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Word processing isn’t just Microsoft Word. Sometimes it takes a bit of thought to pick the right tool for the task at hand - to choose the right file format for whatever you wish to accomplish with your document. Here are some tips on making this monumental choice.

Creation and editing

When you first create a new document, it’s usually not that important what kind of file format you use (unless it’s something extremely obscure). Most of the popular file formats can be converted to other formats fairly easily, so if you start out with, say, .doc, you can always convert it to .docx or .rtf later.

Most “average” users still use Microsoft Word for word processing, so the DOC format is probably a good choice for new documents and guarantees pretty good compatibility. Another fine choice is ODT, which is used by the freeware OpenOffice software suite. It lacks the popularity and widespread acception of .doc files, but is more easily accessed on “alternative” operating systems (Linux springs to mind).

Sending to other people

When you want to send a document to somebody else, either via email or some other means, the first thing you need to consider is what they’ll do with it. If the recipient only needs to view and/or print the file, Portable Document Format (PDF) is definitely the best choice. There are numerous pgorams - both free and commercial - that can open PDF files. PDF viewers are available for all operating systems, so using the PDF format is a good way to ensure the other person will be able to view the file. However, note that simply saving a file as PDF won’t automatically prevent someone smart from modifying it - a PDF file can be transformed to DOC and then modified.

If you need to send in a file for review, editing or somesuch, take into account the tech expertise (or lack thereof) of the receiving user. Many typical users will be most comfortable with the .doc or .docx file format. For very advanced or very inexperienced users, DOC is usually still acceptable, but the more portable RTF format can sometimes be a better fit.

Long-term storage

Sometimes you encounter files that, while potentially useful, you probably won’t need to access very often. For example, these could be transcripts of work interviews, historical records and the like. The best approach is to save these in an open format so that you don’t later get stuck in a situation when you have a bunch of weird files and no easy way of opening them. For example, the WPS document format was relatively popular in the 90ies, but nowadays very few people would know how to view those files.

Instead, use either extremely popular formats (e.g. DOC) or a format that is open - not proprietary. Popular open formats : RTF, ODT and PDF. If a format is open, it’s more likely that free file viewers for that format will be available in the future - even if the company that invented the format goes out of business.

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