Subj : Re: Old computer
To   : Arelor
From : boraxman
Date : Tue Jun 28 2022 23:59:58

 Ar>  > The desktop suite is a wrong approach to a problem to begin with.  Offi
 Ar>  > software,
 Ar>  > ase and generated documentation could have been better.
 Ar>  > 
 Ar>  > I use Office a lot at work, and I estimate that at least 75% of the tim
 Ar>  > use this
 Ar>  > 
 Ar> 
 Ar> Yes and no. When you want to produce a printer-ready report, a program
 Ar> that lets you
 Ar> edit paper-alike documents is not a bad aproximation to the task.
 Ar> 
 Ar> That said, when you want to produce an electronic-only document you are
 Ar> better off
 Ar> using other alternatives that generate output which is easy to convert to
 Ar> different
 Ar> formats later on. For example, I use Wrodgrinder for writing short
 Ar> stories, because I
 Ar> get an output in a relatively portable format which I can painlessly
 Ar> convert into a
 Ar> printer-ready format later if need be.
 Ar> 
 Ar> --

Agreed, but this happens less often that you think.  I write procedures and protocols at work.  It would be better for me to write these in markdown, org mode or some other simpler format, and have it 'processed' into a PDF for printing and signing.  One could then use this text data as input for other documents, or publish via HTML.  Instead, we have a weird system where you upload a .DOCX file to some document management software.  The PDF cannot be scanned, or read, so people have to manually open it by navigating to it using a web browser, then visually read the text and type it in elsewhere.  The "online" version is just a PDF, not really suitable for online reading.

Word is also troublesome when you have formatting issues, when automatic numbering doesn't work as you expect, or when the format between different documents which should have the same format differ.

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