Yes it does, and I use it regularly. In fairness, it mostly works.
My biggest issue with Word is having to type documents in the same font/font size/format as the content is going to be printed/read from. I need a bigger and different font when I’m doing a presentation and reading a paper script, but I don’t necessarily want to type in that large, slightly esoteric font. Sure, in Word you can adjust styles before printing/exporting, but it’s very much WYSIWYG rather than WYSIWYM.
Although I use Word styles extensively, I don’t have any need for specific list types or any specialist formatting, so that - for me - is not a consideration.
I don’t mean to detract from Word being fully-featured and probably the most capable Word processor. However, I just want to get mildly formatted text content written which can then be exported in an absolutely standard format, Typora works well for me for this. I literally can’t mess up formatting by overriding styles! And, I can very quickly export the same document in two completely different styles if I need to - for example - for me to read aloud from and to put onto the website.
At one time, I tried to make the Scrivener app serve this purpose for me: type away in mostly plain text but then compile into my desired output format. But when Markdown burst on the scene, I was all in. I do not encourage anyone to use MS Word unless they have to, but in that case, I like to see them make use of all its capabilities. I was going to suggest using draft mode in MS Word but it sounds like you have already found your happy place with Typora.
(1) I’m a plain-text guy. (2) I was forced to use MS Word for decades at work on Windows PCs. (3) General antipathy towards Microsoft based on their shenanigans over the years.
I appreciate that, although Apple has equal shenanigans.
I think Word is a solid app. I’ve tried most of the competitors and they just cannot compete. Especially for more complex documents. There’s also the simple fact that if you deal with any local government office they’ll send you ms office docs. I could fight it, but can’t be bothered. Also, apple effectively killed their suite of apps when axed iWork. That pushed everyone further to MS and the irony is that MS apps are better rated than mac apps by mac users. I’m using ms edge for browsing and its excellent, it will create an app from sites like mac power users for easy access. Safari comes across dated in comparison. They’re beating apple at their own game.
In terms of software apple is most definitely behind the curve. They used to the undisputed champions, but that was over a decade ago and now they’re mediocre at best. Love the hardware though!
The one additional reason I’d add is that if you do anything for the web, inexperienced users copy/pasting from Word litters documents with positively obscene amounts of HTML code. I generally don’t recommend it unless somebody is doing a project that requires all the bells & whistles.
This. I am a firm believer in using the right tool for the job, and in most cases Word is overkill. If a macOS user needs a work processor my first suggestion is Pages. Free, already installed, and will almost always do what they need.
And one person’s “bells and whistles” is another person’s “needless confusing bloat.”
Yep, and pages has absolutely zero integration with reference managers although it’s been requested since 2015. Word on the other has support for Bookends and Zotero.
As an aside to the main conversation - all UK Government downloads now have to be Open Document format files - so openable within Word but not actually a Word file.
IMHO the issue with Word is that it is deceives you as in it appears to be simple and easy to use, while it is not. You can start typing and formatting at your hearts content and you can have useable documents, but you are missing 80% of the stuff, kind of like using DEVONthink as a Markdown editor.
You can start typing and formatting at your hearts content and you can have useable documents, but you are missing 80% of the stuff, kind of like using DEVONthink as a Markdown editor.
