MICROSOFT OFFICE WORD VIEWER ..and others .......
I do a little voluntary driving for the ambulance service and they send me details of my pick-up schedule by e-mail. They used to telephone details through, imagine the time spent doing that , especially if there were 4 runs with multiple passengers . It was a weekly nightmare . So in 2004 I suggested that they could send details by e-mail , I was told that this was not possible for security reasons etc . Well finally they have got up-to date and are sending e-mails, but they are rather strange.
Above is an example. the main body of the e-mail is the same every time and I get an three options down at the bottom of the page . Now if I try any of the options in linux or in Windows XP the Google document option will not open properly unless I sign my life away to google which is not an option. Viewing as a HTLM or downloading and opening with Open Office or Abi Word gives me .......
A long string of information that takes up three pages, that's not an option, think of the poor
old trees. So I went looking for another solution.
The downloaded file comes through on linux as a ".rtf" rich text file, I can not remember what it comes as in windows .
Wanting to stick with linux software I found " antiword" which is easily downloaded and installed. trouble is it is a command line utillity and I found it a bit baffling. I did not want to take a university degree to learn how to use it and I don't have the time or the energy nevermind the cost of supplying the vast quantities of tea and toast I'd need to fuel me while I worked it out. So the hunt for information was on again.
A quick phone call to ambulance headquarters gave me an answer. They sent me a link,
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en
for this very useful download, it works with Windows XP also, so I'm told as I have not tried it yet. I also downloaded this extra add-on which brings the viewer right up to date for all the latest products. I did not need the add-on as it turned out but I thought it might come in handy for some of you.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
I installed with "WINE", fairly standard install so no screenshots and here you can see it showing up in the menu. Click on it to open.
Technonumpties like me might find the program a little confusing so I have included a few helpful screenshots. All you clever folk can go and have a well deserved coffee and cake re-fuelling break.
It took me a while to figure out that the "D" drive when opened up .........
As shown here.
Related to my Mandriva desktop and not my dual booting Windows XP . Opening up the "Documents" folder gave me access to my downloaded file .
Opening up the "Z" drive gave me access to the linux "ROOT" folders. So if you have documents spread out in your system you should be able to find them.
Here is "Z" opened.
It can be a bit tricky if you are new to linux finding the right partition to gain access to your folders. As the drive numbers change a lot depending on which application you are using.
Another way to find documents that you have already opened is shown above. Still confusing
as you can see the same document is shown to exist in two locations even though I only have one copy of the file on my system.
Still the program works and very quickly too. I can now easily read the information I need and print it of on one sheet of paper. Did you hear all them trees give a big sigh of relief ?
I can not show a screenshot of the successful outcome as the document contains confidential information.
The program does work and I would like to thank
Microsoft for supplying free of charge this very useful download which gives us linux users easy access to files produced on their products.
The NHS IT folk baffle me though. Surely there must be a better way of sending these e-mails. Can they not encrypt the e-mails and send them as the main body of an e-mail ? Why on earth do I have to faff around with downloads etc etc ? Surely it would save bandwidth, not to mention valuable workers time if they could do so. I'm no expert but I know encryption software can be had for free and is not hard to set up and utilise. So how come those university educated dummies in the NHS can not work out a more elegant solution to this ?
Rant over with !!
It has to be time for a re-fuel of cranberry juice and dead fly biscuits .
Enjoy.
If anyone can offer advice on using "antiword" pm me here on the site and I will include the information.
