4 ms·

Stop distributing .doc files

16 points by darxius 15y ago

Cavii 15y ago
I regularly get "screen shots" and "mock-ups" as doc files that contain a single image. It drives me nuts, but I can't find a way to change people's behaviour. Any suggestions?
- batista 15y ago
  Tried hitting them on the head?
- darxius 15y ago
  If this is coming from an IT/Tech company, I would HIGHLY question the competence of the employees (no offense meant).
jetxs 15y ago
flatform-specific is a typo right? Right?
cmelbye 15y ago
Normally I'd prefer to be shared a Google Docs document by a coworker, but if they'd rather write it in Word and email me a .doc or .docx file, I have no problem with that. Gmail makes it extremely easy to view those files online, and it's equally easy to convert them to Google Docs format for further editing (all taking place within the browser, no need for Office.) Anyways, it's extremely futile to stop this phenomenon from happening by means of a blog post.
- darxius 15y ago
  On the contrary, I think the perfect place to voice my opinion is with a blog post. If I can get at least one person to stop and think about the people on the receiving end of a document (especially within a large company), I would say I've made an impact.
program 15y ago
In Italy the .doc/.docx format (and all othe Office formats) is widely used. At my IT company the file format used in the CV is the starting point for the selection of a candidate. .doc/.docx is the worst choice. We prefer a .pdf file and as an addition we look at the "producer" metadata (just in case).
losethos 15y ago
God says... load perished sky items murdered heights mourn unteachable However somewhere seekest storing eyesight perceivable wondering parents Virgin's age On resend betrothed PROJECT maliciously
s_henry_paulson 15y ago
Ah a blog post, written by a tech person, posted to a tech-heavy website. This will surely reach the target audience.
URSpider94 15y ago
A-men. There are good reasons to be concerned about this from a business perspective as well. MS Word files can contain a tremendous amount of non-visible information, including reverts to recently-made changes, values coded into the template, meta-data, etc. By exporting to PDF, you strip a good portion of that information away.
- darxius 15y ago
  That's a good point I completely forgot to mention. I might do a bit more research on this and scrape up some tools and make a Version II of the post.

16 points by darxius 15y ago

Cavii 15y ago

I regularly get "screen shots" and "mock-ups" as doc files that contain a single image. It drives me nuts, but I can't find a way to change people's behaviour. Any suggestions?

batista 15y ago
Tried hitting them on the head?
darxius 15y ago
If this is coming from an IT/Tech company, I would HIGHLY question the competence of the employees (no offense meant).

jetxs 15y ago

flatform-specific is a typo right? Right?

cmelbye 15y ago

Normally I'd prefer to be shared a Google Docs document by a coworker, but if they'd rather write it in Word and email me a .doc or .docx file, I have no problem with that. Gmail makes it extremely easy to view those files online, and it's equally easy to convert them to Google Docs format for further editing (all taking place within the browser, no need for Office.) Anyways, it's extremely futile to stop this phenomenon from happening by means of a blog post.

darxius 15y ago
On the contrary, I think the perfect place to voice my opinion is with a blog post. If I can get at least one person to stop and think about the people on the receiving end of a document (especially within a large company), I would say I've made an impact.

program 15y ago

In Italy the .doc/.docx format (and all othe Office formats) is widely used. At my IT company the file format used in the CV is the starting point for the selection of a candidate. .doc/.docx is the worst choice. We prefer a .pdf file and as an addition we look at the "producer" metadata (just in case).

losethos 15y ago

God says... load perished sky items murdered heights mourn unteachable However somewhere seekest storing eyesight perceivable wondering parents Virgin's age On resend betrothed PROJECT maliciously

s_henry_paulson 15y ago

Ah a blog post, written by a tech person, posted to a tech-heavy website. This will surely reach the target audience.

URSpider94 15y ago

A-men. There are good reasons to be concerned about this from a business perspective as well. MS Word files can contain a tremendous amount of non-visible information, including reverts to recently-made changes, values coded into the template, meta-data, etc. By exporting to PDF, you strip a good portion of that information away.

darxius 15y ago
That's a good point I completely forgot to mention. I might do a bit more research on this and scrape up some tools and make a Version II of the post.