To be amazed how hard it is to use Microsoft Word now?

[1jan2020]

I'm not talking about using it to write stuff. But when it comes to saving the document, it's an absolute nightmare! That big black screen, with so many different options for what to do (and none of them very helpful). It's really not obvious how to simply save something to the desktop. It honestly looks like something from the 1980s, so clunky!

I really wish I still had my old version of Word which was so incredibly simple. It also had a nice bright background and saving to the desktop took about two seconds. Why have they made the save screen so complex to use - and why the incredibly basic looking background/graphics?

Yes, XP was my favourite too.

Remember the abomination that was Windows 8? Terrible! I wonder why they keep making these terrible development decisions?

Traditionally, isn't every other version of Windows shit?

I have to download documents from SP to my desktop to then upload them to a different SP site.

Maybe I should look at Rails.

I set mine to the robot character - every so often, its head would explode and it would fall apart. Very like me at work.

I suspect its all to do with enhanced security. You cant do anything now without it taking a painfully long time due to pointless actions.

Whenever i save something, ten seconds later, I'll try to close it and it will insist i save it again. Why? nothings changed! I

Yep, I was on the bad cycle - Vista, 8... Amazing I'm still Windows really. Stuck on 10 though, I peeked at 11 and immediately reverted as looked terrible. Dreading my computer dying when presumably I'll be forced into it!

I've found my tribe. I thought a load of the shite stuff was due to the control my IT dept have over everything, but no it is just the software that is shite.

1. Saving is a chew on. I don't want to autosave as I use template documents.
2. I want to just be able to find stuff, no-one tells me where it is.
3. Do not 'share a copy' without giving me the correct permissions. I haven't got time (by time I mean motivation) to sort it. Yes, I'm talking to you Top's manager.

Everything pc related seems so much more difficult now. The obsession in my workplace to be all digital means that shite is rolled out because that team need to at least try to look busy. Every new digital aspect just adds hours to our jobs, whilst they sit there doing very little.

I really need my next fortnight annual leave if you hadn't guessed.

XP was the greatest.

Windows 10 & 11 do my head in a bit because the more I use them, the most I notice they've tweaked where certain things are found / functionality and not for the better

What used to take half a second can now take minutes

Thank goodness I am retired. I haven't been able to create and save a word document since I replaced my laptop and got the latest version of windows.
If I need to write anything I write an email to myself and either print it or save it in an email folder. Ridiculous.

Oh used to love that. Was that where you could give it an identity like a dog?!

Think it was called the help assistant that you could pull up on screen

Why have they taken away all the words from the top bar and replaced with symbols.

What is this dark screen you all speak of? What I can't stand is how hard it is to save to desktop or folder. It wants to save it to the cloud. No, I want to save it to the desktop then attach the stupid thing to an email.

My problem ( well one of them) is that I now have a work phone, a personal phone, an iPad, a work laptop and a personal laptop. Plus the PC’s at work.
Everyone of them wants the same passwords for the twenty billionth different apps and sites I need to use. Once I’ve clicked “remember my password” I’m fucked because I don’t. I can only get payslips up for my second job on my personal laptop because my phone says the password is incorrect. I use the same one at work to log in which works fine ( can see my payslips) so would need to change both of those just because the phones being arsey. It’s like this with everything from signing into Google to emails to stupid things like gaming sites.
Is there an easier way to log into multiple devices, some of which belong to companies that limit your access to external sites?

arrgh sharepoint
no I don't want some fuckwit that doesn't know what they're doing buggering up my formulae thank you.

Hated the sneery paperclip - but you could opt for a cat called scribble, so there was probably a dog as well.

We get that at work. IT have to reset the password and then change it back again - no explanation as to why but again, I suspect security. Even Multi Factor Authentication hasnt helped, its just another pain in the arse.

What we shouldn't forget is the people at Microsoft made word and then said , there we are, job done, see you tomorrow lads.

Then the next day, came into work, and said "what are we gonna do today?" And started tweaking.

Bit like that episode of father ted when he's trying to knock the dent out of the car.

And a bit like Facebook, and every piece of technology I own, white goods, etc etc etc. I just bought a washing machine - why are they now affixing computers to washing machines? More bits to malfunction!

@BurbleBumleBleep watched a brilliant webinar on security in the week

On complex hard to hack passwords, suggested you set long three word ones - but you use the same three words with the site as part of the password
so:
BurbleBumbleBleep-Mumsnet
BurbleBumbleBleep-Amazon
BurbleBumbleBleep-Waitrose
BurbleBumbleBleep-Twitter

I have the same problem as you as I use different browsers on different machines.
About to start changing mine over

the idea is that the three words are memorable to you, but not connected that anyone could guess (no pets/relative names, addresses, etc)

An alternative is to do what I do - I have the same set of hard-for-computers-to-guess passwords, but I also have my own domain...so I use a different email address on every site too (usually a unique reduction of the site's name using rules that are in my head and easy to remember).

That way, even if one of my accounts is leaked, the credentials still won't work on any other site.

The only exception to that is my email account, which effectively contains the index to all of the accounts with the welcome emails.

I absolutely hate Microsoft! It drives me bonkers how they change things on a whim with every update they issue. I'm a graphic designer so I mostly use Adobe products, but I do use the Microsoft Office suite daily. I personally find it annoying when the change stuff that doesn't need changing, but what annoys me the most is how it affects older or not so savvy computer users! My Mum and (late) Dad struggle terribly every single time Microsoft does this and it drives me nuts having to retrain them all the time. I've included my late father in that statement because it was him that struggled the most. All these ridiculous, needless changes of appearance and location of menu items have such a huge effect on the elderly and less tech minded and, when coupled with Microsoft's continual cheeky pop ups that try to get you to use their products (e.g. their shit browser vs Chrome, Firefox etc.) that not everyone knows NOT to click on, they really are the scourge of the tech world. In my opinion, anyway! I'd give them a complete miss if there were any other viable options for word processing and spreadsheeting, but there aren't. I get SO fired up when I even read their company name!!

I hate Sharepoint and I hate MS word now.

I SO agree with you! What used to take two mouse clicks now takes ten!

I started with Word 95, then went through the different versions. 97, 2000, XP, 2003. They were all easy to use as they all had the same menu layout as other Windows programs e.g. File, Edit, Format, Tools.

Then I think it was 2007 or maybe 2010 where the layout changed into multiple rows. So since 2010, I have been using 2010 and now I'm on 2016. It's now 2023, 13 years on, and I still don't know where anything is. I'm having to google frequently where it is on the new menus that I'm trying to find.

Is anyone else stuck on the new style menus? New as in 2010 (or 2007) onwards.

Why have they taken away all the words from the top bar and replaced with symbols.

oh totally this! My brain just doesn’t work in that way. I don’t want to have to go through all the little pictorial symbols in the pictorial filing cabinet of my brain to figure out what word or command it actually relates to. It’s like a foreign language translation, seriously. An extra step that I just don’t need in my life. I HATE the use of symbols instead of words in anything in life, unless they are really really obvious. It just slows you down. “Now what does that symbol mean again? It looks familiar.”

it’s ENGLISH I understand, not SYMBOLISH. Just tell me the WORDS, you dipstick!

I find it works better for me to set up my own ribbon menu/toolbar using the "Customise Ribbon" tool. You only need to set it up once (although you can keep adding to it whenever you like) and all the "hard to find" items, or items you use constantly, are on it. No more farting around searching menus!

It's now 2023, 13 years on, and I still don't know where anything is. I'm having to google frequently where it is on the new menus that I'm trying to find.

Me too. I just bimble around clicking on everything, using guesswork before searching on Help. Very frustrating when it used to be so easy.