[OLUG] Misbehaving Microsoft products: what to do?

[Dave Burchell]

Dietz, John D. says:

> 	I have been using Word since version 2.0 for Win3.1 (Unfortunally, it was
> necessary for my job)...  That is an interesting problem, and I think there
> might be a(n) online fix.  Since you didn't specify much information about
> which version of word she is using, I am going to assume that she doesn't
> have the necessary updates necessary to fix these problems.  She should hop
> onto http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/ and see if she can download the
> Service Pack 2b..  After I install that, I never had any problems with Word.

I don't know if we should assume she doesn't have the patches/service
packs installed.  They spent considerable time with Microsoft tech
support before they gave up.  The first thing the MS tech on the other
end of the phone wants you to do is update everything with the latest
fixes, right?  But as you say, I don't have all of the details; I'll
ask her.

> 	Also, does she have the ability to export this particular document into
> something else she has or can she copy and paste this into something else..
> Oddly enough, she could also start a new word document and then import this
> other document into it... Strangely enough, I have fixed formatting problems
> this way....I just wish that Microshaft could make something that worked
> perfectly...

That's what I suggested: save the whole thing as text, then read the
text into Word and start over.  I think she wasn't too keen on that
because (1) the formatting would still need to be redone, and (2) if
they keep working on the document it will (in all likelyhood) just go
haywire again.

I don't wish MS would make things that worked perfectly; that's too
much to ask.  I wish they would release source code to all of their
buggy products.  They don't even give the source to their OWN TECHS.
Crimminy sakes, how for the love of Pete are these guys gonna solve my
problems without the source??  (The answer to that rhetorical question
is they can't, as is reaffirmed whenever I call for support.)

The lesson here is clear: for letters home to Grandma, use Word.  For
important projects, use something solid.

-- 
Dave Burchell                                          40.49'N, 96.41'W
Free your mind and your software will follow.              402-467-1619
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/burchell/                  burchell at acm.org     

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