I use tables in Word for situations where having an X and Y axis are useful for comparing various options (like an alignment chart!). Or for copying parts of data tables out of Excel to embed in a larger narrative document. But they need to be used appropriately and I can't for the life of me imagine a scenario where *nested* tables would be a good use of anyone's time.

I think I have accidentally created nested tables, though. I get rid of them as soon as I can, but they are pretty easy to produce when you just want to add another row or something.

This same doctor also invariably reformats all the bullet-point lists, of which these documents contain many, from actual bullets to random Greek letters (usually Σ, but not always), which the non-Word platform doesn't understand and which have to be reconverted to bullets.

That seems like something that could happen if you went from Word for Windows, to Word for a Mac, and back to Word for Windows. At least, I've seen other, similarly odd changes happen with OS switches.

Word tables are the sort of thing that makes me understand image-only pdfs. It's totally non-accessible and super hard to transfer into something else, so I don't do it. But "it's irredeemable, so take a photo and move on" has it's appeal. I usually start snarling about sticks and wax tablets at this point of the process.

Wax tablets do seem pretty genius, honestly

Clay tablets. Clay. Wax can melt, but if you subject clay tablets to a fire, they bake and become more or less permanent (although they do break). (There's a video I've spotted a couple of places of someone writing cuneiform on a clay tablet - the same phrase over and over. One place translated it as "I will not sell substandard copper".)

One place translated it as "I will not sell substandard copper".

Good ol' Ea-Nasir, remembered for eternity for being a cheapass.

Oh, I love me some cuneiform. But the beauty of wax is exactly that you can wipe it clear and reuse it over and over again, perfect for scratching out interim calculations and scribbling different versions of the same idea to get the wording right.

"I will not sell substandard copper" over and over again sounds like a Bart Simpsons gag

What I cam here to say was: I have four hundred and four unread messages in my work email, which is gmail based, so that total gets put in the tab and seeing "404" on my gmail tab is rather alarming! Then I remember what it really means and it's fine

Victory! I managed to schedule a vaccine appointment for my husband. We're both in the current group, but he's got diabetes, so I pushed him to go first.

I came across the reviews and comments on this product and some of the comments ....