[X4U] MS Office 2008 delayed

[Randy B. Singer]

On Aug 5, 2007, at 1:35 AM, David Ledger wrote:

> And therin lies the problem. Many users would love to use consumer  
> level programs, but have to work with content that requires Word.  
> This happens for me just a few times a year, so there would be no  
> point in me learning it. Emailers, 'vi', and TextWrangler +  
> occasional AppleWorks do everything I need to generate.
>
> Being a techie, I'm prepared to do some messing about to avoid  
> having to buy it. Every month I have to extract words and pictures  
> from a Word doc to add to a web site. Textedit gets the words,  
> Pages gets the pictures. None of the Open Office derivatives get  
> both. Havn't tried Nissus or Mariner. Not all the text is  
> 'copy'able in Pages, and none of it drags.

You are absolutely right about this.  This is a problem.  And it came  
to a head a number of months ago with a number of companies banding  
together behind a new open document format to break Microsoft's  
strangle-hold on the business word processor market.  I don't think  
that new format will ever catch on, but its formation forced  
Microsoft to make its own new XML-based format an open format also.   
Any company has access to that new format's specifications and can  
use that format royalty-free.  Let's hope that in the future that  
will solve the problem  of being forced to buy and use Word when one  
doesn't need to have and use Word for any other reason.

>
> Does anything else handle this sort of stuff? I'm reluctant to try  
> paid-for alternatives unless I know they'll work.

Just about every word processor on the market can handle the ".doc"  
format, even OS X's TextEdit.  But as you have found, some do a much  
better job than others.  I'm told, but can't confirm through personal  
experience, that icWord
http://www.panergy-software.com/products/lp/we/gn_op.html
does an excellent job.  There is a free trial available, and the  
program is only $30, with a money-back guarantee.

>
> There are not two 'classes' of user (high end users and letter-to- 
> grandma users), but at least three. The third being those who are  
> forced by third parties to use the high-end user's product to read  
> letter-to-grandma level documents from the third party (not  
> suggesting for a moment that my line-manager is my, or anyone's,  
> grandma - he wouldn't like it). Luckily for me, clients provide a  
> machine (usually PC) with Word on it for this purpose.

Letters from Grandma shouldn't be created in Word.  That's the wrong  
word processor for Grandma to be using.  If she did send you a letter  
in Word, just about any other word processor should be able to read  
it, as the formatting should be really simple.

The problem arises when someone sends you a Word document with  
complex formatting and you don't have Word, you have something else  
for Word processing.  If this happens often, you probably should have  
Word, and you probably should get some training to learn how to use  
it.  That goes back to what I was saying about some folks not having  
a choice as to whether then use Word or not.  Documents with complex  
formatting in them (or macros, etc.) probably are being created by  
business people and they are being sent to you as part of your  
business.  (If your friends are sending you Word documents with  
complex formatting, you can just ask them to cut it out.)  8-{)

Like it or not, we are sometimes forced to use certain tools as part  
of our employment.  I don't say this because I'm a Microsoft fan, or  
because I want others to use Microsoft products, it's just a cold bit  
of reality that we do what we have to do to make a living.  When  
someone comes out with a viable alternative, we'll all switch.   
(Including myself.)

>
> David 	 - feeling I've had the same conversation with Randy and  
> this list before.

It's deja vu all over again.

Word processors are a popular topic, and it is a topic that tends to  
elicit a lot of emotion because there are a number of choices and  
everyone has a favorite that they are very attached to.  And when  
Microsoft is involved Mac users tend to become irrational as well as  
emotional.

(By the way, I am not a fan of Microsoft by any stretch.  I believe  
that I have made this consistently clear.  Microsoft is a convicted  
monopolist.  They deserve to be reviled.  But that doesn't make their  
products bad.  In fact, their products are quite brilliant.  It also  
doesn't change the fact that their products have no real competition  
at the high-end on the Mac...unless you are using them for low end  
tasks.)

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________