Stop distributing .doc files

http://maxmackie.com/2012/03/19/Stop-distributing-.doc-files/

by darxius • 14 years ago

16 10 14 years ago

Cavii• 14 years ago

I regularly get "screen shots" and "mock-ups" as doc files that contain a single image. It drives me nuts, but I can't find a way to change people's behaviour. Any suggestions?

batista• 14 years ago

Tried hitting them on the head?

darxius3• 14 years ago

If this is coming from an IT/Tech company, I would HIGHLY question the competence of the employees (no offense meant).

jetxs• 14 years ago

flatform-specific is a typo right? Right?

cmelbye• 14 years ago

Normally I'd prefer to be shared a Google Docs document by a coworker, but if they'd rather write it in Word and email me a .doc or .docx file, I have no problem with that.

Gmail makes it extremely easy to view those files online, and it's equally easy to convert them to Google Docs format for further editing (all taking place within the browser, no need for Office.)

Anyways, it's extremely futile to stop this phenomenon from happening by means of a blog post.

darxius3• 14 years ago

On the contrary, I think the perfect place to voice my opinion is with a blog post. If I can get at least one person to stop and think about the people on the receiving end of a document (especially within a large company), I would say I've made an impact.

program• 14 years ago

In Italy the .doc/.docx format (and all othe Office formats) is widely used. At my IT company the file format used in the CV is the starting point for the selection of a candidate. .doc/.docx is the worst choice. We prefer a .pdf file and as an addition we look at the "producer" metadata (just in case).

s_henry_paulson• 14 years ago

Ah a blog post, written by a tech person, posted to a tech-heavy website.

This will surely reach the target audience.

URSpider94• 14 years ago

A-men.

There are good reasons to be concerned about this from a business perspective as well. MS Word files can contain a tremendous amount of non-visible information, including reverts to recently-made changes, values coded into the template, meta-data, etc. By exporting to PDF, you strip a good portion of that information away.

darxius3• 14 years ago

That's a good point I completely forgot to mention. I might do a bit more research on this and scrape up some tools and make a Version II of the post.

Stop distributing .doc files

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