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NETIQUETTE – III

You have just finished an important document. You are about to email it as an attachment.

Stop.

What word processing program have you used? And how has the document been saved?

Although most useful w/p progs offer options as to what form the document should be saved, most have, as their default, an esoteric version which can only be read if the person to whom you are writing has the same program.

On occasion you may be told to send the document in pdf or rtf or even txt.  This is because the recipient is accustomed to receiving items in unreadable formats and has implemented protocols.

On other occasions you will not be given a format so might simply send your document in the default.

If you are lucky you will receive an email informing you that your document can not be read. If you are not, your work goes into the great cyber cess pool.

Let me be coarse; you have spent a week working on this project. You have saved it as docx because that is the default in your w/p program.

The recipient, which uses other w/p programs can not open the document. As there are a number of other candidates who have saved their work in .rtf, the recipient opens those.

Your work is discarded as if it were written in Sanskrit.

Philosophically, understand that those who develop proprietary software do so to ‘force’ everyone to buy their
software.

As the wiser use open source software or the ‘universal’ languages so that no matter what Operating System or Word Processing program is used, the document can be seen, those who use proprietary progs will find themselves unread.

Your wisest move is that if you are not instructed as to what ‘language’ to use, opt for Rich Text Format; rtf or
Text, txt.

This insures that your project can be read.

Attachments are always tricky.  Many clever fonts or graphics might not appear as you created them.

Most people are concerned about picking up malware via email and so have implemented many protocols.  Often, a large document with graphics might be seen as threat and will not automatically open.

As the person who might be receiving the email is computer stupid, s/he will not have a clue as to how to open that document so shrug and skip.

One can’t really fault this; as most malware is downloaded on business machines by a computer stupid clerk who really believes s/he ‘won’ that prize.

Wise IT managers implement a great number of protocols for protection. Hence your magnificent presentation stays as an unopened attachment to an email.

Your best move is to do your project as simply as possible. If you know html and wish to have a fabulous presentation, create a website and send the URL.

If the important aspect of your presentation are numbers and words, and you need it to be read; save in .rtf.

Always remember, when it comes to Cyberculture the burden of lucidity is always on the sender/creator.