NEED ADVICE  I've tried MS Office in the past and it's just so AWFUL. Now it's even worse.? Egad! Is it just me, or does it seem like your whole system slows SIGNIFICANTLY down with this on your system?

Does anyone know if there's ANYTHING out there that will open a Word doc and keep the track changes? Doesn't have to be freeware, it it will just keep me from having to use Word!  
(Version 10.1.5)

ANONYMOUS  Whether or not to buy this program comes down to a choice between great features and annoying bugs that Microsoft has had nore than enough time to correct, unless it just can't keep up with Apple's changes to its OS. Various forums report crashes, which I've also experienced, e.g., when trying to configure the toolbar in a way that involves dragging any button OVER another that has a "field" (such as font, or page view percentage). A File menu item called "Send to" is supposed to allow you to neatly coordinate your .doc file with your email client so you can send the file almost directly from Word, but I found the required submenu item grayed out, even though my email client is on the list of accepted ones, and is configured correctly. There's nothing in the program's Help file on this, which is at best adequate. Apart from some relatively low-level instability and quirkiness (buttons that were working fine in the previous session are sometimes suddenly grayed out and unavailable for no apparent reason, and need to be manually reconfigured), Word probably is the most powerful and intuitive word processor for OS X out there. Mariner and Mellel are still very limited. Nisus Writer is really very much in beta with many bugs of its own, and the cheap alternative (ThinkFree) doesn't provide guaranteed MS .doc compatibility). So, while it obviously depends on what you need to do what you do, in the less-than-perfect world of software, where not-as-advertised has become the de facto standard of "ex-sell-ence," Word is probably a good bet. I would look for a bargain though (under $200 on Amazon at the time of this writing). Best to all. PG  
(Version 10.0)

ANONYMOUS  That Microsoft makes bad programs for Macintosh, we already now since years: or to put otherwise, it is perhaps only that what is good for Microsoft is lesser than bad for Macintosh users. But a test program that does not even start is good result even for Microsoft: well, I could feel lucky that it did not format my hard disk (something in this direction is rumoured to have happened at least once with Microsoft). But for a Macintosh user, it is a vulgar patacca, shit, the lacking proof that a Mac should use no Microsoft software at all. Dummies may always buy a native Microsoft shit.

I have lost four days at different trials to have it started: at last I started it from a new formatted partition with a never used System 10 on it. All I could see was "the program has unexpectedly closed". Well, so a shit will I never buy.

What I need is a word processor with footnotes and cross-reference in footnotes and international dictionaries to prepare my books: it is rumoured I must wait to have international dictionaries. I forgot: I need also a program that starts. I hope someone else produces for Mac X such a program, with a one-way conversion from Word and then … Microsoft go to hell, that is your place! Go to hell with all the problems you gave me in all the version of Word!

Microsoft tells also a lot of lies: well, we knew all of so many Microsoft lies. But this test drive tells much more lies than usual.

It tells you: I write nothing in your System folder, just throw away the folder and you are free of me. Lie, double lie! I get not free of the new icon, and had my problems to start the old version of Word (to solve this problem, build your desktop again): it is not "just throw away the folder". But it is not all: more annoying is that it left me 200 Mb hidden files in hidden folder ".usr": and as I threw them (as a unix root) or wiped them off (in System 9 with Systemworks), they were undoubtedly Microsoft Word. It alters no way my System: what a lie even for Bill Pinocchio Gates!  
(Version 10.0)