Submission + - Open-source reader for Publisher files?
tulare writes: "Over the past year or so, I've noticed an increase of people sending one another documents in .pub format, both to myself, as well as to the users who I support at work. I've seen everything from thank-you letters to disclaimers, to the sort of newsletters I imagine Publisher was intended to be used for. Problem is, nobody here has it, nor do we need particularly need to spend the money for it, but I can't seem to find a file reader anywhere.
To be frank, I don't blame the senders for this — they have Publisher, everyone in their office has Publisher, why wouldn't anyone else? Add to this the File | Send to Mail Recipient feature, and the assumption is easy to make if you don't know any better. Yes, we can and do email the sender saying "Hi, can you either send that file to us in some other format, or forward along $149.99 so we can go down to {Fry's,Staples,BestBuy,etc} and pick up a copy?" but it's becoming a common enough problem that I've had to draft an email template politely requesting that the sender use other document formats. Please keep in mind the fact that I don't work in a desktop publishing-heavy business here. From the chair I infrequently get to sit in (due to constant user-support brushfires), Publisher is sadly going down the road of becoming Yet Another De-Facto Standard. Beyond deploying the velvet-covered LART every week or so and dealing with frustrated users, or paying Microsoft more money just to read someone's document, what options do we have? Does anyone know of a reader or plugin in the works? Where can I help?"
To be frank, I don't blame the senders for this — they have Publisher, everyone in their office has Publisher, why wouldn't anyone else? Add to this the File | Send to Mail Recipient feature, and the assumption is easy to make if you don't know any better. Yes, we can and do email the sender saying "Hi, can you either send that file to us in some other format, or forward along $149.99 so we can go down to {Fry's,Staples,BestBuy,etc} and pick up a copy?" but it's becoming a common enough problem that I've had to draft an email template politely requesting that the sender use other document formats. Please keep in mind the fact that I don't work in a desktop publishing-heavy business here. From the chair I infrequently get to sit in (due to constant user-support brushfires), Publisher is sadly going down the road of becoming Yet Another De-Facto Standard. Beyond deploying the velvet-covered LART every week or so and dealing with frustrated users, or paying Microsoft more money just to read someone's document, what options do we have? Does anyone know of a reader or plugin in the works? Where can I help?"
