Choosing the right file format
You may basically seperate the existing file formats into 3 classes:
- Text based - that includes txt, pdf, xml, html (or all sgml dialects if you like), doc, xls etc.
- Binary based - like exe, zip, tar, rar etc.
- Media based - I made this one up, because I think the combination of text and binary based information (like a website with graphics) should have its own class
Now choosing the right format always depends on your goals: if you want to share a contract with your co-workers and you want them to comment and change the draft, Word is a pretty nice tool. But if you want to release that to the public, Word is a very bad format for doing so!
If you have to release info for the anonymous public, make sure you have less meta data and that you use a format, which is commonly used and not proprietary.
November 9th, 2005 at 8:03 am
Thanks for the link!
I would still avoid using Word formats, even when distributing for editing: RTF is probably best to go for. I suppose that in the office environment, most people will have Word installed, if you do, but some people not part of your organisation might not. Also, .doc files are far bigger than they need to be and it reduces mail server load to use RTF.
I have seen somewhere a tale of where someone was sacked, because they were typing a personal statement for an external job application in Word during work time. At the same time, they had a report open which they were editing too. When they sent the report to their IT-savvy boss, he found details of the edits they had made on the other, job application, file!
November 9th, 2005 at 8:05 am
Whoops, forgot to add: tools like Writely make collaborating on one document very easy, without the need for distributing files and the complicated version control issues that often arise.