First, let us state the important: we LOVE Word. So much so that we made Macro work with Word (DOCX) files. That means that any edits you make in Macro are compatible in Word. Unlike Google Docs, which offers only partial support for DOCX files, Macro is completely compatible with Word. That means that a subset of the team can use Macro, others can continue in Word, and there's no issue.

*So what's wrong with Word for law and finance?*

Well, put simply, Word just wasn't built for long documents (20+ pages) with cross references. Its system for inserting references involves going through three menus. It crashes and takes forever to load long documents. The web version of Word is basically useless when it comes to formatting — try opening a file from Word for Windows in web and watch as it looks completely different! Word also has limited sharing options; co-authoring still seems flakey.

Since Word is a designed general word processor for everyone, it doesn't have features specific to legal and financial docs like defined terms popups, reference checking, fine tuned AI/LLMs for business documents, and a user interface that is tailored for the busy professional.

Word also doesn't match the way contracts usually get negotiated: in a turn-based manner where versions are passed between counter-parties. With Word+Outlook you end up with many versions and dozens of redlines in your inbox. Macro makes it easy to keep track, merge and compare changes in one place.