[nzlug] Government Communication Formats

[Mathew Carley]

I don't see any mention of .DOC (or .DOCX, for that matter) being in the 
policy for communication sent in a "locked format" - in both cases, PDF 
is the standard. Perhaps a strongly worded document to the effect of 
"While we may be the only ones having trouble opening your document, 
government policy mandates that you are required to use PDF" is in order.

Given that you are probably dealing with peons as far as both technology 
and policy is concerned (as opposed to someone who counts), perhaps a 
simple reference to the aforementioned page (especially section 6.1.5) 
might do the trick, for fear of complaints. Government jobs are usually 
too cushy to want to lose... (I don't know if the same is true in NZ 
though).

While two wrongs don't make a right and all that, FUD has been the 
primary, err, motivator, employed by Microsoft (and others) for years. 
Time to turn the tables?

Mathew

Andrew Bruce wrote:
> There doesn't seem to be one.
>
> We used to frequently receive press releases from an MP in Word 
> format.  We also requested that they be sent in different format, at 
> least PDF, but they told us that we were the only people having 
> trouble opening them, and it wasn't their problem.
>
> Nice.
>
>
>
> Simon Bridge wrote:
>> What is the current policy about formats used for government
>> communication in NZ? i.e. e-mail attachments.
>>
>> I have just received a press release copy in MS Word format... <sigh>
>> It concerns fire-safety regulations, labelling, and childrens nightwear.
>>
>> Well, I just sent it back with a request for an open format version.
>>
>> Actually OOo can display it fine. I just don't think the government
>> should be doing this.
>>
>> Anyway, all I could find was this stuff:
>> http://www.e.govt.nz/archive/standards/e-gif/e-gif-v-1-1/chapter7.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>   
>
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