[Hidden-tech] Microsoft Office suite vs. other options

[Don Lesser]

OK, I started personal computing with CP/M and bought my first IBM-PC the
day the Macintosh was announced. My professional career has been in the
business world where PCs predominate. (Steve Jobs’ decision to not link to
“brain dead” corporate networks and not to second source the Mac doomed it
in the business world, no matter how much better the Mac was. And the
interface WAS better.) I watched Apple over-charge users for memory chips
etc. I took grief from Mac users who seemed to regard the PC as the Devil’s
tool. And in the business world, I regularly dealt with the Mac-impaired who
could not understand directories or that file extensions meant the file was
organized differently and renaming an extension did nothing to convert the
file. Later, I dealt with Open Office users who could not provide a file
that was formatted exactly like Word (and the other 8 writers on the
project) provided and that the client wanted, requiring me to spend hours
correcting it. Usable GUIs, Pixar, iPods, the iPhone—all things that the
world would be poorer without, no question about it. But I can do without
fundamentalist ideologues of every stripe.

 

In the 1960’s, IBM was the bad guy and Amdahl etc. were the underdogs. In
the 1970’s, DEC ruled the roost and kicked IBM out of the departmental
computing world and Data General, et al were the underdogs. Microsoft made
some smart decisions and some pretty aggressive ones (not illegal but
amoral) and came to dominate the PC world. Now Google is taking some of the
heat. Still, for someone who remembers 10 flavors of MS-DOS and separate
applications for each and 10 different databases that one might encounter, I
don’t mind a little standardization in what has become a necessary
commodity. If each record company required a different CD player


 

PowerPoint will keep you stupid if you try to reduce the world to bullet
points. That’s where human thought is required, something outside the
presentation. Excel will doom you to failure if you simply project 5%
Quarterly growth for 10 years without thinking things through. Word will
drive you crazy, period. 

 

These arguments are childish at best (my pa can beat your pa, my OS can beat
your OS) and nearly equivalent to the Sunni-Shiite divide at worst. Tools
are tools and some tools are better than others and some are simply
different and some are simply required at a particular job site. Find a tool
that works for you and use it.  

 

Don Lesser

Pioneer Training, Inc.

139 B Damon Road, Suite 2

Northampton, MA 01060

(413) 387-1040 / (413) 536-1030

(413) 586-0545 (fax)

dlesser at ptraining.com

www.ptraining.com

 

From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Paul
Stallman
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 9:56 AM
To: Frank Aronson
Cc: Hidden-Tech Tech
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Microsoft Office suite vs. other options

 

I'm with Frank on this. Â They are all tools, just how we choose to use
them. Â None of them are inherently evil or out to destroy our lives. Â 

 

I personally have been trying to adapt to the cloud and use Google Docs, but
I even find that it has it's own problems, but their presentation tool is
simple and it works. Â The word processor is good unless you like text boxes
and multiple columns and spreadsheets are spreadsheets which everyone uses
as databases anyway. Â 

 

The advantage to using Google Docs versus Microsoft is it's all available to
you from anywhere. Â That's what I like, it's independent of what computer
I'm on, what operating system and I can share and collaborate on documents
without the need for Sharepoint or other installed tools. Â 

 

And how can you beat either FREE or $50/year for the real Google Apps
account. Â 

 

It all just takes some getting used to the system and what your business
requires. Â I for instance really miss the header and footer features of
Word, but I adapted with Google Docs.

 

 

Paul Stallman
Managing Director
paul at alias-solutions.com
413.364.6147
alias|solutions
www.alias-solutions.com





On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:12 AM, Frank Aronson <fsaronson at gmail.com> wrote:

  ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
  ** If you did, we all thank you.




This will quickly be labeled off-topic, but I have to ask, why does every
Mac vs. PC thread always devolve into a Microsoft mugging? Â Quite frankly,
it belies a lack of objectivity (would you blame OOo's presentation manager
if that were the predominant presentation tool on the market, for
instance?). Â I have seen quite a number of problems with Macs and other
Apple products over the years that seem to be thoroughly ignored. Â I am
hardly an apologist for Microsoft, having been a harsh critic for many
years. Â But, to borrow from a recent column regarding Windows 7 and Mac OS
X Snow Leopard, I am an OS agnostic. Â I believe that both systems (or for
that matter, the many flavors of Linux) have their pluses and minuses and I
happily (and sometimes unhappily - Windows Vista quickly comes to mind) work
in both worlds (not so much Linux. Â Sorry Linux guys!).

 

As for the thumping that PowerPoint is getting in this thread, I believe it
to be a bit disingenuous. Â I have railed at the misuse of PowerPoint for
years. Â However, that criticism is not geared toward the software itself,
but to those who misuse the software. Â It's kind of like blaming the hammer
and nail for bad construction. Â It's not the tool, but the person wielding
the tool who is ultimately at fault. Â PowerPoint can be a useful tool when
used appropriately.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Frank Aronson

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 9:02 PM, Duane Dale <duane.dale at gmail.com> wrote:

  ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
  ** If you did, we all thank you.



Fixing a typo...

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 8:43 PM, Duane Dale <duane.dale at gmail.com> wrote:

I think my comment toward the end of the PC > iMac conversion thread got
booted as off-topic.
HAVING bothered to concoct a response I wanted to share, here it is under a
fresh Subject:

 

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 4:00 PM, Roger Williams <roger at qux.com> wrote:


...Naw, in my book Microsoft Word (tied with Powerpoint) takes the prize as
the


most atrocious application ever to be inflicted upon the neophyte business

community.  ...   


Someone who takes on PowerPoint with a vengeance is Edward Tufte. He's the
author of several wonderful books on the visual presentation of information.
In one of them he explores the Challenger space shuttle disaster,
considering how O-ring temperature behavior was analyzed, and how it might
have been viewed in ways that would have spotted the potential for aberrant
behavior at outlier temperatures.

Tufte has a short booklet on PowerPoint in which he criticizes its basic
multi-tiered bullet-list structure. See
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp

If you click the link just above the image of the booklet's cover -- a link
labeled "PowerPoint does Rocket Science" -- you'll get a sample from the
book which is Tufte's analysis of the other space shuttle disaster
(Columbia), showing how Boeing's placement of optimistic comments within
top-level bullets held sway over more concerning comments hidden in the
lower-tier bullets (in PowerPoint slides of amazing complexity, by the way).

Tufte is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in
statistical evidence, information design, and interface design.  He does
periodic road-shows -- one-day courses in his methods, with a price that
includes a number of the books. Recommended.

-- Duane Dale

 



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-- 
The Computer Mensch
"When not just ANY geek will do!"
Cell: (413) 537-5238
Work: (413) 835-9721
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