🚀 go-pugleaf

This is both a flame as well as a request to Microsoft to get its act
together. I've been working on a fairly long, complex document in
WinWord (Word for Windows). I knew that at some stage I would have to
make a Mac version of the document, and the following paragraph in the
WinWord manual made me believe that that would be a cinch:

-	RTF (Rich Text Format), which stores formatting and pictures
	as ANSI characters; used particularly for Microsoft Word for
	the Macintosh files.

However, when I tried it, I found that when MacWord read in the RTF
file, it did not generate any graphics. Surprised, I called MS, and
was told that it could not be done, first by the Windows people and
then by the Mac people. Apparently, within RTF, WinWord uses TIFF, and
MacWord uses PICT.

I think that this is absolutely ridiculous. First, why MS should make
a standard non-standard? Second, why can't its own products be
compatible? Third, why is its manual misleading? 

One of the things that became apparent from the conversations I had
with the support people, the Windows people don't have any idea what
the Mac people are doing, and vice versa. Doesn't sound like good
policy... 

It is sad that MS puts out pretty decent software, but are not
completely up front with their documentation. For example, there are a
number of switches in MS Windows which are undocumented. Not a good
attitude towards us customers...



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Anant Kartik Mithal					akm@cs.uoregon.edu
Department of Computer Science				akm@oregon.BITNET
University of Oregon