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HOME TOPICS SEARCH ABOUT ME Somehow, America Inc. is confusing documents with programs. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Want to send work home from a Windows PC to a non-Windows PC? It's easyOct. 25, 2000 By Al Fasoldt Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers Do you use e-mail to help get your job done? For many of us, the answer's a no-brainer. We make appointments, set up meetings, confirm business deals and keep track of vital business information by e-mail. And many of us routinely send documents from the office to our homes and back again so we can get things done after hours. Does this sound like you? Then listen up. I'll bet you're confused about something. Nearly everybody I talk to on TV, on the radio and in addresses to user groups seems to have this wrong. What am I talking about? Sharing stuff. Sharing documents. Sending documents home so you can work on them away from the office. Sending them back. Sounds easy and simple, right? It IS easy and simple. But somehow, America Inc. is confusing documents with programs. Let me explain. Suppose I told you I wanted to send my sister a note about our next family get-together. You'd think I was crazy if I said, "So I sent her Microsoft Word." You'd wonder if my head was screwed on tight. All I need to send her is a word processing document. Maybe a Microsoft Word document or some other kind of word processing file. Right? Suppose I need to send a photo of my car to the insurance agent. You'd think I'd lost my bananas if I said, "So I mailed him my copy of Adobe Photoshop." Crazy, isn't it? But no crazier than what I hear from computer users who insist they're stuck with Windows at home because they use Windows at the office. They're confusing documents with programs. Let me explain. When you run your word processor, you create documents. You don't send your word processor home when you want to work on those documents at home. You send home the documents. You attach them to e-mail letters and that's that. If you need something at the grocery store and decide to send 16-year-old Johnny to pick them up, you write a list and give it to him. Maybe you even put it in his pocket so he can't forget it. But you don't give him the pencil and the pad or the typewriter or the computer printer. You don't give him the items you used to write the note. You just give him the note. Am I making this clear? Of all the things you'll learn this week, consider this little epiphany the most useful: You send documents back and forth. You don't send programs. And that means, of course, that all you need at home is a way to handle the documents you send home from the office. You don't need the same software you use at the office. If you work with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents at the office, you can send them home and work on them and send them back as long as you have a program on your home computer that can deal with Excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents. For Windows and Linux users, the clear choice is Star Office (from http://www.sun.com), a free Office-compatible suite of programs. I use Star Office on my Linux PCs. If you have a PC with the Be operating system (BeOS), the choice is GoBe Productive, another Office-compatible suite made specifically for BeOS. (For more on BeOS, go to www.be.com). For more on GoBe Productive, go to www.gobe.com.) If you have a Macintosh, you have many choices. But your first choice should be the Mac version of Microsoft Office. (It's not the Windows version -- Macs don't run Windows software -- but it does everything the Windows version does, with the added bonus of not crashing. If that doesn't sound like heaven, you have a heart of stone.) Windows and Linux users also can choose WordPerfect Office from Corel, and Mac users could save money and choose the office suite from Claris. As long as the software you have at home can handle the documents you create at the office, you'll be fine. And doing it this way sure beats sending Johnny to the store with a typewriter under his arm. |