Microsoft Word - The most defective Word Processing Program on The Market Today

Just a comment. What you are referring to as "safe mode" is presumably Protected View. "Safe Mode" is something entirely different, a way of opening Word (by pressing Ctrl while it is loading) without add-ins and using the factory default Normal template and Registry settings. It is a way of troubleshooting problems that might be caused by add-ins or custom settings.

As for Protected View, are you saying that you have cleared all three check boxes in the dialog below, and documents still open in Protected View?

Have you also exempted all file types from Protected View on the File Block Settings tab?

I'm sorry, I did not get the Microsoft secret decoder ring, that I need to translate the secret message, that turning off all three "enable protected view" choices off, STILL doesn't actually turn off protected view. So now you are telling me that I have to exempt all file types from the Block Settings Tab? Oh, so once again, the program will not work when I tell it to, because some Microsoft Moron put "blocks" on the software. You have to love this, not only are they so arrogant at Microsoft that they feel free to put blocks on functions, without telling users that they are doing so, and even worse, forcing users to guess how the **** to turn them off. Best of all, they create options for you to turn the blocks off, like taking the check off of the "enable protected view" - while knowing full well that if a user takes the check off of these boxes, it still does not remove the block which the user never asked for in the first place. This is proof that the arrogance of the Microsoft morons is exceeded only by their deliberate indifference to the users, who have this garbage software rammed downed their collective throats.

This is a user-to-user support forum.

It is not the complaint window.

If you want help with how to use Word people here will try to help you.

He doesn't want help. If he had, he would have posted a Question rather than a Discussion.

I am not complaining here, just for the sake of complaining.  I have been a loyal Microsoft customer for years.  Back in my college days, I used to carry around one of those bulky mac's, the first portable computers, which were off-white colored boxes that came with a carrying case.

Back then, Word was great. When I opened my business, I used Wordperfect because that is what was generally used in my industry.  Recently, I was compelled to turn my office's operations over to Microsoft Word for our word-processing needs (our new office management software would integrate with Word, but not Wordperfect).

Much to my horror, I have found that what used to be a great program, is now a complete piece of garbage.  Aside from having to waste my direct time trying to work with this defect-laden version of Word, I have to waste even more time hearing my employees complain about how bad it is, and how the program literally does not do what they tell it to do.

The seemingly never-ending "automatic" features which are all but impossible to turn off without first taking hours of tutorials is beyond time-wasting and frustrating.  Even worse is when you tell the computer to turn one of these automatic features off, and the program simply ignores your request, and keeps doing something which you do not want it to do.

Last week I have to fight with the program to stop adding space between lines in a document. 

For reasons which I could not figure out, I would choose single-spacing, but the program would automatically put additional space in between each line.  Why?

Someone showed me that I have to go to a group of boxes at the top of the screen, look at the middle box, go to the bottom right corner of the middle box, and click on a super tiny arrow there, which takes me to a new box, inside of which it indicated that the program was set to add .8 spacing after every line in my document.

Who the h_ll put that there.  I never asked the program to add .8 spacing after every line, so why is that there, and who chose to put that in there.  This is exactly the type of cr_p which has virtually destroyed the usability of this program.

And don't even get me started on the commands which the program absolutely ignores, like "remove pages numbers"  or change page orientation (landscape vs portrait) which often simply do not work.

I am hoping that if enough people post online just how truly awful this program has become, SOMEONE with a brain at Microsoft, and who might actually care what USERS want, MIGHT listen.

I know, I know, it's a long shot.  But maybe, just maybe, if enough of us complain, someone at Microsoft might listen.

Okay Andrew, I know just how you feel, I used to be very competent at using Microsoft Office.  Over time, with the release of various 'updates'/'upgrades'/'releases' to the the MS family of applications, things don't work as quickly or in the same manner, with shorcuts changing or becoming unavailable (until another realease), even to the point of microsoft abandoning their own core principles.  The latest abomination, Word 2016, is awful, simple things like setting the font, or displaying the Home menu bar, or justifying the paragraphs, or opening a new blank document, I could go on, but I do have other things in my life...  It's like they're trying to cater for customers that have little or no capability of using a computer and as a conseqeunce, forsaking their loyal customer base that has supported and enriched them over the years.

Will Micorsoft listen?  I doubt it.  At least they're not making cars!

Word 2016 is not much different from Word 2007, 2010, or 2013, so I'm not sure what is so terrible about Word 2016. (However, there is no doubt that many changes have been made in the user interface compared to Word 2003 and earlier.)

Perhaps you are just venting, but if you really want to see improvements, you can post specific suggestions for Microsoft in the Uservoice forum at http://word.uservoice.com.

Note that posters in this user-to-user forum are mostly volunteers. We do not work for Microsoft. See https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/page/faq.