[odf-discuss] Promotion site

[Chris Puttick]

On 12/09/2007, Peter Vandenabeele <peter at vandenabeele.com> wrote:
> On 9/12/07, Chris Puttick <cputtick at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm not creating a new site, I'm trying to help people promote the use
> > of the standard ISO26300 by providing information in a simple overview
> > fashion on a single page, with links that:
>
> Thanks for that feedback. The site looks good.
>
> A few possible ideas:
>
> * for the pointer to the Sun plug-in, add a short note
>
>     [only available for MS Office 2003, XP and 2000].
>   This to avoid the inefficient process of people getting
>   frustrated with trying the plug-in with Office 2007,
>   which we know doesn't work for now.

Good plan - for brevity's sake I've gone with "not compatible with
Microsoft Office 2007" - Office 97 users are probably prime to go with
Open Office anyway ;). Also might pick up on the negativity
surrounding Vista compatibility ;).

>
> > (c) provide quick links to compliant software so that people who just
> > received an email with an ODF document attached can get and install
> > software to read/edit the attachment.
> > Existing sites like those of the Fellowship and the Alliance are much
> > more in depth and therefore potentially off-putting to those who may
> > already be feeling inconvenienced by this stupid attachment that the
> > office suite can't open and Outlook doesn't recognize...
>
> Essentially what I need to as a day-time job (make sure Belgian
> administrations can at least read incoming ODF) would be quite
> useful as a more general _practical_ guide of what to do when you
> receive a .odt and it doesn't automatically open in Outlook or
> when double clicking on it (assuming Windows or Mac OS here,
> since I assume essentially all Linux distro's will process .odt
> extension automatically).
>
> Seems useful if we co-author a simple FAQ or step-by-step guide of
> what to do when a Windows user (and a Mac user) receives an ODF
> attachment which doesn't open automagically. I am not familiar with
> the situation on Mac ... any volunteers to adopt for Mac OS X? In a
> next stage, it might be useful to also translate this into a number of
> languages (since we are addressing the "masses" of people that are
> less computer literate but will increasingly receive .odt/.odp documents
> in their mailboxes that will not open automagically on their Windows
> PC).

Can't help with the Mac as yet (although my graphics department and
the web guys have been asking for one...) but very happy to contribute
to a FAQ. Can we include in the FAQ "Q. My IT department said the
reason the file couldn't be opened is because it is corrupt. Why would
they do this? A. Either incompetence or laziness"? ;) I have had this
twice from the IT department of a supplier...

Maybe the FAQ could be hosted on the Fellowship? I'm keen to keep the
ISO26300 page as a simple, single page (addressing the executive
need).

Cheers

Chris