9.9 KiB
9.9 KiB
Where WordCraft falls short of Word
Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-10 · Change: minor (beta distance restated: ~15 points, ~150–230 h; previously: first version; every known shortfall from the 2026-10-10 re-measure, ranked) · Target: Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365) for Mac 16.113.4
The work list. One entry per shortfall, ranked by how much it stops a Word user from switching
(B = blocks beta). Each says what's missing, the evidence, who it hurts, an Opus 5.5 agent
wall-clock estimate, and which parity document tracks it. Agents: pick from the top, check open PRs
first (gh pr list), and update this file and the parity doc when a gap closes.
Ranked
| # | Gap | B | Evidence | Impact | Hours | Doc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DOCX never tested on real-world files. No corpus of files from Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and Pages has been opened, rendered and round-tripped and compared with Word page by page | B | No corpus in the repo; crates/docx/tests are synthetic fixtures; "DOCX fidelity corpus: not started" since 2026-10-06 |
Everyone: the files people receive are the files that break | 30–50 | file-format-parity.md |
| 2 | Charts, SmartArt, OLE objects, ink and group shapes are dropped on open and lost on save, silently | B | No c:chart, dgm, wpg, w:object handling in crates/docx |
Business and academic documents lose content without warning | 10–15 to preserve and show fallback pictures; 45–70 to render and edit charts and SmartArt | file-format-parity.md |
| 3 | Crashes and freezes in the field: startup crash on Intel UHD Graphics (#170), freezes (#77, #59 Thai fonts, #31 font selector), no writes without admin on Windows 11 (#218), broken shape tool (#142), images can't be moved (#82) | B | 62 open issues, ~15 of them crashes, hangs or data-path failures | Anyone hit loses work or trust; the never-crash standard covers panics, not hangs or GPU driver faults | 20–30 | target-app-parity.md (Stability) |
| 4 | Pagination differs from Word: Aptos has no metric-matched substitute; columns don't balance; long footnotes don't continue; legacy compatibility options ignored; no page-by-page comparison harness | B | layout-parity.md; typing-parity.md Known gaps | Page counts and line breaks differ, which matters for forms, legal and academic work | 30–50 + owner (font) | layout-parity.md |
| 5 | Formatting revisions, move tracking and content controls are lost (w:rPrChange/w:pPrChange absent; w:sdt unwrapped) |
B | Issue #41; source grep | Legal and editorial review workflows; templates with form controls | 12–18 | file-format-parity.md |
| 6 | No native printing on desktop (PDF export only); web prints through the browser (#209) | B | file.print exports PDF; issue #15 |
Everyone who prints | 6–10 | hardware-parity.md |
| 7 | Dialog depth: 16 modal dialogs vs Word's ~100 (Tabs, Borders and Shading, Columns, Symbol, Field, Define Multilevel List, Table Properties, Track Changes Options, Options panes…) | B | Dialog enum in crates/ui-egui/src/dialogs.rs |
Power users reach for dialogs the ribbon alone doesn't cover | 20–30 | ui-parity.md |
| 8 | Proofing is English only; no language per run, no dictionaries for other languages | crates/proof has one dictionary; Word ships 120 proofing tools; issues #25, #40, #100 |
Every non-English writer | 25–45 | localization-parity.md | |
| 9 | Password-protected files can't be opened or saved | #55; docbin detects and refuses RC4/XOR |
Corporate and legal users | 6–10 | file-format-parity.md | |
| 10 | Objects: no group (#267 open), rotation handle, contour (tight/through) wrap, shape effects, WordArt, connectors, Drawing Canvas, Icons | parity-checklist.md (Shape Format 2/6, Layout › Group) | Newsletters, flyers, reports with diagrams | 20–30 | target-app-parity.md | |
| 11 | Interface languages: 8 of the 12 key languages missing (hi, ar, fr, id, de, ko, vi, pt-PT); no mirrored RTL interface; ~5% of strings still English in the six translated catalogs | localization-parity.md | Most of the world's writers | 50–80 | localization-parity.md | |
| 12 | Draw tab / ink: all 11 commands missing | parity-checklist.md (Draw 0/11) | Pen and tablet users | 15–25 | hardware-parity.md | |
| 13 | Charts and SmartArt editing (own renderer, chart data editing, SmartArt layouts) | insert.chart, insert.smartArt missing |
Reports and business documents | 45–70 | target-app-parity.md | |
| 14 | .doc can't be written; metafile pictures and Word 6/95 files refused |
crates/docbin is read-only |
Users exchanging files with old Word or legacy systems | 25–40 | file-format-parity.md | |
| 15 | References depth: 4 of Word's 12 bibliography styles; sources not saved in DOCX (#169 open); no EndNote/Mendeley desktop integration | Word's Resources/Style lists 12 styles |
Students and researchers | 10–15 | target-app-parity.md | |
| 16 | Right-to-left completeness: RTL sections and tables, kashida, RTL in HTML/ODT/RTF; eight older RTL bug reports to re-verify after #207 (#215, #211, #199, #66, #63, #48, #19) | layout-parity.md | Arabic, Persian, Hebrew writers | 10–15 | layout-parity.md | |
| 17 | East Asian typography: vertical text, ruby/Phonetic Guide, Enclose Characters, document grid, Asian Typography options | Catalog misses format.phonetic, format.enclose, para.asianTypography |
Chinese, Japanese and Korean documents | 20–30 | layout-parity.md | |
| 18 | Screen-reader access to the document canvas untested | AccessKit enabled; no tests | Blind and low-vision users; public-sector procurement | 10–15 | ui-parity.md | |
| 19 | RTF and ODT depth: notes, comments, revisions, sections, RTL | ~1,500 lines each in crates/formats |
Users exchanging with LibreOffice or older tools | 18–27 | file-format-parity.md | |
| 20 | Performance on large real-world documents unmeasured (500+ pages, many pictures) | Only the 188-page sample benchmark | Thesis and book authors | 10–20 | layout-parity.md | |
| 21 | Mail merge data sources: no Excel, Outlook/Contacts, email merge; CSV and typed lists only (#247) | Office administrators | 6–10 | target-app-parity.md | ||
| 22 | Ecosystem: no VBA execution (macros preserved only), no Office add-ins, no cloud storage, no real-time co-authoring | .docm keeps macros (#172) |
Enterprise users with macro templates; teams | 40–80 + owner decisions | target-app-parity.md | |
| 23 | PDF Reflow (open a PDF as an editable document, Word for Windows) | Users who edit PDFs they receive | 30–50 | file-format-parity.md | ||
| 24 | Customize Ribbon / Keyboard, Quick Access Toolbar customization; ~100 of Word's ~250 shortcuts | ui-parity.md | Power users | 10–16 | ui-parity.md | |
| 25 | In-app AI assistant (Copilot-style draft, rewrite, summarize) | Chat PR #178 open | Users expecting Copilot | 15–30 + owner (provider) | target-app-parity.md | |
| 26 | Minor formats: Flat OPC XML, Word 2003 XML, MHT, Works/WordPerfect | Rare | 20–35 | file-format-parity.md | ||
| 27 | View windows: Side by Side, Synchronous Scrolling, Arrange All, Switch Windows | parity-checklist.md (View 25/29) | Comparing documents | 3–5 | ui-parity.md | |
| 28 | Dictate | tools.dictate missing |
Dictation users | 8–15 + owner (speech model) | hardware-parity.md | |
| 29 | Equations: long display equations don't break across lines; ink equations | #191 notes | Maths-heavy documents | 3–4 | layout-parity.md |
Beta needs #1–#7 (~150–230 h with the stability and layout work they imply): they are the blocking gaps, and closing them lifts file formats, layout, stability and UI enough to take the full number from ~60% to ~75%. Everything else is depth on the way to full parity.
By kind
The same gaps grouped the way the parity documents are, for agents working in one area.
- Feature gaps: #2 (preserve), #5, #10, #12, #13, #15, #17, #21, #25, #27, #28, #29; Clipboard pane, Manage Styles, Group, Draw Table (open PRs exist for the first three — review and merge before re-implementing). Paste Special, Advanced Find, Column Selection, Style Inspector and custom table styles landed on 2026-10-10.
- UI/UX gaps: #7, #18, #24; rotation and crop handles on the canvas; table column drag on the ruler (#49, #217); context menus for objects and tables; Linux title bar theming (#78).
- File-format gaps: #1, #2, #5, #9, #14, #19, #23, #26; embedded fonts; glossary/building blocks.
- Hardware gaps: #6, #12, #28; scanner/Continuity Camera insert; KDE soft text (#140).
- Localization gaps: #8, #11, #16, #17; native-speaker review of every catalog (human).
- Stability and performance gaps: #3, #20.
Revision history
| Date | Change | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-10 | trivial | Merged main: landed features removed from the feature-gap list |
| 2026-10-10 | minor | Beta note restated: full number back to the additive ~60% (method aligned with the standard, no new evidence) |
| 2026-10-10 | major | First version, from the full re-measure: 29 ranked gaps with evidence, impact and hours |