This morning someone sent me a DOCX file as an attachment to an email. It was an innocent thing … the guy who sent it was only following orders, and did not know what he was doing. But it was an offensive act, and the only reason he does not look very naive, possibly stupid, for having done this is because it is a new problem and not everyone knows about it. So I’ll let it go this time around but it really can’t happen again.
I was once in the Congo with a Jewish colleague staying for a few days at a missionary’s house. (Needless to say the missionaries were Christian. I have yet to meet a Jewish missionary. That would be funny, now that I think about it.) Every morning Missionary Lady would make breakfast for herself, her husband, the kiddies, and the two anthropologists. One of them would read from the bible. They would pray. Then, finally, we would eat.
One morning Missionary Lady asked my Jewish Colleague if he would recite the verse they had selected for that morning’s bible reading. This was rather unusual so he was taken by surprise, and simply agreed to do it. I mean, Missionary Lady was shoving the bible into his hands as she “asked” him in her lilting church lady syrupy voice to read the verse.
It was a verse about how the Jews were evil and should be smitten and so on and so forth (I think it may have been from Paul). It was an ugly verse. Asking a Jewish person to read this verse would be like, say, asking a devout Christian to read some Black Magic chants or asking PZ Myers to take communion, or whatever … you get the point.
I suppose sending me a DOCX file is not as bad as that. Nobody is getting crucified, raped, or tortured, or forced to commit ritual cannibalism. But I will treat the DOCX file as though it was a virus attachment, and if you send me more than one I’ll submit your email address as spam and thus never hear from you again. Ever.
I was shocked … absolutely shocked … this morning when I received this document. It was the next in a line of drafts of part of a paper I’m co-authoring with two colleagues … it had been converted somehow to a DOCX file. It is a paper about race and racism, and the conversion was done by a Jewish holocaust race/racism scholar. So all I can think of is the irony, the twisted anti-reality policy of the company that shall not be named. All I can think of is those parodies of Bill Gates wearing a brown shirt and adorned with swastikas.
It is not as bad as being sent, say, a mummified finger from a concentration camp, but at some level it is …. nobody died in connection with DOCX but someone is indeed taking over the world.
If you are using Microsoft Word 2007, you should NEVER save files in the “default” format, which is called “Open XML Format” … a deeply offensive phrase. It’s like calling a tree with a rope on it a “Black Man’s Country Club” or calling an oven a “Jewish Sauna.”
“Open XML” is not as bad as actual lynching somebody or committing genocide. If you think I’m saying that, then you are not paying close attention, and you are likely caught up in your own brand of loathing that has nothing to do with open source software, and good luck to you with that. But this post is about software and the fight for control over information technology for the next few decades or so.
The phrase is offensive in exactly the same way, an absurdity, an insult, of exactly the same form. “Open XML” is simply Microsoft’s new proprietary format that no one else can use without buying a Microsoft product. The term is derived from “XML” which is a way of making documents “open” in their contents … essentially, proper XML files contain the information necessary to get at the actual information in them. Microsoft’s “XML” files are a joke … they vaguely resemble XML files but cannot be read without actually paying Microsoft money by buying their software.
The word “Open” in the context of “open XML” is both insulting and confusing. The actual open standard that most people are working with is “Open Document Format.” By making up a new proprietary format and calling it “Open XML,” Microsoft is playing a huge, insulting, and very annoying joke on the rest of the world.
Eventually, the OpenSource software world will develop a way to un-encrypt this new proprietary format, probably within weeks or a couple of months from now. That does not mean it will be OK to use the format. It still may suck as a format. Most prior Microsoft formats have sucked, and one of the only reasons Microsoft survives as a company is because others, outside Microsoft, have been forced to figure out how to replace, improve, or otherwise work with MS-created formats.
There are reasons you should always be suspicious of new document formats these days. Some other time we’ll talk about them, but consider how long “documents” have been an issue, how long computers have been around, how the kinds of documents we use have changed over time. The truth is, that there has not been a new form of document for years, hardware has advanced considerably so inefficient formats are hardly an issue. A new format by a company like Microsoft is almost always a way of taking your stuff, forcing you to be buy their stuff, or damaging their competition.
Just don’t send me no stinkin’ “.docx” files.
Fascinating. I recently received my first DOCX files and didn’t even know what they were at first. Now I know the evil truth. Eek.
It is true, Hsien, that DOCX files have a hidden evil truth, and I’m glad that the irony of the situation under which Greg was sent this file was not lost on him — very savvy.
It is true, Hsien, that DOCX files basically have a hidden evilness to them — I’d already found this out, though, through other friends. I’m glad that the apt irony of the situation under which Greg received the DOCX file was not lost on him — very savvy.
You are much, much too kind to Microsoft.
One of my many peeves is people who send me any MS document for trivial purposes. We have some secretaries on this campus who will type a memo like, “You have a meeting with so-and-so at 10:00 on Tuesday”, and mail that as an attachment to me. It’s doubly aggravating because not only does it require me to fire up ugly bloatware to read a trivial bit of text, but my fury wars with my knowledge of the 0th Commandment: Thou shalt not piss off university secretaries.
PZ: You have to read “Moo University”
I assume the philosophy here is that an email is more likely to be overlooked than a letter.
You could get on the right committee, then get a motion going to request the administration to suggest to administrative and secretarial staff that they should convert “DOC” or “DOCX” files into PDF files prior to distribution.
The rational from the University Secretary point of view: If you send a DOC file to a professor, he is able to alter it and later claim that the Secretary made an error. A PDF file cannot be altered
This way, at least, the document will open faster. And, you get to put your stamp on the institution by adding one more step to the bureaucracy.
LOL! their is a docx converter search google. If u ride the MS train, be prepared to get shafted. And dont get me started on other office products like SharePoint Designer aka frontpage. Or what about expression or silverlight.
There are docx converters. Until very recently the situation was this: Microsoft has one, so that does not count. Then there is “DOCX Convert Office 2007″ It is a commercial service with certain free options. It convernts DOCX into HTML. And so on. Many of these converters do not support formatting.
Forget, do me a favor: Instead of “There is one search google” give us the details of a DOCX converter available as OpenSource under something like GPL and that works across platforms, meaning Linux, Windows and Mac!
There might well be one now, but I’m not aware of it. There may be one in the future, I know there are plans and OpenOffice is planning to add DOCX as a format they can read.
By the way, did you also notice the insidious fact that “DOCX” is not a 3 letter extension? Goodbye earlier versions of Windows, I suppose! (Microsoft is known to eat its own young).
I have messed around with frontpage, etc. and of course you are right to be cringing! Silverlight and expression are new to me. And will not be found on my server!
There is some new info available on this issue, I’ll put up a post shortly!
Well, you can open a docx file.There is a converter just for that. Docxconverter 2.0 Will convert and open docx and xlsx files. See:
http://www.panergy-software.co.....tures.html
Mr Sonnenschein, aka “Mickey”:
You want me to buy a piece of software to open a file that a collaborator sends me? I assure you, that will never happen.
Companies who make conversion software are pirates. I recently tried to find out how to convert between Novel Groupware and … well, anything. And I found that there was insufficient OpenSource support for this, Novell does not provide support, and the only seemingly viable alternatives were commercial software. This is the “Information Age” being dragged into the Dark Ages by Market Forces. No thank you.
‘By the way, did you also notice the insidious fact that “DOCX” is not a 3 letter extension? Goodbye earlier versions of Windows…’
That would be anything prior to Windows 95 (Win 3.1 and 3.0) - 15 year old operating systems - a pretty long time in IT…
While, clearly, Microsoft does things to maintain its market position (it is a business after all), the Open XML document standard does not require unencrypting - Microsoft publishes the xsd schemas. In some ways it makes sense for the leading vendor (as in most widely used tools) to define a standard and then have it contributed to by others for openness.
Alastair … good point!
This could have been one of the most stupidest rants I’ve ever read online. You sound like a 15 year old emo loser on Myspace complaining about how much you hate jocks. And no, I’m not a MS fan-boy; I don’t like the company’s policies and practices either, but besides your last 2 paragraphs (”Eventually, the OpenSource… …their stuff, or damaging their competition.”) you sound like a complete idiot.
Drew,
You must be some sort of a humorless anti-Semite. I love this story.
Greg, keep up the wonderful writing and blogging!
Hear, hear! You are the first hit on “docx sucks”, and that’s what I searched for right after recieving a document in similar circumstances to those you described above.
Microsoft - blow me. I have switched over to Open Office and so has my business. Even if a docx converter comes out, I will ask for .doc from anyone who send sme docx files, just to raise their awareness.
Similar situation happened to me with Windows Vista. Since a year Im using UBUNTU 8.04 Hardy Heron with OpenOffice installed. Since then I AM FREE MAN!!!!!. Finally I can focus only in my work!!
No Virus threats anymore.
No worries about updates.
Software availability is immense and free (and many times the options are much better than those from windows)
If you have to pay for software, normally is by donations. Try it first, if you like it pay whatever you think it is worth.
My computer works as fast as the beginning.
Ubuntu rocks!!!!!!!!!!
It is 2010 and .docx still annoys, and worse.
Well until all you ‘haters’ design your own one that is perfect and follows all these standards, why don’t you shutup?
I’m yet to use your brilliant solution… oh wait thats right, it doesn’t exist!