WORD PROCESSING DOCUMENT TYPES


From time to time I receive computer-generated articles to post on the CFC website. They are usually sent as an attachment to an email or on a CD, but more often than not, I have difficulty opening many of these files because the software I use to manage the website (Microsoft Word 97) isn't compatible with newer versions of the word processing software that was used to prepare the articles. Being the kind of person that believes 'if it isn't broken, don't fix it', I'm not inclined to spend several hundred dollars to upgrade my software or to buy a conversion program to solve this problem.

All word processing software creates files with a three or four character extension that is appended to the file name to identify the format of the file. There are dozens of file formats associated with word processing files. For example...

A Microsoft Word document has a '.doc' extension, while a Microsoft Works document has a '.wps' extension. Some versions of Word will open some versions of Works files, while others will not.

A Corel WordPerfect document has a '.wpd' extension. Only newer versions of Microsoft Word can open this format successfully.

A Microsoft WordPad or Microsoft Notepad document has a '.txt' extension. Most any word processing program can read this type of file, as it contains plain text only, no graphics or special character sets.

Generally speaking, the newer your word processing program is, the greater the chances are you'll be able to open documents prepared by other word processing programs. For example, Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007 will open a Microsoft Word 97 document, but not the reverse... hence my problem.

It goes without saying that this can be a significant problem for the transfer of documents between computers with different brands and versions of word processing software. Although there are numerous programs available to convert various file formats, there are several easy solutions to this problem that you can employ ...

1. Create the article directly into the message section of an email, or;

2. Create the article with whatever word processing program you have, then block the text, cut or copy it, and paste it into the message section of an email, or;

3. Create the article with your word processing program, then store it as a 'plain text' document and attach it to an email. This is the way it would be done with Microsoft Word 97, and it should be a similar process with other word processing applications. When you're ready to save the document ...

a. Press "File" on the menu bar,

b. Press "Save As" in the drop-down menu,

c. Type the file name in the "File name:" field of the "Save As" window,

d. Select "Text only" in the "Save as type:" field of the "Save As" window,

e. Press "Save" and your document can now be attached to your email.

These probably aren't the only ways to address this problem, but they are ones that I'm confident will work for us. If I find a better one, I'll let you know about it. 



 

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