Advantages and Disadvantages of MS Word

Microsoft Word is well-known word processing software written in C objective and C++, and it was created and released by Microsoft Corporation on 25 October 1983. Since then, it has dominated the writing field, and most professional employees who have written documents or other articles have used this software as their primary tool. Using this software, we can create our resumes and write our blog copies offline. Using it, we can write any formal application or any other type of letter. We can even use MS word in creating various forms.

After the success of MS Word, many companies launched their writing software, and most of them were similar to it. However, because of some top-class features of MS word, none could replace it, and still, it is one of the most used word processing software in the world. In fact, you'll find very few Windows computers that don't have MS World installed. In this article, we will see some top-class advantages as well as disadvantages of MS Word and how they impact its working.

Advantages of MS Word

MS Word undoubtedly has countless advantages, making it a superior choice as a word processing tool over other similar software. Let us now explore some notable advantages of this software:

Availability

Microsoft Word is easily accessible software, and anyone who knows basic computer functions can easily use it. To use this software, you don't need to purchase a supercomputer; you can use this software on a very low-budget computer with minimum hardware. You can easily purchase and download it by using the internet, or you can get this software by purchasing its CDs or DVDs and installing it on your laptop/ computer.

Simple and Customizable User Interface

It provides a user-friendly interface, and to use this software; you don't need to know about any technical knowledge. You can easily use this software even if you have zero knowledge of programming languages. On the interface of MS Word, you will find several menus at the top, each with several categories. You can easily understand these by watching some tutorials or reading some articles. In fact, you can hover your cursor over any of the features displayed, and the software itself will tell you what that feature does. Furthermore, anyone can customize the features based on his requirements through settings.

Allows Collaboration

Whenever we work in a group, each person gets some tasks to complete. Once everyone has completed their work, the work can be merged and reviewed to make sure everything is done as expected. For example, suppose some people are working in a team, and all of them have to jointly complete an article. For this, let's say some team members get the writing part of the advantages of the topic, while some of them get the writing part of the disadvantages, and so on. They do not need to work on different word processing tools and later merge parts to complete the article. Instead, they can all work together on the same MS Word file, even from different locations. Collaboration is a huge advantage of having software like Microsoft Word, which makes it one of the best writing software in the world.

Instant Help Availability

In this software, you will get a tool named "Microsoft Help", which is very useful for everyone. Everyone can easily get the solution to any problem related to Microsoft Word using this section. Furthermore, when you purchase any legal copy of Microsoft Word, you will typically receive a user manual with the software in which you will get so much information regarding the installation and features of the respective software. After reading that whole manual, you will be able to use this software efficiently. The best thing about this software is that it is famous all over the world, and that is why a lot of YouTubers make videos related to this software. Whenever you find any problem, you only need to search for your problem on YouTube, and after searching, you will get so many videos related to your query, and from this, you can easily get the answer to your question.

Built-in Vocabulary

Most of us use smartphones, and smartphones provide a feature that, when you misspell or type something wrong, it shows suggestions for correct spelling and sometimes also fixes it automatically. This happens because of the autocorrect feature. Because of this, we all eliminate wrong spellings. Similarly, MS Word also provides an Autocorrect and Dictionary feature, and it suggests relevant corrections if you type something wrong, which is a good feature of this software. It not only provides the vocabulary but also provides some additional correction options. If you start a new paragraph and forget to start it with a capital letter, MS Word often corrects it automatically. In addition, it can show you a red line in areas where it finds something that is not correct, be it meaning, spelling, grammar, etc. All these features of Microsoft Word make it somewhat better than any other software, and because of this, most article writers use Microsoft Word for their work.

Document Flexibility

MS Word provides users with a lot of tools to customize the look and feel of the document, making it more attractive and flexible. Some such tools allow you to change your font size, color, and style at any time within the document. It doesn't matter if you are at the beginning or end of the article or project; you can always make changes to your document. Also, you can save your current work at any time and start from the same point later. Although it is classified as a word processing tool, you can copy and paste content from the web or other documents directly into a Word file rather than writing everything manually, saving you significant time.

Feature-Rich Platform

MS Word provides many facilities. This is writing software by its name, but you can do some other work with it. For example, in this software, you will get the option of table inserting, which means if you want to show any table in your document, you can easily show it. The software also provides the feature of image inserting, which means you can add some attractive pictures as well. By inserting your own images, you can make your documents look beautiful. Fortunately, you don't need technical skills to perform these tasks in your documents using Word. You can easily implement all of these by making a few simple clicks.

Cross Platform Support

As stated earlier, you can edit or change anything in your documents while writing them and even after saving them for later use. To perform most of the relevant tasks of word processing, you do not need to install any third-party app along with MS Word. MS Word alone is sufficient for most basic to advanced writing needs. Another notable advantage of using MS Word is that it can easily open documents created using other word processing software, and one can make changes to those documents as needed. Likewise, files created on Word can also be opened using other similar software programs. In addition, Word is also available for Android, making it easy for users to edit documents on a smartphone while on the go. However, creating or editing documents using Word on a computer is much easier than using it on the phone.

Globally Recognized

If anyone owns a Windows computer, it is most likely that they have heard the term MS Word as Windows-based computers often come with the Microsoft Office suite, which includes MS Word by default. However, it may be offered as a trial or full version, depending on the package selected when purchasing the system. Since it is software that has been in existence for a very long time, it is popular among other users as well, including those who do not even have a computer. The software is used worldwide, which shows its widespread popularity. Due to its popularity, almost every software and tool supports MS Word files for relevant functions. It is widely used in almost every field for documentation purposes.

Disadvantages of MS Word

MS Word has been with us for a very long time, and many minor and major updates have been done to fix the issues and improve its functioning. Therefore, it is rarely possible to find major drawbacks in this word-processing software. However, the following are some disadvantages:

Not Free To Use

One notable disadvantage of MS Word compared to some similar word processing software is that MS Word is not free to use. Although it is free to install on the system and allows users to test the software and its features for a few days as a demo, the full version needs to be purchased after the trial period expires. With each version upgrade, the charges are getting higher and higher. Earlier, users had to make a one-time payment to get this software on their PC, but now, the latest version comes with a monthly subscription fee. Because of this, users have to pay repeatedly every month to use this word-processing tool. However, the mobile version is still comparatively cheaper but lacks many features.

Challenging for New Users

Undoubtedly, MS Word provides so many features which we hardly get with other similar software. However, it would not be wrong to say that most users usually do not need to use about 50 percent of its features. Still, Microsoft needs to keep adding these features to compete or remain the industry leader. Most of such features are used to perform some advanced functions in the document. At the same time, these advanced features can confuse regular users and even complicate the overall look as they have to learn to use each feature. Though the user interface can be customized by the users as per their requirements, it can be a daunting task for beginners. To overcome this, it would be better if Microsoft provided an option to choose between the 'Basic' and 'Advanced' user interface and showed the features to the users accordingly.

Frequent Changes

Because Microsoft is very active in making its software ecosystem simple and effective for everyone, it frequently releases updates to fix problems and/or include additional features. However, such changes may not always be pleasant to all. If you've been using MS Word for a long time, you might have remembered a significant change when Microsoft replaced its iconic Office button and toolbars with the ribbon. Unfortunately, so many users familiar with those functions faced some problems after the update. They had to give them some time to adjust themselves to the new changes.

Market Dominance

If we ask you about any other software on which you can write a vlog, article, or any other document, many of you will need help in finding the name of software with similar features. Simply put, MS Word has captured the entire market when it comes to word processing software. Also, since most of us have been using MS Word since the beginning, we usually don't like others' software as well. Whenever we hear about any word processing tool, MS Word is the first thing that comes to our mind. This is the reason why not many companies are trying to create word processing software to compete with MS Word. Because of this, we all have to blindly trust MS Word, and we have to pay whatever it charges.

Conclusion

MS Word is one of the best software in the computer world, and it has captured a huge market in the field of word processing tools. Due to this efficient software, one can create attractive documents, be they formal or informal. Due to its features, this software cannot be easily substituted with other similar software.