Nope. I thought of that. And I expected this reply. So, as I promised
myself, I grinned when I saw your response.
Just for grins, I opened an OpenOffice document and changed the settings
from centimeters to millimeters. The rulers on the 100 % sized view
showed markings and numbers every 6 mm. At 200 % they occurred every 3
mm. At 400 % they showed every 2 mm. But I normally use the 100 % view
and I don't think that markings every 6 mm would be very useful. That of
course is a problem with OpenOffice, not a problem with your argument
favoring millimeters over centimeters. I'm now going to change things
back to centimeters!
Jim
On 2011-05-28 1418, Pat Naughtin wrote:
Dear Jim,
Thanks for this information. You probably won't like me saying this but you
have given me another arrow to my bow in criticising the use of centimetres
instead of millimetres. I really must assemble my arguments favouring
millimetres over centimetre more carefully. I will mull some more.
Cheers and thanks for your prompt response.
Pat Naughtin
Geelong Australia
On 2011/05/29, at 04:08 , James R. Frysinger wrote:
Bear with me here, Pat. I'm still trying to find my way around this blasted "menu ribbon"
that MS Office uses now. (The startup guide acknowledged that many people would find it difficult
at first to use the menu ribbon. Downloadable tutorials are provided for each Office component.
Also provided is a link to a video explaining "Why we made this change" -- the video file
did not run.)
Opening the Word component, I see an empty page. Selecting the Page Layout ribbon, I see
settings for indents given in centimeters. The Margins tab provides several options (as
well as a chance to customize the settings) and one of those is "boxed"; I thus
assume that this is the current setting: top, bottom, and both sides = 25.4 cm. One
choice is for Office 2003 Default settings: top and bottom = 25.4 cm, sides = 3.18 cm.
I will change these to my personal preferences of 2.00 cm all around (or 2.5 cm on recto
pages and 1.5 cm on verso pages to allow for punching or binding). For those who are up
on typography...yes, this provides a line that is generally considered as being "too
long" when 12 point type is used on U.S. Letter paper. I will try once again, now
that I have a new computer not cluttered with personal stuff, to build a nice LaTeX
suite; I miss that from my Linux days. Sigh.
When I stumbled across the "preferences" menu yesterday, I saw that the program
was already set up in centimeters (capitalized), but that I had the option to change that
to inches, millimeters, or picas (all capitalized).
I was able to figure out how to make vertical and horizontal rulers visible and
did so. They obviously are marked in centimeters but with subdivisions for 1/4,
1/2, and 3/4 cm. (Unfortunately, OpenOffice 3.3.0 does the same thing.)
Jim
On 2011-05-27 2246, Pat Naughtin wrote:
On 2011/05/27, at 11:32 , James R. Frysinger wrote:
I'm in the process of setting up a new computer for my business and discovered something surprising. While
setting options in the subject-named program on this Windows 7 OS, I discovered that "centimeter"
is the default value under "Display" for "Show measurements in units of:".
That's the first office program I've seen that defaults to metric! I cannot
think of anything I set in the Windows 7 preferences that would have caused
that.
Jim
Dear Jim,
What are the default settings on your new computer for page margins?
I use the latest (2011) version of Microsoft Word for Mac and it's default
settings all came in inches. After I set my preferred length setting for
millimetres, MS Word changed the page margin defaults to 25.4 mm top and bottom
and 31.8 mm for right and left margins.
You may recall that I have written a short article about this issue previously
at http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/PageBordersInchesORmillimetres.pdf
By the way, does your new MS Word allow you to set your own default in
millimetres? Or are you stuck with a choice between inches or centimetres?
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides
services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for
commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA,
NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See
http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat
at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters'
newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides
services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for
commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA,
NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See
http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat
at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters'
newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
