<p>What are the school's arguments for not accepting a PDF? The unsurmountable difficulty of installing acroread on the teachers' computers? Or is acroread so hopelessly behind the times that it does not allow marking and annotating? If the latter, then OOO...</p>
<p>I think the principal should agree that requiring the parents to buy a computer with Office just for homework is quite unreasonable. I'd try thos argument before anything else, and maybe instead of everything else.</p>
<p>-- <br>
Oleg GoldshmidtOn Sun, Feb 05, 2012, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote about "Re: Preparing to convince to shift to non-propriety documents formats":<br>
> Hi Boaz,<br>
> The time is not ripe. Don't waste your energy. Your school principal<br>
> will not know what you are talking about and will dismiss you as a<br>
> hopeless geek.<br>
<br>
I am not sure about the time not being ripe.<br>
<br>
In the last year, I installed for two non-technical family members a<br>
copy of OpenOffice (one a full fledged Linux, but the other a compromise<br>
Windows+OpenOffice).<br>
<br>
They both faced a few hardships when people sent them Microsoft Office<br>
documents and they didn't look exactly as expected, but I was able to<br>
convince them that it was in fact the other person who is behind the<br>
times ;-) And the documents *were* readable, even if didn't look<br>
perfect.<br>
<br>
And for users, this is a saving of 500 shekels (last time I checked).<br>
I don't see how this fact can be ignored in Israel after the summer's<br>
protests. This is actually the reason why I installed OpenOffice in<br>
these two cases - it's hard to justify adding 500 shekels to the price<br>
of a computer which cost around 1000 shekels (plus a few hundred more<br>
for the legal Microsoft Windows).<br>
<br>
> A slightly more productive line might be to claim that you are no<br>
> longer using desktop computers - only mobile devices, and for these<br>
> you need either PDF or Google docs.<br>
<br>
I believe my Android can read Microsoft Office documents out of the<br>
box :( But it's true, with all these non-Microsoft devices around,<br>
Microsoft's stranglehold on the word processor document seems to be<br>
coming to an end.<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Nadav Har'El | Sunday, Feb 5 2012,<br>
<a href="mailto:nyh@math.technion.ac.il">nyh@math.technion.ac.il</a> |-----------------------------------------<br>
Phone <a href="tel:%2B972-523-790466" value="+972523790466">+972-523-790466</a>, ICQ 13349191 |It's fortunate I have bad luck - without<br>
<a href="http://nadav.harel.org.il" target="_blank">http://nadav.harel.org.il</a> |it I would have no luck at all!<br>
<br>
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