Here’s an irate MS Word user writing in the PC Magazine:-

When is the last time anyone talked about Microsoft Word? Here’s a program on its last legs that should probably be discarded and rethought completely. It has become a kludge. This is apparent with the latest version in Office 2003.

Let me start out with a couple of my current complaints. My biggest annoyance with the current version is that it keeps reinstalling features, which requires me to reinsert the master disc over and over. I’m not sure if this is a trick to check with Microsoft’s database to make sure I’m a registered user or if the program is just stupid.

And the rest of the article continues in the same vein. Now, all of us -at some point in time- have screamed at our Microsoft applications. I switch between Opera and Mozilla rather than touch IE with a barge pole – even though 20six for some peculiar reason works better with IE. The MS word on my machine never seems to remember the fact that I have set UK English as the default option. Nor does it seem to remember that I have my own default style for word processing. There was a time that I briefly flirted with Star Office– but with the whole world stuck to Word, it was a bit difficult to switch applications.

The above article could just be taken as another user rant except for the fact that it is written by John Dvorak – a contributing editor with PC magazine, an author and a broadcaster on computing. . A person who is expected to know his software and fine tune it for his requirements. His final take on Microsoft Word-

There are many more issues than these. It’s clear the program is in decline, with too many patches and teams of coders passing in the night. It’s about time that it’s junked and we get something new. This code can no longer be fixed.

Hope that Microsoft takes heed