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The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed the way we use language (www.bbc.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed the way we use language::As Microsoft Word turns 40, we look at the role the software has played in four decades of language and communication evolution.

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[–] homoludens@feddit.de 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

"Word templates led people to use the same formatting in communications, and eventually, this has become instantiated as a norm," says Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, where she studies human-computer interaction. If you work in finance, there's a specific way reports are expected to be laid out. Letters follow a set pattern, memos are largely formatted in the same way. "Users know where to find information in these standardised documents; they don’t need to spend time trying to find what they need."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at least Germany seems to have standards for this since 1949, so I doubt this can be contributed to Microsoft (alone).

[–] llii@feddit.de 10 points 11 months ago

Yeah, whe learned these standards in school.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There were books of letter and document templates, folks. Microsoft did not invent the semi-block format.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Right?

I'd posit WWII was the single greatest influence in recent history for more extensive standardization of just about everything in the business/project management/production/transportation/logistics worlds, and guess what - they all use tools like documentation and communication documents.

There were typing pools... And somehow Word standardized how docs are written/created??

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

And this BS from a "professor".

There's a reason for the phrase "Piled higher, Deeper" and this "professor" exemplifies it.