Please do not attempt to print this spreadhseet for the purpose of hand-writing the requested information; it will not work
It has become necessary for me to add this disclaimer to a spreadsheet I routinely send to various partners. I had to include that phrase, after I started receiving faxed copies of printed versions of the spreadsheet, with hand-written responses.
This is one of those phenomena that might just make my head explode. Here’s why:
- I emailed the Excel file to the recipient. They have the ability to send and receive emails, which leads me to believe they are in possession of a computer.
- The recipient was able to open the file in order to print it. This leads me to believe that they are in possession of an application capable of working with a .xls file.
- Even though the spreadsheet is not formatted for accepting hand-written data, resulting in a 15+ page printout, the recipient(s) didn’t see anything wrong with that, and continued to fill in the data, by hand, without ever thinking to call and ask me why.
- They freaking faxed it back. It’s 2010. If you have a fax machine, do us all a favor and recreate the scene from Office Space. Do it now, I’ll wait.
