How can Word be so shockingly bad?

I can offer one suggestion, for your line-drawing exercise:

1. After you draw and format the line, right-click on it and select Set as Default Line. Any further lines you draw will maintain the same weight and color until you reset the default.
2. If you keep the line selected, the Drawing Tools | Format tab will be displayed, and the Insert Shapes palette will include a line, which you can select to draw another line, which will have the color and weight you selected as the default.

As for the text boxes, you can also format one of those, right-click, and Set as Default Text Box. Text box borders are always on all four sides, but when you select a text box with a line border, for some reason the top and left edges appear heavier. This doesn't happen if the text box is set to No Line, so I'm not sure what the purpose is.

I'm sick of trying to highlight text to copy that's on a page with text and objects and have EVERYTHING picked up by the cursor!

I don't use the functions that you've mentioned but I'm sick of trying to highlight text to copy that's on a page with text and objects and have EVERYTHING picked up by the cursor!  Not to mention during edits when the pop-up bubble floats over the area you're trying to read/edit.  It's pretty clear that the individuals who are modifying these programs aren't getting the input of the end users.  (Or they are asking the wrong ones.)  

Word is not an illustration program. For word processing software, it does have a fairly rich set of drawing tools, but it is not intended for high-level illustration. If you choose to use wrapped graphics, you must be aware of where they are anchored, as that affects how you can use them.

There are two kinds of defaults: document defaults and global defaults. Anything you "set as default" in a given document is set for just that document. In many cases, you do get to choose whether the default is for the given document or for "New documents based on x template." If that template is the Normal template, then the defaults will apply to new Blank Documents; they will not apply to documents based on other templates. In other cases, to make defaults global, you must actually open the Normal template for editing and make the change there.

The idea of the Ribbon is that the tabs are contextual. Yes, this is sometimes frustrating, but the idea was to make the tools available as needed and to make all the tools more easily discoverable. In Word 2003 and earlier, when you click on a graphic, the Picture toolbar appears; in Word 2007 and above, the Drawing Tools | Format tab appears. I personally would prefer to have the (floating) Picture toolbar in addition to the Standard and Formatting toolbars and be able to use tools from any of them at will, but most users eventually add all their most frequently used commands to the QAT to make them always available.

... The dreadful idea (if it was an idea at all, not just some mindless corporate epiphenomenon) of reverting back to a different menu tab after each operation is even more horrendous. I don't think I could invent a more pig-headed way of ruining what had been a more or less acceptable product if I tried.

The fact that Microsoft is unable to accept any criticism is further evidence of its terminal decadence, the tragicomic swaggering and boasting of the Emperor as his empire implodes to the size of his throne room, defended by a gaggle of drunken eunuchs and syphilitic sycophants as the barbarians are hammering at the door. I will be celebrating when that last light goes out at MSCorp HQ. Stay in touch, I might buy some of your office furniture if the price is right. And no, you can't have it back after four years.

Well put Charles.

MichaelMango, while I pretty much agree with you (on pretty much all your points) I think it is also time for all of us to move on. Either by working with what is there, or by NOT working with what is there. I am a professional technical writer and personally I have chosen the latter.  I do not use 2010 and will not use 2010. I fail to see any advantage to it, and many many disadvantages. As has been pointed out (ad nauseum) it is far worse to use if one actually knows how to use Word.

In my opinion, Microsoft has ruined Word. But...that is my opinion, and the responsibility - and CHOICE! - to use it (or not) is mine. I choose not to use it.  I do not need any of its "features", and while I have indeed been able to progress enough to use it reasonably well, I STILL see no advantage, and many disadvantages.

So the bottom line is I do not personally use it.  Now it is true that those who work with clients who DO use it must have some knowledge of it in order to maintain things. So be it.  We simply have to deal with it.  I have certainly encouraged clients to stop using Word, and will continue to do that.

But, it is time to move on.  Microsoft will NOT go back, regardless of any number of complaints. Their purpose is not (and never has been) to produce a good product. It is to produce NEW product in order to sell those products and make new (more) money. That is the nature of business.

"defended by a gaggle of drunken eunuchs and syphilitic sycophants" Ignoring the hyperbole, this is insulting to those who are not truly defending the situation, but who are trying to deal with the reality of the situation.