The Mathematics of Office Compatibility

Back in July, one of our Office compatibility gurus, Chris Jackson, posted a very enlightening article about the mathematics of Office compatibility. You don’t have to be a math person to appreciate the down-to-Earth advice that Chris gives about topics such as creating inventories, researching vendor support statements, and deciding whether to convert binary Office documents to OpenXML. Chris uses hard numbers to try to counteract the emotion and fear that often go hand-in-hand with change. As Chris says, “You don’t have to do something just because you can.” In other words, it’s very expensive to avoid failure at all costs. It’s better to manage the risk.

 I could go on and on, but he says it better than I ever could. Grab some coffee and check out his article Microsoft Office: The Mathematics of Office Compatibility in TechNet Magazine.