The Case Against Microsoft Word

I started my writing life in Word '97 in Windows '95, and couldn't have been happier with it. That feeling was slowly over time, as I grew increasingly frustrated with Word's oddities. I then started out blogging using Windows Live Writer, which quickly taught me how much junk WYSIWYG editors throw into your writing. Today, almost everything I write is written in a plain text editor, preferably iA Writer, but really, anything that saves in plain text will work. I can always add formatting for printing when I need it, in Pages, InDesign, or even Word. But most everything I write is published online or send via email, and Word is about the worst thing you could possibly use for that.

It's refreshing to see others come to the same conclusions. People have use Word and word processors for everything written on computers for way too long, and it's definitely time to get back to just writing plain text. It works way better for way more things than most people would think. You really don't need a word processor for everything, and if you're writing online, you definitely should never be using a word processor to write your initial drafts.

Seriously: use plain text. It works everywhere, in any platform, and you'll always be able to open your files. You can easily switch text editors, publish your writing anywhere, and always add more formatting later if you need. It's just better. There's no reason to treat everything you write as a document in Word. You simply don't need to.

Continue reading at http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/04/microsoft_word_is_cumbersome_inefficient_and_obsolete_it_s_time_for_it_to_die_.single.html

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