Jerry,
I have tried the complaints method, but the use of US letter rather than A4 is rather low on our list of priorities. Regarding scaling the drawings, yes I can do that, but it is a pain up the *******. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeremiah MacGregor Sent: 31 January 2009 16:49 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42700] Re: A thin veneer of dishonesty Martin, There is a very easy solution to this problem. 1.) Complain to the supplier and request they change their formatting so it will print out correctly on one sheet of A4 paper. 2.) If they ignore you or refuse to change it, then move to a different supplier who can conform. A loss of a good customer is a often enough to make a change, especially in present times of a bad economy. Business will only change their practice if they fear it will cost them business. You have to make them feel it will cost them your business. On the flip side of the coin, all of our printers can scale any document to fit the page. I've downloaded manuals in A4 pdf format and my printer scaled it to fit. Maybe you aren't setting your driver to do so. Of course it doesn't always fill the page neatly, but who cares as long as the information is all legible. Jerry _____ From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 10:32:20 AM Subject: [USMA:42695] Re: A thin veneer of dishonesty I work in the UK . One of our suppliers, the British branch of a US company sends us drawings that are designed for US letter sized paper. If I print the drawings off so that I can verify them, I need two sheets of A4 paper ( US letter is 254 mm x 216 mm, while A4 is 297 mm x 210 mm). It is a waste of paper and annoys me no end. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: 31 January 2009 10:40 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42684] Re: A thin veneer of dishonesty . snip Every child, in every school, in every state of Australia has to learn a little about inches and fractions of inches to cope with the default settings of mostly Microsoft or Apple word processors that come from the USA . They have to do this whenever they write an assignment in any subject that they undertake. I do not know the cost of this to the individual students - all of them - or to the whole of the Australian economy. In addition, we are beset by imported companies such as Jeep, KFC, McDonald's, and Subway who refuse to behave as responsible citizens when they operate their businesses in Australia; they buy in metric units, they cook in metric units, then sell to the Australian public in ounces and inches that they advertise so widely that people who do not understand the metrology of our laws could well believe that it is OK to use inches and ounces for other things. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong , Australia
