For the short, simple documents that most people make, a versioned, wysiwyg word processor is going to beat everything else.

I mean, they don't want to think about building the output, never mind controlling the process.

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kzrdude 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I'm a programmer and even I like writing in a non-programmable environment. Programming in the document system just stimulates the more primitive parts of my brain that love the processing and programming more than the writing itself. So it's distracting in that way.

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limagnolia an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For most of the short simple documents I create, I don't want to redo the formating for every document. Simply writing it in something simple like Markdown ( possibly a markdown wysiwig editor) and having my software automatically apply appropriate standard formats to it is ideal.

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maxerickson 28 minutes ago | parent [-]

Right, most people don't want to do that, they want the burden of applying styles to the couple headings or whatever.

Unfortunately, most people don't use paragraph styles, but if you do, it's a couple clicks.

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sgc 17 minutes ago | parent [-]

Agreed. There is actually a lot better control in openoffice / libreoffice than most people know. You just have to set up your styles and be systematic about (virtually) never using direct formatting, instead always applying a pre-configured style. There is a distinct value in seeing your final product as you work, when the final product is visual.

	▲	noosphr a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		This is more of a utopia than expecting the average office drone to learn emacs.

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troyvit 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Building my resume in a wysiwyg editor was an exercise in frustration. Formatting was inconsistent, they were only searchable from inside the editor and versioning was useless because diff had no meaning.

My markdown resume has its own problems but having this level of control has been a huge load off my mind.