Re: [tlug] Poll: OpenOffice or LibreOffice?

[Travis Cardwell <travis.cardwell@example.com>]

On 2014年05月17日 03:43, Benjamin Tayehanpour wrote:
> On Fri, 16 May 2014 09:18:22 +0900 Travis Cardwell wrote:
>> When one does not have to worry about Microsoft compatibility,
>> perhaps by exporting to PDF for sharing, the software does indeed
>> seem to be a contender in its own right.
>
> Here goes. Is it at all common for simple text documents to be
> collaborated upon?
>
> Still with me? Good. Here's why I ask: I can get spreadsheet
> collaboration. I can somewhat get slide show collaboration. But text
> documents? Aren't they usually started by one person, finished by the
> same person, and then passed on *as a final product* to, well,
> whomever?

Perhaps it is worth pointing out that many people use (such) software in
any way that might get their job done, regardless of best practices.  I
have seen people use Word for all sorts of tasks just because it was the
application that they were most used to: using tables in Word instead of
using spreadsheets, making "presentations" in Word instead of using
presentation software, etc.  One time I worked with a person who graduated
from this stage to using Excel for everything, even word processing tasks!
 People use software in ways that we do not imagine.

In my wife's case, I doubt she had to collaborate on text documents very
often.  Word-compatibility issues arose, however, whenever she had to
continue work at home, and the majority of such cases were not simple text
documents.  At her university, staff are not allowed to install any
software onto the computers.  With a fixed set of software available, they
have to use whatever they can to get the job done, and my wife has made
many posters and fliers with Word.  Such documents tend to have the fonts
and floating frames that seem to cause Word-compatibility issues.  Such
documents were also the ones that tended to require changes at the last
second, resulting in the boss calling my wife at home with requests.

There are many cases where people share documents.  I have heard friends
who use recruiters to search for jobs complain that recruiters want their
résumé/CV in Word format so that they can "tweak" it.  I used to work at a
company where all documents were required to be proofread by at least
three native speakers aside from the author before printing (a good
practice!).  When I did the first proofreading of some non-native English
speakers' writing, it was definitely preferable to modify the document
myself, as the (high number of) corrections would have been difficult to
mark legibly on paper.

Cheers,

Travis