I like Microsoft Word. I've used various versions of it: the 1997 version with a Packard Bell computer, then I used other word processors with the other desktops I had with Packard Bell. Those computers would bring Word Pad and Microsoft Works. With a computer I had in 2002 which had no brand, I had Corel Word Perfect. Then, I had two Compaq desktops in which I would only use either Works or Word Pad because I couldn't afford Word. Back then I regarded page count because I didn't know that word-count is what matters. I didn't know that till I joined the AW Water Cooler last year.
But anyway, back to seriousness...I kept playing around with trials of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 with my first Toshiba laptop. Again, played around with trials when I got this Toshiba laptop. Then, I tried free alternatives. Open Office was the first. It didn't have a live word-count, so that threw me off right there. In addition to that I didn't know how to access the Spanish-language dictionary. I write in Spanish because it's my first language. I'm Puerto Rican and I think that's a way to stay true to my roots.
So I downloaded my first trial of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 in May 23, 2011 if I remember correctly. I had the trial for sixty days, and we used it all on the same computer, did different things with it for the next sixty days. In July of 2011 was when I acquired a purchased version of MS Office HS 2010, three licenses to use. We've already used two, the first on this computer, and the second on my aunt's HP laptop. I still use it on this computer because I don't know which word-count is more accurate, if Word's word count or Abi Word's word-count, so I am going to mess around with Word on my Toshiba laptop for a couple more months, until I get a new laptop because this one is all messed up and it costs a fortune to get it a new battery and a new charger which is what it needs to function like a normal laptop again. We have a charger for it but it's what I call a generic one, one that's compatible with all major laptop brands, and not the original, genuine Toshiba battery charger made for this one. That one broke.
So I am considering just giving this computer to my cousins to play with and uninstall Word from it because they don't use Word
you know, to avoid wasting space on the hard drive and then install it on my new laptop. I considered buying my first netbook, but if I do I am going to have to purchase a separate DVD burner because I burn a lot of CD's and DVD's, you know, fill them with my files. I like having lots of backup for my manuscripts. Some people think it's crazy, that it suffices to have copies of the same files in one place, but media fail and I just can't afford to do that, so I have copies of my manuscripts on a recordable DVD, on my flash drive, (the incomplete and in-progress ones) to work with them on the Dell and the Toshiba laptops back and forth, I have them on this computer's hard drive, and I have my finished manuscripts on a recordable CD. I haven't considered services like Dropbox because recently someone here started a thread questioning Dropbox's safety, implying that they do take ownership of the user's files and mess with them or whatever and I just ahhh, that threw me off. It could be just a misinterpretation of the whole thing, but once I doubt something or someone, it's hard for me to trust again, to believe in the integrity that was once questioned; and I don't have internet access on the Dell laptop, so Dropbox would be useless now.
So to wrap it all up, I have Word because it's what I am used to and because it's more advanced than many other word-processors. I tried to get used to other word-processors, but I couldn't. There was always something I used a lot that Word had that, that other word-processor didn't have.
My story was kinda long, but you get the idea.
Nice seeing you guys! I always try to participate in threads about Word processors in the name of research.
M.
