(no subject)

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

User comes in almost crying and talking\stammering a mile a minute. Starts speaking to me even though my back is turned towards him and someone else already asked how we could help him. This is what I picked up from his stammering:

"Hi. I could really use some help because I've been trying to get this file to print off and I'm already late for class and I've tried like 6 different computers and...something something...late for class and it won't print and I just need some help."

$COWORKER1 goes off to help him, comes back in 5 minutes.

$COWORKER2: what was the issue?
$COWORKER1: uh, his mommy and daddy are brother and sister?

Turns out he had somehow saved a file at home in wps format using Word. We now run Office 2007 (GAH!) in our labs and they have no idea what wps is. $COWORKER1 explains this to the guy and tells him he'll have to go home and resave it, he calms down a bit and runs off to class.

I almost feel bad for laughing at his dumb ass, but you can't do this job without a little bit of laughter.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Ah, Works documents! Probably did it on the "mommie bought me" computer and freaked when it didn't work everywhere.

One of the many things I hate about MS is they still sell it, and don't natively allow it to be read back in.


FYI: 2003 has a plugin that lets you read/write Works. I'd be surprised if 2007 doesn't have one somewhere.

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's some way to make 2007 read a wps. Question is how long it would take to find vs how long it would take the guy to get back to his dorm room (you can get from one end of campus here to the other in 10 minutes on foot) and resave/send it. Plus the fact that we try to avoid unneeded 2007 plugins because they slow it down and it's slow as molasses already.

[cirobi.livejournal.com]

we had to set the association on XP machines to associate Works docs to Word at the law school i used to work for. some of the profs preferred Works so all machines needed to be able to open them. =/ i can't imagine 2007 not being able to work that way as well though i wouldn't be surprised if MS f'd that up.

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah. I just tried it myself. Took 5 minutes. I'm now off to go hurt $COWORKER1.

[soruk.livejournal.com]

Ah, Microsoft Works. Proof that the Trade Descriptions Act doesn't apply to computer software.

[enchanrenan.livejournal.com]

I was about to say but you beat me to it, oxymoron much :3?

[kuang.livejournal.com]

2007 reads and converts WPS files better than any previous version in my experience, but you do need to specify the filetype in the Open dialogue rather than letting it guess.

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah. I just tried it myself. Took 5 minutes. I'm now off to go hurt $COWORKER1.

[aelsa.livejournal.com]

Does Office 2007 give you a lot of trouble? We're still using 2003 and won't be upgrading until at least the summer, but 2007 seems quite good from what I've seen of it so far - which admittedly isn't much, but the user interface has definitely been improved.

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

Since SP1 for Office 2007 came out we've seen less issues, but yeah we were seeing a lot. Partially to due to our roaming profile system however. We switched to it because the department heads of the University departments we support demanded it because "it's what industry is using now." and we can't tell them "um, no not really".

[brownizs.livejournal.com]

You can actually set the format that 2007 saves in to not save in XML format. Set it for 2003 or older, and then your users should have no problems, but if in doubt, you can head over to http://www.slipstick.com for further info.

[mtupyro.livejournal.com]

We know that. That's actually the default save setting in our labs. Nothing to do with the issues we've been seeing but thank you for the input.

[yanni85.livejournal.com]

Of course, that depends on 2007 keeping the setting. In my experience, you can change that setting all you want but every so often it will just decide it wants to revert back to 2007 format.

(I'm sure it's with some updates or something but it's more entertaining to start a conspiracy theory that 2007 has some artificial intelligence going on.)

[agmlego.livejournal.com]

Biggest issue I've seen in the fishbowl is that (l)users can't find crap in the stupid ribbon.