Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way

blogs.computerworlduk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 72 posts

Re: Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way

#5

Post by icebraining »

It'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.

Re: Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way

#6

Post by freehunter »

codesuela wrote: post #2

or use Google Documents instead of Hybrid PDFs where again you need LibreOffice to edit them.

I 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.

Re: Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way

#7

Post by DanBC »

icebraining wrote: post #5

It'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 e…

In 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.

Re: Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way

#9

Post by darxius »

Weird. 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...

I wonder if he read my article...

Re: Stop sending .DOC files as mail attachments There is a better way

#10

Post by jrockway »

af3 wrote: post #8

No, 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.

Google 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!
Post reply on HN