Notes

Outline

Selective Differences between Microsoft Word and Nota Bene A guide for the beginner Mark D. Szuchman Department of History, FIU Spring 2003

Selective Differences: MSW & NB MSW Style commands are placed in every paragraph Size of text file is, on average, three times larger. Built-in style is generic and designed largely for activities dealing with businesses. Available document views are all graphic. NB Style commands are set once at the top of the document. Elements of  a style are used once in the body of the doc and remain active until different elements are used. Files are one-third or less in size. Several built-in styles for different academic writing conventions used by most social science and humanities fields. Available document views are graphic and non-graphic; permits re-sizing doc window without losing sight of the text for fast and accurate copying/cutting and pasting among docs.

Selective Differences: MSW & NB (cont’d.) MSW Each style element in a new doc requires finding it and adding it to the document as it grows. Foot/endnotes are generic in style. Hypertext capability: no. NB All elements that properly belong to the selected style are presented for use in the doc from the start. Foot/endnotes styles are consistent with the selected academic manual style for the doc proper or selected for foot/endnote style of a specific journal or professional association. Hypertext-capable.

Selective Differences: MSW & NB (cont’d.) MSW Consistent user interface across MS applications. Cellular table handling is superior. Cellular layout can be edited directly. Graphics-handling is superior. Includes capabilities for text boxes, graphic boxes, OLE and more. Icon-richer; icons used for graphic-enrichment actions (font color, color highlighting, cellular table, etc). NB Consistent interface across NB applications. Cellular table handling is adequate but circuitous; requires more menu layers. Graphics handling is adequate but minimalist; includes capabilities for text boxes, graphic boxes and OLE. Fewer icons, deal with text-oriented needs and launching Orbis and Ibidem programs.

Selective Differences: MSW & NB (cont’d.) Greater dependence on mouse. No command-line capability. Doc’s formatting codes are not user-accessible, except for paragraph symbol. Save As... forces user to the saved-as version and location without choice. Dependence on mouse AND/OR keyboard at user’s will. Command-line AND/OR menu-driven at user’s will. All of doc’s formatting codes are accessible, individually or entirely; allows detailed or wholesale editing of style parameters. Save As... gives user option to continue working on new version but same location or use the new version and new location.