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Hate that if you use Word for Mac, you now have Copilot next to your cursor with no way of turning it off. I just want to use Word. I like its print layout fea
by for_i_in_range 2y ago
Hate that if you use Word for Mac, you now have Copilot next to your cursor with no way of turning it off.
I just want to use Word. I like its print layout features better than Pages. I don't want to switch. Just let me write and leave me alone. Now they're jamming AI down my throat without any opt-out mechanism.
- Angostura 2y agodelighted that Office 2019 still seems to work OK
- the_snooze 2y ago>Just let me write and leave me alone. Yeah, we have networked supercomputers in every pocket and on every desk. And word processors and spreadsheets have been around for decades---that use case is a solved problem. I suppose we can be charitable to Microsoft and say they're trying to innovate, but these AI features lack a clear practical need that they're meeting. It feels more like Big Tech flopping around trying to make the next big thing happen, rather than actually going out into the real world and solving problems actual humans have.
- surfingdino 2y agoMicrosoft is trying to stay relevant and have an answer to Wall St analysis asking them questions about their AI strategy. They will delete AI tools and helpers as soon as the industry goes after another "big idea".
- Yeul 2y agoI guess making billions of profit isn't enough you need to do something with AI.
- wkat4242 2y agoAlso, they can now proudly proclaim they have 100M+ subscribers to their AI stuff so it's a huge success :P I'm glad my web-only 365 (business basic without teams, can't use the family plan because I need a personal domain) just renewed for a year so they can't mess with mine.
- rawgabbit 2y agoThis. It is backwards attempt to become "The AI" company. They have sole rights to use OpenAI's technology and the best they can come up with is a price markup to further piss off their customers.
- narrator 2y agoLibreoffice is way better than Pages.
- derefr 2y agoMaybe in terms of being a word processor (i.e. supporting all the layout and editing/proofing features that Word has.) But if, as the GP says, you want a program to “just let you write” (with some "writing-phase" accoutrements like change-tracking, word count, a dynamic Table of Contents, and so forth) — and you want a pleasant experience while writing, that takes advantage of the acceleration of native OS UI elements to keep that writing as smooth and jank-free as possible... then I’d assume Pages would be the clear winner, no? (That, or just TextEdit. Though I’m not sure if TextEdit is optimized for novel-length texts the way word processors would tend to be.)
- righthand 2y agoYou can just write with LibreOffice. Your example of special acceleration for Apple made software is unfounded.
- kstrauser 2y agoI happily used LibreOffice for years, and got a small businesses off Word in favor of it (well, OOo at the time). I’m a fan. But Pages is much more ergonomic, lightweight, and native on a Mac. There’s not a likely scenario where I’d use LibreOffice over Pages.
- dijit 2y agoThe issue with nearly all of these software suites is compatibility. It is ironic, that libreoffice solves this the best, by being truly cross platform and not requiring special software to be purchased on the receiving end: yet it is the momentum of Microsoft Word that would instead hamper adoption of other word processors. I am thinking about this, because the reason I would choose not to use Pages, is so that I can share my documents to other companies or even people in my company who may not have a Mac.
- WaltPurvis 2y agoYou can turn it off. Go to preferences -> Copilot and uncheck the Enable Copilot checkbox.
- richm44 2y agoAs the article explains, that's not been implemented on Mac yet.
- tethys 2y agoThat's not correct and also not what the article says. They are only talking about Excel and PowerPoint. "We're working on adding the Enable Copilot checkbox to Excel, OneNote, and PowerPoint on Windows devices and to Excel and PowerPoint on Mac devices." I am using Word on my Mac (version 16.93) and do have a checkbox that disables Copilot.
- richm44 2y agoOdd - I also have 16.93 on Mac and I don't get the checkbox (unless I just can't find it I guess).
- WaltPurvis 2y agoWell, I'm on a Mac and it 100% has been implemented for me -- I tried to figure out how to turn it off as soon as I first saw it, went to preferences, found the checkbox. I didn't realize that hasn't been rolled out to everybody.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoUpdating story and a rolling update. It'll probably be there within a few days. But it is legitimate that some don't have the option yet.
- kjkjadksj 2y agoIf you throw word behind a firewall with something like little snitch, does copilot disappear? There is probably zero reason word, excel, or powerpoint should need to connect to the internet.
- maximilianthe1 2y agoExcel has a sometimes useful feature of gripping data from tables from url.
- manchmalscott 2y agoIIRC, excel’s ability to run Python is entirely cloud based, even in the desktop apps. There is, of course, probably zero reason why that would need to be the case either :/
- ubermonkey 2y agothis still makes me super mad. I was very excited about that feature announcement --- until I realized it was just sending the code to MSFT to parse or whatever. "Excel understands Python now" would be amazing. What they actually did is completely pointless.
- behnamoh 2y ago[flagged]
- alangibson 2y ago[flagged]
- kbrkbr 2y agoI don't think it is weird. This button really has nothing to do with the product and it's use case as far as I can see. That is what GP is pointing out as far as I can see.
- greenchair 2y ago[flagged]
- dijit 2y ago“it’s weird that you would pick that to get upset about” feels like the kind of spineless jab that I hear a lot from people with a certain political slant, which is fucking annoying because I have the same political slant, and you just make people dislike us with terrible takes like this. Having checkboxes for fully cosmetic nothings while simultaneously releasing features that cannot be disabled feels strange given they are clearly able to put the required effort in for a hollow, mealy mouthed, capitalistic pandering effort.
- bigstrat2003 2y agoIt's not weird to be upset by a button which is entirely useless to the functionality of the product, and exists only to add politicization where there needs to be none. In fact, it's shameful that Microsoft did this. Let's put it this way: if the button was for something you didn't agree with - say, it was a button for "show your support for the sanctity of marriage", would you blithely say "there are lots of buttons in the preferences so it's weird to get mad about it"? I suspect not. I suspect that you would, in fact, be outraged even though that'd be an equally hidden expression of political opinions. We can't, with any fairness, take a stance that political expression is ok but only if it is for the ideas we agree with. So we should (and we used to) agree that things shouldn't have politics forcibly shoved in people's faces, and that we must live and let live. That's a far better way to coexist.
- Doctor_Fegg 2y ago> Just let me write TextEdit all the way. I used to edit a market-leading print magazine with TextEdit. I don’t need layout features, the designers do that in InDesign. I don’t need a grammar checker or AI because I can write.
- for_i_in_range 2y agoI am old school. I write books and print them out to edit with red pen. Need all of Word's print features. Not everyone is a "digital writer."
- chasil 2y agoAllow me to introduce you to WordStar, in the "modern" context of Joe's Own Editor. https://gizmodo.com/sci-fi-writer-releases-free-archive-of-legendary-word-processor-used-by-george-rr-martin-2000484618 https://gizmodo.com/sci-fi-writer-releases-free-archive-of-l... https://joe-editor.sourceforge.io/ https://joe-editor.sourceforge.io/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe%27s_Own_Editor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe%27s_Own_Editor Edit: I once used WordStar 4 with a daisywheel printer.
- yencabulator 2y ago> I write books and print them out to edit with red pen. Need all of Word's print features. The latter really doesn't follow from the former. All? Sounds like you need basic printing..
- drooopy 2y agoTextEdit is my editor of choice for 90% of all RTF word processing that I do, when on a Mac.
- Finnucane 2y agoDo you have a copyeditor and/or proofreader? I'm a production editor. Part of my job is to fix stuff written by people who can write.
- 2y ago
- dunham 2y ago> Hate that if you use Word for Mac, you now have Copilot next to your cursor with no way of turning it off. They should put it in the bottom corner, next to an animated paperclip instead.
- Cumpiler69 2y agoI wish Microsoft would have the balls to do this. Meme it all the way. At least we'd get some good laughs out of it.
- robotnikman 2y ago>next to an animated paperclip instead. Now that would be kinda funny, Clippy powered by modern AI
- lubujackson 2y ago"Turn off Clippy" "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that."
- utdoctor 2y ago“It looks like you’re trying to build AGI! Need help taking over the world responsibly?”
- heresie-dabord 2y ago"It looks like you think whatever I am doing with all this venture capital is AGI! Should I bother to correct you?"
- passwordoops 2y agoI heard a description of Copilot as "What Microsoft thought Clippy should be". Thanks, but no thanks.
- NBJack 2y agoAh yes, the real paperclip doomsday scenario. As was foretold.
- captn3m0 2y agoI am still on Office 2021 on my Mac, which was the last “non-subscription” offering I could find. No Copilot yet.
- rkagerer 2y agoOffice 2003 is my preferred pick for productivity, I use it for all new documents - and best of all there's no ribbon.
- ozim 2y agoWhy not LibreOffice?
- rkagerer 2y agoLast time I tried it (maybe 20 years ago?) there were fidelity issues (documents didn't display exactly identical to authentic Word), and some differences in minor features. I should probably give it another whirl, although I'm really happy with 2003.
- ipaddr 2y agoHonestly it has improved quite a bit. The excel like product calc could be better.
- rstuart4133 2y agoThe fidelity issues are still there if you are loading Microsoft formats into LO. All the Microsoft format specificions are a insanely long, complex messes that even Microsoft doesn't follow, so I suspect that will always be so. But Office now read/writes ODF files, so you can ask it to convert into something LO is the authority on. That also means you can send an office user an ODF file, and expect it to be displayed sensibly. So the friction is still there, but it's a lot less now.
- sombragris 2y agoSeconded. Really a sane, decent UI for an office suite and works very well.
- asa977 2y agoSeconded. It’s sane, it’s stable, it’s compatible.
- 2y ago
- infecto 2y agoThe MacOS copilot implementation is horrid. Takes up a significant amount of screen space just to offer a summary of the email. Cannot turn off. For whatever reason cannot be a simple button with pop up on click. It’s horrid.
- jay_kyburz 2y agoI can't think of an email I have ever received that needed to be summarized? Who is writing these super long emails?
- Keyframe 2y agosometimes, super long email threads in corps
- RHSeeger 2y agoI've written some super long emails; but I also include a TL;DR summary at the top when I do. Sometimes, the "how to get to the summary from the current, commonly known info" (long) part is useful; but not for everyone. And certainly not right out of the gate. That being said, I'd almost never trust an AI to generate the summary part.
- k8sToGo 2y agoHave you never seen how AI makes texts super long? That needs to be summarized again by the receiver! Like a reverse compression.
- freehorse 2y ago
- QuantumGood 2y agoAlso now there on Windows
- alsetmusic 2y agoMy company is blocking it. I don’t know by what mechanism, so it may only be possible with an enterprise license or through device management. But I know it’s possible because I’m on the email thread where someone sought guidance from management and the directive was affirmed to block it on Macs in our fleet.
- Spooky23 2y agoIt’s really expensive for enterprise — like about the same cost as M365 E3!
- rpdillon 2y agoFascinating strategy. It looks like they're forcing everybody into it, so it's opt-out, except there is no opt-out in the initial version of the app. They seem to be in the process of adding it now. > In your app (for example, Word), select the app menu, and then go to Preferences > Authoring and Proofing Tools > Copilot > Clear the Enable Copilot checkbox > Close and restart the app. > If you do not see the related button, it means this button has not been pushed to your Office version yet. Please be patient and wait for the development team to release an update. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-do-i-disable-copilot-word-for-the-mac/29317f1c-103e-4c91-b08b-83eb6d6e13da https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-d...
- rogual 2y agoSomething about the way Microsoft writes just rubs me the wrong way. Not: "Please wait for ... an update" But: "Please be patient and wait for ... an update" It's not just their staff here, it's all over the docs and UI too. They can't write two sentences without saying something condescending and rude. Like in Word, if you look for how to turn off grammar checking, they'll tell you, but they just have to add "Remember to run spell check. Spelling and grammar errors can seriously undermine what you're trying to say, especially when your boss, your teacher, or that person in HR sees them." [1] They can't help themselves. [1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/turn-spell-check-on-or-off-in-word-for-the-web-fe0b5644-10e6-4e61-b661-441bff362a84 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/turn-spell-check-...
- _rupertius 2y agoFor those trying to work out an alternative, I've found OnlyOffice desktop to be pretty good – it's quite similar to the Microsoft products, and fully compatible, but free.
- JALTU 2y agoAuto opt-in because again, we are what's for sale, not the software. And 'scuze me, gotta go check my gmail now...
- liendolucas 2y agoHonestly thinking it again after re-reading the article. This feels like not being hungry at all but someone comes, opens your mouth against your will and pushes you a high calorie burger, fries and soda through your larynx. You are going to eat it, like it or not (just to put it politely).
- thelittleone 2y agoNot only did the megacorp CEO's drop the ball on AI... we've got them gloating over widespread firing of engineers due to AI and then quotes like "I'm good for my $80B" like its his own personal money bag. And now they're force feeding crappy alpha AI products. The egos are well out of hand. And they give this group the name "The Magnificent Seven". WTF have we become. We trust these companies to be stewards of AGI/ASI?
- Fr0styMatt88 2y agoSo much this, when you see Zuck or even Jensen Huang saying "software engineers won't be needed anymore" and being excited about it you get pissed off as a software engineer lol. I feel like Microsoft's whole thing with Windows 11 has been "just force the users to do what we want them to do, we know better than they do" so it doesn't surprise me that 365 went the same way. I'm saying this and I'm a person that's usually extremely enthusiastic about new tech, but I'm just burnt out on these companies trying to shove AI down our throats. Had it been opt-in and gradual, I would be far more optimistic and enthusiastic. I guess my question is "why such a rush?". Even Apple rushed into it with something half-baked and unfinished.
- codeduck 2y ago> why such a rush First mover / Fear of missing out. Frankly, inclusion of "AI" in a tool is a great way to ensure I don't use it.
- marcosdumay 2y ago> why such a rush? OpenAI alone spent $20G plus some unknown value to make the first version of it we have now. They and all the others need to justify the investment.
- aninteger 2y agoPretty impressive, only $20 grand?
- weakfish 2y agoMay I suggest Scrivener? It’s somewhat geared toward novels, but is very useful in other domains as well. Plus, it’s a one time buy.
- Molitor5901 2y agoI've been using an old version of Word and Office and have no intention of ever upgrading.
- quitit 2y agoI'll start on a slight tangent, but it may well be the solution to your problem. Earlier this month I received a price increase email from Microsoft for Office 365 - to the tune of a 46% increase. Not too keen on this I went to their website to check to see if there was a cheaper plan, and it turns out there is. You can "downgrade" to a Copilot-free version of Office 365, and this also does away with that absurd 46% increase. So you get to remove Copilot -and- dodge another year of price increases. Mini edit: Microsoft have started rolling out a "Turn off Copilot" options in the settings, I have it now in Word, but not in Powerpoint or Excel.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoYou will own nothing and like it. Sadly, switching is the only form of protest we can do against such actions.
- ulfw 2y agoEven worse is I get this stupid Copilot thing while typing, interrupting me every two seconds to "generate my text with copilot" instead of oh you know writing text in Word. And when I try it out I get "We encountered a problem validating your Copilot ! license. Learn more about Copilot licensing" and it doesn't work. No explanation. I pay for this Office shit (won't anymore now obviously). AI is ruining everything either directly or indirectly. Congrats.
- nycdatasci 2y agoApple lets their design team make all the critical product decisions, while Microsoft delegates the same responsibility to marketing.
- whywhywhywhy 2y agoDon't think that's true because increasingly often their marketing is nothing like the actual product. Doesn't feel like any of them are working together internally.
- prmoustache 2y ago> I just want to use Word. I like its print layout features better than Pages. I don't want to switch. Just let me write and leave me alone. Now they're jamming AI down my throat without any opt-out mechanism. Why don't you install and use one of the last single purchase licensed version? Last time I checked they were still available.
- fx1994 2y agomaybe we are locked with o365 from our IT department...
- ubermonkey 2y agoI'm on Word on a Mac, and I do not see Copilot at all. What have I done to banish it? (I'm with you. I actually don't mind Word and Excel, on either platform, because they're good. Excel is pretty great, tbh. But the ongoing goofiness of MSFT is definitely making me look at alternatives more than i used to.) *EDIT* It appears my refusal to allow AutoUpdate to run at will has saved me? I'm on Word for Mac 16.8.
- btreecat 2y agoMaybe it's time you vote with your wallet rather than begrudgingly accept the AI?
- Cumpiler69 2y agoGo with TempleOS. It doesn't come with any AI.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoI'm the opposite -- I use both Word and Pages and I much prefer the experience in Pages, especially the page layout. I find Word painful to work with by comparison and I avoid it as much as I can.
- defaultcompany 2y agoI’m dating myself but it reminds me of when e-mail hit the mainstream and Microsoft jammed it into every product with no thought for how it would really be used. Like in Excel … every email address in your spreadsheet would open the email client when you clicked the cell. Gee what if I want to edit the value in this cell instead of email the person? We’ll make that possible if you hold shift (or something). It was terrible and this feels exactly the same. The purpose is not to give the user a helpful AI assistant it’s just to be able to say “we have AI”. That’s it.