The reality of moving people off of Word is daunting, at the least. We surveyed lawyers recently and, of 358 respondents, 81% use Microsoft Word (46% use 2007, 35% use 2003) and a surprising 15% hold on to WordPerfect. Only 6 of the 358 respondents use OpenOffice, a lowly 2%. Of new lawyers (0-3 years), only one in 52 use OpenOffice, while 96% (50/52)  use Microsoft Word. Lawyers in business between 4-10 years are not much different, though 14% still use WordPerfect. Eighty-five percent of such lawyers, however, use Word.

For those of us who develop forms or products for lawyers, it doesn’t make business sense to do so in another format other than Word, for now. While I have experimented with OpenOffice, our forms are highly formatted for ease of end use, and that formatting could present problems in another application, leading to real frustration for the user. It’s valuable time lost for us at practicelaw in answering numerous help desk problems that may arise with cross-application problems. It’s also valuable time lost for the attorney or the attorney’s staff in trying to use a form that doesn’t translate well in another application. So, yes, familiarity is a strong pull, as well as ease of use for the vast majority of our users.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Google Docs, though my beef with it is in how it’s formatted, in HTML/CSS, which doesn’t translate well when you have highly formatted documents like ours. I’m also a fan of Open Source Software (OSS), especially those that are free, but the reality of our market gives us limited ability to develop products in an OSS format. We are, however, planning shortly to release a GnuCash trust accounting guide. That’s a start, at least.

My prediction: once Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) becomes the de facto styling system for all word processing formats, including Word, the playing field may change dramatically. That day is not yet here, but it seems to be moving that way and it may be a welcome day for all of us when it arrives.