Word!

I was told the other day by a guy I work with that he knew how to use Word. When I asked if he was at beginner, moderate or expert level he assured me he was an expert. I was glad because he had to do some major changes to a document as part of a project I’m working on. The document had been written by a lovely lady who has a passion for Georgia font and loads of colour and highlighting. A subject matter expert in her field, but not a document writer. The 430 pages had a massive 300ish styles!

So, I asked him to put in styles so the document could be indexed and easily maintained. I asked for all the white space to be taken away. I asked for all the bullets to be made uniform (there when 26 different bullet types), spell check it (data base to database and over view to overview etc.), and generally make it into a document that all concerned can be proud of.

He gave it back to me and he had changed the headings to Heading 1, that was it! When I asked him about it, he repeated that he knew how to use word, but he didn’t know how to index. I can’t repeat what I said to him but needless to say it wasn’t polite. I took the document home as I was now running late on the deadline and with the help of my husband (I make no claims to be an expert, but he is) we made a fantastic document.

So…I ask, how can people not know how to use a product that has been around for 10 plus years now, and is the most common word processing package in offices and homes the world over. I understand it’s all about what you use it for, but for goodness sake, surely something simple like styles should be on the list of basic word usage.

As I said before, I’m not a Word expert and still learn things from time to time, but I have to smile when I hear people say ‘Word doesn’t work’ or 'it's crap', then you find out they are trying to do move text around an embedded excel file. (it’s easier to put the file in as a picture via paint)

Anyway, the reason for this rant… I have finally finished the document and it is at the printers. It is 2.30pm on Thursday 9th February 2006.

When I get it back I bet I open it and see an Over View. :-))