Geek Rant dot org » MS-Office

Tables: MS Word vs CSS

daniel — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:21:04 +0000

Here’s why I like CSS.

Here’s a table created in Microsoft Word and pasted into a CMS:

Description
Benefits Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
No up-front hardware or software costs
Significantly less work effort to set-up a B2B integration solution since it involves mostly configuration tasks rather than programming
Free use of online development interface for developers
Data processing rates for usage are world’s best
Best Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI achieved sooner due to low up-front and on-going costs
Optimizes work effort since tasks removed or simplified
Higher ROI due to removal of costs
Speed of Delivery
Solutions delivered in days and weeks rather than months and years
No requirement to establish and maintain hardware and software
Support for standards reduces need for specialists and training
Control and Flexibility
Developers have full control over tenancies, design data and administration
Development can be done anywhere at anytime
Guaranteed Service
Secure and reliable infrastructure
Guaranteed service level
Data-back-up and disaster recovery provided
Market Leading Service
Most advanced functionality
First remotely configurable Integration, BPM and BI service
Wide support for industry standards and customizations
Future Proof
Quarterly releases ensure up-to-date functionality
Upgrades are our responsibility
Expert Assistance
Expertise and knowledge available for support, development, consulting and training

With a little CSS coding (held in an external file), it has become this:

Description
Benefits Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) No up-front hardware or software
costs

Significantly less work effort to set-up a B2B integration solution
since it involves mostly configuration tasks rather than programming

Free use of online development interface for developers

Data processing rates for usage are world’s best
Best Return on Investment (ROI) ROI achieved sooner due to low
up-front and on-going costs

Optimizes work effort since tasks removed or simplified

Higher ROI due to removal of costs
Speed of Delivery Solutions delivered in days and
weeks rather than months and years

No requirement to establish and maintain hardware and software

Support for standards reduces need for specialists and training
Control and Flexibility Developers have full control over
tenancies, design data and administration

Development can be done anywhere at anytime
Guaranteed Service Secure and reliable infrastructure

Guaranteed service level

Data-back-up and disaster recovery provided
Market Leading Service Most advanced functionality

First remotely configurable Integration, BPM and BI service

Wide support for industry standards and customizations
Future Proof Quarterly releases ensure up-to-date
functionality

Upgrades are our responsibility
Expert Assistance Expertise and knowledge available
for support, development, consulting and training

Old version: 12250 bytes.

New version: 2490 bytes + 605 bytes of CSS. And much more maintainable, and it’ll be easier to change the table styles later.

OK, the new looks slightly different to the old (this was on purpose to enlarge the fonts a bit), but jeez.

PDF vs XPS

daniel — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:44:23 +0000

It appears that almost nobody except Microsoft themselves are publishing documents in XPS format. Not really surprising — why would anybody use it over PDF, for which readers are near-universally installed?

Searching Google for XPS documents vs PDF documents:

Office 2007: Menus and SP2

daniel — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:27:32 +0000

Try as you might, you can’t get used to the Office 2007 ribbons, and you want the menus back?

There have been a few paid solutions, but here’s a free one (for non-commercial use): UBitMenu (Corporate licence applies for business usage for €10 + €0.65 per user).

It adds a Menu ribbon which has the traditional menus, with extra items added for new Office 2007 functionality. Neato; I’ll be giving this a try pronto.

(via Office Watch)

By the way, Office 2007 SP2 is due out on April 28th… this MS blog article previews some of the new features included. (via Malcolm)

Quicktime and a decompressor are needed to see this picture

daniel — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:39:53 +0000

Of all the useless error messages, this one would have to take the cake. I found it in a Word document tonight.

It appears to be caused by the author using Mac Word, and having pasted a picture into the document in some weird and wonderful way.

The error is useless, because I already have Quicktime installed on this machine. (I didn’t particularly want it; it came with iTunes.) And if it wants a particular decompressor, it would be very helpful if it gave me a hint as to which one, and where I should get it from.

I couldn’t even see a way of extracting the picture so I could try and throw it at another viewer program.

In this age of standards, when the vast majority of pictures flying about the place are either GIF, JPEG or PNG, and even proprietary standards like MS Word are almost universal, why on earth should I be getting an error message like this?

Evidently the only fix is to go back to the source (on the Mac) and change the picture to something more universal. Thankfully the document’s author was around, so I could do that. But who knows why Mac Word lets people insert pictures in this way in the first place. (Powerpoint is susceptible too.)

Conclusion? Blame Microsoft!

How to compress attachments in Outlook

daniel — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:57:30 +0000

I use Outlook at work, and sometimes people send big attachments without zipping them up. Often they’re documents which are in the document management system anyway. Sigh.

Anyway, it’s easy enough to compress them within Outlook.

1. Open mail item.

2. Save attachment(s) to a temporary directory.

3. Zip (or whatever) the file. (See? 2Mb XLS down to 300Kb. Why didn’t the sender do that?)

4. In the email, click Edit / Edit Message on the menu. (This feature is a boon for fraudulent modification of emails, but also for compressing attachments.)

5. Right click on the attachment and Remove.

6. Drag the zip file into the email. (For some reason you can’t use the menu to insert an attachment like you can when composing. And the drag-drop has to land in the body section of the email.)

7. Save and Close the email.

Voila, a bunch of space saved.

I haven’t explored to see if the same method can be used in other mail clients.

	Description
Benefits	Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)	No up-front hardware or software costs Significantly less work effort to set-up a B2B integration solution since it involves mostly configuration tasks rather than programming Free use of online development interface for developers Data processing rates for usage are world’s best
	Best Return on Investment (ROI)	ROI achieved sooner due to low up-front and on-going costs Optimizes work effort since tasks removed or simplified Higher ROI due to removal of costs
	Speed of Delivery	Solutions delivered in days and weeks rather than months and years No requirement to establish and maintain hardware and software Support for standards reduces need for specialists and training
	Control and Flexibility	Developers have full control over tenancies, design data and administration Development can be done anywhere at anytime
	Guaranteed Service	Secure and reliable infrastructure Guaranteed service level Data-back-up and disaster recovery provided
	Market Leading Service	Most advanced functionality First remotely configurable Integration, BPM and BI service Wide support for industry standards and customizations
	Future Proof	Quarterly releases ensure up-to-date functionality Upgrades are our responsibility
	Expert Assistance	Expertise and knowledge available for support, development, consulting and training

	Description
Benefits	Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)	No up-front hardware or software costs Significantly less work effort to set-up a B2B integration solution since it involves mostly configuration tasks rather than programming Free use of online development interface for developers Data processing rates for usage are world’s best
	Best Return on Investment (ROI)	ROI achieved sooner due to low up-front and on-going costs Optimizes work effort since tasks removed or simplified Higher ROI due to removal of costs
	Speed of Delivery	Solutions delivered in days and weeks rather than months and years No requirement to establish and maintain hardware and software Support for standards reduces need for specialists and training
	Control and Flexibility	Developers have full control over tenancies, design data and administration Development can be done anywhere at anytime
	Guaranteed Service	Secure and reliable infrastructure Guaranteed service level Data-back-up and disaster recovery provided
	Market Leading Service	Most advanced functionality First remotely configurable Integration, BPM and BI service Wide support for industry standards and customizations
	Future Proof	Quarterly releases ensure up-to-date functionality Upgrades are our responsibility
	Expert Assistance	Expertise and knowledge available for support, development, consulting and training