On Tue, 19 Dec 2017 07:52:26 -0700, Ken Springer
wrote:

On 12/19/17 4:58 AM, mechanic wrote:
On Mon, 18 Dec 2017 19:12:24 -0700, Ken Springer wrote:

Despite the Home and Student edition name, IMO, Word is laced with
features the average home user will never, ever need.

But many home users will use some features that other users don't
for instance I used the mail merge tool for distributing letters to
a local civic group but other home users may want different tools
for different uses. MSFT office has plenty of help options for
people who need it, although most business users don't need hand
holding. Obviously overkill for a shopping list but for a CV or
important letter it's the tool of choice. For more layout options
there's MSFT Publisher.

As I just noted to Char, I don't think most users will ever explore
Excel far enough to know they can do mail merge. :-( I didn't know you
could do that, but, I've never had a reason to use mail merge since my
8-bit days. I wouldn't expect Excel or any other spreadsheet to have
that capability.

One of my favorite things to do with Excel is direct manipulation of
text-based files. What I mean is, I can write a VBA module that reads a
text file, usually a line at a time, then writes it out to a new text
file, making the required changes on the fly. Nothing is ever populated
onto the spreadsheet. Since VBA is bundled with every MS Office
application, the choice of Excel isn't important. I've used Outlook in
the same way, for example. VBA in Excel is VBA in Outlook is VBA in
Access, etc.

Publisher... I think I'd rather be bitten by a rattlesnake than use
Publisher. I used it at work when it was a standalone program being
sold by MS. Windows for Workgoups days. It was buggy. In order to get
a friend of mine to consider a page layout program for her job, I talked
her into going with me to the local library to take the Publisher 2007
class. The same bugs were still there. :-(

I just asked a colleague who used MS Pub to make flyers, brochures, and
other materials for the Marketing department from 2004 to 2013. She says
she never had a problem with it, it worked fine, and she wasn't aware of
any bugs. She says it had its limitations, so she'd sometimes have to
jump to Corel Draw or Photoshop for a sub-task, but then she'd come back
to Pub to put it all together. I don't doubt that it has bugs, but if
you never trip over them, it's hunky dory, right?