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Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way
- codesuela 15y agoor use Google Documents instead of Hybrid PDFs where again you need LibreOffice to edit them.
- freehunter 15y agoI don't know if GDocs still has this problem, but when I first started using it, it seemed like they would do some update every few months that would break all my formatting. I used it mainly for storing guitar tablature, so when the formatting broke, I lost the music, some of it forever (if I couldn't remember the timing). I stopped using it a few years ago because of this. Actually I just checked my resume that I have stored there (that copy was last touched in 2010), and the formatting is destroyed. I just exported a spreadsheet to PDF, and the cell alignment has shifted. Hmm. I also have a document that seems to be shared with me (shows up in my GDocs list) and I have no idea who the person is who created it.
- spindritf 15y ago> when I first started using it, it seemed like they would do some update every few months that would break all my formatting You can now use it to store arbitrary files in their original format and view them through their webinterface when convenient. It has certain limitations like not displaying tables (or their contents) in .doc files but otherwise works well, pdfs generated from latex are displayed flawlessly as far as I've tested it.
- darklajid 15y agoNever used Google Docs. Don't you, in that case, require a) that I have a Google account (not sure) and b) limit my access to the document that you sent me to times when I'm online (unless I go ahead and export it to another format and save it locally. Probably as text or pdf, depending on whether I want to edit or read)? I assume b) is a given. If a) is true as well then I'd consider sending Google Docs links just as rude as .doc etc.
- mayanksinghal 15y agoa) I think, depends on the level at which the document is shared. If it is public, anyone can find using search and edit it. If it is accessible to anyone with the document link, then anyone who can discover the document can edit it. If it is shared with a list of people (or a group) then you need to login to authenticate yourself. The last is, I believe, the only solution to the problem. I don't think there exists a ubiquitous solution for sharing printable-well-formatted documents that require no special skills for formatting. .DOC will require the person on the other end to have MS Word and .ODT Libre Office (which is no way good enough for anything ATM). There are also other replacements to Google Docs, I haven't tried any as Google Docs fulfilled most of the requirements of my minimal collaborative editing but I am told that Zoho works really well.
- spindritf 15y agoa) The person publishing the document has full control over who has access and can edit it. You can allow anyone to view it, only people with a link (still no Google Account required from them, the link itself acts as a key/password), users from your domain... it's pretty flexible. b) You can download the original file or, when Google format are used, export to a format convenient for you. I use Google Docs that way constantly. It's by far the easiest and most reliable way I found to share a document, especially spreadsheets, with someone I haven't worked with before.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- bitboxer 15y agoOr even better: just send the damn text WITHIN the actual email. You know, just how sane people do this :) .
- gaius 15y agoYou might be surprised how many people simply won't read a long email, their eyes sort of glaze over, but will happily read a much longer document when the email just says "please see attached". It's like flipping a mental switch between "short note" and "real document".
- zerostar07 15y agoThe sort of documents that need to be reviewed are usually in a prepared-to-print format, plus the amount of garbage that would accumulate in an email after 10 reviewers would be horrendous.
- bitboxer 15y agoYes, those could go as attachment, but I would strongly advise a workflow system that keeps track of changes and other stuff. Email is very troublesome for that. One changes something, another one sends an old version and that change is lost...I am working in the print industrie for a decade now and have moved a few companies from email workflows to a decent workflow web based system. It is way better. Trust me :) . But most of the stuff I get is normal text that could easily fit into the email itself. Some people sent 1-sentence doc attachements regularly :( .
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- icebraining 15y agoIt's a shame we don't use HTML for most office documents. Readers are ubiquitous, they degrade nicely in older/slower machines, they're open, etc. PDF are supposedly better for printing, but that's only if you need documents to come out exactly the same everywhere; for most, a slight difference in text reflowing doesn't really make a difference, and CSS does the rest for the most part. There's also the problem with embedding content, but nowadays you can just use data:// URIs and put everything in one file.
- DanBC 15y agoIn theory there are some features in word processing packages for security (either password to open or password to edit) and for collaborative working (edits are marked) that you don't get with HTML. In practice, those security features are often broken. HTML and CSS would be an excellent solution, and in tune with the original idea (device-agnostic) of HTML. You don't know what software, or OS, or machine the receiver is viewing your document; you don't even know if they're using a screen. I get a bit frustrated when websites do weird[1] things like force a display size (too narrow for most real monitors and too wide for most portable monitors, thus annoying both markets.) Maybe if HTML had taken off for print documents people would spend less time tinkering with the fonts and the 8px margins and more time on the content? [1] You all know the stupid website decisions I mean.
- oddthink 15y agoUnfortunately, HTML isn't a rich enough container. If you try to add a diagram to HTML, suddenly you need two files. The "webarchive" file formats get around this, but they're not standard. It seems to me that we need something like PDF, but that isn't so hung up on the idea of formatting physical pages. If I'm reading on a phone, I want it to reflow.
- monsterix 15y agoI bet you're wrong. There is nothing more than just a container, a space and memory hog, that word processors and Adobe suites provide. I believe that HTML is far more powerful than currently tapped.
- af3 15y agoNo, I won't stop. There is nothing better than Word to collaboratively work on a manuscript in a research environment. Yes, this is "Editing - Emailing - Editing" cycle, but no one has suggested anything better that actually works.
- jrockway 15y agoGoogle Docs works rather well for this workflow. You can add comments, edit concurrently (like SubEthaEdit), press a button to open a video hangout with your collaborators, and you get a full revision history. And, you don't have to email the doc around!
- twodayslate 15y agoGoogle Docs is most often blocked by organizations.
- jrockway 15y agoI assumed by "research institution" he meant a university, which doesn't really care about "leaks" like Big Corporations do. Then again, there are quite a few big corporations on Google Apps.
- jonknee 15y agoCitation? Google Docs is often used at organizations (they even pay for it!). There's a reason why Microsoft is moving into the same territory with Office 365--businesses require collaboration and emailing docs around is incredibly bad at accomplishing that. Even more telling is MS stopped Office Live which didn't edit online in favor of Office 365 which does edit online. It's just a matter of time before it switches and the desktop version is an add-on while the cloud version is standard.
- twodayslate 15y agoFederal Organizations
- darxius 15y agoWeird. I wrote this (almost) exact article last week. I brought up much of the same posts and it got a decent amount of votes too (got up to the front page). http://maxmackie.com/2012/03/19/Stop-distributing-.doc-files/ http://maxmackie.com/2012/03/19/Stop-distributing-.doc-files... I wonder if he read my article...
- chrisacky 15y agoAre you kidding me. I would love .DOC since Whenever I get documents from family (especially the Mum!) they send my .DOCX Despite telling them hundreds of times to stop!
- freehunter 15y agoAre we still hung up on .docx? Older versions of Word have compatibility to convert them, and LibreOffice and Google Docs can open them. Instead of trying to get them to always remember to save in another format, why not tell them how to change the default saving format? Changing every time is a pain, since Word has a dozen different options (Word 95, Word 98, Word 2000/2003, .docx, rtf, txt, etc). It gets confusing.
- ilaksh 15y agoWow there is an amazing amount of animated advercrap on that page.
- vegardx 15y agoHad the same feeling. Not taking any advice from anyone that would even think to write on a site like that. Heck, they even had a "loading page", what the fuck?
- einarlove 15y agoFelt like I was entering a web-based rectum
- ragmondo 15y agocouldn't see the article over the advercrap -> closed page. Why do sites do this ??
- ilaksh 15y agoEditable PDF files are better than .DOC? Wow. Please don't send me an editable PDF instead of a DOC. wtf. PDF files are designed to load slow and make my hard disk thrash. If you send me a DOC at least I can edit it in google docs.. Much better send me a link to a google doc or some other online document.. zoho or whatever
- masklinn 15y ago> PDF files are designed to load slow and make my hard disk thrash. You are aware you don't have to use Adobe software to read PDFs right? I've got 7+MB PDF books (as in 500 pages or so), OSX's Preview loads them in a fraction of a second. Even "The Macintosh Way" (40MB of scanned images) takes barely half a second. That's not enough time to start an empty instance of Word
- jamesgeck0 15y agoOr, on Windows, Sumatra PDF is lightweight and works well for most of the documents I come across.
- JohnnyFlash 15y agoSo the message is. Lets all switch to LibreOffice! Seems like nonsense to me. If you are running Windows, which most people are, you are almost certainly going to have Word / Wordpad etc. A far better solution to .doc attachments is to ask if your content really needs to be in an attachment. A lot of the time it simply doesn't. To be honest though this isn't really a problem is it? When Microsoft first brought out their .docx format it seemed like there was a lag before other free applications could read the files. I found that a problem. Today, everyone has an application to open a .doc file. A lot of people are using gmail. I just click the preview button. I assume that Windows Live Mail has something like this which makes use of Office365 functionality (might be wrong on this). It really is a non-issue.
- DanBC 15y agoMS Word is expensive. MS Office is even more expensive. Many people don't need all the features and would be fine with Abiword / Gnumeric or LibreOffice. (I'm interested in what features MS Office has that are not available in LibreOffice. Elsewhere in this thread someone mentions pivot tables. What else?) Many organisations would do well to save money on MS Office installations and switch to LibreOffice. (Hopefully LibreOffice will get some designers to help with the interface, and writers to help with the documentation.)
- buster 15y agoActually, at work i try to send restructuredText + a neatly generated .pdf. Looks better, is easily editable. As one of the few Linux/LibreOffice users i HATE(HATEHATEHATEHATE) .doc and especially .docx. It's a nightmare to work with and collaborate on it between MS Word and LibreOffice Writer. Something always gets screwed up. Please, Office people in the world: Uninstall the nightmare that is called MS Office. LibreOffice will do everything you will ever (everevereverever) need. And if it doesn't have to be WYSIWYG: restructuredText is a pretty, awesome, lightweight, cross platform, easily editable solution to a lot of crap that i can find in my inbox (including rst2pdf and rst2odt and rst2html, etc etc ;) ).
- dfc 15y agoWhat is the difference between sending a .doc or a .odt? I say this as someone who has not used office since staroffice released working binaries for redhat (3.0.3 I think).
- buster 15y agoNot much, except that .odt is a true open standard, that the "editor" is free and that the "editor" is available for every major platform. And practically does everything you need, as well. Now, do you think i would pay money for MS Office? Even if i would, i couldn't because it's Windows/Mac only anyway. I'd say, sending .odt/.docx around is the least preferable option but .docx additionally has far more downsides for me as well..
- dfc 15y ago"Far more downsides for me as well." Sadly most people in the world do not care about what is easier/cheaper for you (and me). The most widely distributed office program is MSOffice, not libreoffice. MS Office users would have to bear the costs of installing/learning a new office product.
- buster 15y agoYes, i know that. It saddens me that so much money goes to some (in my eyes) inferior product (and makes my work harder ;) ).
- timrogers 15y agoSuch crap. This only gets voted up because it bashes Microsoft.
- bo1024 15y agoI disagree. This kind of thing is a real annoyance/problem for a lot of people. Same goes for powerpoint slides. It doesn't matter where you put blame, or if there's any blame at all; it's still a problem.