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On the frustration of using the obsolete Vocal word editor

Dear Vocal, Updating this word editor to a real-time universal autosave should not be rocket science. Even a cat could do it!

By Susan Fourtané Published 25 days ago Updated 25 days ago 3 min read
On the frustration of using the obsolete Vocal word editor
Photo by Tai Bui on Unsplash

To preserve my mental health sanity as much as possible I have decided that I won't let this frustration stay inside my chest, growing into something even worse and ultimately causing me stress. More stress which I don't need.

You see, not always I feel like writing on a document first to then copy my writing onto the Vocal word editor before finally submitting the piece to the right community (speaking of communities, they also need some updating and perhaps adding one for creative non-fiction, for starters). Sometimes --and I am pretty sure I am not the only one-- I simply want to write something straight away here, on this rather obsolete and basic editor, and publish the piece immediately, without second thoughts or edits or anything. Just plain, raw writing. Not everything needs to be edited, and developed into three or more drafts. Not in my book. That's how many stories never get published. Too much perfectionism is not a good thing.

"Sure, Susan, we can do that," you may say. "We can write directly here on this word editor and publish right away. Are you sure? You see, there is the little "save changes" green button on the top right that is utterly annoying. Why annoying? Annoying because this obsolete editor does not save your writing automatically! This, an old piece of software in the era of automation and Agentic AI systems. This word editor will not save your writing unless you remember to manually save it by clicking on the 'save changes' little green annoying button. You do have to remember to click on the "save changes" button every couple of minutes unless you want to lose your masterpiece whilst you blink twice in disbelief of what it just happened.

Seriously? Like, seeeeriously? If you don't click on the damn button and your computer decides it's time to power off, reload by itself, go into sleep mode, or whatever other things devices do at the least convenient moment and your whole work can be gone. Forever gone. Just like that. You will never recover the precious ideas, the well chosen words that made you so proud, the magnificent piece of writing that you had just created and trusted the Vocal word editor would save it for you. Because that would be how it should be.

Dear Vocal,

Hereby, I beg you to please, pretty pretty please, update, upgrade, do some magic, do something to bring this annoying obsolete word editor to the 21st century. Did you notice we are already past the first quarter of the century? Amazing. Every word editor in this galaxy and beyond is capable of auto-saving. Not this one, though. If my life would depend on what I write here forgetting your word editor will not autosave, well, I would be dead by now. Perhaps the squid-like creatures from the neighbouring galaxy whom seem to be interested in my marvellous writing skills would finally buy my stories. IF and only IF I could get my stories to autosave rather than losing everything into the void. It's as if the Vocal word editor is connected to the black hole of writing where everything disappears and no one knows where the words go. So, please, pretty please, do something to add a so much needed real-time autosave function. This could literally save lives.

Sincerely,

- Susan

Ps/ I was half way into writing a story, the device I was using decided to do something and all what I had written disappeared, to never come back. It was all gone to the void. My frustration produced this, which at least will amuse someone.

SarcasmSatireVocal

About the Creator

Susan Fourtané

Susan Fourtané is a Science and Technology Journalist, a professional writer with over 18 years experience writing for global media and industry publications. She's a member of the ABSW, WFSJ, Society of Authors, and London Press Club.

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Comments (7)

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  • Andrea Corwin 24 days ago

    Perfect! Updates are needed and you are so right on this. I do mine in Notes or Word and then copy over. Before I was wise to their old-school manner, I did lose some stories by not frequently using the "save" button. Vocal needs a complete Refresh and new "help" articles that are not 5 years old. BTW, I edit my squid story so now it doesn't appear, but here is the new one and I humbly thank you for pointing it out (be sure to read my note at the end): https://shopping-feedback.today/poets/pink-jellyfish%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cstyle data-emotion-css="w4qknv-Replies">.css-w4qknv-Replies{display:grid;gap:1.5rem;}

  • Calvin London24 days ago

    Nicely done, Susan. I agree that Vocal should review some of their communities and introduce some new ones.

  • It sometimes does an autosave about thirty seconds in and then wipes what you have written, and it even does it further in. I think the lesson is, if you want autosave, use another editor. I know loads of people who do this with emails and then complain they have lost four hours' work, if you are writing for four hours without saving theyn it's on you. I have every sympathy with you but just take it as a lesson learned. I am fine with the Vocal editor as it is

  • I'm so sorry this happened to you 🥺 I'm so used to writing on Microsoft Word on my laptop. As for my poems, I write them on my phone in the Notes app. Only then I copy my writing into the Vocal Editor. So while I can't relate, I do feel sad for you and the others that this has happened to. I hope they really bring an autosave feature for you guys

  • Shirley Belk25 days ago

    This is priceless!!! The cat is perfect :)

  • Novel Allen25 days ago

    ❤️hope abounds for changes.

  • Sandy Gillman25 days ago

    I couldn't agree with this more! I currently write my documents in Word, but just got a new laptop and I've now discovered modern-day Word is also very complicated lol! I do find once I copy and past my story into Vocal, I'm obsessively clicking "Save" every time I make a minor change. Come on Vocal, surely and autosave feature is an easy upgrade!

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