On 2011/05/29, at 05:31 , James R. Frysinger wrote: > 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
Dear Jim, I note your decision, "I'm now going to change things back to centimeters!" You might be interested in this quote from Dorothy Rowe in her book, "Why we Lie": The car industry is a global industry. For instance, in the motor industry in 2009, Fiat provide diesel engines to Mercedes for use in commercial vehicles. GM built Fiat diesel engines under licence for use in Vauxhall, Opel and Saab cars. Peugeot Citroen provided diesel engines for Ford vehicles and used BMW petrol engines in its Citroen and Peugeot cars, while running Joint Venture programmes for shared small cars with Toyota and commercial vehicles with Fiat. As you know the world car industry achieved massive economies of scale when they adopted the 'world car concept' very rapidly in the mid-1970s using millimetres (and micrometres and more recently nanometres). In many cases these savings of, I guess, about 10 % of turnover, actually saved some of these companies from bankruptcy at that time and on several occasions since as these savings are annual. Their savings were not only from engines but also from all other parts: brakes, electrical and electronic parts are other examples; remember the effect that the loss of small car parts factories due to the Japanese tsunami affected the car industry in the USA. As you know, like the world car (and tractor, truck, and motorbike) industry, Australia has been largely and rapidly successful when we used millimetres for our metrication upgrade. This success with millimetres represents about 85 % of our arts, crafts, and professions. Wherever centimetres were used we are still struggling -- no struggling is the wrong word -- we are failing and failing dismally in the another group of activities where centimetres are still being tried for a metrication transition. Sadly this second group includes school teachers where confusion reigns between centimetres and inches and the medical community where it leads to multiple unnecessary deaths. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/centimetresORmillimetres.pdf (search for aircraft) for a list of the successful metrication upgrades in Australia (using millimetres) -- and the unsuccessful attempted transitions (using centimetres). I wonder could you share with us some of the successful examples of economical, smooth, and fast metrication transitions -- using centimetres -- that you used to make your decision: "I'm now going to change things back to centimeters!" Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia > > 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 > 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.
