Dear Microsoft: Please bite me. Love & Kisses, Manda

Here's one of the annoying things about life in the 21st Century: Over-designed technology that actually gets in the way more than it helps.

Take Microsoft Word as my current, though not singular, example. The other day I was out and about with time on my hands but no internet access, so I decided to do a rough draft for a blog in MS Word. This morning, I decided to cut and paste the text of said blog into this site so that I can do a few more edits and - hopefully - click "publish" a little later this week, once I've made it passing readable.

So I did a quick copy and paste, the same seamless motion I've been doing on a near-daily basis for over a decade and a half, and tried to quickly save the blog so that I can get on with my busy day and return to the post later in the week.

But the blog won't save. "Form errors." Hmm.

I deleted the text, went back to the document, and saved it in a text-only version. Closed, reopened the text version, cut and paste what I hoped was really just text, and tried again. Form errors again. So I went to the "Edit HTML" tab in Blogger, and deleted the (no-kidding) HUNDREDS of lines of Microsoft gibberish that automatically attached itself to my text BOTH times I tried to paste it, and was finally left with the basic text I expected.

Now I realize that this only added about seven minutes to my life and for me, a relatively computer-savvy person in her mid-30's, it was a simple fix. But this sort of thing was never a problem until I started using the most "advanced" copy of MS Word (which of course isn't even the most advanced copy anymore - I think mine is the 2007 version). In the past, when you needed to cut and paste text, you just did it, and it worked. That was nice.

And it's not just this most recent issue or this version of Word. Every time there's a new iteration of software that's "easier" to use, I find that there is less and less control over all the little automated things that Word wants to do for you. Why all the sudden do all paragraphs have to be 1.5-spaced unless you manually go in, every time, and fix it? Why can't I decide what I want to indent and by how much? Have you ever tried to un-indent a numbered list, draw a long line for writing in text or -- Heaven forbid! -- delete a blank page in MS Word? Aaaack!

I realize how much I sound like my Grandfather when he used to complain about the price of cigarettes when I say this, but it "used to be" that with a little bit of knowledge and intuition, you could move around in Word really easily and get it to do pretty much whatever you needed it to do. At one time in my life I was close to an expert-level user of MS Word, and I even helped teach classes on how to use it to my teacher colleagues five years ago. So if anyone can figure it out, it should be me, right? Wrong!

Nowadays it seems like if I don't want to do exactly what the software designers thought I might want to do with their software, it's going to add an extra 20% to 40% of time and hassle to the project while I experiment with trial and error or research solutions online. The "easier-to-use" versions of the software are increasingly automated and there is seldom any easy or intuitive way to "undo" the automation. That's fine if you're using Word for the first time and don't want to have any control: which probably means you're either six years old or from another planet.

And more versions of more products with more features and more stumbling blocks means the solutions are harder to find, even online. Most of the time the "help" offered by Microsoft answers only the most basic questions -- as though "how do I create a new document?" is really a commonly asked question. Really? By the way, good luck finding the "help" button in Word, anyway...

What's even more frustrating about this whole situation is that -- unlike a stodgy old coot who keeps her antique typewriter and correction fluid, thank you very much -- I'm not really free to stick to the old familiar versions of Word, even if I want to. They become obsolete and incompatible with what everyone else in the world is using, limiting my ability to share documents via e-mail, etc. Plus, as soon as the computer on which the software is loaded has lived it's short little life, I'm forced to upgrade whether I want to or not.

This is a love-hate relationship I think we often have with technology. To keep up with standard levels of communication, to maintain even minimal levels of professional competence, we have to adopt new and widely used technologies and then adapt to the differences in using them. In some ways, the changes can improve our experiences by offering new features, etc.; but often the arrogance (or maybe just hurry to the market) of those who develop the tools does not give enough power or control to the end user.

It seems that authors of many technologies fail to consider the possibility that the person on the purchasing end of their product might have a different idea about how it would be most useful; or at the very least want to be able to simplify or minimize the features presented.

I'm sure my technorati friends will have some interesting views on this that I will be fascinated to hear, and I'd also love suggestions if anyone knows of a good MS Word substitute that actually works. Otherwise, I guess this 'old coot' is going to need some tutoring, or at the very least a dartboard with a picture of Bill Gates on it.