Speaking from my own experience, when producing plain text with no trimmings, I often use Windows Notepad for the same reasons. So far as the majority of writing tasks are concerned, the latest version is not necessarily the best. Many of the new features may be ones you will never use. The earliest word-processors just performed the basic functions of manipulating text. More recently, the addition of page layout and graphics facilities have changed all this.
Manufacturers copy each other's ideas, and most packages are now beginning to look the same.
This is something that we can turn to our benefit in this chapter, for we'll be able to look at features which are common to them all. Just in case you are not already convinced or well disposed to the idea, the advantages of using word-processors for writing are simply enormous. It's possible that someone with talent and imagination could write a masterpiece with a pencil on the back of an envelope. For the majority of us lesser mortals however, word-processors offer the chance to generate and revise text in ways which were inconceivable before their invention. If you are completely new to word-processors, you may be worried about some of the problems which confront the inexperienced user.