[SLUG] Re: ECDL

[Pete Redwood]

On Wednesday 05 October 2005 12:15, scarborough-request at mailman.lug.org.uk wrote:
> >                                  Part of my working time is spent
> > converting MS formatted stuff (Access databses) for use on Macs (running
> > OSX of course)
>
> I'm surprised at this.  I was under the impression that Mac OSX was
> fully compatible with MS Office, NTFS write etc.  Or is it just Access
> you need to convert?  I think I'm right to say that Access has to be
> bought extra to Office unless you buy the Pro version, so this sort of
> makes sense.

 I understand that Microsoft has now ceased co-operation with Apple and stopped all further development of Office software for Mac It is not what I would describe as "fully compatible"anyway. Things written in MacOffice Word do sometimes hiccup when read back in MS Office Word - any form of graphics incorporated in a word document for example, which refuses to print correctly; page settings wander etc etc.. However, we live with that. It is Access which causes the problems. Access has never been availble for Mac but much of the "official" data we recieve is only supplied in Access database format, and all officially approved software is Microsoft Windows only. DfES/LSC will not approve it otherwise. One of my monthly tasks is to re-compile an Access database to run on the College's FileMakerPro system. Many of the pages we have to acces on the LSC website can only be read by a PC running MS Explorer. They don't even work on the Mac version of Explorer. 
As a side issue from that, the Royal Mail website used to display exactly the same message - " You are not running MS Explorer. Please download Explorer to access this site." They have now changed it. The Co-Op Bank, on their internet banking site was the same when they first opened it. They soon corrected it though after a barrage of complaints. Their excuse was that MS Explorer was the only browser with sufficient security!!!!!
I gues it comes down to web page designers who use Microsoft software to do the job but the number of supposedly professional web sites that are not fully W3C compliant never fails to amaze me.

regards

Pete
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