[Glastonbury] Re: Glastonbury Digest, Vol 94, Issue 3

[Martin Wheeler]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 info at wccl.co.uk wrote:

> Rick wrote

Err .. Martin, actually.

>> documents in Word format despite polite requests not to do so, they
>> inevitably get them returned as plain ASCII.
>
> Wish I could do that but there's a limit to upsetting clients!

No there ain't!
[Thinks: Wonder why the popularity is dropping off?]


> But I get the impression most companies have some cutdown version of Word for
> networked computers

No; not that I know of

> since they can't convert docs sent in other formats and
> often don't even know what another format might be?

As a corporate trainer, I can assure you that this is normally due to 
plain and simple PIG IGNORANCE.  (Sorry, pig.)

The employer no longer considers it her responsibility to pay for the 
employee's training, and relies on the schools and colleges to do it for 
her.  The schools and colleges teach application-package button pushing, 
NOT basic concepts.  (My wife did a course in word-processing at the 
local college.  Two years later, she knows NOTHING about file structures 
and still saves files the way she was taught -- by clicking on 'save'.
*Where* her files are saved on disk is a huge mystery to her.  The concept 
of 'other formats' was completely alien to her, as she effectively had 
dinned into her that all computers without exception use MS; and that all 
word-processing is done under MSWord.  UNdoing the damage done by the 
college proved so difficult I gave up.  She is completely uninterested in 
computing and computers, and wants to know only what buttons to press to 
drive the damn thing with the minimum of fuss.  College training was a 
perfect answer to this.  Don't expect anyone who has had this sort of 
training to be anything more than terrified in front of a keyboard.)


>  Then I found out their Word was cut down or something and they
> couldn't convert anything, the facility wasn't even there.

There are means of restricting the choices available to users, yes.
But the basic bloat and blubber remains the same.  (You just see less of 
it.)

> I concluded it was
> a shady plot to rid the world of non-Word Wordprocessors!

Not even shady.  Standard marketroid attitude to create product lock-in.


> Trouble is, we had to surrender... We can't carry on business if our clients
> are tied to Word and no other and of the absolutely unshakeable opinion only
> Word exists and Word is the standard etc etc........

I know it's difficult, but my own experience (coupled with my 'awkward'
personality) meant that in the end I made it *very* clear to my clients 
what my attitude is, and just stopped working with the MS-only crowd, and 
told them to go elsewhere.
It *can* be done.  I stopped accepting MS-only training 4-5 years ago, and 
frankly, haven't noticed any loss.  Contrariwise, people now know I'm a 
Un*x/Linux specialist, and actively seek me out the more.
You *can* make it work.
And the fact that you have the strength to resist brainless attitudes such 
as: "Oh, but it's the _standard_" just adds to the gradual erosion of the 
MS monopoly.

> Well, one can but work in OOffice and subversively convert it to Word.

Yup.  And provide your clients with free copies of OOo to run under MS as 
well.

> I may,
> following on my own query re alterations in the codes, decide to send
> everything as pdf and see if I get complaints about that.

I haven't so far.  And I now get far more demand for pdf traffic than for 
generic wp traffic.  (The distaste for MSWord is slowly but surely 
spreading, and the increasing demand for pdf is just one sign of this.)

Cheers,
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
mwheeler at startext.co.uk                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
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