This recent announcement of a holiday promotion supplied the list of participating stores as a downloadable .xls (Excel) file. Sigh.
This being the 21st century, one might have expected that a piece of marketing material would be made accessible to as many people as possible, as conveniently as possible. In fact, I believe Excel may yet be able to export to non-proprietary and browser-friendly formats such as HTML and text.
To save the rest of you some time, I imported the spreadsheet into Google Docs, sorted by country,state,zip, and published it as a web page.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pz1I7xCRpA4EFnM26U1QUcw
"Free" miniatures need no longer be reserved for those with Microsoft Office.
Of course, this may become stale if WotC update their spreadsheet.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20081216
This recent announcement of a holiday promotion supplied the list of participating stores as a downloadable .xls (Excel) file. Sigh.
This being the 21st century, one might have expected that a piece of marketing material would be made accessible to as many people as possible, as conveniently as possible. In fact, I believe Excel may yet be able to export to non-proprietary and browser-friendly formats such as HTML and text.
To save the rest of you some time, I imported the spreadsheet into Google Docs, sorted by country,state,zip, and published it as a web page.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pz1I7xCRpA4EFnM26U1QUcw
"Free" miniatures need no longer be reserved for those with Microsoft Office.
Of course, this may become stale if WotC update their spreadsheet.
Wow lol. Who approved that? Approved standards only please, kthx.
Microsoft Excel is a standard program to have. Most people have it.
LMAO. It's not a standard, if you don't understand what the word means then don't post.
LMAO. It's not a standard, if you don't understand what the word means then don't post.
It's a program that comes "standard" with a solid majority of operating systems.
If you can't be civil in your responses, perhaps we should ask the same of you.
excel may be standart to Windows users, but neither Mac users not Linux users probably have it. Why not make a PDF as is usual?
Really? Linux, maybe. I'm a PC in a primarily Mac workplace and I've got no problem trading excel files with my coworkers. We do it on a daily basis.
As to why; excel files are potentially sortable. They might have been going for functionality.
excel may be standart to Windows users, but neither Mac users not Linux users probably have it. Why not make a PDF as is usual?
http://www.openoffice.org/
There ya go - an Excel-compatible program that runs on Linux and Mac and PC, and is completely free.
It's a program that comes "standard" with a solid majority of operating systems.
If you can't be civil in your responses, perhaps we should ask the same of you.
You can ask all you want, it's not going to get you anywhere but you can ask.
XLS is not a standard file format. Excel does not come "standard" with Windows, or any other operating system for that matter.
It was a poor choice, period, but not unexpected considering WotCs continual fumbling in the digital world.
It was a poor choice, period, but not unexpected considering WotCs continual fumbling in the digital world.
Not the best choice? Absolutely.
The worst choice? No, not even close.
The best option, of course, would've been to offer multiple formats. In that scenario, XLS is a nice choice because of the sorting and filtering capabilities of Excel (and Excel clones and Excel readers). However, they should also have (at minimum) a PDF version and an XML data version.
Not the best choice? Absolutely.
The worst choice? No, not even close.
The best option, of course, would've been to offer multiple formats. In that scenario, XLS is a nice choice because of the sorting and filtering capabilities of Excel (and Excel clones and Excel readers). However, they should also have (at minimum) a PDF version and an XML data version.
There's no reason for posting a downloadable file of any sort. Post a web page with the information, problem solved.
XLS provides NO sorting and filtering capabilities that can't be found elsewhere. It's a klunky choice by the technically illiterate.
XLS is not a standard file format. Excel does not come "standard" with Windows, or any other operating system for that matter.
No, it doesn't come standard with Windows. Does this matter? No. If I'm at work, and I'm using spreadsheet files, chances are, it will be an xls.
It is a de facto standard.
XLS provides NO sorting and filtering capabilities that can't be found elsewhere. It's a klunky choice by the technically illiterate.
Which is clearly why scientists and engineers use it all the time.
We already know they have a sortable table widget. They should have just used that.
There is really nothing wrong with this, aside from some arrogant computer savvy people getting irritated that 90% of the world doesn't use macOS or linux.
Posting XLS files is amateur hour garbage. That's like posting DOC files instead of PDF or HTML.
We already know they have a sortable table widget. They should have just used that.
I'd rather have something I can download, modify, and use than something I cannot.
Docs are better than PDFs for actual documents because I can use them in Word, they're easier to copy-paste from, reformat, modify, ect. Most people don't own software to do that sort of thing with PDFs. Same goes for Excel files.
Isn't an HTML page really just another form of file?
Yes, it is. You modify it the same way as a document. You just have to make sure to use HTML tags and such.
Well, unless you have embedded programming. Then it's like two files types in one! A document, and a computer language program file! Crazy! :D
You can ask all you want, it's not going to get you anywhere but you can ask.
XLS is not a standard file format. Excel does not come "standard" with Windows, or any other operating system for that matter.
It was a poor choice, period, but not unexpected considering WotCs continual fumbling in the digital world.
Erm...Weeeeeeelll...Let's see here...Looks at the release reaction to Ubuntu 8.10 (the most approachable .nix distro, and one of the most common). Hmm. Biggest complaint? It has OOo 2.4, not 3.0 built in. Hmm... That doesn't have a spreadsheet program that will open xls does it? Yes. It does. Xandros EeePC? Small, efficient, and has StarOffice built in. Java, the much vaunted alternative coding language, and often bandied about alternative to .Net? COmes on windows, and when you update any new windows box has an ad for OOo in the installer. Support for .xls files is out there, free, and very visible in the marketplace. Anyone who can't open a .xls file has, one way or another, made the choice to limit themselves.
Typically, I use openoffice for all my needs, it seems to handle everything but the weird extension my version of Microsoft Office defaults to saving things as. (Which is why I don't actually use it.)
No, it doesn't come standard with Windows. Does this matter? No. If I'm at work, and I'm using spreadsheet files, chances are, it will be an xls.
It is a de facto standard.
Which is clearly why scientists and engineers use it all the time.
Does this matter? No.
Since I'm surfing the WotC website at HOME, what program you use for spreadsheets at work has no bearing on anything at all.
Really? Linux, maybe. I'm a PC in a primarily Mac workplace and I've got no problem trading excel files with my coworkers. We do it on a daily basis.
As to why; excel files are potentially sortable. They might have been going for functionality.
That brings to mind,
Is it possible the list was sorted out of a previous list that was already an excel type. In other words, they use excel for a lot of things and spent two minutes making it from the files they had rather than spend time converting it into something else. This would go hand in hand with what TD said about using it at work.
pdf plz, at least that is free (legally)
It's also possible for a typical customer to open a can with the tools available at home or even by hitting it really hard at the curbstone.
For some reason, beverage companies sell their cans with a pull-tab.
If you know that reason, you know why a company should publish their files in a format with optimal accessability.
If you know that reason, you know why a company should publish their files in a format with optimal accessability.
Sure. Don't get me wrong. There's better formats than Excel. I'm an advocate for WotC offering files like that in multiple formats and allow the user to select the one they want.
But the fact they did pick Excel as the only format isn't a doomsday scenario.
Sure. Don't get me wrong. There's better formats than Excel. I'm an advocate for WotC offering files like that in multiple formats and allow the user to select the one they want.
But the fact they did pick Excel as the only format isn't a doomsday scenario.
Zherog speaks with the voice of reason. WotC should probably offer files like that in multiple formats, but a note in the suggestion box should be sufficient. It's probably something that was never considered because the list was likely tossed around the WotC office in xls.
Personally, I'm just saying "hey guys, wtf?".
fair enough?
The fact is, Wizards can only really count on you having one thing: a web browser. After that, it's just guess work. Most people can get an XLS open, but even the best set up Windows machine won't open an excel file with the ease and simplicity that it will follow a link. No, Excel isn't the worst format they could have chosen, but they had a -much- better solution that doesn't require that much work. Heck, if they are willing to throw 'professional-looking' out the window, Excel has a 'Save to HTML' feature. There was no reason to even have a chance of shutting people out of the data.