[ale] wireless card

[James Sumners]

A couple of things.

1) Unless you know about free PDF printers for Windows, and they do
exist, you probably don't have any way to create a PDF from your Word,
or whatever else, document. So requiring PDF adds more difficulty.

2) The scenario I am talking about is standardized. _Everyone_ at CSU
has access to the same version of Microsoft Office. Well, except for
us Mac users. We get a slightly older version. But newer versions of
Office usually don't have a problem opening older Office documents.
I'll agree that it doesn't work well going the other direction.

You can take your PDF stance all you want. I'm just saying that if you
were in the same situation, it would be a lot easier to use the
software your instructors are using. After all, you don't want to make
things complicated for your professors. If you are the one person
standing out with some sort of special requirements, they will take
notice, and they won't like it. I'm sure that statement holds true for
any university.

On 9/28/07, James P. Kinney III <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com> wrote:
> Maybe I'm just the prick on this stuff but...
>
> Electronic format document transfer that has the requirement of intact
> format MUST be sent in PDF.
>
> Zip.
>
> No other alternative is possible.
>
> If student has a new version of M$ Orifice and teacher has an older
> version (quite common situation), the document won't work for the
> teacher.
>
> Saving ODT as a M$ .doc does an OK job but it's not perfect. The
> formatting _will_ change because the M$ format (I use the term only
> generically here) is so convoluted that even they can't always make it
> work right.
>
> So any student who is REQUIRED to submit electronically should ALWAYS
> send a PDF and no other format. Even if the teacher is using
> OpenOffice.org, they should send PDF. The only time PDF should not be
> sent is during collaboration time before the document is in final form
> and the teacher is going to edit things.
> --
> James P. Kinney III


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
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