Problem 3: Information I receive from colleagues is in an unusable form.

Solution: Use Mathematica notebook documents.

Interactive document format

The Mathematica notebook can be thought of as an information conduit, capable of carrying text, data, images, formulas, calculations, and complete programs. However, whereas a document format like Adobe's PDF is just a dead document, Mathematica notebooks are live, allowing users to run calculations. Mathematica notebooks are also interactive with hyperlinks, buttons, and palettes.

Common format across Windows, Unix, Macintosh, and Linux

Mathematica's functions act identically across all of the Mathematica platforms. So, an individual who has created an interactive Mathematica notebook knows that the notebook will do the same thing no matter where it's opened, even if that's on another operating system.

Notebooks suitable for electronic mail or web distribution

Since Mathematica notebooks are platform independent and are stored in ASCII format, you can easily send your notebooks (even if they are on a different platform) by email to colleagues for them to read and interact with. In addition, Mathematica notebooks can be converted to HTML. These capabilities allow you and your colleagues to collaborate more efficiently on projects.