Re: OT: Massachusetts Verdict: MS Office Formats Out

From: Mike McCarty (mike.mccarty_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: 09/29/05

  • Next message: Michael Hennebry: "Re: UHCI" 
    Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 15:22:42 -0500
To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@redhat.com>

    Tony Nelson wrote:
    > At 10:50 PM +0930 9/29/05, Tim wrote:
    >
    >>On Wed, 2005-09-28 at 14:26 -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
    >>
    >>>When I use OpenOffice, and want to save something that I created using
    >>>MS Office, I find that it frequently wants to warn me that
    >>>I may be losing some special features. For this reason,
    >>>I have abandoned using OO for editing stuff created with MSO.
    >>>
    >>>I don't know enough about these things to know whether anything
    >>>in the files are actually at risk, but rather than lose them,
    >>>I re-boot to Windows and do the editing there.
    >>
    >>Do a test... Usually, the warnings about things like how some document
    >>formats mightn't support some styling effects, might not do tabs or
    >>margins in the same way, etc.
    >
    >
    > As a programmer, foolish warnings such as the above "All might not be safe"
    > disgust me. If the code thinks that something might not work, the author
    > is responsible for making it do the right thing. In this case, make the
    > file in a temporary place (and this is the only responsible way to do it
    > ever) and notice if anything didn't make it through the export process. If
    > that happens, /then/ warn the user, tell them what got lost, and ask what
    > to do. Such a warning actually means something that the user might care
    > about. If they don't use any non-exportable feature in a document, they
    > won't get any warning; if they do, they can at least decide whether to keep
    > using the feature.

    I started to reply to his message, but you said it soooo much better!

    Why should I follow around after OO when I can just boot Windows in
    about a minute and a half, and be assured that the doc is ok? If OO
    knows there is a problem, then it should tell me. If there is no
    problem, it shouldn't frighten me. If it doesn't know, then why should
    I use it?

    Mike 

    -- 
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!
-- 
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@redhat.com
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
  • Next message: Michael Hennebry: "Re: UHCI"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: [patch 00/24] perfmon: introduction
      ... WARNING: line over 80 characters ... ERROR: use tabs not spaces ... need a space before the open parenthesis '(' ...
      (Linux-Kernel)
    • Re: Warning: Margins...Outside Printable Area
      ... After that, if the warning says you're outside the print image, you ARE :-) ... Word has no problem with setting material outside the margins. ... the cover page that indeed ARE outside the printable area. ... Whenever I print, I get the window saying, "The margins of section 1 are set ...
      (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
    • Re: Camera sense at last
      ... Taking away warning signs of impending speed cameras seems a bit daft ... within speed limit areas - not just at certain spots within speed limit ... margins permitted will almost certainly result in a fine and points. ...
      (uk.rec.driving)
    • Re: Warning: Margins...Outside Printable Area
      ... After that, if the warning says you're outside the print image, you ARE :-) ... Word has no problem with setting material outside the margins. ... I can't imagine any printers these days needing more than half an inch on ... the cover page that indeed ARE outside the printable area. ...
      (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
    • Re: Coding best practices
      ... IOW, if I continue reading it, will you be able to better understand my ... limit is that your indent level servers as a warning that your code is ... I've always done 8-char hard tabs. ...
      (perl.beginners)