> I've been sent a .doc form by email that I am supposed to print out, fill > out, and send back via USPS. I don't use anything MS. > NeoOffice shows the document best, but the spacing in the form does not come > out just right, so that the paging, which is important on this form, does not > come out right. > But Neo won't let me edit the document. When I try to add a space or any > character it hops to one of the spaces in the form that needs to be filled > out. I know little about word processors, but this strikes me as a behavior > that I should be able to turn off. The document doesn't appear to be locked.
It sounds like someone on the other end set the document to read only. Despite the inherent risk for malware included in PDFs, it is a better method for sending out a document to print out and also be sure of the format of the document. There are methods of defeating read-only doc files in your situation, but there may be troubling legal ramifications even if for example cut 'n' paste defeats the read-only setting in NeoOffice. Ask for a PDF if you have to print out their exact document. Incidentally even though OpenOffice and NeoOffice honor the read-only setting in MS documents, they may not exactly render the document as originally set. For that matter, a document set in a later version of word may not render correctly in an earlier version of word. So much for standardization. I haven't run into this problem with docs sent as ODFs no matter how they were created, but for something that is consistent across platforms and printers, the PDF is your present best bet. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
