Hi Zbigniew, On Wed, 6 Mar 2002 00:39:01 +0100 "Zbigniew Majka" <ufmajka@cyf-kr.edu.pl> wrote concerning "Bormio talk": > Enclosed, please find in the attachment the word file which > contains my talk ... May I kindly remind you, that: * No more than 50% of the collaboration can read MS Word documents (due to the fact that the MS Word format isn't a format at all). * At least 75% of the collaboration can read Postscript, PDF documents. * 100% of the collaboration can read ASCII, HTML or LaTeX documents. So, in the intrest of the broadest possible number of comments to your text, you should not distribute it as a MS Word document. The logical conclussion of that is that MS Word should not be the primary format for distributing communications among the collaboration. Preferably ASCII (plain, HTML, or LaTeX) should be the chosen format, with a secondary option of PDF or PostScript. Further, I'd like to discourage the pratice of attaching large documents to emails that is sent to the collaboration; it ties up the mail server at RCF because it has to copy the large document to some 50+ mails. Instead, put the document somewhere on the WWW, like at RCF. Just make the directory rcas:/brahms/u/majka/WWW and copy the file there, and then make the a the file `index.html' with contents like <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Zbigniew Majka at RCF</TITLE> <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <META Name="description" Content="Zbigniew Majka at RCF"> <META Name="keywords" Content="Zbigniew, Majka, BRAHMS"> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1>Zbigniew Majka @ RCF</H1> <HR> <H2>Talk XL International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics in Bormio</H2> <P> Read the talk <A HREF="Bormio-02-talk.htm">online</A> </P> <P> Download the talk in formats: </P> <UL> <LI><A HREF="Bormio-02-talk.pdf">Portable Document Format</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="Bormio-02-talk.ps">Postscript</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="Bormio-02-talk.doc">Microsoft Word XP</A></LI> </UL> <HR> <ADRESS> <A HREF="mailto:ufmajka@cyf-kr.edu.pl">Zbigniew Majka</A> </ADRESS> </BODY> </HTML> Finally, here's some observations as to why it's bad pratice to redistribute MS Word documents: You sent the attachment in Microsoft Word format, a secret proprietary format, so it is hard for me to read. If you send me plain text, HTML, or PDF, then I will read it. Distributing documents in Word format is bad for you and for others. You can't be sure what they will look like if someone views them with a different version of Word; they may not work at all. Receiving Word attachments is bad for you because they can carry viruses (see [1]). Sending Word attachments is bad for you, because a Word document normally includes hidden information about the author, enabling those in the know to pry into the author's activities (maybe yours). Text that you think you deleted may still be embarrassingly present. See [2] for more info. But above all, sending people Word documents puts pressure on them to use Microsoft software and helps to deny them any other choice. In effect, you become a buttress of the Microsoft monopoly. This pressure is a major obstacle to the broader adoption of free software. Would you please reconsider the use of Word format for communication with other people? Converting the file to HTML is simple. Open the document, click on File, then Save As, and in the Save As Type strip box at the bottom of the box, choose HTML Document or Web Page. Then choose Save. You can then attach the new HTML document instead of your Word document. Note that versions of Word change in inconsistent ways - if you see slightly different menu item names, please try them. To convert to plain text is almost the same - instead of HTML Document, choose Text Only or Text Document as the Save As Type. [1] http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/acro.html [2] http://www.microsystems.com/Shares_Well.htm I don't think I have to remind you just how important Free/OpenSource Software is to our collaboration. Yours, Christian Holm Christensen ------------------------------------------- Address: Sankt Hansgade 23, 1. th. Phone: (+45) 35 35 96 91 DK-2200 Copenhagen N Cell: (+45) 28 82 16 23 Denmark Office: (+45) 353 25 305 Email: cholm@nbi.dk Web: www.nbi.dk/~cholm
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