nothingisreal.com — "Most likely you have been directed to this document because you have attempted to e-mail me a document in Microsoft Word format. I would like to explain to you why I am probably not able to access this document, why you should reconsider sending them to people, and what better alternatives are available for document exchange over the Internet."
Jul 19, 2006 View in Crawl 4
twinklyjesusJul 19, 2006
@arthurbarnhouse:I think we pretty-well have standarization down. Business has standardized, a long time ago, on Word. What this actually appears to be is someone "crusading" to change standardization. Good luck with that...
matadonJul 19, 2006
Yes, OpenOffice.org. A wonderful program if you don't want a grammar checker, don't mind the fact that it eats more of your system than Photoshop CS2, don't do much in Asian languages, and that you're running either Windows or Linux/x86. Oh, and that you aren't an Excel user, because OOo Calc is crap next to Excel (at least, as of the last time I used it) -- the last time I tried to graph I/O performance data on a group of new servers (we were replacing older Sun kit with new Athlons running Linux), I had to give up and boot Windows just so that I could use Excel, because OOo would not play ball.OOo isn't crap, but it isn't as good as Office for many tasks.
wbeavisJul 19, 2006
@ twinklyJesusI know exactly what you are talking about. But consider this. You have one client that uses Word, one that uses Word Perfect, one that uses OpenOffice, and one that uses something else. In order for YOU to communicate correctly with each of them, then you would need each word processor installed. The point of the submission, made poorly, is that communication needs to be standardized. Microsoft would like the world's communications to standardize on their products. They would hold all the cards and make all the profit. My personal feeling is that the file format and application should not be tied together. We should transmit "word processing" files, and the application(s) used should be irrelevant. Although agreeing on a standard is not a trivial issue.Personally, I send "documents" as PDFs only. I don't have MS Office and I don't want them to necessarily edit my file (yes you can but most people don't know how). I also don't want people to read my revisions (there is a website with embarassing docs from MS where they viewed the revisions). There are tons of PDF printers.
joeyjoeyjoeyJul 19, 2006
If youre in a work place and using a work computer that is set up the same then why would it matter if someone sends your a word attachement or not? Your computer is configured the same, unless you work for a company on a shoe string budget I suppose.Honestly, I dont see what the big deal is. On my personal computer the only word processor I have is Wordpad. So if someone sends me an email with a word doc I just dont open it and it doesnt bother me one bit if I open it or not.Its like trying to make everyone send email in plain text. I do and my replys convert to plain text but so what if the other people like html email, thats their business not mines.
drahknonJul 19, 2006
@ coolbru:I think your comment deserves a response, so here it is. I've been using Word since the late 80's (before that I used Wordstar). I have received and transmitted probably thousands of Word documents first on disks and later via email and IM. I'm in academia, so I typically trade in very long documents. And I've never had a problem. Never once. I've never encountered any of the errors and the like you claim are so prevalent. Rather, I think people like the author of this article and some in this thread just plain hate Microsoft so much, they just can't admit that Word is a good product. I find this sort of irrational anti-MS bigotry a bit silly and this specific author's objections especially so.
shamamJul 19, 2006
Office 2007 has a new format.
gummihJul 20, 2006
bobdoc it is then.
wtanakaJul 27, 2006
"So tonight, let me be the first -- the rosa parks if you will -- of saying to those malcontents out there, 'the best way to change the system is to wait till it changes.'"<a class="user" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttu8ExZGzk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttu8ExZGzk</a>