I thought I’d seen every error message that Microsoft Word was programmed to throw at me. As a heavy-duty MS Word user who works in hundred-paged documents replete with graphics, cross-references, template styles, index markers, and all the other little bells and whistles that makes Word about as efficient as a Chevy Tahoe, I’ve spent a large percentage of my life clicking through error and warning dialog boxes as application struggles to cope with my megalith manuals.
So today, when updating the template of a 148-paged document caused MS Word to hang, I was stunned when the following message appeared:
Apparently, MS Word failed in a new and spectacular way that I’ve never seen before, but how endearing. It admits ‘hey, I’m really fucking this shit up,’ and understands that I’m staring at the screen in eager anticipation. Yet instead of coming out and saying MS Word crashed, it makes the termination of the program and loss of my unsaved changes entirely the fault of me and my impatience. It’s a brilliant dialog box, really.
