Mixed messages

The day has gone quite well and I felt rather good about things.  I spent the morning getting ready for tomorrow afternoon’s governors’ meeting – I know, a whole day in advance! – and did other work in the afternoon, feeling quite cheerful and ready to reward myself with a glass of wine before 6 o’clock.  It was just as well that the Sage arrived home just then, as he had pushed the cork back into the bottle last night with such energy that I couldn’t get it out.  Even he found it quite a struggle. I secured it myself tonight so that I can manage tomorrow.  I’ll be late drinking tomorrow, mind you, I’ve got three meetings, one after another, from noon until nearly 6, and then I’m going to the blood donors.

The 23 report forms that I combined into a single PDF yesterday has thrown up a peculiarity.  One chairman wrote rather huffily to say that I’d altered what he had written.  He didn’t suggest I’d done it on purpose, but evidently thought I’d been careless.  I explained that I’d not done anything to it, just added it to all the others, and on my copy it was exactly as he had sent it to me.  Bemusingly, it had altered in the sending or receiving.  I’ve now send out his individual form to everyone, asking if they will compare it with the combined version, and so far I’ve had one reply saying that it is not the same.  Fortunately, it won’t be up to me to solve the problem.  If I’m really lucky, they will decide to abandon Nuance in favour of something that works on a Mac.

That reminds me, I’ve got to alter an address book and send another email, welcoming a new chairman.  All this damn politeness.  So not me.  As you know, darlings, I am a grumpy and surly old bat by nature, and my cheery outward persona is all for show.

Toodle-pip.  Have a lovely evening.

9 comments on “Mixed messages

  1. Z

    People laugh at me, not with me, but that’s quite all right. And thank you, Tim.

    Indeed, Dave, I can still score when the opportunity arises.

    Reply
  2. Blue Witch

    Do you not send out documents you create as PDFs? It ensures they always are read as you intended, whatever they are read on.

    Lots of free PDF creation software out there (and some printers also do it as part of their functionality these days).

    Reply
  3. Z

    It was a PDF, Blue Witch, that was what is so peculiar. The form is sent out as a PDF with sections that can be overwritten, and then the Nuance programme is a PDF rewriter that I use to combine them all (and should not alter them otherwise) and I send out a single large document.

    The part that I know has changed is a rating in a drop-down menu, so that is presumably a mistake by the person who compiled the form, although the chairman referred to several mistakes and I don’t know what they are. He’s printing out the form he received and I’ll print the one I sent and we’ll compare.

    Reply
  4. allotmentqueen

    “The 23 report forms that I combined into a single PDF yesterday …” I think that says it all, BW.

    I’m sure I’ve seen Nuance advertised for Mac as well, Z, could you get that?

    In my experience free PDF creation software tends to be very limited in what you can do. I’m afraid we just bit the bullet and shelled out for Acrobat.

    Reply
  5. Z

    It was not a free programme at the time, that specific version is not available now but was bought several years ago, for the previous secretary. The form has just been redesigned, this is the first time it has been used. It’s rare for a lecturer to receive a low rating, but that was what changed – from ‘passable’ to ‘excellent’.

    Reply
  6. Blue Witch

    Clearly yesterday’s accidental over-exertion has meant that I’m not up to my usual reading/info digestion standards today, sorry.

    Most spooky. Do pass on what you discover about the issue.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Blue Witch Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.