Products · Broad category
Word processors
Raised as a usability problem by 24 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2011–2026), in 22 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
People raised many different problems with Word processors, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 25 complaints
- Simple formatting like bolding text requires describing it to an LLM instead of clicking a button2026-01-26
- Couldn't find a reveal-codes view to see formatting codes in other word processors2025-04-24
- Finds Microsoft Word a horror show to use2024-04-29
- Word processor files open with fonts and formatting broken outside the intended app2024-04-28
- Silently converts typed quotes to smart quotes, so users can't tell or easily control it2023-11-03
- Backspace deletes a whole word or triggers undo instead of one character2023-11-03
- Pasting from HTML brings along mismatched random formatting by default2023-10-23
- Configuring a word processor is infrequent, opaque, and may be impossible to achieve2022-08-22
- Smart formatting keeps annoying users; editing link text is a struggle2022-06-17
- Pasting into a word processor doesn't just bring over the plain text2021-04-13
- Newer word processors have mostly added fluff and bad UI2021-04-05
- Word processors are a user-hostile environment for creating documents2020-07-10
- Formatting in word processors is insanely frictional compared with Markdown2020-05-16
- Cut content is silently lost when another selection is copied, with no recovery2019-08-12
- Scrolling over the font menu changes text style, and stray clicks resize images2019-06-16
- Typing formulas in word processors is torturous2019-01-09
- Manually formatting headings and text sizes wastes time and makes documents look bad2019-01-09
- Writing a letter in word processors means many menus, templates and formatting steps2018-12-05
- Adding tables or graphics makes text on new lines shift or behave oddly2018-01-31
- Writing and layout are entangled, so users fight themselves and get distracted2017-06-08
- Unintended font, list and indentation changes ruin manuscripts2017-05-29
- Modal styling tools force users to break flow to find formatting buttons2015-09-14
- Applied paragraph styles don't reliably update content when style changes2013-11-03
- Hiding the chrome makes editing tools harder to locate2013-07-31
- Users select, right-click and scroll through menus to copy and paste instead of using shortcuts2011-08-20