12/9/08 Evaluation Reports and Microsoft Word

We continue to receive a large number of support requests from schools working with Evaluation Reports and Microsoft Word.

BACKGROUND

DesignMode, the technology behind web based word processing (and the evaluation report in SpEd Forms), IS NOT COMPATIBLE with Microsoft Word and other proprietary, computer based word processors. When copying and pasting from these word processors your text is converted into HTML which cannot interpreted correctly DesignMode. In addition, Apple and Microsoft's non-standard character sets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_sets) are not reliably interpreted by web browsers (including Internet Explorer).

ISSUES TO EXPECT

If you copy and paste text from Microsoft Word into your evaluation report you will experience the following issues:

1. Carriage returns will not work properly.

2. Special word characters (curly quotes and others) will appear as computer code when printed.

3. Formatting will be unpredictable.

SOLUTIONS

To avoid these issues, avoid copying and pasting from computer based word processors into the evaluation report where possible. If you feel you absolutely have to copy and paste from Word, then copy and paste the next into a simple text editor such as Notepad (Windows) or Text Edit (Mac OS) before copying and pasting into the evaluation report. These simple text editors strip away most offending formatting.

Recently we added additional programming which tries to catch offending Word characters such as curly quotes. This programming executes when the page is saved. In other words, please if there are curly quotes in your evaluation report that appear as computer code when printed, then try re-saving that page.

MOVING FORWARD

The good news is that we expect Microsoft Word and DesignMode to become more compatible over time because the current lack compatibility creates problems for all computer users. Over time, web based word processors that use DesignMode such as Google Docs may even gradually replace computer based word processors. The evaluation report in SpEd Forms is 100% compatible with other DesignMode/web based word processors (like Google Docs).