Word Processor Review: Microsoft Word

 

Overview

These days, pretty much every single computer company has their own word processing software. Even some of those that provide email services do as well. Microsoft is no exception. I was given Microsoft's Office 365 program, and Microsoft Word came in the package. I have to say, that after using Google Docs for the bulk of my writing, I wasn't so sure what I'd think of Word.

The Pros

Word has a much cleaner look to it, with a header and a footer containing the menu and various options. It is much less cluttered than most word processors are.

It was various themes you can choose from, these being "colorful," "dark gray," "black," and "white." It has even more personalization options as well, enabling you to change multiple features including the interface options to your preferences.

Word also allows you to leave comments on your document similarly to the way that Google Docs does. I have not figured out a way to share documents as of now, however.

The word counter in this program is great. It's in the footer, and tallies up total words as you write. Much better than the one in Google Docs. You can also highlight words to be counted, and change settings on the counter.

There are add-ins for Word from what I've heard, but I have not tried any of them since I'm pretty happy with it the way it came.

A major difference from Google Docs is that this one doesn't require internet access. Very handy if you have spotty internet, or can't afford to deal with enabling off-line access for a document.

Word also has a lot of fonts and various ways to change text. It also comes with templates. Since I use Word for my college work, I find the MLA format template very handy.

It has a focus mode that hides the taskbar on your computer.

It has a "share" function, but I have not tested it yet. Please note that it requires you to "sign in" or attach a file in the form of a PDF or word document.

There are various ways to paste text into your document, including a "merge text" feature, which I love.

The Cons

You can't share documents without a Microsoft account, which is free.

The layout of the program has a little more of a learning curve because you have to click on things to find them.

Conclusion

I love this program more than the others that I have tried. It's pretty easy to use once you get used to where you need to click on things, and it's very clean and simple. The only thing I've changed since I got Micrsoft Word, was to make the theme a dark one. I prefer dark themes in general. Even my Facebook I swtiched over to the simple dark theme. 

Overall, it's tidy, has many abilities that are quickly and easily accessed, and is much more distraction-free than most programs. I highly recommend it.