Category: Geeks r Us
I was thinking I should install a spreadsheet and did some searching for a good one. I found a few, Lotice 123, Quatropro, Visicalc and another one that combines a wordprocessor and several other aps into one. I think I'll go with that so I can have some other useful tools at my disposal. Any idea of a good and accessible one that I can try? Also, what are the differences between the spreadsheet programs mentioned? I know Freedos has one that can handle xls files but not sure if it's just for converting, for saving or what and don't know if it'll work on MS Dos. Thanks.
When I originally wrote this, it was merely for interest's sake. But now that I'm planning a business, I really do need a spreadsheet, an accounting, an inventory (unless that would go under spreadsheet) and a tax program. I'll either use MS Word 5.5 (which is free) or WordPerfect. I hear that 6.0 can handle rtf files but it's quite different from 5.1 so I might have to weigh my options. I'm pretty sure that I have an accessible calculator but will look again to be sure. I'm going with DOS because, well, it's my business and I can use whatever operating system I want. That's one of the great things about not working under anyone. So yeah, any suggestions as to what software I should use and have I forgotten anything important? Yes, I will post this to the Blind-L list but figured I'd also run it by you guys incase no one answers there. Btw, if anyone has a Double Talk, a DecTalk or a KeyNote Gold synthesizer that they're willing to sell, please let me know.
Oh yeah, I forgot. I also have a program called HomePage which is for writing websites. I know that it's fully accessible, because Jim Kitchen used it, but I haven't tried it myself
All of that is hopelessly out of date, and I don't think it'll play nice with excel or word of the more recent versions. Also, I don't think home page supports css, so you'll have to doyour colour and style coding by hand.
But I won't be using XL at all or Word passed 5.5, so that shouldn't be a problem. I might have someone else write the site, since this is for a business. But for a regular website, I'll probably stick to text anyway so can use Homepage for an experiment if nothing else. I don't want graphics and the like on a personal site.
You can't expect to run a business and not have your data files be incompatible. What happens when you want to send your CPA your spreadsheets so he or she can do your taxes? Even if you use Open Office on a Mac or PC you can save to Excel format and be compatible with the rest of the universe. Before computers, you didn't have some people trying to call others' phones using telegraphs. That's what you're doing. My mother at 70 has an excuse for wanting old formats, and doesn't need to send them anywhere as they're just hers for recreation. You on the other hand, if you're running a business, and perhaps get audited or need to collaborate, need to use formats others' PCs know about. Most people want to just do what it is they do, not monkey with an old dashboard from 1985 just to see some stuff. That's not ideology as you so often make it out to be, it's reasonable: I haven't tried to call anybody's phone line using a telegraph even though they both are communications devices using long-range signals over wires. Because they're simply incompatible.
The software you love came into being before any form of standards, when some businesses didn't even want computers because the information couldn't be shared. Information is nothing if it cannot be successfully shared / communicated between people / devices. and it's precious little if the receiver has to tweak and tweak and tweak, listen to a ton of ideology about how the system they use is ideologically wrong for some strange reason supported by a fringe group.
If you don't want to use Microsoft, fine, there's Open Office on the Mac or Lotus Symphony on the PC which is Open Office plus accessibility. If it's more important to you to support an ideology and artificially maintain a dead platform (I know it has a few users ... there are a few of everything out there), that's fine. However, you won't be able to communicate with other systems you'll need to for all practical purposes.
I know that there are several conversion tools and there might be modern DOS programs which work with those formats. Certainly rtf and txt can be used, which shouldn't cause any problems. In any case, there's always a printer. Nothing wrong with a hard copy, unless people no longer know how to deal with paper. I highly doubt that I'll be connecting with other computers, unless I go on the net, so that shouldn't be an issue. I just want a way to keep track of inventory, costs of supplies and shipping, who got what, income earned etc.
Still, I will admit that if I were to agree with you about using a modern system in any of my posts, it would be this one, since it isn't purely for me. But I still think it's worth a shot. I mean, I can't expect to try this when working for someone else, unless I simply tell them that the modern software is inaccessible. Some may believe me and provide/let me provide accomodations, but the likelyhood of that happening is extremely rare. Besides, even the business that I want to start isn't really receiving support from most in the blind community.
the reason it's cost effective to use standard formats for data like spreadsheets is that your accountant won't be spending needless hours of your time, which you pay for, copying from paper or select / copy random chunks from text files. The power of spreadsheets is their structure among other things. But this is the last I'll say on this, because we're dealing with reality vs. idealism, and idealism always wins as it's more popular / prettier / makes the idealist look like they're a martyr for a cause, while reality is that' very boring machine that ... of all horrible things ... keeps the whole system running