On 9 Sep 2008 at 6:26, dhbailey wrote: > All this discussion about the availability of converters and > the possibility of changing the default file-format for > Word2007 to save files in begs a huge question about why MS > changed the default format to begin with
Microsoft had kept stable (or transparently interoperable) file formats in Word since Word97. That's 10 years of no change in file format. The change was actually made to get away from a binary-based file format in order to implement a text-based format based on XML. The point of this was to make the files more universally readable/writable. This was a move on MS's part to move to a more open text-based file format, as opposed to a closed binary format. Now, there are some caveats there, so MS is not entirely without sin on the question of playing with formats (this is why MS's proposal for making a version of the format a standard has been rejected), but the main reason it was done was a good one. It would be like MM moving to an ETF-like file format away from the current binary format. > My wife (who has used computers for many years yet still > remains a newbie) was taking an on-line course where the > teacher was sending things out in .docx format. We use > WordPerfect in our house and it couldn't open them. Many > others in the class were using earlier versions of Word, and > NOBODY could open the files. And the teacher had no clue > what to do about it! I had to tell my wife what to send to > the teacher in an e-mail about changing the format, and I > don't even use Word! > > It's incredibly short-sighted of Microsoft to have done what > it did, No, what's shortsighted is not introducing a new file format, but doing it in a hidden way, not informing new users that it has been done. They could have made the old file format the default, but that would have been a way of killing DOCX entirely, since the same "I don't care what's under the hood" users you're describing would never investigate the FILE TYPE dropdown of the SAVE dialog box. It's pretty easy to have a dialog pop up the first time the user saves a file and explains the situation, and gives the user the option of using the DOCX format by default or of using the legacy format. > Most computer users are totally ignorant of what goes on > under the hood and will never do what many of us on this > list would have done within minutes of using the program or > within minutes of receiving a file we couldn't open from > someone using the new version of Word. While this is probably true, it's a recipe for stagnation of all computer programs if software designers therefore conclude that they should never introduce changes to file formats because of this. It's a hard problem, but not exactly unresolvable. I would certainly agree that MS didn't do it right (just as they screwed up the introduction of the alternatve file formats in Word 2000). -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
