I get to order two software packages and install them next week. One of them is one of my all-time favoritest pieces of software. The other is the work of an unearthly being bent on destroying humanity one brain cell at a time. I’ll let you guess which is which.
This software makes my life so much easier. Its side-by-side HTML/Code with design preview taught me HTML and CSS. I haven’t tried the new CSS features, but every enhancement they add is intuitive and easy to figure out, and generally propels the product forward. I love how it recognizes my ASP.net code and lets me arrange and edit, all while it figures out the best way to represent the design in code.
As if the design and code interfaces weren’t enough, I use it to manage the sites on all of my non ASP.net projects. With the push of a button, it publishes just the files that have changed to my FTP site. It has features that allow me to not accidentally publish backup and temp files. It now even includes Subversion integration. While I’m still using CS3, I can’t wait to upgrade to the new CS4 soon.
Whenever I create new folders and move images around between folders, or files around, it automatically updates all of my links. No search and replace required - it simply figures out the new location and updates all my anchor references correctly. All in all, this is one of the best thought out WYSIWYG web-design packages around.
OK, I have no real beefs with Excel, Powerpoint, or whatever-the-Hell-Livenote-is, but let’s talk a moment about Word. Now, I’ve been using word processors for a very very long time - text editors and word processors were probably my first real apps. Every time I start Word, I end up understanding it less and less. I want to move something *here* and not *there* - why won’t you move that table?
I want to change this font - why do you keep changing it back? Where is that feature I found last week? Why do I have to navigate all these terrible menus? Why did this change so much from Office 2003, which I was just getting used to?
WHY DID YOU CRASH ON ME????
Yeah. Word makes me hate life, but it’s the only thing that seems to understand that silly “docx” format. And for that matter, what was wrong with the old file format? Why change?
Word seems to be the worst example of software bloat. I remember when Word was revolutionary, combining the functionality of an expensive publishing package with the simplicity of a word processor. But every few years, Microsoft seems to add, change and move features at random that fairly much demand that you purchase some kind of how-to book that you have to have in one hand while you attempt to use the product in the other.
The only good thing about Word? The Home & Student bundle appear to be on sale for a fairly excellent price - around $70 as I write this, which is actually cheaper than trying to purchase Word outside of the bundle.
Some days, I wish I could just turn back the clock, go back to DOS, and just ahve something simple that works well. That thought occurs to me every time I start Word.