Subject: Re: More on More on "Webify Word? No Way!"

From: "S. Matthew Hersey" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 08:59:55 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: <[email-masked]>
To: "[WEB-IDEAS] LISTMASTER" <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 5:13 AM
Subject: Re: More on "Webify Word? No Way!"

Matthew,

I read and re-read your post, but couldn't quite figure out what position
you were taking on Word.

The IETF require the document submissions to be simple ASCII texts, however
you can appreciate that editing a living document in this fashion is
significantly more work than using the facilities of a word processor.  The
advantage is that it produces various forms of output -- I prefer to review
the Word version as I find it more readable, and Word can produce the ASCII
format required by IETF.

As Geoff points out, Word also supports WebFolders for collaborative
authoring, and it faithfully follows WebDAV RFC2518 in this respect.  Don't
confuse the fact that Word uses XML in its source with its use of WebDAV
protocol.

Regards,
Tim

======================================================

Heya Tim,

Thanks for taking the time to consider my comments.

To clarify my position on MS Word vis-a-vis your observations:

Authoring Documents in Word and using Word as a tool to generate nicely
formatted ASCII text documents (because it is easier that hacking raw ASCII
text into shape)...ok

Word implements XML and uses WebDAV...OK

Word Documents are are easier to review because they are easier to
read...depends.

-Read-only Internet access (viewing) for Word doc betas via Web browser is
restrictive.
-Yes, Word can also convert docs to MSO markup laden HTML, but the redundant
code links to oblivion, and this can result in fatal errors to a variety of
Web browsers and Operating Systems. The size of these files wastes
bandwidth.
-Caution: Abuse of Word's Standard Dictionary for spell-checking documents
prior to publishing can result in SDD Syndrome.

*My Experience With SDDS*

I am suffering from "The Standard Dictionary Dependency Syndrome" due to
Word Spell Check abuse.

I was once a Spelling Bee Champion, but not anymore. Over the course of my
publishing career, I have relied extensively on Microsoft (R) Word as my
primary WordProcessing Application. Recently, I began to challenge myself to
limit my daily use of Spell Check. A short time later, I experienced a
Satori where I actualized my inability to spell without it in many cases.
Outlook Express, which features scaled down Word-style WYSIWYG Authoring,
has a similar Spell Check feature. I decided to cut down on my Outlook
Express usage drastically.

I began to use the Eudora Lite V.3 Email Client (no spell checker) to
recompile and roll back to the working version of spelling skills that I
flaunted in grade school. Thinking back, the degradation of stored
information and
available resources in my own "internal" database appears to correlate with
my initial discovery in Grad School, (and long-term exploitation) of the
ever-expanding Standard Dictionary in Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Outlook
Express.

I attempted to spell-check my email messages manually. This proved to be a
fiasco.

Thus, what seemed, at the outset, to be a logical step in attempting to
rectify a consequence of my software dependency, has now resulted in a
exposing a quality flaw in my workflow productivity process.

I began to concentrate on how to nip this issue in the bud, without
initiating a relapse into Spell Check Dependency.

I am now sending my email from the old Eudora client, using an alternate
account,
to [email-masked]. I then download the messages using Outlook
Express, and
perform the standard Quality Assurance testing on their content before
sending them off to
the intended recipient. Integrating Eudora into the "Email Engineering
Process" as a Poka-Yoke, has
proven slightly more time consuming. Nevertheless, the addition of this step
meets the
requirements for counteracting the long-term effects of overexposure to
Word.

I am submitting myself to this spell-therapy process in the hope that a
gradual recovery from SDDS will be affected.

Perhaps "The Standard Dictionary Dependency Syndrome" will be recognized as
a parallel issue, and one that may have been overlooked in the discussion of
Word as a webDAV client/Document Authoring Tool.

In the 5 Ss of Desktop Kaizen, safety (both physical and intellectual)
remains as the primary concern.

Regards,

smh

S. Matthew Hersey, MA Ed.
Technical Writer, Operations
Certainty Solutions, Inc.

"Certainty in an Uncertain World"