Microsoft Word is arguably one of Microsoft’s most successful products. When a product is mistaken for its category of applications itself, you know that it’s something of a game changer. You don’t hear people talking about, “word processors”, do you? If you’re a student, you probably heard your professor go, “type it in Word”. This is the sort of cultural phenomenon that Microsoft Word is.
An apt analogy would be Kleenex. People are oblivious to the fact that there are other brands of facial tissues available. I’ve only ever heard people say, “hand me a Kleenex please”, in my entire life. Never, “hand me a facial tissue”. Microsoft Word has attained the recognition of an industry standard. So much so that there are courses built around teaching students to use it efficiently.
But what makes Microsoft Word so special? Is it the versatility? Maybe. In fact, you can find support for the infamous ‘.docx’ format on almost any platform in existence. You don’t see support for ‘.pages’ everywhere do you? Apple being the huge company it is, you would think that it’s resident word processor (Pages), would get more love. The same school of thought is applicable for Google Docs.
People have a tendency to reach for the top shelf whenever they’re faced with the task of picking a tool. This may be the reason you see the entire world tranced with Microsoft Word. Its power is its draw. With so many features and tools, Microsoft Word is undoubtedly the most versatile and powerful word processor in existence. But that doesn’t make it the best for everyone.
If you’re writing an article for your blog, you will want to write it in a word processor. This is probably because of the spell check and grammar check that comes built in with them. You don’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars on a license for Word with that. The simplest option would be Google Docs, or if you’re on a Mac, it would be Apple Pages. Both are capable of the menial task at hand.
We don’t have any agenda we’re trying to push, but keep in mind the fact that you don’t need a chainsaw to slice tomatoes. Take from that what you will.