Joe, OT: Re: Try to write a few pages in vi, have it spell checked, work on the styles, switch to printers seamlessly, create an index, glossary, cross-references, add versioning, add graphics, save as HTML, connect to a database, try doing all of this in VI, (with a some handy references such as PCL and Postscript codes), and have very good imagination of how your creation just might come out when you need to publish (since you have no idea from looking at the document in text mode).
If you want to write a paper or publish a book Microsoft Word is horrible to use. After a document has reached a certain size Word randomly screws up the layout, let pictures disappear and sometimes even won't let you save your own document (you have to copy and past it in that case, open a new document and save it there). These bug can be found in every Word version, even in the latest Office XP version. Just write a long text (>50 pages) and see what happens.
Everyone serious about publishing doesn't use Word at all. Scientific publications e.g. uses almost solely LaTeX. It's especially far superior over Word when writing mathematical formulas (ever tried out the Word formula editor?). Plus: The output format (usally Postscript but PDF is also supported) is compatible with every operation system around and the output is always the same, regardless of the device or printer.
Having said that, while I use LaTeX a lot I do it with a Windows editor (WinEdt). And of course I write letters or small articles with Word. It always depends on what you are doing and what you are achieving what application is the best. It would be nice if there were a killer text application which could do everything for you but unfortunately Word isn't it.
Andreas |
