[nfbcs] Unprotecting Office Documents

[Peter Donahue]

Good morning Steve and everyone,

    We always download files to our computer before opening them. This is 
exactly what we did with these. We'll try the fixes Curtis Chong and Mike 
Freeman shared with us to see if it solves the problem. It would also be 
helpful to others if the national office could post these instructions on 
the BRAL page to help others experiencing this issue. If this had been done 
we wouldn't even be discussing it here.
    The idea of an online contestant logging module for participants should 
be persued for future contests. The only formats we saw the reading logs in 
were Word and Excel. What happens if someone doesn't have Microsoft Office 
but has an Internet connection. It's these folks that would benefit from an 
online book logging portal. Thanks again for the help.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Unprotecting Office Documents


Peter,

I don't know if this is the problem or not, but in some cases, if you open a 
file directly from the internet rather than
downloading it to your computer first, they come up in protected mode.  I 
don't think this is necessarily caused by the author.
Is there any chance this is what happened to you?

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Mon, 5 Nov 2012 00:04:07 -0500, Lisa Hall wrote:

>Hi Peter,

>The log file is in Excel format with an .xls.
>You may want to try downloading the file from the site again.



>-----Original Message-----
>From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue
>Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012 6:24 PM
>To: NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List
>Cc: NFBnet National Association to Promote the Use of Braille MailingList
>Subject: [nfbcs] Unprotecting Office Documents

>Hello everyone,

>    The Braille Readers are Leaders Contest is under way once more. Today
>Mary attempted to enter information for several books she has all ready
>finished. When the log files came up in Word and Excel 2010 they were in
>protected mode and she was unable to enter the information. How does one
>unprotect such documents in Office 2010 so they can be used for their
>intended purpose?Why weren't they checked before they were posted so
>contestants would not have this trouble? We heard it happened to some folks
>last year and it happened to Mary today.

>    To be sure the problem wasn't on our end we opened several of our own
>Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to see what would happen. They came 
>up

>in edit mode without any problems.    Rebooting the computer did not cure
>the problem of the BRAL forms opening in protected mode. This is something
>our national office should have double checked before the logs were posted
>so no one would experience this situation again. Is there a command one can
>enter to unprotect such documents? A fix is definitely in order.

>    While I'm at it let me also suggest adding another submission option 
> for
>future contests. There are modules that allow one to log data and save it
>for later processing or submission. Since the NFB Web site is running in
>Drupal I'm sure there are modules that would allow one to keep an online 
>log
>of the books they read for submission when the contest is over. I've seen
>some of these myself and found them to be quite usable with screen readers.
>This would have the advantage of being accessible from any computer and
>provide a book logging option for those who do not have MS Office but have
>an Internet connection. We would appreciate the current contest submission
>log problem being fixed and the use of an online logging module for future
>contests. All the best.

> Peter Donahue

> "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."
>Isaiah 54:17

> "While for our princes they prepare
>In caverns deep a burning snare,
>He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
>And the dark treachery brought to day."
>Anonymous


>_______________________________________________
>nfbcs mailing list
>nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>nfbcs:
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/lhall007%40cinci.rr.com


>_______________________________________________
>nfbcs mailing list
>nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>nfbcs:
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/steve.jacobson%40visi.com





_______________________________________________
nfbcs mailing list
nfbcs at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/pdonahue2%40satx.rr.com