{:> Quickworx

“Everybody uses Word, why use anything else it just causes trouble”.

This sentiment is very common today and is often repeated in one form or another as a justification to use Microsoft Products exclusively.

To be fair there are organizations where this may in fact be the path of least resistance and in some cases may even be the right answer.

However…

In any GLOBAL organization there are several other factors that need to be considered before you decide it is just more convenient to use “Word”. This is particularly true in a global organization dedicated to teaching the Bible. Why?

Because by using the Word format you are indirectly forcing people to either spend money they do not have for MS Word licenses, or you are encouraging them to steal software from Microsoft by using pirated copies.

Obviously both of these choices are unacceptable.

There are several directions I could go with this conversation. I could talk about operating systems, server software, or Internet Browsers but all of these are minor issues compared to word processing.

Word processing dominates the bulk of all computer usage, at least in the organizations I have been involved in. And for the International Bible teacher it is the first of two of our primary tools. The other being presentation software (PowerPoint) of course.

I am not going to try and argue features or ease of use with anyone. Because I have never seen anything handed out in class that was so amazing or complex that it could not be easily produced by any number of word processor packages, or even thoughtfully formatted plain text for that matter. The same is true arguably for PowerPoint.

As for ease of use. In my experience people tend to think the program they are most familiar with is the “easiest” to use no matter what it is. I recently talked to someone who was given a free laptop that had Windows XP on it but had OpenOffice for its office package. After using the machine for over 6 months this person referred to OpenOffice Writer as “Word” not even realizing that MS Word was not installed on their computer. It seems that “Word” has reached “Kleenex” status and every word processor has become MS Word.

The Two biggest issues

File formats

The biggest issue by far when sharing documents and working together with people from all over the world after language is the file format of the document. As I mentioned in the introduction, handing a closed format like MS Word .doc to people will virtually force them to buy or steal a copy of MS Word. Ethically, this is indefensible for a Bible teacher in my view. Because we are either constructing barriers to our own messages (at best), burdening our students with unnecessary financial obligations (present and future license fees), or actually encouraging behavior that we are teaching against (theft).

Another consideration with file formats is portability. If print/viewing quality is a primary concern with your shared documents (handouts for example). The Adobe PDF (acrobat reader) format is the best. While Adobe is by no means inexpensive the PDF file format is a well documented format that many people have written creation tools for. The reader is free from Adobe and many others and most importantly the document will look exactly right no matter what kind of machine or software it is opened on. Only if the document you are sharing needs additional editing is sharing things in a word processor format necessary or even desirable.

Cost, language, availability

Free and Open Source software has other obvious advantages, particularly in the developing world.

• Most of all it is free of cost. Due to its development model most of this software is available for free including all future upgrades.
• Because it is open, languages that are not used by a large portion of the worlds population can be added to the various projects by anyone with the necessary skills. Therefore projects like OpenOffice have a huge collection of languages available and more are being added every day, even relatively obscure ones. Since the determining factor is not profitability for the corporation but interest among the developers and users. This model is increasingly being adopted by developing countries as they see an opportunity in it to be far more self-sufficient, and self-determining, and far less dependent on foreign corporations.
• Open Source software like OpenOffice is widely available both on CD (for not much over the cost of media) and for free download on the Internet. OpenOffice reads and writes its own open format plus all major MS formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) and creates nice PDF documents with the click of a button. Word on the other hand does little beside create word documents. And the Word format is notoriously closed, convoluted, and constantly changing.

In summary

As international teachers we work hard to bridge the cultural, language, and economic gaps that divide us. Lets not allow our personal preference for a simple tool like a word processor exacerbate the problem. Encouraging the free options by our example will help them participate with fewer economic hurdles and less temptation to steal what they feel they “need” in order to participate on an equal footing. The challenges of hardware and connectivity cost are more than enough without our adding another layer of burdens on them by our refusal to use free and open software.

Am I saying that Microsoft is evil and should be avoided at all costs? No, there are circumstances where I would say that Microsoft Office should be at least considered. I question the wisdom of a defacto endorsement/requirement of this platform by global organizations however, given the excellent no cost alternatives available today. Every teacher is the organization to the class he or she teaches so our choices represent an endorsment of sorts by the organization.

Please consider your choices carefully.

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