Charles Lau dot Com

It has been known today that Microsoft Word format is no longer the standard format to be used for transportation in the Internet.  It costs around a few hundred dollars to buy Microsoft Office, whereas nowadays you can get free productivity software such as OpenOffice.  In the past around 1999, I must admit that it is probably the most “universal” file used back then.  Since the existence of OpenOffice, I have already been using it happily and converting my files in PDF format.

As of today, there are still many companies in Singapore who are using Microsoft Office as their standard.  Many system integration companies always recommend Microsoft Office because this is one way to increase their profits as well since they keep on pushing the false-to-true fact that everybody is using Microsoft Office.

Yes, there might have some issues with the compatibility between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.  But so long as OpenOffice can read MS Word format, it doesn’t really matter to us as OpenOffice users.  Now, it’s to the disadvantage of the Microsoft Word users not to be able to open OpenOffice format.

Anyway, I really enjoy the dominance of Adobe to create the world standard of sending portable document file in PDF.  It is so much easier to keep your standard of usage, and nobody can edit that anyway unless you purchase their expensive Adobe Acrobat.  To read PDF file, Adobe has a free Adobe Acrobat reader for us to download and install.

Why would you want to buy Microsoft Office at a few hundred dollars, just to restrict yourself to open MS Word format only?

Now, it’s time to send PDF files or at least, in OpenOffice format…