

Billions of people for the past 129 years have written phone no.s trillions of times with the hyphens. But all at once all of us are supposed to realize instantly that the software world is uncomfortable with hyphens and therefore you mustn't use one when you don't have to

Will it take another 25 years for Bill Gates to realize this

He doesn't talk to his customers. It is forbidden for a software engineer to accept suggestions from the outside world; such as "Why don't you include an instruction, "...without hyphens'"


dalehileman
#160738 06/30/06 10:43 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Yet another take on the issue:
A few bad apples may rot the basket!?

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
D
Pooh-Bah
OP Offline
Pooh-Bah
D
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
mus: They may not rot the basket but when you reach in there are so many of them that you are sure to pick the rotten one. Windows/Word, for instance, simply cannot handle quotation marks, often turning them in the wrong direction, a problem so easy to handle you would wonder why, after 22 years of peddling software, Bill hasn't stooped to fix the problem. You would think at least that they would provide a toolbar macro for the purpose of reversal

Last edited by dalehileman; 07/11/06 02:51 PM.

dalehileman
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
B
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
B
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Dale, you should go read the article Musick links to.


Word for Windows. What's wrong with your quotation marks? I tried getting them in the wrong direction, but couldn't. Mind you I have a French keyboard, so that may be it.

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
Offline
veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526

There is a free program that works very well called "Open Office" from sun microsystems.

It includes:
base, a database package
calc, a spreadsheet program
draw, a graphics package
Impress, to make presentations
Math, a math package (serves the same function as MathType, but it's not wysiwyg)
Writer, similar to work .. you can make newsletters, brochures, etc.

Some of these allow you to read the microsoft equivalents.
Most of these allow you to write to pdf format.


For the life of me I don't understand why they don't push this at K-12 schools instead of MS office.

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
D
Pooh-Bah
OP Offline
Pooh-Bah
D
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Bel: I may have stretched the truth a little for purposes of emphasis. Typically the backward quotes happen during editing, when for one reason or another one deletes a passage containing one, which upon an attempt to replace it, comes out backward. Since Word doesn't include a macro to reverse them, I had to write my own


dalehileman
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
B
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
B
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Ooo ya, I know what you mean. I've had that happen when I'm editing text.

There is one thing that I've been trying to remove and haven't found the button yet.

When I'm writing a date, the program automatically adds an abbreviated version when I press return.

I want to write: le 12 juillet 2006

When I press return to go to another line the computer modifies it to: le 12 juillet 2006-07-12

I've looked in the automatic corrections and automatic text inserts, but can't find the place to modify this command. It is a tad annoying.

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
D
Pooh-Bah
OP Offline
Pooh-Bah
D
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
bel: With my PC and version, the pop-up shows just as yours does, annoying as hell, but fortunately it doesn't transfer to the text

Why does Bill Gates hate us so


dalehileman
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
> OpenOffice

FF, we're going to put this or NeoOffice in my new lab of 21 macs....

Bel, look in your prefs for the date thingy.


formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
B
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
B
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Quote:


There is one thing that I've been trying to remove and haven't found the button yet.

When I'm writing a date, the program automatically adds an abbreviated version when I press return.

I want to write: le 12 juillet 2006

When I press return to go to another line the computer modifies it to: le 12 juillet 2006-07-12

I've looked in the automatic corrections and automatic text inserts, but can't find the place to modify this command. It is a tad annoying.




That is the single most annoying thing in MS Word. I have to remember to type a space after any date so that it doesn't happen, but half the time I forget.


Bingley
Page 2 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,283
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 444 guests, and 3 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,510
LukeJavan8 9,916
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5