That simple, one word title is the main reason why Microsoft’s once eponymous application, Word, is, or rather should be, a niche product.

I’m not clear on why there has been a sudden flurry of verbiage on Microsoft’s famous, powerful but bloated application flagship. But a flurry there has been.

Word was designed to produce bundles of paper, something which it is reasonably good for. It is not suitable as a text manipulator (such as a programmer or data analyst might want), nor as an online content generator. And not only is it unsuitable for generating HTML, it is also unsuitable for creating content where HTML should be used!

This last issue is a pet peeve. Word files seem to have attained the status of generic containers. Got some cool photos to email your friends? Stick them in a Word document. Got some jokes to share? Stick them in a Word document. Got some instructions to post online? Stick them in a Word document. Got an online newsletter? Stick them in a Word document. For pity’s sake, why?

There are a few cases where Word continues to make sense. Namely where paper is involved, or one wishes to simulate it. In some professions the formal, structured document still has a place and may even need a handwritten signature. Word is the perfect tool for this.

Most of us, though, should be using content management systems or basic (web) publishing tools because most of us deal with information, not documents. Information has complex structures, relationships and dynamism which Word simply cannot handle.

Put together a set of simple instructions in a Word document and you make a rod for your own back. People will keep their own copies so multiple versions will be extant and you’ll have no way of tracking them. Even if you could, ensuring everyone has and is using the latest version is impossible. Add another, related set of instructions in a new document and you will have a hard time referencing between the two, because linking simply does not work. Add more and the problem gets exponentially worse.

Some have said Word is good for serious tasks like writing a book. Well, maybe a novel, I guess. Anything more complex is better tackled in a dedicated publishing application like Adobe InDesign. And before you think “Microsoft Publisher” (see, Microsoft agree with me) consider that Publisher files are one of the most proprietary formats on the planet and very few people own the software.

I think a great rule of thumb is “if it doesn’t need a signature, don’t use Word.” The world has moved on.

Oh, and if you do decide to use Word, for whatever task, be sure to use it properly. Styles, paragraph spacing, tabs and breaks have been provided for sanity. Discrete fonts, blank lines, spaces, and contiguous Returns are the work of the devil. If you can’t manage to get that right, perhaps you shouldn’t be using Word anyway.