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So - works with windows formats?
Authored by: j-beda on Feb 22, '06 08:06:19AM

I insist students submit stuff in OpenDocument, PDF, text, or RTF. Figuring out how to make an RTF document or better a PDF is a useful skill in and of itself. Being draconian at the start of the course has good payoff for the rest of the year. Insisting on a good file name is also of value.

PDFCreator is an open source printer driver for windows that might be of use: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/



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So - works with windows formats?
Authored by: umijin on Feb 23, '06 08:58:50AM

My teaching environment is a bit different than most. I would best describe it as a continuing ed or community college type of situation.

So, most of my students can't handle basic computing tasks like saving in .rtf format or even knowing what application they are running in Windows. Their home computers don't come with Office and they only install cheap apps or games. Forget having them save to pdf format - they don't know how to do that either, or don't have the full Acrobat version to handle that in Windows.

Even after explaining to them hundreds of times what to do - they just have difficulty understanding I don't want wps files. But since that's the most common incorrect format they send me - it would be great to convert properly.

Given that they need in insert a few graphic files - I suppose MS Works suits their needs - just not mine.



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So - works with windows formats?
Authored by: j-beda on Feb 24, '06 06:51:06AM

I understand your difficulties - many of my students seem to have similar problems. I also accept things on paper, so maybe the real basket cases in my classes are not even trying.

I have had success with replying to the students who send in the wrong format a boilerplate set of instructions on how to save a file as RTF, which virtually every program supports. The trick is to do this from day one.

I even found a web reference that someone prepared at North Idaho College: http://www.nic.edu/dess/rtf.htm



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