Checking style in proofing in Word 2016

Nicole:

What's the latest on release of a patch that will return passive voice and other style checkers?

Thanks.

Dave

This is a copy of a formal complaint I sent to Microsoft today. For the record I fully expect them to do what they have done so far: NOTHING!

Rachel

*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Case number: 1338663823

Dear Sir Madame

Please note: the term “you” or “they” in this letter specifically refers to the Microsoft’s developers and upper management who are directly responsible for the hardship customers have been experiencing. In addition they have failed to implement any systems to rectify the problem.

I requested a formal complaint form over problems I am experiencing with Microsoft Office 365. However, I do not believe for a second that anything will be done, or that anyone will even read this. I simply want it on record that I tried in every conceivable why to get Microsoft to see reason and do something about the horrible position they put their customers in before I did everything possible to get a stable working version of Word, PowerPoint, and Database; and from my experience that would be Word 2010.

Please allow me to start by saying I have a degree in Computer Science, and I run my own business, I am not some hysterical customer afraid of change and lambasting every new decision Microsoft make that means change. However, office 2016 is simply beyond the pale.

I know I am telling you things you already know and have tried to ignore by telling you key functionality is missing and the share feature is at best a fiasco and an insult to working people at worse. Here are the problems I have experienced so far, and I have had the product less than 5 months:

• The share feature with OneDrive does not work (and is frankly laughable when compared to the intuitive functionality of Dropbox) When we uploaded documents to OneDrive it took so long to upload each time a change was made time and money was being wasted, which no business can tolerate. In addition, OneDrive repeatedly hid files that are shared if the file owner was not directly collaborating with you at the time. This is patently ridiculous. In the end I realised the functionality being offered was no different than what was being offered with the Dropbox Badge, which updates in real time and allows those of collaborating to make a change, save, and then the other user gets the updated version in real time. The option to type at the same time, which is the same as google docs from my experience is simply not the solution it purports to be in your case as often work is overwritten as the save, upload, and download sequence routinely malfunctions. However, I have read the posting of other users complaining about this and Microsoft’s replies. Therefore, I know you are aware of the problem. I will not even elaborate on how bad OneDrive is for real time collaboration except to say this, you offered me a free terabyte of storage when I bought my office subscription, and as a struggling start-up I could have used it. However, it was so bad when we tried to use it, I had no choice but to pay £7.99 a month to your rival then take your free service. That should give you some understanding of how truly atrocious it is, you literally cannot give it away.
• The core functionality of office has been gutted for inexplicable reasons
• Microsoft word is missing proofing style options, and autocorrect options to automatically change misspelled words using a right click option.
• In addition, you can only add a save location if it is in OneDrive which is defective.
• I have had to use the add-ons “Grammarly” and “DocTools” to address this problem and now have an unstable version of Word that is continuously crashing. The simple question is why should I have to pay third party apps to return key functionality?
• PowerPoint is actually missing the feature to highlight text! This strains common business sense as well as credulity. At this point I have to wonder why Microsoft’s developers think it is okay to release a product that is not finished and charge for it.
• Windows 10 keeps producing an error code instead of updating office. I paid for the subscription so I could receive updates and I cannot

In its current unfinished state Word is useless to me, and PowerPoint is diminished for no apparent reason. I contacted the technical department who of course cannot fix features that are missing to begin with. I contacted customer services who wanted to tell me that Office 2010 is not available, as if it were made by a company other than yourselves and you no longer had access to it, which might make actually make those comments believable.

Microsoft products are not apple products, they are not for design and entertainment, we use them for our bread and butter, and when they are defective it affects work, productivity, and the bottom line- money. You are costing me money by selling me a defective office suite and I have no intention of allowing you to keep my money and ignore the stress, aggravation, and financial loss you have put me through, all the while refusing to offer a working alternative office 2010. I was prepared to purchase a copy, and I have been refused, which means Microsoft is content to keep costing me time and money while I battle your defective software. I am sorry but that is simply not acceptable to any reasonable person simply trying to make a living. Microsoft generally release office suites every 3 years I am supposed to pay for a defective version for 3 years? In addition, with updates it may be longer and with updates not working there is simply no way to see this product ever actually being of use.

I am saying clearly that I want a refund or a transfer of credit to purchase a copy of office 2010. Office 2016 has to many core features missing to be considered a finished product, and Windows 10 is unable to update it. The developers involved in this fiasco have avoided the issue, and repeatedly tried to placate complaints with promises of a mythical update that even if it were real is of no use on a system that is unable to actually implement any theoretical released updates.

In summation, I am just an ordinary person with limited funds trying to run a business. Microsoft is a giant faceless corporation with a dominant market share in office products who has proved time and time again that customer satisfaction is among the least of their concerns; how we would ever have arrived at the unmitigated disaster that was windows 8 otherwise? Frankly I have had enough of Microsoft’s poor understanding of more likely total indifference to core customer requirements negatively affecting my business. I am simply requesting to purchase a working copy of office, is Microsoft really so unreasonable and so unwilling to help customers that you would prefer to battle over refunds and subscription cancellations than simply allow people to do their work?

I fully sympathize with the issues you have raised. Unfortunately, this forum is the wrong place to bring them up.  MS has effectively abandoned this forum to support by unpaid volunteers. There are only a few MS managers who lurk in the background.

You have a few other options to have your concerns heard, by MS management and the public.

First, copy your comment to the appropriate "UserVoice" forum.  MS has created a number of subsites at "uservoice".  I have seen proof that real decision makers at MS are made aware of a few of the issues that are raised there and real action is taken.  (See the list below).

Second, post your comment to the MS Facebook or twitter feeds. That way the general public can see your complaints and support you

Third, take your issues to truly public forums. If you have a public ombudsman in your general location talk them.  Find someone in the media who provides public support. Complain to them. Make your complaint public.

"UserVoice.com" - MS Suggestion box sites

If you have an (other) feature suggestions to make for various MS products, here is a longer collection of MS UserVoice.com sites:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-desktop/ms-suggestion-box-sites-at-uservoicecom/7397119c-6d48-49e6-8d94-7bd0a50d214f

Go to UserVoice, either through specific links I’ve provided or create your own suggestions there. That is where MS is looking specifically for this type of user feedback to bring them back to reality from what-ever lala-land they are working in when they make these "improvements".  Comments (and votes) like these in UserVoice helped to convince MS to roll back the "phat QAT" buttons in 2016.

Please do copy the comments you've made here and paste them into comments in UserVoice. If you make a new suggestion, copy the link to your suggestion and post it back on this question so other people with the same problem can vote for it and comment on it. (You’ll get faster action that way.)

This blog has a picture to show MS really is looking at UserVoice sites:

http://blog.indezine.com/2016/02/powerpoint-feedback-and-uservoice-does.html

https://www.change.org/p/satya-nadella-microsoft-what-computer-users-want-changed-in-windows-10

• Public petition site

Here are links to some of my personal “favorite” specific suggestions:

QAT buttons not showing custom images https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/12512571-qat-buttons-not-showing-custom-images

Bring back Picture Manger to the Office Bundlehttps://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/12498702-bring-picture-manager-back-to-office-bundle

Bring back all of the old grammar checking rules -https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10009743-bring-back-the-valuable-style-checking-tools-that

Back out change to make pen Ink default  MS Is working on this issue ****341 total votes as of Feb 26, 2016 – Mar 2016 MS pushed out a Windows Update to at least partially fix the problem

 30 votes - https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/12473571-have-some-way-to-turn-inking-off-for-machines-usin Office in General

  52 voteTo using Surface Pro 4 Pen as a mouse in PowerPoint 2016 instead of inking - PowerPoint

106 vote Use the pen as a mouse- Word

153 vote let pen usage toggle between inking and pointer - Excel

Recently Used List Sort order: Date vs Alpha as of Feb 22, 2016

10 votes https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10137741-recently-used-list-sort-order-date-vs-alpha

144 vote https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10261443-recent-files-pane-in-excel-2013-was-pretty-good-b

Excel Suggestion “Under review” Nov 25, 2015 (wow, fast action)

Petition to MS President to allow Windows Home users control Windows Updateshttps://www.change.org/p/satya-nadella-microsoft-what-computer-users-want-changed-in-windows-10 (The matching UserVoice site has been discontinued by MS)

Don’t want Office 2016 tied to Userid -https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/10517283-allow-activation-without-the-need-of-a-ms-mail-acc

Actually there are multiple threads with same point. As of Feb 1 2016 there are 785 votes on this question in multiple suggestions

ALLOW Activation without the need of a MS mail account. 386 votes

Office 2016 OEM without LiveID account 138 votes

Office 2016 Activation and installation without an email account 172 votes

return to the same process for activating Office 2016 that was used for all previous versions of Office. No "Live" accounts!  26 Votes

The Office 2016 Activation process is impossible for business's that purchase Microsoft licensing OEM. 70 votes

Activation without a live account. 7 votes

Need Office 2016 activation WITHOUT a Microsoft account! 6 votes

Allow Business Admin Portal to manage Office 1-time payment licenses toohttps://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/11448504-allow-business-admin-portal-to-manage-office-2016

Improve Highlightinghttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9389778-improve-highlighting

Make the full spectrum of colors that are available in Shading also available in Highlighting. I often use Highlighting to mark important or unusual text streams and I would like to search for particular colors of Highlighting .

Visio 365 monthly specifically for Consumer licenses -https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/10936428-visio365-monthly-for-consumer-365-users-and-oth

Recreate the single text margin around page like 2010 and earlier -http://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9253599-bring-back-classic-text-boundaries

Restore Radial Menu to OneNote439 votes total Feb 20 2016 ****148 votes Include radial menu in desktop onenote

  20 votes Radial Menu -

183 votes Bring back the radial fly out menu in the W10 Store version of OneNote -

  42 votes Bring back Radial Menu and Camera insert in Windows 10

  16 votes- Bring back Radial Menu for Windows 10 App

  25 votes- Keep the OneNote Windows 8 UI over the Windows 10 Beta UI

plus a bunch more pen requests

-

Add mind mapping to OneNote -https://onenote.uservoice.com/forums/327186-onenote-for-windows-windows-phone/suggestions/6160979-mindmap-functionality?page=4&per_page=20 

Custom installation from Office 365 (2016) / Return MSI installer option - ****https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/264636-general/suggestions/9939513-custom-installation-from-office-365-2016

Word 2016 Style Pane bug -mouse pointer wrong https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/11196345-word-2016-style-pane-corrupt-or-buggy-after-update

Add PowerPivot back to Access (and to Excel in all bundles)https://access.uservoice.com/forums/319956-access-desktop/suggestions/10284183-add-pivot-charts-back-to-access

Add BI/PowerPivot back to Excel in all bundles -https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9018823-make-the-power-bi-family-powerpivot-powerquery

'Worksheet' Tabs to Wordhttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10024812--worksheet-tabs-to-word

·

Social Media- Twitter - Make your Pain Public, maybe then MS will fix the problem

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-twitter-based-tech-support-puts-apple-in-the-shade-7000016997/

Sorry, there is no good answer to that. If you, and all the others with this problem start tweeting it, making it more public, maybe then MS will finally be inspired to find the fix to the problem.

Microsoft has a number of dedicated teams that do this kind of support explicitly: @WinPhoneSupport, @XboxSupport, @MicrosoftHelps, @WindowsSupport.

Social media teams on @Office, @Surface, and @Microsoft