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

blogs.computerworlduk.com

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

#11

Post by woodall »

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.

This is very true. We've tried using Google Docs and it just doesn't work the same; this is esp. true with less tech savvy users. If I am working on different page and someone is editing the top of the doc then it pushes everything I am doing down and interrupts my train of thought.

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

#12

Post by af3 »

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 does not have EndNote support.

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

#13

Post by darklajid »

codesuela wrote: post #2

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

Never used Google Docs. Don't you, in that case, require

a) that I have a Google account (not sure)

and

b) limit my access to the document that you sent me to times when I'm online (unless I go ahead and export it to another format and save it locally. Probably as text or pdf, depending on whether I want to edit or read)?

I assume b) is a given. If a) is true as well then I'd consider sending Google Docs links just as rude as .doc etc.

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

#14

Post by eli »

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…

PDF is definitely better for printing. HTML is not so hot for docs that use, say, page numbering.

Plus, imagine for a second that you are not already an HTML whiz. Now in order to edit the HTML doc I sent you, you need to buy expensive, crappy WYSIWYG editing software like Frontpage or Dreamweaver.

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

#16

Post by mayanksinghal »

darklajid wrote: post #13
codesuela wrote: post #2

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

Never used Google Docs. Don't you, in that case, require a) that I have a Google account (not sure) and b) limit my access to the document that you sent me to times when I'm online (unless I go ahead and export it to another format and save it locally. Probably as text or pdf, depending on whether I want to edit or read)? I assume b) is a given. If a) is true as well then I'd consider sending Google Docs links just a…

a) I think, depends on the level at which the document is shared. If it is public, anyone can find using search and edit it. If it is accessible to anyone with the document link, then anyone who can discover the document can edit it. If it is shared with a list of people (or a group) then you need to login to authenticate yourself. The last is, I believe, the only solution to the problem.

I don't think there exists a ubiquitous solution for sharing printable-well-formatted documents that require no special skills for formatting. .DOC will require the person on the other end to have MS Word and .ODT Libre Office (which is no way good enough for anything ATM). There are also other replacements to Google Docs, I haven't tried any as Google Docs fulfilled most of the requirements of my minimal collaborative editing but I am told that Zoho works really well.

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

#17

Post by gaius »

bitboxer wrote: post #4

Or even better: just send the damn text WITHIN the actual email. You know, just how sane people do this :) .

You might be surprised how many people simply won't read a long email, their eyes sort of glaze over, but will happily read a much longer document when the email just says "please see attached". It's like flipping a mental switch between "short note" and "real document".

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

#18

Post by Kliment »

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.

TeX+git

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

#20

Post by gst »

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.

I hope this is meant as a joke.

I've worked in research for several years and we almost exclusively kept LaTeX documents in a Git repository. This worked perfectly: Multiple people can edit the document at the same time and you can also add additional comments to the document that don't show up in the output.

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