Hi Dave,

I believe the Excel version is Excel 97 based so it can be used with
OpenOffice 2.x, which is free and multiplatform. I'll confirm that with JB
Hollister.

The NEMI team that preceeded the IPC 2-18 committee was handed the Acrobat
form in January 2005. It came as a shock to me and others on that team to
see it because we had just finished identifying and arguing about key fields
and properties and had not begun discussing delivery formats or tools. I've
had discussions with Richard Kubin about where that form came from... But no
matter - it works and it serves the purpose, and quite nicely now that the
key problems with it that were identified over a year ago were finally resolved.

But again, the form is not the point - use whichever. On both you can push a
button and generate the same XML (in theory). And that's where the rubber
meets the (currently 2 lane country) road (hopefully eventually interstate
freeway).

Mike

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:22:33 -0500, MA/NY DDave <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Hi Mike, Kim (via Webmaster Keach), IPC LF Listservers,
>
>I like the Adobe system better only because basic Adobe, including the fill
>in the blanks, pull down menu version is free; as well as, the future
>updates to Adobe inorder to be able to read the documents by all businesses
>including very small businesses anyplace in the world. I believe even in
>China, which is government monitored and controlled, you can freely update
>your Adobe basic reader to the latest level.
>
>BTW this note will probably get through.
>
>In the USA our federal and state tax forms now have free downloadable fill
>in the blank files.
>
>Excel, by Washington based MicroSoft, (MSFT) is always a pay for upgrade
>system so that as Excel is altered forward in time it will not always be
>compatible with earlier versions. I.E. higher S/Ware maintenance costs for
>small businesses that will break down future easy transmission of data.
>
>I make no money off Adobe, yet for what we are doing and where Adobe has
>kept this entry level product as a "loss leader" it is the best tool for
>ALL.
>
>Perhaps Keach, who is IPC's webmaster, would like to add comments for our
>personal education from whomever chose Adobe versus the alternatives.
>
>Yours in Engineering, Dave
>YiEngr, MA/NY DDave
>

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