[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
If you are mainly creating docs you are fine. When you try to modify existing Word docs that have esoteric features you can run into trouble.
I know this does not pertain to you, and is not really an answer, but it brings to my mind one of my pet peeves about office apps and documents.
I fail to understand the logic behind corporations sticking with non-standard applications and vendor lock-in when there are alternatives. My last full-time employer is still fighting with limited budgets, but they insist upon continuing to purchase M$ Office for every PC, using products that require M$ applications for support, and even using M$ back-end databases and other systems. They have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on this crap.
They could simply use Open Office for all documentation. For compatibility with partners, PDF format works perfectly well for published documentation that should not be changed (and Open Office, unlike M$ Office, has a PDF exporter). In addition, I'd venture to say that 90% of the stuff that you put in an OOo .doc file looks fine in a M$ Word file. In fact, OOo is as compatible with ALL versions of Word as Word is with another version of Word (which says more for OOo than it does for Word).
Why any company even allows the use of Access is beyond my comprehension. It's not for big business, it's for mom & pop's little personal DB or there family store. Get it the hell out. Scaling up to M$ SQL, it's not even SQL compliant and should not even be thought of when considering a DB engine. Oracle costs way to much, as does SAP and DB2. Even PostgreSQL had some compliance issues the last I looked (it's been a little while, so I could be wrong here). Use a new release of MySQL, especially Max DB.
I've done hundreds of presentations with OOo and no one even knew that wasn't using Power Point, so what's the Point of using the later? My oldest daughter complained about a lack of backgrounds for OOo Impress, and it took me about 10 seconds to find hundreds of them online for it.
Excel? Ha! Again, OOo has provided all the spreadsheets I've needed for business. Most companies over-use them anyway, and they should really learn to use the right tool for the job. How many spreadsheets have we seen masquerading as databases? I've seen tons, and in every case they create more work than they were meant to save.
Calendar, contact, e-mail, scheduling all tied into one? First, it's overrated, but that argument doesn't work in today's "I've got to be electronically connected at all times!" world. Exchange is no longer the only kid on the block. There are others, than run on Linux (and Windows, and Mac) that can be used AND that will work with (cough, choke, gag) Outhouse. Speaking of Outhouse.
How many viruses, trojans, worms, and other malfeasant crap would be left in the cold if Outhouse (and the new Vista "Microsoft Mail") would suddenly vanish? Get it out of the office, and while you're at it make sure the people you hire know something about using a mail client other than the ability to sort-of write a letter and click the "Send" button. Oh, and HTML and RTF do NOT belong in e-mail. attaching documents and pictures, fine. Composing an entire message using RTF or HTML (and worse, including Java and JavaScript, or any other such crap) is just simply wrong and only clogs the pipes. Use Thunderbird, Eudora, or something that won't cost a bundle, won't lock your company in to one vendor for life, and runs on any computer system you decide to use.
OK, I'm tired of my own rant now. :D PGA -- Paul G. Allen, BSIT/SE Owner, Sr. Engineer Random Logic Consulting Services www.randomlogic.com -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
