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Parallels disaster
#60457 01/04/22 02:59 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Anyone else notice Parallels now has no tech support? Used have guys from India who would call you and get their super complex program working but now sold to the super mediocre company Corel, so looks like software over and unusable.

Re: Parallels disaster
kevs #60474 01/06/22 11:39 PM
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There are at least ten windows emulators for the Mac on the market and although It costs more, VMWare Fusion is frequently rated superior to Parallels Desktop. There is even a possibility of Microsoft Windows for ARM. So Parallels Desktop has a lot of competition and the market is shrinking. And, whether you like them or not, Corel has successfully gone head to head with Adobe and Microsoft Office and kept CorelDRAW and WordPerfect viable by focusing on specific niche markets. So the sale of Parallels Desktop to Corel, may be its salvation to be applauded rather than decried.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Parallels disaster
joemikeb #60475 01/07/22 02:29 AM
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Thanks will make the note, I compared those two and can't remember why chose Parallels, but if hit end of road I'll get that.

Today I did get a guy on phone Philippines who said a US rep would call me at 11am, but alas, no one did.. But keep trying..

Funny, I was on Wordperfect in mid 80s, when it was leader, but been on Word decades, did not know that was still around.

Re: Parallels disaster
kevs #60479 01/07/22 04:27 PM
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Originally Posted by kevs
Funny, I was on Wordperfect in mid 80s, when it was leader, but been on Word decades, did not know that was still around.

I understand WordPerfect is still a de facto standard for legal work, but as I am not a lawyer that is hearsay. grin I also remember being able to make the formatting tags visible so you could edit them directly. I wonder if that is still an option?


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Parallels disaster
joemikeb #60481 01/07/22 07:19 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Thanks Joe lost me, what is: "I also remember being able to make the formatting tags visible "

Re: Parallels disaster
kevs #60483 01/07/22 09:21 PM
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Originally Posted by kevs
Thanks Joe lost me, what is: "I also remember being able to make the formatting tags visible "
Whether you can see them or not, all word processors use some sort of tag to identify the various formats within a document. Conceptually, not unlike UBB, XML, markdown, or HTML although often more complex. In word processors, these tags are either in non printable codes or the editor simply chooses not to display them. Microsoft Word is an example of the former type of tagging and WordPerfect was of the latter type, but offered an option to display and edit the tags in a separate pane of the WP window. The WP editor was not the best or most sophisticated so it was possible to end up with some almost surreal tag tangles, particularly in often edited and re-edited documents, making the ability to directly edit the tags an essential facility. I have no idea it that still exists in today's WordPerfect or not as I haven't used it in decades.

By-the-way Word was/is subject to many of the same kinds of error as WordPerfect but because you cannot see or directly edit Word's tags, users are less aware of some of the junk that exists undetected in Word files.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Parallels disaster
joemikeb #60484 01/07/22 09:44 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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I actually may vaguely remember that when used wordperfect in 1984 or 85!

I have no love for Word or Microsoft, just remember it kind of took over..... network effect I guess, but funny brought up wordperfect, as I remember it was king at that time... amazed it or any competitor is around.. (maybe except free Google stuff)

But had no issues with WP, but Word took over, remember in that era someone in the know showing me on my screen how superior he thought Word was.

Re: Parallels disaster
joemikeb #60489 01/08/22 05:34 PM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
Originally Posted by kevs
Thanks Joe lost me, what is: "I also remember being able to make the formatting tags visible "
Whether you can see them or not, all word processors use some sort of tag to identify the various formats within a document. Conceptually, not unlike UBB, XML, markdown, or HTML although often more complex. In word processors, these tags are either in non printable codes or the editor simply chooses not to display them. Microsoft Word is an example of the former type of tagging and WordPerfect was of the latter type, but offered an option to display and edit the tags in a separate pane of the WP window. The WP editor was not the best or most sophisticated so it was possible to end up with some almost surreal tag tangles, particularly in often edited and re-edited documents, making the ability to directly edit the tags an essential facility. I have no idea it that still exists in today's WordPerfect or not as I haven't used it in decades.

By-the-way Word was/is subject to many of the same kinds of error as WordPerfect but because you cannot see or directly edit Word's tags, users are less aware of some of the junk that exists undetected in Word files.

The current, and for certain past, versions of Apple's Pages has a View option to Show Invisibles. It does not reveal all markups, but many do become visible and can be edited.


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Parallels disaster
Ira L #60490 01/08/22 08:27 PM
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...and if you open a Microsoft Word .docx file in BBEdit or a similar editor you will find lots of XML tags that can easily be edited in a text editor like BBEdit that doesn't attempt to interpret the tags. Docx is a Microsoft variant of the ODF (Open Document For Office Applications) that was developed by Sun Microsystems for their Open Office product and later released into Open Source. Microsoft's modifications to ODF were primarily intended to make docx incompatible with ODF and create a closed standard controlled by Microsoft.

The following are examples of the same the same document in ODF and DOCX formats:

NOTE:
  • The difference in the two examples is exaggerated because internally docx and odf (and Pages as well) files are actually packages and the necessary formatting information is organized differently into multiple folders and files in each.
  • I highlighted the actual content in RED.


Originally Posted by ODF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<office:document-content xmlns:office="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:office:1.0" xmlns:style="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:style:1.0" xmlns:text="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:text:1.0" xmlns:table="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:table:1.0" xmlns:draw="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:drawing:1.0" xmlns:fo="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:xsl-fo-compatible:1.0" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:meta="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:meta:1.0" xmlns:number="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:datastyle:1.0" xmlns:svg="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:svg-compatible:1.0" xmlns:chart="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:chart:1.0" xmlns:dr3d="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:dr3d:1.0" xmlns:math="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:form="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:form:1.0" xmlns:script="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:script:1.0" xmlns:ooo="http://openoffice.org/2004/office" xmlns:ooow="http://openoffice.org/2004/writer" xmlns:oooc="http://openoffice.org/2004/calc" xmlns:dom="http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events" xmlns:xforms="http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:rpt="http://openoffice.org/2005/report" xmlns:of="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:of:1.2" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:grddl="http://www.w3.org/2003/g/data-view#" xmlns:officeooo="http://openoffice.org/2009/office" xmlns:tableooo="http://openoffice.org/2009/table" xmlns:drawooo="http://openoffice.org/2010/draw" xmlns:calcext="urn:org:documentfoundation:names:experimental:calc:xmlns:calcext:1.0" xmlns:loext="urn:org:documentfoundation:names:experimental:office:xmlns:loext:1.0" xmlns:field="urn:openoffice:names:experimental:ooo-ms-interop:xmlns:field:1.0" xmlns:formx="urn:openoffice:names:experimental:ooxml-odf-interop:xmlns:form:1.0" xmlns:css3t="http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/" office:version="1.2"><office:scripts/><office:font-face-decls><style:font-face style:name="Tahoma1" svg:font-family="Tahoma"/><style:font-face style:name="Times New Roman" svg:font-family="'Times New Roman'" style:font-family-generic="roman" style:font-pitch="variable"/><style:font-face style:name="Arial" svg:font-family="Arial" style:font-family-generic="swiss" style:font-pitch="variable"/><style:font-face style:name="Lucida Bright Regular" svg:font-family="'Lucida Bright Regular'" style:font-family-generic="swiss" style:font-pitch="variable"/><style:font-face style:name="Arial1" svg:font-family="Arial" style:font-family-generic="system" style:font-pitch="variable"/><style:font-face style:name="Tahoma" svg:font-family="Tahoma" style:font-family-generic="system" style:font-pitch="variable"/></office:font-face-decls><office:automatic-styles><style:style style:name="P1" style:family="paragraph" style:parent-style-name="Standard"><style:paragraph-properties fo:margin-left="0pt" fo:margin-right="0pt" fo:text-indent="24.01pt" style:auto-text-indent="false"/><style:text-properties style:font-name="Lucida Bright Regular" fo:font-size="10.5pt" officeooo:rsid="001aa88f" officeooo:paragraph-rsid="001aa88f" style:font-size-asian="9.14999961853027pt" style:font-size-complex="10.5pt"/></style:style></office:automatic-styles><office:body><office:text><text:sequence-decls><text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Illustration"/><text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Table"/><text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Text"/><text:sequence-decl text:display-outline-level="0" text:name="Drawing"/></text:sequence-decls><text:p text:style-name="P1">Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country</text:p></office:text></office:body></office:document-content>>

Originally Posted by docx
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<w:document xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main" xmlns:w10="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:wp="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:wps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingShape" xmlns:wpg="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingGroup" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:wp14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:w14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordml" mc:Ignorable="w14 wp14"><w:body><w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val="Normal"/><w:ind w:left="0" w:right="0" w:firstLine="480"/><w:rPr><w:rFonts w:ascii="Lucida Bright Regular" w:hAnsi="Lucida Bright Regular"/><w:sz w:val="21"/><w:szCs w:val="21"/></w:rPr></w:pPr><w:r><w:rPr><w:rFonts w:ascii="Lucida Bright Regular" w:hAnsi="Lucida Bright Regular"/><w:sz w:val="21"/><w:szCs w:val="21"/></w:rPr><w:t>Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country</w:t></w:r></w:p><w:sectPr><w:type w:val="nextPage"/><w:pgSz w:w="12240" w:h="15840"/><w:pgMar w:left="1134" w:right="1134" w:header="0" w:top="1134" w:footer="0" w:bottom="1134" w:gutter="0"/><w:pgNumType w:fmt="decimal"/><w:formProt w:val="false"/><w:textDirection w:val="lrTb"/></w:sectPr></w:body></w:document>


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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