Re: a quick Q: how did you handle files from windows
On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 22:01, Joe <joe@jretrading.com> wrote:
> You're never going to win. Try older Word documents with newer Word
> versions, and you won't do much better. Try changing printers with a
> carefully-tweaked data-collecting form and watch it fall about all
> over the page as the printer margins change... Laugh when a new version
> of Word starts to appear, and all the lucky new users send new-format
> documents to users with older Word versions... I think at least half of
> the world's Office users have no idea that new documents cannot be
> opened by older versions, until it happens to them. Logical enough,
> it's not something Microsoft can be blamed for, but nobody ever
> *thinks*.
>
Or even replacing a broken printer! I once encountered a situation
where an HP office printer was replaced, and the replacement printer,
the exact same model, was set to Letter paper even though it was
loaded with A4 (we don't have Letter paper in Israel). Windows
detected the new printer's Letter setting, and reformatted documents
accordingly. Some of them, especially with full-width tables, were a
mess. Until someone figured out that the problem was the _printer_ it
was a huge problem.
> Word documents are easy if the creator sticks to tabs and a few spaces,
> and preferably saves in an early file format, or better still, RTF. More
> than that and they are very fragile. And that's before you start hiding
> annotations and alterations, which occasionally turn up visible when
> you don't want them to...
>
I'm dealing now with a Libre Office user who is seeing "deleted" text
from a contract. The contract happens to be a form letter that was
apparently sent to other companies as well. This information has
proved quite useful to this LO user, and strengthened his negotiating
position.
> If I'm creating documents for others, I'll use Rich Text (though a Mac
> user claimed to be unable to open one) which at least every version of
> Word can deal with accurately. But editing Word documents and sending
> them back to Word users requires Word. End of story. At the very least,
> even if you don't have Word, you need a Windows machine and the free
> Word reader, to check your work.
>
If the recipient does not need to edit, then you should use PDF. If he
does need to edit, then you should of course use what he uses.
--
Dotan Cohen
http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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