Comments on: Microsoft – Making it easier http://djst.org/blog/2009/06/25/microsoft-1984/ David Tenser's brand new microblog Fri, 18 May 2012 02:14:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Screwtape http://djst.org/blog/2009/06/25/microsoft-1984/comment-page-1/#comment-50224 Screwtape Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:03:44 +0000 http://djst.org/blog/?p=437#comment-50224 Microsoft isn't proposing to have Outlook send emails as Word documents, just to use Word as the HTML composer. Thus, as a non-Outlook user, the only effect this will have on me is whether Outlook users send me HTML poorly converted from Word, or HTML poorly converted from Windows' native Rich Text control (which is what previous incarnations of Outlook used to compose mail). The people clamouring for this change (well, the ones who set up fixoutlook.org, not the bandwagon hoppers on twitter) are people whose livelihoods depend on the creation of electronic brochures for companies to send to their customers. Yes, it kinda sucks that these people will have yet another bastardized HTML renderer to deal with (above and beyond such notables as IE6 and Lotus Notes), but overall, there's much more useful things to get people angry about. Microsoft isn’t proposing to have Outlook send emails as Word documents, just to use Word as the HTML composer. Thus, as a non-Outlook user, the only effect this will have on me is whether Outlook users send me HTML poorly converted from Word, or HTML poorly converted from Windows’ native Rich Text control (which is what previous incarnations of Outlook used to compose mail).

The people clamouring for this change (well, the ones who set up fixoutlook.org, not the bandwagon hoppers on twitter) are people whose livelihoods depend on the creation of electronic brochures for companies to send to their customers. Yes, it kinda sucks that these people will have yet another bastardized HTML renderer to deal with (above and beyond such notables as IE6 and Lotus Notes), but overall, there’s much more useful things to get people angry about.

]]> By: Michael Lefevre http://djst.org/blog/2009/06/25/microsoft-1984/comment-page-1/#comment-50218 Michael Lefevre Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:23:53 +0000 http://djst.org/blog/?p=437#comment-50218 Well yeah, it sucks, but I'm not sure what the solution is. fixoutlook.org (when its fancy home page got far enough loaded that my Firefox stopped being unresponsive) seem to suggest that the solution is for Microsoft to miraculously turn Word into a wysiwyg HTML editor better than anything that currently exists - is that realistic? As for switching to a better email program, Thunderbird is better in some ways, but trying to create HTML emails in Thunderbird is actually pretty horrible (trying to move blocks around within tables is hardly what anyone would consider following web standards), and in managing contacts, calendars, and a lot of other stuff, Thunderbird is really much worse than Outlook. We did a project at work where we wanted some nice-looking HTML emails, with clear text alternatives. After looking around, the only practical solution we found was to hand-code the HTML (and MIME, actually), so we did. That's not going to work for everyone. Well yeah, it sucks, but I’m not sure what the solution is. fixoutlook.org (when its fancy home page got far enough loaded that my Firefox stopped being unresponsive) seem to suggest that the solution is for Microsoft to miraculously turn Word into a wysiwyg HTML editor better than anything that currently exists – is that realistic?

As for switching to a better email program, Thunderbird is better in some ways, but trying to create HTML emails in Thunderbird is actually pretty horrible (trying to move blocks around within tables is hardly what anyone would consider following web standards), and in managing contacts, calendars, and a lot of other stuff, Thunderbird is really much worse than Outlook.

We did a project at work where we wanted some nice-looking HTML emails, with clear text alternatives. After looking around, the only practical solution we found was to hand-code the HTML (and MIME, actually), so we did. That’s not going to work for everyone.

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