David and Company Blog

Longmont, Colorado – I learned something recently about the .docx file format that may be of help to you, though I have to admit, I haven’t totally figured out all the ways this may be of use. So for what it’s worth, here goes.

I work on a Mac, but as many of you will understand, most of my clients use a PC running some form of Windows software. With the latest version of Office, the extension on Word documents has changed from .doc to .docx. To my chagrin, my older version of Word was not able to open these files, so I looked for a solution. One that I tried was a translator that would turn the .docx file into an HTML file, which I could then copy and paste as needed. Unfortunately, formatting was not always correct and so errors were introduced. Of course, another solution is to go back to your client and ask them to save the file back to the older .doc file format, which they were generally glad to do. But knowing this was going to continue to be a problem, I needed another solution. Ultimately, the solution was going to be to upgrade my version of Word, and thereby, solve the problem. I wasn’t ready at that point to do so, but eventually did and now the problem is solved. So what did I learn that I haven’t yet shared?

In my search for a solution, I also came across what I like to call a “gee whiz”, or something that kind of takes you by surprise. I read one day, that .docx is nothing more than a .zip file and that, if you wanted to open it to see what’s inside, all you had to do was change the extension from .docx to .zip and then unzip the file. Naturally, I had to try it and it worked. The most useful outcome of this so far, is that you get access to the original embedded graphics files. The rest of the files, of which there may be many, are xml files and I’ve yet to determine if they’re useful or not. Clearly they are useful in constructing the Word file and since I’ve now updated my Word application, I may never go into this farther, but I thought you or someone may find this of interest, so I posted it.

So how does this lowering of standards manifest itself and what can we do about it? With the coming of digital photography, we’re being asked to use photography that truthfully isn’t very good. Of course, the upside of this is that our Photoshop skills are getting better out of necessity, but even so, it’s not the same as quality, professional photography. Not to mention those PowerPoint graphics that our clients want to use at 300%. In addition to our skills as designers we’re having to become digital repair-people. Is there no limit to the lack of quality art we’ll agree to use? I’ve come to the conclusion that unlike a pendulum that has swung too far to the “poor quality” side and will eventually swing back the other way, the “swing back” isn’t going to happen without a little help. Just say no? Well … it’s a start. Realistically, we probably can’t “just say no”, but maybe we can push back a bit for better quality. This could mean using stock photos, illustration or better yet bringing in a pro photographer once in a while or improving our Illustration skills by recreating graphics. It comes down to value and I think it’s up to us to help build it again. Show your clients what good photography looks like. I know, it won’t work all the time, but the “quality sells” argument is a good one, with lot’s of examples out there, so what do you say? Are we pros or not?