Microsoft to Standardize Office Formats
Linked by Eugenia Loli on Mon 21st Nov 2005 23:51 UTC
Features, Office Microsoft intends to submit file formats for its new Office 12 applications to the European standards body ECMA International. The company hopes this will allay concern about its level of control over document formats. Update by AS: For the curious, here's a sample Office 12 file and a sample XPS file. (Note: Right click > Save As..., we're not configured to serve these files just yet.)
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I don't see what the big deal is
by Bit_Rapist on Tue 22nd Nov 2005 01:02 UTC
Bit_Rapist
Member since:
2005-11-13

All these problem(s) have already been solved.

Save your documents you intend to store for 100 years in ASCII format and be done with it.

People spend more time re-inventing the wheel and re-hashing the same shit over and over I swear.

Reply Score: 1

Member since:

How can you save an image in a text file?

Sorry, not trying to be a smarty pants; sometimes something with a little more complex formating is in order. IE: 1200 page document with illustrations. Imagine reading the text file and then having to locate image 256 in another directory. Scrolling down a page would be much easier if the image was embedded in the document.

PS: I prefer txt files; however, doc or swx do have some nice options.

Reply Parent Score: 0

Celerate Member since:
2005-06-29

It seems to me that most government bodies and businesses store important documents in the PDF format, it's supported in every non-hobby OS either by default or through a third party viewer. You really can't edit PDF files afterwards with conventional office or home software, but at least it'll let you store a document with images and advanced formatting.

Reply Parent Score: 1

dsmogor Member since:
2005-09-01

The problems is that few people think upfront if what will happent with their document after that long time. The value of the document in such a distant future cannot be estimated. So either default (rich) format is durable or you're poised to loose information.

Reply Parent Score: 1