Differences in Word General Questions newsgroups

[Arlene]

What is the difference between this newsgroup and this one which is accessed
through the Word 07 Help button, Find answers from other users in the Word
community, Word Discussion Groups?

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...osoft.public.word.docmanagement&lang=en&cr=US

Arlene

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

None. There are several ways to access this newsgroup, which is actually
named microsoft.public.word.docmanagement (and was originally devoted to
document management issues, but nobody was quite sure what those were, and
one NG had to be chosen to be the "general" one). You can subscribe to the
NG directly using an NNTP newsreader such as Outlook Express, you can access
it through Google Groups, and there are several entry points at the
Microsoft Web site.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

There is none. They are the same.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Arlene]

Thanks. It looks like the newsgroup accessed through Word Help is more
limited in the list of subgroups, but I noticed when I posted this question,
it appeared in both place. The one accessed from Word seems a little
friendlier.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Unfortunately, you used the words "this newsgroup" and "this one", so I
restricted my reply to dealing with a question about the
microsoft.public.word.docmanagement newsgroup in which your post appeared.

It is correct that if you access the newsgroups through the Word Help
facility, you only see a subset of all of the newsgroups that are carried on
the msnews.microsoft.com news servers. To access all of the newsgroups, you
need to use a newsreader such as Outlook Express.

Whether the interface that you get via the Word Help facility is friendlier
would depend upon your point of view. For the first time user, asking one
question, the answer may be yes. For most of the people who answer
questions however, that interface is a pain in the neck and severely
detracts from the ease of posting responses and of course does not make all
of the newsgroups readily available.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I suspect the OP may be comparing the NG list at, say,
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx with the one at
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx. The
latter is definitely more complete; the former is decidedly more "friendly."
The former may also offer some features that are not available in the
latter. Neither portal, however, is as daunting as
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx, which
requires you to find NGs by language.