*.docx Denial

[EvilEmpryss]

Now my personal opinion is that when you don't know if your audience has the capability of opening a particular format, you use the most common one. But the Office Open XML format has been around for, what, four years or so now? Some of my college professors use *.doc, but others use *.docx.

Yesterday one girl took up five minutes of class time with a hissy fit about not being able to open the syllabus. Once I informed her that she could find the translator on the internet with Google she muttered loudly in the back of the auditorium for the rest of the class about the unfairness of having to get a translator.

Seriously, some of the professors are barely computer literate (this particular prof printed out his PowerPoint slides and put them on transparencies, even though he had a computer and an LCD projector available to use). Trying to get them to learn how and then remember to save their files as *.doc is a losing battle. I use Macs almost exclusively and even *I* have got the plugins to use with Office 2004 for Mac. With all that, I am still amazed when people bitch about not being able to open *.docx files.

I know people don't always have the money to buy new programs, but the plugin is free, damnit! Get with the program!

[Andara Bledin]

If she wants to be mad, she should be mad at MS for making an incompatible file format type.

Since my company barely uses any of the Office programs in the first place, I doubt we'll be upgrading any time soon (at least not to Office 07), but at least I know how to find a conversion tool.

^-.-^

[KellyHabersham]

I ran into this occasionally at my secretary job - my office computer couldn't open *.docx files, and it wouldn't accept/run the conversion tools I'd tried to install. So, every so often I'd have to remind people to check how they were saving a file before e-mailing it to me.

[Cookie]

Sheesh. I'm running a 5 year old Macbook and can open .docx files. Yeah, they were a pain when they first came out, but oy.

[EvilEmpryss]

I absolutely agree that MS is to blame for all the conversion problems. I have yet to hear a good reason that they couldn't make the new format automatically backwards compatible, or push out an update to the old versions that would make it compatible automatically. Regardless of those software issues, I am *so* glad she's not also in my lab for that class. When class ended I heard someone telling her that the IT office on campus would give her a licensed copy of the latest Office Suite for only $10 and she wouldn't need to worry about the plugin (it's a one-year license).

Her response was basically the same for having to Google the plugin. Why should she have to do anything? The school should be changing to fit *her* setup (cue catbutt face and ode de Entitlement Whore aura). This is coming from a Psych major. I can't wait until she goes to work on her first real experiment with a Psych professor (we're all required to work as lab assistants in some of the ongoing research being done at the university). The first time she pulls that crap because the professor wants something done a different way than she would do it and she's going to get booted from the program.

[Eisa]

I'm a Psych major. She should have her ass kicked.

At my uni, everyone tries to use .doc because of incompatibility problems people may have--but even if it is .docx, you can use any computer on campus basically to print it out. And you pretty much have to have a computer account. So there's no excuse.

[Alephcat]

I much prefer to use *.odt/.ods because anything can open them and will always be able to. The most convincing reason I have heard for why ms changed the format and could not make it backwards compatible was that they had such a high turnover that no one that works there knows how .doc works well enough to change it.

[Hyndis]

This is why I just use .rtf files (rich text format) if at all possible. It works just fine for a simple text document, and it will even store information about basic formatting.

The standard was developed in 1987. Pretty much every computer on the planet can open that file type.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I still like the *.txt format, although I do use *.docx frequently. I managed to get all of the old program formats (such as AmiPro) converted when I still had those programs. The fuss about upgrades made me recall the following thread I saved from a Prodigy conversation many years ago.

-----
SUBJECT: STOP!CH-CH-CHANGES!

bght prfctl gd lphbt tht wrkd fn fr yrs. thn th cm t wth n tht hd vwls. bt sw n nd fr thm nd ddn't pgrd. ddn't b cptls thr, bt dd gt pncttn pgrd.

***
Try adjusting the waveform stabilizing occilator by superimposing negative sine waves!

***
thts wht hppns whn y by chp sft fnt pckgs !

***
Qt t, y gys! M hsbnd thnks 'm nts sttng hr lghng!

[Chromatix]

If I need to make sure someone can read a document with correct formatting, I send them a PDF. The only downside is if they will need to edit the document, which is much more difficult with a PDF than a native WP file - but for the latter, you need to know which WP they use.

[mharbourgirl]

If I need to make sure someone can read a document with correct formatting, I send them a PDF. The only downside is if they will need to edit the document, which is much more difficult with a PDF than a native WP file - but for the latter, you need to know which WP they use.

If you have full Acrobat, and not just the free reader, you can OCR the PDF and be able to copy MOST of the text off as text instead of an image. I say most because the OCR part of Acrobat is not the best of its kind, but it's better than having to type from copy when most people don't have a copy typing speed of any significant value.

Other people should definitely NOT be allowed to edit PDFs for all kinds of good and rational reasons. *I*, on the other hand, should be allowed because it slows me down having to go back into the original, change one tiny thing on a page, and re-pdf and reassemble the final all over again. But I'm special.

[Mr. Anubite]

If I need to make sure someone can read a document with correct formatting, I send them a PDF. The only downside is if they will need to edit the document, which is much more difficult with a PDF than a native WP file - but for the latter, you need to know which WP they use.

That's what I do. Every modern device (just about) can use PDFs. The only problem is that no one has the software to edit, and I don't want to explain how to download and use Scribus, so I often have to send .doc files.

[Shalom]

This is why I just use .rtf files (rich text format) if at all possible. It works just fine for a simple text document, and it will even store information about basic formatting.

The standard was developed in 1987. Pretty much every computer on the planet can open that file type.

Even if the extension doesn't say .rtf ...

I've been using it for years as well. Problem is, the vast majority of lusers out there have never heard of it. So what I do is, use something like wordpad, save as RTF, then change the file extension to .doc. Anything that can read .doc can also read .rtf, so clicking on the file will bring up the correct application. I've had to submit stuff over the years that "had to" be in .doc format; every one of was really an .rtf, and nobody ever caught on.

[Taurus52]

The latest Open Office(openoffice.org) can open .docx. Just can't save to that format. Plus it is free!

[PepperElf]

Yesterday one girl took up five minutes of class time with a hissy fit about not being able to open the syllabus. Once I informed her that she could find the translator on the internet with Google she muttered loudly in the back of the auditorium for the rest of the class about the unfairness of having to get a translator.

slightly off topic but... it kinda sucks that you had to listen to her hissy fit. i mean students are paying to learn from the teacher. no one's paying to listen to some cuntwaffle piss and moan about her personal feelings towards the teacher or school. That's what office hours are for.