It's very popular to pick on Microsoft Office. Even authors I respect do it ... and seem to think it makes them sound more intelligent or more in-the-know. But I can't help thinking it's the same, pathetic side of human nature as people who eat up negative gossip about successful movie stars. Jealousy isn't pretty or productive.
Imagine looking at this technology with the eyes of someone who didn't take as much for granted as we do every day. It's simply amazing -- astounding frankly! Look at what you can do today that you couldn't do ... or that would take much more time and effort ... just a few years ago. If you remember working with 5 1/4 inch floppy disks and 20MB hard drives ... or even typing your reports on a typewriter (heaven forbid!) you know what I mean. My mom worked as a legal secretary for many years -- and if there was an error in a document, even a typo, she got to type the whole page over. If the error altered pagination, she typed the whole report over.
And lets go back a bit farther -- back even to the many geniuses of the enlightenment era. Imagine what they might have thought of everything we take for granted. What could they have done with the technology we have at our fingertips?
Can't we just appreciate what we have for a minute? The creativity, talent, and effort that goes into building even the simplest of applications, for starters? There's always plenty of time for holier-than-thou Microsoft bashing. I just thought a little appreciation might be a welcome change of pace to some people.