Maximum PC

I'm a lousy secretary. I've never been able to figure out how to make a "modern" word processor behave. I'm MUCH more comfortable with some of the first iterations that came out in the late 80's and early 90's (when corel word perfect dominated), as they didn't assume what you wanted to do everytime you hit a key.

My single biggest issue is the auto bullet formatting that keeps popping up or the auto numbering that occurs when you type a number then a space, and then hit enter. I'm currently using open office, (which behaves the exact same way ms word does in this regard), and I'm trying to write recipes where you of course, have a number for the amount, then a space and then the ingredient followed by hitting the 'enter' key. The miserable *&^&% keeps auto formatting bullets and numbers. I get a pop up screen and I mouse over "turn off bullets/numbering" which then erases my amounts and moves the text back to the left margin where I want it. I then of course, have to re-enter the number and hit enter again. Then it happens all over again. This aggravating scenario has played out dozens of times everytime I try and use a word processor. I have asked various office workers how to make it behave and the answer is invariably "we don't actually KNOW HOW but we can play around with it until eventually, it behaves. It used to take my ex about fifteen minutes of fiddling to get rid of this everytime it popped up on something I was trying to work on. To me, that's not a very productive word processor. She's gone and I can't figure it out. I've never been good with MS software. I tend to believe the only ones that truly know how to use it are the people that actually wrote it as I've NEVER met anyone that has claimed how to fully use and understand their office suite.

I freely admit that I am a moron when it comes to stuff like this but I would like to change all that. Can anyone help me with this? I've got a vent server I rent if someone is feeling brave and would care to walk me though this process of getting rid of unwanted bulleting/formatting/numbering. Just pm me for it. I doubt a written explanation is going to get through my thick skull but I welcome any assistance.


thanks