Choosing most widely used format to save all documents in

[Scott]

I am doing an organization project and will be saving many
documents & files on floppy or zip disk...Unfortunately, I
am still using the dated Millenium OS with MS works word
processing programs. I plan to purchase a new system soon
and would like to make the transition smooth and be able
to transfer all my data files/documents without format
problems...I can save documents in the works word
processing program but have heard that I will not be able
to open it with the new MS Word...Should I save everything
as a plaintext document onto disk which can be viewed
using word pad or note pad or which format option would is
the most widely used option for saving documents in this
situation? I really appreciate your advice as I am not
technically saavy in this area.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Don't save to floppy disc!!!! Copy to floppy disc from the hard drive. Zip
is better in this respect.
Word will open some Works documents, it depends on the version of Works, but
you will probably have to install a separate filter. Can Works save as RTF?
This would be the better option as it will retain your formatting and Word
will open it as a native format.
Don't open the files direct from floppy but copy them to your new PC first.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.dsl.pipex.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I don't believe you will encounter problems saving directly from Works to
removable media, but Graham's advice is valuable all the same, and certainly
you shouldn't try to open Works files from a floppy in Word. In addition to
RTF, you should be able to save from Works in a Word format (Word 6.0 IIRC),
and that might be even better than RTF, though the RTF file might be
smaller. You can see which format gives the best combination of small size
and format preservation.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

 

[Graham Mayor]

Isn't Word 6 format RTF anyway?

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.dsl.pipex.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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[Margaret Aldis]

Hi Graham

Definitely not. That was just the fudge MS tried to use in the first Word 97
versions (Save as Word 6 saved a file in RTF but hiding behind .doc
extension!).

I remember the pain ...