Goodbye Word!

I promised a friend that I would produce a brochure for our Folding@Home team. It gives me an excuse to load and try the iWork software from Apple. I received a trial version with my operating system upgrade, but hadn't even installed it yet, much less tried it. I started on the brochure tonight, and I have to say that Pages is SIMPLE to use. I am really impressed. Now, please understand, I am not a professional printer. I'm sure it would not hold up under the scrutiny of a professional, but for a simple and cheap piece of software, this is impressive. It functions a lot like Pagemaker (though I'm sure it doesn't have all the features) from what I remember way back when I used to use Pagemaker many, many years and versions ago.

I have found myself opening Word a whole lot less often of late. For the vast majority of my word processing, I now use a simple text editing software. I find that I'm usually just putting words down, without any formating beyond a few bolds or underlines. Word is just way too much software for so little need. By the time it loads, I could have a couple sentences typed out in Text Editor. That just leaves Word for doing more specific formating. Pages seems to have the capability of replacing that...easily. It is much easier to do a brochure in Pages than in Word because that is its purpose. I think I'll be finding some money to buy iWork. Then I can leave Word behind. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with Word, I'm just finding that it doesn't suit my needs anymore. I can accomplish the same things with other software that is easier to use and much more nimble. If I were writing the Great American Novel, you'd better believe that I'd use Word. For doing the stuff that 99% of the people on computers need to do, though, Word is just way too much software. I'm just not needing it anymore.