One of the latest annoyances to reporters in the world of media relations is courtesy of Microsoft. Office, which sits on practically every functional computer today, has apparently grown some new functionality in Office 2007. Unfortunately, interoperability (while there) possesses some big problems, and default settings don't lend themselves nicely to the job of media relations, where we need to take reasonable steps to make things easy for the media contacts with which we work.
Earlier this year, while working with a PReturn client that consistently commissions and publishes third party consumer data on the online marketing industry, the client sent over a several MB PowerPoint deck that supposedly contained graphic displays and overviews of their latest survey. But before I could see any of that, I got the dreaded error message: "This file was created by a newer version of Microsoft PowerPoint. Do you want to download a compatibility pack so that you can work with this file?" I was then given the option of choosing yes or no, and only after selecting yes was I whisked away to the Microsoft site and prompted to download a 27.5 MB file. Of course, I downloaded the pack and all was well, but ...
How many reporters do you think would go through this trouble? If you're lucky, a reporter will tell you they had some issues and couldn't open the file in which case you can correct the problem by saving it in the 2003 format as a "Presentation." If you're not lucky, they'll cancel out of that error message, delete the email and never pay it another thought without first being prompted to do so by you.
So what to do to correct the problem and get your media relations efforts back on track?
First of all, remember to never send attachments unless a contact has specifically asked you to do so
Also remember that most reporters do not upgrade their Office suite every time the folks at Microsoft decide to release one
Ideally, if you're using Office 2007, change all default settings to save files as the standard 2003 versions (Presentation for PowerPoint, Word Document for Word, etc.)
Beware the "x" ... all 2007 file types seem to include an "x" at the end of the file extensions; so while a PowerPoint Presentation carries the .ppt file extension, a PowerPoint 2007 Presentation would instead carry a .pptx file extension
Whenever sending an office attachment to a reporter, make sure the X is not there and go with the lowest common denominator file format (standard 2003 formats work for nearly every person with an office suite on their computer)
Follow these simple rules to boost the odds that your files get opened and greatly reduce the risk of agitating that media contact with whom you just worked so hard to make some headway.