[marsee@oreilly.com: Word Annoyances Needed for New Book]

[Walt Mankowski <waltman@pobox.com>]

Time to be annoyed again!  Does MS sell any more annoying software
than Word?

Walt

----- Forwarded message from Marsee Henon <marsee@oreilly.com> -----

From: Marsee Henon <marsee@oreilly.com>
To: waltman@pobox.com
Subject: Word Annoyances Needed for New Book
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:10:26 -0800

Dear User Group Leader:

O'Reilly is pulling together a new book called "Word Annoyances" and, once
again, we'd like your help! As you might guess, "Word Annoyances" ponders
the problems, snarls, quirks, bugs, and just dumb things about Word that
drive users nuts. The annoyances will encompass a range of topics: general
misbehavior, creating and saving documents, text entry and editing,
formatting and layout, printing, tables, macros, etc.

Word is the most ubiquitous--and probably the most annoying--word
processor on the planet. If any members of your group have annoyances
they'd like to see solved, have them email marsee@oreilly.com with "Word
Annoyances" in the subject line. Just have them note what version of Word
and Windows they're using.

As always, thanks for sharing. We'll make sure to get copies of "Word
Annoyances" sent to your group shortly after publication.


--Marsee


***

An example:


The Annoyance
The wretched animated paper clip keeps appearing every time I try to get
help from Office, and sometimes even when I'm just working. How can I get
rid of it?

The Fix
Some people love the Office Assistant characters--Clippit (the paper
clip), Rocky the Dog, the Office Cat, the Genius, Mother Nature--but I've
never met these people. Everyone who mentions the Office Assistant wants
to get rid of it. And anyone enthusing about the wonders of Merlin is a
good candidate for the target end of a fire-hose demonstration.

To prevent the Office Assistant from appearing, right-click the Office
Assistant character that's currently bugging you and click Properties on
the shortcut menu. On the Options tab of the Office Assistant dialog box,
clear the Use The Office Assistant check box. Click OK.

What if you want the Office Assistant back? Simply choose Help > Show The
Office Assistant, and the brute is back with you. Invoking the Office
Assistant like this selects the Use The Office Assistant check box on the
Options tab of the Office Assistant dialog box, so you'll need to clear
this check box when you want peace and quiet again.


----- End forwarded message -----

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