Just to get back to the issue :-)If you want Richard to have a chance of doing something he needs evidence. eg Issue University/exam board insist on us using a proprietary format to submit work or in exam questions. Why its anti-competitive This prevents us using OO.org/Lotus/Wordperfect when there is no good reason not to. This increases our costs. Solution. Standardise public funded activities such as setting exam questions on open standards eg XML. If the requirement is an open standard, a range of software tools can be used. If OO.org writer is chosen as the standard, its free so there is no pressure to buy something from a commercial organisation. Just E-mail Richard with some concrete evidence from your own institution and get anyone else you know who can do this to do the same. -- ian <ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com>