Sunday 25 January 2009

Never Forget the Little Guy

Let's have a cheer for good old helpful Microsoft Word. Thank you for telling me when you think I need to add a comma (even when it is in the strangest of places) and for correcting me when you notice a passive sentence, and just a few minutes ago, for pointing out to me that:

The Four Equestrians of the Apocalypse would be much better than the four horsemen. I salute you Word. :D

21 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

Yet another reason I use the cheapest word processing software known to man, Works. don't let it change your works too much, you might have to put Bill Gates as a co-writer on your stories.

Rob Brooks said...

Maybe you should go with the Quadruple Equestrians of the Destruction of the World. Gotta love Word ;)

Cate Gardner said...

Jamie, I ignore Mr. Gates most of the time - which is probably why my commas are always in the wrong place. :)

Rob, why has that title never taken off. :)

Cate Gardner said...

Jamie, I ignore Mr. Gates most of the time - which is probably why my commas are always in the wrong place. :)

Rob, why has that title never taken off. :)

Anonymous said...

Yet another reason why I'm glad I have iWork for my Mac. I shun Microsoft and Windows.

Mary said...

I turn off spelling and grammar check when writing. Too often, Word does not understand what I mean and makes the wrong suggestion. For example: I write ‘stone wall’, Word suggests ‘stonewall’. Infuriating! ;)

Cate Gardner said...

I need to turn mine off... It can be so distracting at times.

Bobbie Metevier said...

I was the queen of misplaced commas until Microsoft and the PIT (Permuted Press) schooled me.

So Microsoft actually helped with the title? It hasn't done that for me yet!

Cate Gardner said...

Ah, the much fabled PIT. Looking in from the outside (which isn't looking in at all as it's a closed group) you guys scare me. I imagine you all as super talented (which of course you are) and grammar perfect. I received help from a couple of your guys (Lane & Leah) early last year for a story I had written for 'Robots Beyond' and I like to think both my commas and sentwnce structure improved 90%.

Anonymous said...

I have a grudge against Word I'll never let go of. For years, I thought I was the best semicolon user on the planet.

But it turns out Word lets you put them anywhere. Heck; you; can; write; like; this; and it doesn't mind.

I wasn't good; I was just being ignored. Now I'm good though...

K.C. Shaw said...

I use Open Office on my laptop and Word on my desktop. I turn off grammar check on Word--it drives me crazy! I'm bad about forgetting to do spellchecks too. Fortunately I can spell pretty well. Or at least I think I can. Mabey Im rong.

Felicity Dowker said...

I just snorted coffee out both nostrils, and I'm holding you personally responsible, Ms. Gardner.

Tuonela said...

I told that annoying little paper-clip guy to f**k off years ago. I also talk to the TV a lot... I believe it's called Cranky Old Bastard Syndrome.

Fox Lee said...

I miss Microsoft Word. Neo-Office means well, but it wasn't designed for writers : P

Cate Gardner said...

Paul, Word is always offering me free semi-colons. :)

KC - Somedays I want to turn it off and somedays I don't. Truth is, I don't know how to. :)

Felicity - you and me both. It gave me a good giggle mid serious writingness.

Ian - Can women catch that :0

Natalie - It misses you too. :)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they're nazi's about sentence fragments that aren't really there, too.

Cate Gardner said...

It has no sympathy for artistic license. :)

Matthew Baugh said...

My favorite trick of word's is to fix my uses of singular and plural.

Me: "The strom troopers charged the building..."

Word: "That should be 'storms troopers'."

And; yes. In the PIT we, grammatically correct; always are. Punctuation-wise: similar, the situation--is!

Cate Gardner said...

That singular/plural thing drives me insane.

jonathan pinnock said...

I dunno. I kind of like Word, because it reassures me that we're still a little way off the Singularity.

Danielle Birch said...

Commas are the bane of my existence. Nasty little things.