Stuff'n'fuff'n'fruff'n Microsoft.
I've just spent an hour trying to get OpenOffice to work with MS's new, supposedly "open" format, .docx. Only to discover what everyone else has. It's a pain in the frigging proverbial parts. And there are idiots out there who insist on saving documents in the format that MS chooses as the default, so that it makes it difficult for others to open them..... One of whom pestered LOML this evening saying "I sent you the file in .docx format: I saved it but I can't open it any more". AAAARRRRGGGHHH I find clueless users so frustrating on occasion.
And I'm not referring to LOML here.
Yours, growling dangerously,
N.
Musings on life, bread and other necessities.
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7 comments:
Your blog made me laugh out loud. It's the first time I've laughed reading at someone else's post. Quite a nice thing to know that I got something out of my mindless blog-searching. I'm glad I've come across this one!
Hoping you become breadmaker extra-extraordinaire,
T
T: thanks! Glad to have made you laugh --- even at my frustrations:-)
N.
I think I qualify as a clueless user because I don't know what the frig it is you are referring to.
Do you suppose ignorance can be bliss? Or is it just an excuse?
Awareness: when you use Office 2007, the default format in which to save documents is a disaster: MS have implemented it the way that they have in order to try to persuade everyone to buy 2007 --- the answer is to save all your documents in Rich Text Format, or in some other truly "open" format, as opposed to Microsoft's claimed "open", but really not, format.
The funniest thing here was that they called LOML to say "I sent you the document, and now I can't open it", as though there would be some expectation that LOML would be able to help them....
N.
This is an issue I've commented on many times before. In fact, when Microsoft first announced that it would use its near-proprietary OpenXML format for Office 2007, I spent more time talking to journalists in the month that followed than I did actually conducting research!
It's still a wacky landscape, in my view. Microsoft's been pursuing ratification of its supposed "standard", which isn't really a standard as much as it is Microsoft's implementation of a formerly-open (XML) standard. It'll get worse before it gets better.
Our clients are all universally still using Office 2003 as their baseline. So we haven't run into conversion issues. Yet. I know it's coming, and I cringe at the very thought.
Then again, it presents us with some excellent consulting opportunities. So I shouldn't complain.
You can open and use DOCX and XLSX files: docXConverter is a program for opening and using files saved in the new Word 2007 default format, DOCX or in the new Excel 2007 default format, XLSX. docXConverter allows you to open docx or xlsx files with a program currently installed on your computer even if none of your programs are capable of doing so on their own (such as Open Office). docXConverter makes sure that the contents, the graphics and the layout of the original docx document are kept in utmost fidelity. You can use docXConverter to open docx files in a word processor not compatible with Word 2007, to import docx files to a desktop publishing or graphic program or, if you are using an email program for example, use docXConverter to open docx files in text format. Use docXConverter to open xlsx files in a spreadsheet not compatible with Excel 2007, or to import xlsx files to a database.
See: http://www.panergy-software.com/products/docxconverter/features.html
Mickey: thanks for the information:
of course, I would much rather not have to buy extra proprietary software to make up for other people using proprietary software!
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