Tag Archives: word processing

Are there better editors than MS Word? Depends on what you are looking for

Are there better editors than Microsoft Word

Are there better editors than Microsoft Word?

Right now, in the realm of conventional word processors and editors, Microsoft Word is the reigning queen.

Compared to MS Word, cloud-based word processors like Google Docs are toys. Not because they lack certain capabilities, but in terms of features, they may have just 5-10% capabilities of MS Word.

Not everyone needs these capabilities. I have been using MS Word for almost 15 years now and I hardly use 2% features of the word processor. This is the reason why people prefer cloud-based word processors and editors like Google Docs.

When you use Google Docs, you do not need to install software on your desktop. You can access it through your browser.

This Fast Company article reviews some alternative text editors and word processors that are better suited to the current, collaborative, work environment. Two of the editors that the article mentions are Notion and Coda.

When I visited the Notion website, I remembered registering a few months ago and then leaving within a few minutes.

Notion seems like the web version of those unnoticeable apps that often come with your mobile phone pre-installed. They act like a bundle to manage your to-do lists, notes, images and other tidbits of information. Most of the people never use these apps.

Of course, I am not saying people who do not have a need for a cloud-based service like Notion would not find it useful.

It may be like the storeroom for all formats of information that you would like to store. You can manage your tasks. You can create to-do lists. You can create content calendars. You can manage your brand assets such as graphics and logos. You can create quick notes. You can maintain your reading list. You can use it as your travel planner. You can even write blog posts.

The point is, if you have been using MS Word, or even Google Docs, for a few years for preparing your drafts for articles and blog posts, you may feel bewildered by this hodgepodge of features. Maybe if you want to make a new start from scratch, you will find it useful.

It is like Canva for someone like me who has been using Photoshop for years. Although the cloud-based graphic tool gets raving reviews on my LinkedIn and Twitter timelines, I find it quite restrictive, especially compared to Photoshop.

Coda comes closer to the conventional documents you are used to. The big difference is that it combines documents and spreadsheets and data from other tools into a single interface. As per the language on the website, “All-in-one doc. No more ping-ponging between documents, spreadsheets, and niche workflow apps to get things done. Coda brings all of your words and data into one flexible surface.”

This may be good for meetings. Or business presentations. Or maybe even research-based articles and blog posts. Books? I don’t know.

As you scroll down the page, you realize that it may also be another version of Notion that endeavors to provide everything you need in your day-to-day professional life, through a single dashboard.

I do not understand the need for Coda because I am not the target audience. In this blog post, one of the founders, Shishir Mehrotra reference to the app being a “Minecraft for docs” – you build your digital assets within the app, one by one, like the blocks in Minecraft, as you grow.

I do not want to build blocks. I just need a rectangular window where I can write. It might as well be Notepad.

Every app and every cloud-based service that has a decent set of features, is going to attract users who have a precise need for these features. Therefore, there are many online editors that are gaining traction fast among niche users.

Are online writing tools that check your grammar and writing style, any good?

Have you ever used writing tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid?

Even when you are working in Google Docs or MS Word, they have their own features to highlight glaring spelling and grammar mistakes.

They even advise you, just like the writing tools mentioned in the first sentence, to avoid passive voice or redundant adverbs and adjectives or to use a single word instead of multiple words for expressing something.

A couple of years ago I purchased a copy of the Hemingway app. A few weeks ago, I downloaded the latest version and tried using it for a while. The Hemingway app works just like Grammarly or ProWritingAd but in a much toned-down way. It doesn’t have advanced features like these two services. I couldn’t use it even for a single writing project.

Whether these writing tools help you or become a hindrance depends on how comfortable you are writing. They highlight common and uncommon grammar mistakes, so that’s a plus. At least when you are writing professional emails and blog posts, you won’t be committing silly grammar mistakes, which can be quite embarrassing.

These tools also make your writing crisp, or at least aspire to make your writing crisp.

By crisp I mean, often, when we are in a thought flow, we write lengthy sentences. Compound and complex sentences with lots of “and”, “or”, “but”, and so on. These writing tools advise you to create direct, shorter sentences, preferably simple sentences.

For example, the following sentence will certainly make all the writing tools go crazy.

“Seeing that the sky was overcast I decided to take my umbrella with me but just as I was stepping outside my house I saw a dog running towards me surely with an intention to attack me and therefore I ran back quickly, shut the door, put the umbrella on the side table and waited for the dog to go away, and this is why, when I started from home, the second time, I forgot to take the umbrella with me and consequently, I was drenched by the time I reached my office, only to find that  the basement of the office had been flooded and all the employees were trying to rescue whatever could be rescued.”

The writing tools like Grammarly also tell you whether your writing is easier to read are not, according to various reading ease scores, with the Flesch Reading Ease score being one of the most prominent.

If you are using difficult and long words, it will suggest you use simpler and shorter words. Before evaluation, you can tell the writing tool whether you are writing something professional, academic or casual. The writing is evaluated accordingly.

Should you use writing tools that makes grammar and writing style suggestions?

You can use them if you are a beginner or if you make lots of writing mistakes when you are in the flow. For a person like me, more than a facility, they act as hindrances.

I commit grammar mistakes on rarest of the rare occasions. And even those grammar mistakes are less of grammar mistakes and more of structural choices. Sometimes I write sentences that don’t fit in the traditional “right grammar” mould.

Sometimes I use a peculiar writing style that may not fit into the conventional “proper” writing, but otherwise, there isn’t any problem in it. Hence, lots of highlights by the writing tool can be distracting.

You can certainly use writing tools to make improvements, but you don’t need to use them 100%. You can use them to point out glaring mistakes like lots of passive sentences or compound sentences or needless conjunctions.

Although I know that I should write “I did that” but sometimes I end up writing “it was done by me”, so, it can be helpful if the software highlights such things, and I can correct them.

But, are they worth the cost? Personally, I don’t think so. If you can afford them, well, why not?

Most of the writing tools are exorbitantly expensive. It might be because they are a novelty right now and the mainstream word processors aren’t shipping inbuilt tools to process language. I’m pretty sure in near future Microsoft is going to purchase one of these companies to provide writing assistance in all its Office products.

They may be helpful, or they may be a nuisance – it depends on how comfortable you are expressing yourself.