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SANTA HAS THE WRONG VERSION OF WORD

Brian Grainger

brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk

I was so touched by the following letter in the problem page of the Daily Telegraph computer section I thought I would share it with you.

I have received from my granddaughter an email with her Christmas present list as an attachment. This downloads OK but all attempts to open are met with "Wordpad has caused an error. MSWRD832CNV."

I have Windows ME, my ISP is AOL and I would be most grateful for help.

What a sad way to find out that technology is not all that it is cracked up to be. Santa has the wrong version of Microsoft Word!

It was never like this when we wrote our wishes on paper and left them with a drink, a mince pie and a carrot for Rudolph.

In this case an answer was forthcoming before Christmas, so the little girl will not be disappointed. For interest, here it is:

The e-mail attachment was written with Word 2000, which Wordpad cannot open. The simple solution is to get your granddaughter to send the list again, this time in rich text format. Alternatively install Word 2000 on your PC or try saving the attachment to you hard drive then opening it with a Word "viewer". You can download one free from Microsoft at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q165908/

This sad tale did set me thinking about a new Linux marketing campaign for the new year.

Santa has done his rounds for 2004 and once again he traversed the world in a single evening, satisfying children everywhere. When asked to what he attributed his success, Santa said, "I put it down to my upgrade of the back office system from Windows to Linux. Because Linux is free software it meant I had more money left over for presents. I recommend everyone gets Linux".

Not even Mr. Gates would complain that it must be rubbish as he doubted the existence of Santa.
Heads, the penguin wins - tales, Bill loses.

Whatever operating system you use, I wish all my readers a Happy Christmas and hope that 2005 will bring you prosperity and that upgrade you have been promising yourself. I will be back in the New Year. See you then.

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