15 reporting, 11 full successes (7 Windows, 2 Macs, 1 Windows and Mac, 1
Next), 2 nearly full successes (both on Macs using WriteNow), 2 failures
(both on Macs). I was surprised--and a little depressed--to find that the
only non full successes were on Macs. A few people offered advice which I
append to this message.
I tend to agree that RTF is not really the answer. On the other hand, it
does seem to work for many and is certainly an option for situations where
ASCII does not cut it. The big advantage of RTF is that it *is* ASCII,
can be directly copied into the body of the message requiring no ability
to deal with attachments, and is fairly universally understood by modern
Word Processors. On the other hand, it does require some motivation on
the part of the receiver to go through the necessary post-reception
processing steps.
David Bowman's suggestion of GIF and JPEG seems like another fairly
universally accessible option except that those formats would need to be
ASCII converted (probably using UUE) or attached.
One day this will all be easy. Right?
John
Appendix: Miscellaneous advice on dealing with RTF files
From Guntbert Reiter:
"I had to install the graphics-filters for Mac Graphics
(I'm working under DOS/WIN)"
From Greg Clements:
"My e-mail is on a VAX computer with a text terminal, VT220 type. I was
successful in reading your 1992 AJP document by doing these steps:
extract the email to a text file,
delete ASCII portion
rename the file to a .rtf extension
start ftp on a Windows95 PC, log on to my VAX account,
copy the .rtf fiile to the desktop on the PC
start Microsoft Word Version 7.0a
open the .rtf file."
From Bill Weiler:
"I used Eudora Light to open the message, highlighted and copied the rtf
portion of the file, opened Word 97 for Windows and pasted the document.
I then saved the document as a text file. I had to then rename the file
with an .rtf extension rather than the usual .txt extension. I then
reopened the file, specifying that it was in RTF format and the file
opened with all the formatting and symbols in place.
Then, since I was on a mission, I saved the file specifying html format,
and it created a readable html document, with symbols and formatting
intact by converting the table to a GIF Image."
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A. John Mallinckrodt email: mallinckrodt@csupomona.edu
Professor of Physics voice: 909-869-4054
Cal Poly Pomona fax: 909-869-5090
Pomona, CA 91768 office: Building 8, Room 223
web: http://www.sci.csupomona.edu/~mallinckrodt/