Hi All, Some thoughts for you re: open file formats ; At Work I use a Mac, I also use a PC, at home I use a Mac and a PC running Linux. All three run OpenOffice 1.0. I have no problems transferring files (in fact when I can download the newer Openoffice I'll have exactly zero problems, apart from databases that is!). On both my Macs I have MS Office X and, in work we have a deputy head using office X-pletive on Windows X-pletive. I can't get his powerpoint presentations to load properly on the Mac USING powerpoint! However, they work beautifully if I import them into Keynote! OpenOffice is free, it's inclusive, it's cross platform BUT, as our Deputy Head so eloquently phrased it - "I don't want to learn OpenOffice!". As a thought, ask your parents (and teachers) how many of them have a fully legal copy of MS Office and can prove that fact - I'm sure that the answers (truthfully now..) won't surprise anyone on this list but, they will be vigerously refuted by the powers that be. If you listen to your staff and parents then nothing can possibly be changed because MS is what everybody uses - I've already proposed what you have and been shot down. So, I've made my own decision - My home is now a Microsoft Free Zone - any complaints from the school that my daughters attend will be met with the statement " Openoffice is a free download with no catches and it's cross platform - if you want to read my childrens files then DOWNLOAD THE B****Y THING , INSTALL IT AND ACTUALLY TEACH THE KIDS SOMETHING USEFUL! " I'm sick of teachers (sorry to offend anyone here but it's a fact of life), I'm sick of management and governors who have little or no understanding of I.C.T. and I'm sick of being ripped off my Microsoft. During a time of falling roles and reduced budgets those of us who have children in school should remember that each child is worth approx £3K per annum to that school. As tax payers and parents WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD ON THESE MATTERS. Maybe we should actually be considering the transfer of our children from non-oss using schools to oss using schools wherever it is possible. They'll understand a slap in the pocket far better than they'll understand a technical or ideological argument. My final thoughts come from some comments made by Mark Rogers, Apple UK Managing Director, made in MacFormat Christmas 2003 edition (An Apple For Teacher) - "The question is: what are we trying to prepare children for? It should be about learning and giving them the skills that they really need when they go into the workplace, such as being able to find information or being creative. It's not about teaching them how to use Excel. It's not about the application but the process, and we think that can be done on any platform." Alan