PDF available in Office 2007

[R.Fritz]

With PDF creation available in Office 2007 we are thinking converting to
PDF's, scanning documents to DVD for storage instead of keeping printouts.
My boss is concerned about having an issue in 10 years if not being able to
access these PDF documents because of new technology.

My thinking if it becomes obsolete, there will be a transition time when we
would know this & be able to convert to the newest technology. Does any body
have comments concerning this.

 

[DL]

A pdf is not an MS format, so anything saved as a pdf can be opened by any
pdf application, eg Adobe Reader
If you are thinking of business storage / data backup you might find
multiple backups on several separate drives more appropriate

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

With PDF creation available in Office 2007 we are thinking converting to
PDF's, scanning documents to DVD for storage instead of keeping printouts.
My boss is concerned about having an issue in 10 years if not being able to
access these PDF documents because of new technology.

My thinking if it becomes obsolete, there will be a transition time when we
would know this & be able to convert to the newest technology. Does any body
have comments concerning this.

My guess is that DVDs will go obsolete before PDFs do. Now your boss has TWO
things to worry about. ;-)

But any technology so widely used as CDs, DVDs, PDFs or other image formats will
stick around a long, long time before it's totally unusable. Look at MS Office
documents, for example. It wasn't until Office 2007 that MS finally stopped
allowing you to open documents created in pre-Office 97 versions. As long as
you have Office 2003 or earlier, you can still open and convert versions going
back to Office 4, as I recall. That's a LOT of warning time.

I'd plan on having an "archive review" meeting every few years to assess the
current state of things and plan for the future so you don't get caught short.

 

[db]

I think pdf is the "standard"
and is here to stay.

even the judicial systems
in our local and federal
governments convert all
the documents of court
proceedings into pdf's.

my suggestion is to also
save a copy of the adobe
reader on each dvd with
the pdf's

also you may want to
save the doc's in their
original format on other
dvd's as a backup plan
or need to edit the doc's
for whatever reason.

incidentally, not many people
know this but pdf's can
also be opened by adobe
photo shop programs.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
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- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

incidentally, not many people
know this but pdf's can
also be opened by adobe
photo shop programs.

And for more full-featured editing, by Adobe Illustrator.

And usually by Corel Draw.