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From: psych@watdcsu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Help!  Excel 1.00 vs. 1.05? (really MS v. everyone)
Message-ID: <4188@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>
Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 09:55:04 EST
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.4188
Posted: Fri Dec  4 09:55:04 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Dec-87 22:42:08 EST
References: <870049@hpcilzb.HP.COM> <1211@uhccux.UUCP>
Reply-To: psych@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (R.Crispin - Psychology)
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Organization: Psychology Department
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Christopher Chow wrote a long stinging article about Microsoft especially
Excel and Word 3. Rob Jellinghaus replied with a rebutal. I do not wish
to repeat everything but each made some valid points. I would like to add
a few thoughts that I have had. I believe that Microsoft has become too
complacent about its position in the market place. They have started to
loose ground to almost anyone producing a comparable product. When I
originally started to look for a word processor to support within our
department, I got a copy of word 3.00. It had problems but was the most
powerful WP at the time. I discussed with MS about getting a site license
or some other deal. Their response was $395 per copy. Word is not worth
$11,000 dollars to us so we decided not to get it. I believe that the
price scared a lot of people from buying Word. I speculate that the 
major sales of Word are to people who got an upgrade from 1.05. In the
retail and business market I don't think it did well. MS finally relented
and I can now buy it for $175. But, its too late. I have seen Word Perfect
in action. It appears to have considerably more power than Word including
macros, is much easier to use, and I can get it for less than $175 under
our site license. The kind of unrealistic attitude that MS has I believe
will hurt it badly in the future. 

Rob Jellinghaus implied in his earlier reponse that Word 3.01 is bug free.
This is completely unfounded. I have discovered many problems in Word 3.01.
Every once in a while it starts printing very wierd on an imagewriter. The
cure is to do Show Rulers, select the entire document, move the left margin
in a few ticks and then move it back. The printing problem is fixed. Another
odd ball problem is one day it wouldn't open documents by double clicking
on them. I had to open Word and then Open the document. The solution was
to quit word while holding the Command and Option keys. This rebuilt the
desktop and it works again (this has happened to 2 or 3 other people as 
well).

Richard Crispin
Dept. of Psychology
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ont.
Canada    N2L 3G1
(519)885-1211 ext 2879