Reasons why users are abandoning Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word remains the world's most popular word processing software, but an increasing number of users believe it causes more inconvenience than it helps with their work.

Microsoft Word no longer holds the dominant position when it comes to word processing software. Photo: HowToGeek .

Microsoft Word has dominated the office software market for decades. However, daily use has revealed several weaknesses, leading many users to seek alternatives.

For the average user, Microsoft Word comes with a significant Microsoft 365 subscription fee, while many free tools meet most daily needs. Google Docs runs directly in the browser, saves automatically to the cloud, and supports real-time editing.

LibreOffice is a completely free, open-source option with a feature set nearly equivalent to Word. For users seeking greater flexibility, Obsidian offers an extensive note-taking system through community plugins.

Inserting images into Word is one of the most difficult tasks. By default, Word sets images to "Inline," treating them like text characters. This causes lines to be unevenly spaced and paragraphs to become jumbled when adding content.

Additionally, the feature that anchors images to paragraphs can cause images to shift uncontrollably during editing. These are issues that can be fixed, but require users to have a thorough understanding of how Word works.

Word templates often contain hidden table structures and tab spacing to maintain layout. Simply adding a longer paragraph, inserting a table, or placing an image incorrectly can alter the entire layout. This is a very frustrating experience when users are selecting templates for CVs, cover letters, or reports.

Microsoft will officially end support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 in October 2025. This means these versions will no longer receive security patches or feature updates. Users who continue to use older versions face increasing security risks over time.

Upgrading to a newer version is an option, but many users find the new version cumbersome and more difficult to use than what they are used to. In this context, tools like LibreOffice or OnlyOffice are becoming suitable alternatives for many individual users and small and medium-sized businesses.

Source: https://znews.vn/ly-do-nguoi-dung-tu-bo-microsoft-word-post1654108.html