Grassroots Response to .doc E-mail Attachments? 149
LurkingAbout asks: "Maybe it's just me, but it feels like people are sending Word .doc files as attachments more then ever. Typically it's a friendly acquaintance who doesn't realize that .doc is one of Microsoft's ploys to force the few remaining holdouts, like me, to shell out for a copy of Word (or better yet Office). This morning it was the director of my daughter's preschool with the monthly parent newsletter. I've taken to responding with a polite-but-educational message requesting that the sender save the file as RTF or HTML and resend. If I'm feeling long winded I sometimes go into a diatribe about the Evil Empire. Today I started thinking that maybe there's an opportunity for some grassroots organization here. Maybe a concise well-written boilerplate paragraph for just this situation? Or a link to a web page to help educate the masses who think .doc is like air. What do other Slashdot readers do in this situation?"
It's been done already (Score:5, Insightful)
How about at Universities? (Score:2)
See this or this. RMS and many others are all over it.
From my alma mater:
The Department of Systems and Computer Engineering [carleton.ca], the one faculty which should know better is the only faculty at the school where I've seen course notes in Word and PowerPoint. Everyone else does HTML and PDF. Assignments have to be submitted with a Windows binary called "submit.exe". And, most ironically, for a Java programming class, at that. What fscking idiots.
Makes me so proud.
Over Reacting? (Score:1)
Re:Over Reacting? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Over Reacting? (Score:3, Interesting)
This feature is part of the system install and not an add-on.
Now that people can create PDFs the same way they print, I am seeing a lot less of the ".doc-type" documents flying around as attachments.
Instead of running up the anti-MS flag, I usually take the tack of telling them that I got the file, but it looks all messed up on my screen. This is using the fact t
Re:Over Reacting? (Score:3, Insightful)
What a lot of people don't seem to get is that there are really two use cases for sending documents by e-mail:
In case 1, PDF should be the be-all and end-all. It displays and prints perfectly on virtually any platform.
In case 2, there should be an agreed format for sending. Something like DOC may be acceptable, but
not over the top (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree (Score:2)
Motivation for Filename Extension Hiding (Score:3, Insightful)
Geek: "I can't read .doc files. Please use a non-proprietary format."
Luser: "What's a .doc file? I dragged an icon labeled '2004 annual report' and you tell me you can't read it?"
Re:Alternatively... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Alternatively... (Score:2, Insightful)
The message I had in mind was that people shouldn't take it for granted that "everybody" uses MSWord.
It's not, after all, that hard a concept, and unless you're very young, you will have already seen evidence of this. Between 10 and 15 years ago, for example, it was perfectly acceptable for there to be opposing camps for document formats (WordPerfect, Word, Works and all those others). People accepted these incompatibilities and just got
Give up (Score:3, Informative)
I don't bother anymore for just casual acquaintances i'll never speak to again. I just run it through antiword (http://www.winfield.demon.nl).
Am I a traitor? Meh. Preaching to the choir, as well as the deaf (whether purposefully so, or they're just too belligerently stupid to bother paying attention) is a waste of my time as well as theirs.
I recently trolled my old high school's website. Most of all their information to parents and students, including forms neccessary for graduation, are
At any rate, remember: revision tracking is good for a quick laugh when you've got the proprietary-file-format blues.
Re:Give up (Score:2, Interesting)
If they don't resend the document, you'll know it wasn't important anyway. :-)
You know it depends (Score:4, Interesting)
For me at least, it depends. On the one hand, many people I work with distribute things in Word format because it's the standard in the organization. I usually just open the files in OpenOffice, and although every once in a while some complex formatting makes a document illegible, it is rare enough that I don't worry about it.
For people who are not in a position to force me to accept their acceptance of Microsoft, I try my best to educate them. The trick is to be polite about it. Most people don't understand, and quite a few will jump at the chance to save $300 by using OpenOffice. The trick is to find their "button".
About OOo... (Score:5, Insightful)
Before the education process, the trouble with OpenOffice is simple -- as long as they're using Word, they can save a document and most people will be able to read it.
But when they start using OpenOffice, they'll find that when they save a document now almost NO ONE can use it.
Then they see all those choices in the "save as type" dialog and say "whoa, don't want to touch that". Even saving in Word format has 3 choices. They won't know instinctively that HTML or RTF is "better" than, say, "StarWriter 3.0 Template". Both sound equally foreign (though html maybe rings a bell... but no, wait -- that probably won't work unless I start up the internet first). Let's say they crossed their fingers and went with RTF after an email from a
"Saving in external formats may have caused information loss." Boy, that message frustrates me, because I know how most people read it (I remember switching my wife over to OO - she panicked at that dialog). They imagine whole paragraphs excised, pages gone poof. And worse -- why should they know how programs handle "files"? As far as they know, the original document (before the Save As) is also trashed now. "Information loss" is why they aren't supposed to open attachments anymore at work. Of course that looks bad.
This may all be easier a few generations from now, when the basic protocol of a computer program is taught in school and understood from an early age. For now, though, the education process is slow for most people... partly our fault, because we don't understand that new computer users are missing the basic assumptions that seem obvious to us. And also because there *are* huge pitfalls that aren't obvious. Driving a car is complicated and dangerous, but the big dangers are obvious at a basic level. Stay on the road, and don't hit other cars (or get in their way). On a computer, the catastrophes are subtle and don't feel any different from doing things right. You open an attachment from someone you know. You accidentally delete half your paper while placing the cursor and typing... then hit Save and close the word processor (recycle bin won't help you now!). Your finger presses the mouse button by accident while you're moving the mouse and drag some important system folders into another folder. Where did they go? Was that bad? Not until you reboot. You don't understand the choices on a dialog, and click the wrong button. Your DSL provider only mentioned "firewall software" somewhere in the install booklet, and you didn't know what that meant so you skipped it (my parents just got cable broadband, and I asked my Mom about this -- she'd never heard the term before).
The frustrating thing is that using a computer *could* be so much easier and safer... ah, well. What was my point here again? Oh, yeah -- education required. More than most people think.
Re:About OOo... (Score:2)
> But when they start using OpenOffice, they'll find that when they save a document now almost NO ONE can use it.
Three words: Export as PDF
Unless you're telling me they are emailing docs that both parties are adding to?!
--
The Bible is infallable or perfect!? Right, which *version* would that be now? Better yet, let's consider the s
Re:About OOo... (Score:2)
Still going on about the Bible? That's so Nineteenth Century, you must live somewhere pretty primitive.
Re:About OOo... (Score:2)
Unless you're telling me they are emailing docs that both parties are adding to?!
That's a big part of my point -- you're assuming all kinds of knowledge they simply don't have until taught. It's not instinctive in any way. Why would they choose PDF over any other format available? How are they going to know the pros and cons of each? How they heck are they going to keep all of those meaningless acronyms straight? PDF, RTF, HTTP, WWW, it's all just a jumble of letters. Supp
Re:About OOo... (Score:2)
The "girlfriend" phenomenon (Score:2)
The thing to remember about your girlfriend on Slackware, though, is that it'd be a totally different story if you weren't right there, giving her pointers. She knows you can be trusted, and so she learns the steps by rote (even using the command line isn't too hard, if you know exactly what to type), and she feels safe doing them. She's got you as a safety net, too - if something "doesn't look right" she can just ask
Most people don't have such reliable sources of help, alas. Especia
Re:The "girlfriend" phenomenon (Score:2)
Re:The "girlfriend" phenomenon (Score:2)
Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?
Messages like that are typical of Open Source. (Score:2)
"Saving in external formats may have caused information loss." Boy, that message frustrates me, because I know how most people read it (I remember switching my wife over to OO - she panicked at that dialog). They imagine whole paragraphs excised, pages gone poof. And worse -- why should they know how programs handle "files"? As far as they know, the original document (before the Save As) is also trashed now. "Information loss" is why they aren't supposed to open attachments anymore at work. Of course that
Re:Messages like that are typical of Open Source. (Score:2)
here's the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:here's the problem (Score:2)
It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:5, Informative)
Recently you sent an email containing a Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint Document. Due to security and virus concerns [our company] cannot accept those attachments.
Please use HTML, RTF, PDF, or regular text to transmit future documents to me. It will be necessary for you to retransmit this document in an acceptable format.
If the need is urgent and you are unable to convert it to an acceptable format please fax short documents to xxx-yyy-zzzz. Please call for arrangements to transmit documents with more than 20 pages.
Thank you for your time.
-Adam"
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:2)
If I feel like taking more time, I explain that I don't use Word documents because they are a known vector for virus transfer and encourage so-and-
You're thinking of .doc.pif (Score:2)
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:4, Informative)
Thing is, if the person who sent it to you *does* know about computers, they will know you are a tool.
Try and convince me that there have _never_ been exploits via html & pdf.
Here's the latest PDF one [net-security.org].
Did you know that Melissa [cert.org] and Goga [com.com] were originally delivered via RTF [informationweek.com] ?
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:2)
More likely the recipient who does know about computers will realise that you hate Microsoft-specific attachments and are using the security excuse to persuade the general public.
K
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:2)
If I want to write a virus, am I going to write it for the platform whose design lends itself to virus writing, or for the platform that makes it difficult to write viruses.
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:2)
Recently you sent an email containing a Windows Bitmap. Due to security and virus concerns [our company] cannot accept those attachments.
Please send a photograph to transmit future documents to me.
Thank you for your time.
-Adam"
Using security as an excuse to deny the acceptance of Word Documents is FUD.
There is *no* security risk in *any* attachment, only in the applictions used to process them.
We've recently seen buffer overflow exploits in *many* email clients without even getting
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:3, Funny)
Eh, yeah. What did happen? You got me in suspense now. Don't leave me hanging on like this.
Re:It's easy to make them paranoid about using DOC (Score:3, Interesting)
Only if you wanna be ignored (Score:5, Insightful)
If I got an email telling me how using a
Instead, appeal to a more urgent need. "Doh, I can't read this
Bullshit. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody is under any obligation to buy MS products to communicate with other people.
Re:Only if you wanna be ignored (Score:2)
Instead, appeal to a more urgent need. "Doh, I can't read this
I agree completely with everything that you've said... except the mountain out of a molehill part. It's already a mountain; it's not an exaggeration of the problem.
Re:Only if you wanna be ignored (Score:1)
I get the analogy, and it's a thoughtless one.
Here's what I do... (Score:1)
I'm all for open standards and whatnot, but non-technical people (professors, friends, family) don't really want (nor, in my opinion, need) to hear about how evil
heh ? get over it (Score:3, Interesting)
It is as ubiquitous as PDF. Why are you not raving about PDF ??
You can get a free DOC viewer here [microsoft.com] or use OO.
Personally I use OO and it rocks.
If I resend a document I always convert it to rtf, txt, pdf, or another format to kind of send a hint.
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2, Informative)
The problem isn't that
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:1)
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Notice the lack of any white papers from Microsoft descibing the Word 10.0 format.
And hell, PDF files are *so* much more consistent across PC's - the old "word-repaginate-to-a-different-printer-page-size
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Nowhere in the question does he mention the word open or standard.
In fact, his complaint seems primarily to be cost:
force the few remaining holdouts, like me, to shell out for a copy of Word
I pointed him to a freely available MS program to read word files.
The MS equivalent to Adobe Reader if you will.
Kind of eliminates the need for his/her question really, since the "open standard"
issue is some slashdot borg's personal soapbox and does not relate to the question at all.
If he/she is on a unix
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Yeah, because I'm sure that Microsoft makes it available for the same platforms as Adobe....
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Please post a link to one or the other.
Alternately, please post a link to the official, complete specifications for the current word document format so I or someone else can implement a good free reader that is usable on non-supported systems.
Oh wait, you can't, because none of these exist for this proprietary document format.
Thanks for the help... Not! (Score:2)
"Word 97/2000 Viewer (Windows 95/98/NT/2000)"
I will not tell you which OS I am running but have a guess....
Re:heh ? get over it (Score:2)
Well, I've never had any problem either reading a PDF created with third-party tools in Acrobat Reader or reading a PDF created with Acrobat with various third party readers.
I can't say the same about most of the MS Office formats. If you create a DOC file in Open-Office, it may not display properly in Word, or vice-versa.
Arrrrghh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, I wish everyone used RTF. Fact is, they don't. Deal with it. If they sent it in HTML, you'd be complaining about how word mauls the HTML code.
OpenOffice opens
I'd REALLY like to see PDF universally supported, but it just hasn't happened - until windows ships with native pdf support built-in - both viewing and creating, it will remain a format unusable to AOL users and computer-wielding grandmothers
Now, if you want to complain about people sending out 25mb powerpoint attachments, I definitely understand. But this is just silly and doesn't help push forward the OSS movement. If just makes you look like a jerk.
Re:Arrrrghh! (Score:2, Insightful)
Funny thing was, i remember one upper-level class where the staff refused to distribute any handouts (like practice exams, HW assignments, project descriptions) in anything except post script.
Man, the newsgroups and e-mail lists were choked with people asking what to do with these 'PS' files
Po
Re:Arrrrghh! (Score:2)
Re:CS majors amaze me (Score:3, Interesting)
Reminds me of when I was a TA in the CS dept. at my college. Students would regularly come to the help sessions with programs that wouldn't compile so I could more or less read the compiler's error and warning messages to them verbatim.
Student: "Why won't this compile?"
TA: "Well, let's try to
Re:Arrrrghh! (Score:5, Informative)
It could be a lot more serious than that. Here's a reply that I've found fairly effective in a few such cases:
This isn't a joke. Decoding proprietary formats can land you in serious trouble in the US and a number of other countries, if the format's owner decides to enforce the laws.
Maybe the courts wouldn't enforce such things. Do you really want to be a test case? If you do, well, I'll cheer you on.
Re:Arrrrghh! (Score:2)
If you sent that in a reply to me, I'd think you were a dickhead, and not very professional.
Just say that you aren't able to read Word documents and could you please resend it in one of the following formats.
Re:Arrrrghh! (Score:4, Insightful)
It's probably true that we might be overreacting to the threat of prosecution if we decode a message we're sent in a proprietary and patented format such as a MS word doc. Courts in the US and most other jurisdictions have usually (though not always) held that you aren't responsible for receiving a message or broadcast sent by another. But there have been a few worrying exceptions.
The main precedent comes from the recording industry, of course. We currently have a situation where a company can sell me a CD without any warning that it is encoded in a way that can only be read on a few machines. If I find that it doesn't play on my machine, and do a bit of programming to make it play, I can in fact be prosecuted under a number of current US laws. This has happened to others in some highly-public cases, and I have no reason to believe that I'm exempt for any reason.
This has overthrown an old legal principle that a product should be usable for the purpose that it is sold. We now have a situation with recordings that I can pay money for a product, but if I use it for its sole purpose on my own sound equipment, I am in violation of the law.
There's no reason to believe that this won't apply to things like email messages. Microsoft has been very much involved in the DRM efforts, whose sole purpose is to prevent customers from decoding files. They have received patents on some of their newer encodings used in Word docs, and presumably they had a reason for applying for those patents. The only reason for a patent is to control who is permitted to use the technology. So presumably they are serious about controlling who may use Word docs with these new encodings.
The idea that I may be prosecuted for decoding a Word doc may be paranoia. But it is not materially different than the prosecutions for decoding sound recordings by people who want to play them on their home machines.
Note that some of those prosecutions have had nothing to do with "pirating", i.e., making commercial use of a decoded CD. Jon Johansen has been dragged into court for merely writing code that makes a CD play on his own linux box. He wasn't charged with selling anything, his crime was writing software that made a CD play on his own machine. The Sklyarov case here in the US is similar, with the added point that the decoding charges against him were for actions in another country where those actions were legal.
It's not any sort of stretch to think that peole may be prosecuted for similarly writing or using software that makes a Word doc readable on their own machine. If this isn't Microsoft's intent, why are they pushing DRM, and why did they patent those new encodings?
Anyway, I'm not sure I want to be a test case.
People understand the value of money (Score:3, Insightful)
It's simple, and effective. People are not educated about freedom as speech yet, don't even mention open file formats, but they can understand what a couple of hundred bucks mean.
Nobody's forcing you to buy word. (Score:2)
That you should stop whining and go download Microsoft's free Word Viewer [microsoft.com], or any number of other free programs that can view word documents. Nobody is forcing you to use Microsoft Word, every word processor on the market today supports the format. Get used to it.
Re:Nobody's forcing you to buy word. (Score:3, Informative)
All good right?
Re:Nobody's forcing you to buy word. (Score:2)
On the other hand, downloading all of OpenOffice isn't the same thing as downloading a small viewer. But I'm sure there's some minimum footprint install of OpenOffice I could get.
Re:Nobody's forcing you to buy word. (Score:1)
Re:Nobody's forcing you to buy word. (Score:2)
1) Open the
2) Get drunk [winehq.com] you insensitive clod.
great (Score:1)
what's worse..
Don't evangelise don't jump through hoops. (Score:1)
For personal emails I accept plain text emails only, any thing else I just delete. If it is important enough they'll get back to me.
Re:Don't evangelise don't jump through hoops. (Score:2)
Notice I said personal emails, that means they are not business emails. If you worked for me I would fire you for lacking basic english comprehension skills. You'll also note, if you take the time to read the post, that the original submitter was talking about a personal email.
Who is it? (Score:2)
But a principle of a school is another matter. Don't tell him your politics. Don't try to convert him to your religion. In other words, don't tell him he's going to go to Hell for assuming you use Windows. Send him a quick note along the lines of "I"m sorry, but I use [name-of-OS] and am unable to read your Microsoft Word document. Could you please send it to me in a public format? PDF or HTML would be fine. T
Don't be dense.... (Score:2)
If it is work related you should be provided with the necessary tools to do your work.
If I get a document in a propietary format for which I don't have a tool, even my boss gets a reply requesting the correct tool to read the software.
Since this means a complete computer system (I don't use MS stuff at home) i get documents back in a format I can use (normaly text or variations).
Re:Don't be dense.... (Score:2)
For example, I made my company provided desktop dual boot to FreeBSD. Once in a while I will encounter a Word document that OpenOffice won't handle. I have
Why not "optimize" these files upon receipt... (Score:3, Insightful)
Inform your users about the change. Send them a
Now obviously, this probably wouldn't work at a Law Firm or some other HIGH-VOLUME document facility, but it's a start and I think it would work fine in many small business scenarios.
Re:Why not "optimize" these files upon receipt... (Score:2)
Re:Why not "optimize" these files upon receipt... (Score:3, Interesting)
In the position of an email provider, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be responsible for ensuring that all emails were "cleansed".
You don't want
Re:Why not "optimize" these files upon receipt... (Score:2)
(its not just the
then they might not like it but they will understand.
No Problem (Score:1)
No monopoly on readers (Score:2)
MOran's (Score:2)
maybe later after you have been working with them a few years you can have the opportunity to help them "see the light"
Re:MOran's (Score:2)
Of course, it's the golden rule - those who have the gold make the rules.
If I want your money, you decide the format for our correspondence.
If you want my money, I decide the format for our correspondence.
Even if there's no client/vendor relationship, then there may be some other I-want/need-something/you-have-something relationship, in which case the person who
come up with a little more diplomatic request (Score:1, Interesting)
So the line I use is "Hey, can you re-send that message after saving it as
Which is true. And business-goal-oriented. In fact once a couple co-workers figure out that you can in fact search your email folders for words and pull up old documents, they'll start sending
.DOC a problem? (Score:2)
Re:.DOC a problem? (Score:2)
Virus's (Score:2)
re: HTML, if you allow your mail reader to do anything but render a HTML document that someone else has sent you, then you're an idiot
But that being said, it is theoretically possible that anything requiring any amount of processing to render could potentially contain a buffer overflow exploit...
you've got to be kidding me (Score:2, Insightful)
And why you might ask? Well say what you will about the bloat of Word 2003 or how much you hate Microsoft, but back in the early 90's when there were DOZENS of different word processors to choose from and Windows was far from the standard, MS Word took the cake. Microsoft did a better job on Word than the other c
RTF? RTF?! Sheesh (Score:2)
HTML is an OK format--but, aside from size and some annoying conversion errors, DOC is good enough, too.
My preferred collaborative document exchange format is OOo's file format. The program's free, the file size is small, and it's editable. (For "I'm sending you this file", PDFs work rather nicely.)
However, when OOo files don't work, DOC works just fine.
Re:Sheesh? Sheesh? (Score:2)
quote wikipedia:
"RTF is a poorly standardised format with incompatibilities reported even between different Microsoft applications, and tends to be rarely used for document distribution."
A particular 10-page heavily-formatted word document on my HDD is about 200 kb. Saved as RTF, the file format doubles--and the formatting looks even worse when OOo reads it.
Send as MS Works documents. (Score:3, Funny)
Promote PDF (Score:2)
PDF isn't a cure-all, but it's "good enough". Good enough presentation, good enough file size, good enough security, good enough compatibility between systems.
I find that most people actually *want* to send PDF: they know it's what the pros would do, and they know it's better than sending
My e-mail sig (Score:2, Informative)
My Solution (Score:2)
As a "reason," I might state that I don't run Windows. This enough is a brain-jarrer. "What? There are
keep it simple (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to be more specific, you can say "I can't get Microsoft Word for my machine and therefore can't your attachment. Could you please send it in PDF or plain text format?"
Long-winded talk of "monopolies" and "politics" are unlikely to be any more effective and will only make you look unprofessional to many people.
Simple, target privacy issues. (Score:2)
Ask if they would not prefer to send documents in the future using a different document format that does not dsitribute their personal information.
Two law firms I was in touch with changed to mostly plain text just for this comment of mine....
well I do the easy thing (Score:2)
make what ever corrections are needed to it, save it and send it back as an OpenOffice native XML format.
What usually happens is they get pissed cause they can't open it.....it helps them experiance the frustration people can have with non open systems....
when and if they bitch.... I suggest maybe we can agree on a propper Documnet exchange format.
usually RTF, CSV, PDF, or HTML
It's the way windows works (Score:3, Informative)
Case in point:
I am working with a customer who is having problems interfacing to our equipment over GPIB. He is having a problem, and is running the GPIB logger program to see what is going on.
So, he gets the fault on screen. He wants to send me the info. Rather than a) telling GPIBSpy to save the log data as text, or b) marking the text in the GPIBSpy window, then pasting it into the email message, he does things "The Windows Way" - he does an ALT-PRINTSCREEN, then opens Word, then does a paste, then File->Email. Boom - what should be a simple 5K file is now a 100K BMP inside a 200K Word document. And of course, now when I want to copy and paste the section of transaction that has a problem I cannot because it is no longer text but a BMP.
Ditto with our physical plant manager (the guy who's department changes the lights, moves the desks, and so on.) Everytime he wants to send a memo, what does he do - open email client, compose email, send?
NO. He does things "The Windows Way": Start Word. Open Template->Standard memo (which has a company logo graphic, so it will be large). Write memo (Please don't park in the west parking lot tomorrow - we will be spraying for weeds and we don't want to screw up the paint on your car). File->Email. Subject: Memo. Mail text: Please read the attached memo. Send to all users.
Microsoft has made it very easy to start all documents in Word. In a way, this is good - it makes it easier for the users. However, it also makes it HARDER to work with any document that is NOT a Word document. It also means that users are trained that all the world is a nail, since they are using the hammer of Word.
Open office Coup (Score:3, Interesting)
Take my domain www.no-doc.org (Score:4, Informative)
However, I gave up on that project simply because, unlike for example in the case of gif vs. png images, there is no easy replacement to be advertised and offered to non-technical people:
In other words, a format that is open across applications and platforms, sufficiently powerful in its encoding both of typographic (font settings etc.) and structural (footnotes etc.) layout and widely supported by mainstream word processors (and be it only everything but MS Word) doesn't exist. As long as this doesn't change, for example with OASIS' current efforts to standardize an open office document format or large cross-application support for the OpenOffice file format, any "no-doc" advocacy is elitist and doomed to alienate even people who might be sympathetic for political reasons.
But if anyone wants to seriously do a grassroots campaign against using Microsoft's proprietary file formats, I am happy to transfer the no-doc.org domain to them for free.
Why Microsoft Word may be bad for your health ... (Score:2)
I wrote an article [sungate.co.uk] a while ago about why Microsoft Word may be bad for your health. It was originally aimed at academics, but any 'intelligent' user should be able to grasp the main concepts.
What gets me... (Score:2)
Yes, that's right, no fancy formatting, no special fonts, just text. In fact, this happens rather regularly in many organizations... as a simple bulletin is mailed as a
CTRL+A, CTRL+C, CTRL+V... paste it into an email and save the recipients a little confusion. Word documents (or other attachments) just take up space and mail email that much less searchable. Fin
Deliver Us, Oh SVG! (Score:2)
I have lamented about this for many years.
I've generally caved to ignorance of the masses, but only partially.
I used to ask people to resend those attachments as PDF files so I could read them, and I still do that to some extent (most people, even oblivious users of Windows boxes, understand that Word is not Word is not Word, that different versions of Word, Macs etc., can all affect how a a document appears). More now, if I have to view it, I just open it up in Open Office and create my own PDF.
Otherwi
Re:Ping! (Score:2)
Re:I feel your pain... (Score:2)
I find KWord looks nicer, but is a serious hassle to use and install on Mac, so no help there.
I wish AppleWorks could open Word docs reliably. I also wish AppleWorks had the ability to export.
At least OSX can print to PDF as an easy choice. Makes life a lot easier. I wish Windows did that. (Lots of wishes. Few results, eh?)
-WS